Treadmills & Running Machines

Running on a treadmill is an excellent way to get fit, lose weight and stay healthy for longer. It's great in the winter in particular as there's no need to go out in the cold and wet weather to train.

How to Get Started with a Treadmill

Whether you attend a local gym to exercise or you workout at home, using a treadmill can be very simple and easy to get started, allowing you to progress quickly as you need a more challenging workout.

Where treadmills are concerned, sorry to say it but the cliche you should be able to "walk before you run" is very apt. By building up slowly, and yes walking, to begin with over the first few sessions of your training routine, you will be preparing your muscles, joints and ligaments for running. If you are not a regular gym user, the impact of running could start to cause injuries.

How Quickly Can I Progress?

This depends upon the person using the treadmill, their weight, their fitness and whether any previous injuries or strains. Those people with low fitness levels (like a lot of users looking to lose weight), those recovering from injury or some elderly people, will definitely benefit from this slow build.

it may be possible to advance into a light jog, progressing from a light tempo, slow walking pace initially after a few weeks or months.

The Benefits of Treadmills

When you're ready to progress to the gentle run and a longer session, you can very quickly start to build yourself a fantastic cardiovascular workout. You can start to then look at calculating and remaining within your target heart rate range or zone for burning more calories.

Then you can start to use variable incline for more resistance which helps you improve your fitness and endurance levels gradually. You can on most running machines change the speed at which the belt moves which is useful to really push yourself hard.

This is great for achieving and remaining within your target heart rate zone which will provide you with maximum health and fitness benefits. You'll look and feel great in a few weeks or months and tone up or build muscle for a fabulous physique.

* Remember not to workout too vigorously though as you will not gain any advantages through pushing yourself through the anaerobic threshold which refers to 100% of your maximum heart rate.

How to Monitor Target Heart Rate?

On most treadmills in gyms, and increasingly on home models, heart rate monitors are built in and you just need to know where the hand sensors are that read your pulse to work out your heart rate.

In the early days don't get too hung up on your heart rate but just know and monitor what's happening as you start to get fitter and start to introduce an incline or increase the speed. The heart rate monitor is usually part of the display, so once you hold the sensors you will get a clear and simple read out of your heart rate in real time. This can help you train within your "target heart rate zone" and gain the optimal health benefits of your time on the treadmill.

Any Other Incentives to Workout?

Displays usually also include time, distance, calorie consumption, heart rate and resistance levels through incline angles. As an added incentive to help you to maintain and promote your healthy lifestyle and get fit, some machines are linked up to televisions and of course have Internet access.

In Summary

In essence, the longer you have been working out with a treadmill, the more benefits you'll see. Accordingly, the longer the sessions you have on the treadmill, the more fit you are becoming and the fitter you will become.

Remember to look at a proper plan of action for working out so you don't do too much too soon.

By taking regular physical activity and combining it with eating healthy, you have a great formula for achieving controlled weight loss.

Useful Sites

GymEquipment.co.uk - Treadmills & Running Machines