Don't Waste Your Time On The Treadmill!

I enjoy the treadmill. Its not that I don't enjoy running outside, but I find I get a good workout off of a machine as well. The key is to make the machine work for you, not just get on it.

I've heard people talk about getting on a treadmill for a workout. When I ask them about the details I sometimes find out the person just walked or jogged lightly and didn't even work up a decent heart rate. Basically, they wasted their time.

Others will champion the advantages of using different machines: air bikes or elliptical machines. But the same mistake can be made on those machines: if you expect to be any different just because you got on an exercise machine for a half hour, but you don't push yourself, you wasted your time.

Generally speaking, it is not the machine, but the intensity and effort you bring to it that will make the difference. If you are not challenging your body to do something harder, you are not changing your body to be harder.

My choice is the treadmill. I enjoy the run and I enjoy using the machine to push me forward. Other machines may be preferable to you. It doesn't matter which one you like to use and switching up from time to time is a definite advantage. But given a choice, I'm climbing on the treadmill.

Here's what I do. I start out with a 5-minute walk. On the treadmill that I use (Life Fitness), for me that starts at a speed setting of  2.8 and I gradually work it up to 4.2 or 4.3. After five minutes I go to 5.2, a slow jog. After 30 seconds I speed up to 6.2 or higher. Then every 30 seconds I speed up by an increment of .2. When I reach exhaustion (somewhere between 8.0 and 9.0 depending on the day) I  drop down to 5.3. Then I begin speeding up every 30 seconds by an increment of .3 until I reach exhaustion. When I need to slow down to rest, I drop the speed down to 5.4. I incrementally increase the speed every 30 seconds by .4 until exhaustion. Then I drop down to 5.5. Incremental increases at 30 second intervals are .5. At exhaustion I drop to 5.6 and repeat the same kind of cycle. When exhausted and I finish that round, I start the process in reverse: 5.5, 5.4, 5.3, and 5.2. With that final round done, I walk for 5 minutes again to cool down.

The entire exercise takes a little over 30 minutes, usually about 35. If I don't have that much time I can adjust to make it shorter. If I feel a bit of overachiever in me, I can make it go longer.

The advantage is that I get an effective workout, instead of  just putting in time on the treadmill. Another is that this is effectively an interval exercise, or HIIT (shown to reduce belly fat). With every round I am challenging my body to either work harder or longer or both.  I can evaluate each session I'm on the treadmill by recording the length of time that I run and the point at which I reach 1 km, 2 km, and 3 km.

Similar approaches can be used on the exercise bike, the elliptical machine and even a stair master. If you are not sweating and needing to get your heart rate down at the end of the exercise, you need to reevaluate what you're doing. It's not the machine. It's how hard you're willing to work while you're on the machine that makes the difference.


Check out other great health and exercise resources at my Coach site. With the use of BeachBody products I have lost over 100 lbs and I'm keeping them off. At 55, I'm in the best shape of my life. I look forward to helping you reach your health and weight goals.

Run for Your Life!

I've enjoyed the couple of late starts and early releases we've had from school due to snow, but I'm really glad that winter is on its way out. The weather has been great lately, and even though I know there will be some wintry intrusions, the cold is giving way to spring and summer warmth.

That means more time outside and some morning exercises that I haven't been doing. Its time to start readying myself for am runs outside. I've not run since the late fall when I changed my work schedule and chose not to go to the fitness center in the afternoons after school. So, I'm in the same boat with a lot of other people who need to get back into running.

First, measure a course. Get in your car and drive the course you plan to run or find some other means of measuring. Remember, three miles is approximately five kilometers. If you can do that much, go for it. If it needs to be less, set it, but make sure you're doing that much on a regular basis.

Then begin getting out on your course and walking or running. Expect to be sore at some point. Muscles are going work harder than they have. Start off slow. Either a very slow jog or even walking could be best. Do that for one to two weeks daily. Then it is time to pick up the pace. This is a "make myself do it" decision. Heart rate needs to be well elevated and breathing should be hard enough to make more than monosyllabic conversation difficult. Keep this up for a week if it doesn't make you sore, or until the soreness passes. Be careful here: even though you are trying to push your performance, don't over do it. You should not be gasping for air with this level of intensity. Run hard enough to make conversation difficult.

Once you've acclimated to that stage (it may be as long as a month after starting) you're reading to start HIITs: high intensity interval training.  The concept here is that for short periods of time you will push yourself to your limits. Then slow down, but don't stop. Just get down to a recovery level. For example, after warming up with a slow steady run  for five minutes or so, start speeding up. Push yourself harder for a 30 seconds to a minute. After that, slow down to your original jog speed or even a little faster, and catch your breath. This should only be a minute or so. Once you've regained your rest level, push your speed up again. Do it faster this time. The repeat the process of dropping back to a resting level to get your breath back. When you stop the push, the high speed interval, you should be gasping for air. You should have reached your physical limit.

The advantage of this process is that is has been shown to improve cardio vascular response and to burn belly fat. The routine will improve slow and fast twitch muscle fibers (because you're utilizing both). And it will increase your overall speed.

If you plan on participating in 5K runs, spend at least one of these exercise days during your week to just keep up a sustained hard run. Push yourself to maintain a high speed. The HIITs will help you build this sustained speed as well. You've already determined your course, so keep a record of how long it takes you to run the course. Chart your progress. From time to time,  follow the course in reverse. This will help you avoid certain injuries to your legs or hips.

Before you know it, you'll be back into shape and keeping up your runs. Run every other day, about three times per week. If you run more often, make sure you intersperse some very light duty runs into your regimine.  Certainly take at least one day off from running to give your body some recovery time. And the older you are, the longer recovery can take. Be wise.

Well, that's how I plan to do it. I'll be getting up early in the morning and putting in a couple of miles running around my neighborhood. My June, I should be ready for some 5K runs. Let's get going and start running for our lives.

Coach!

This past weekend I signed up as a Beachbody coach. I have had and continue to have outstanding results using their projects. Losing over 100 lbs of body fat is one of the most amazing things that has happened to me. And the opportunity to let others know about those products and to experience the high of getting into the best shape of their lives.

If I can be of help to you, contact me and let me show you how to reach the health you have always wanted for yourself.