My Mountain Treadmill Workout
When it comes to using the treadmill for increasing cardio endurance or burning calories, most gym-goers set their treadmill to a moderate speed on flat and proceed to jog away for 15 - 30 minutes...
Don't get me wrong, that's certainly better than nothing, but if you want to truly increase your gas tank, build up some killer calves, burn a ton of calories and even prepare yourself to tackle some serious hiking trails or mountains, you'll need to alter both your speed and the incline of your treadmill.
Below you'll find my 'mountain' treadmill workout; I designed this workout as I can't get out on the trails as often as I would like at the moment due to the unpredictable winter weather, time constraints (all the decent trails are over an hour drive away) and the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Although the scenery isn't the same, I can still replicate the steep and relentless trails with this workout.
The premise of the workout is simple.
Every minute you will increase the speed of your treadmill by 1kmph and 1 degree of incline.
We'll start off nice and easy to get the body warmed up.
- 5kmph and 5 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 6kmph and 6 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 7kmph and 7 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 8kmph and 8 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 9kmph and 9 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 10kmph and 10 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 11kmph and 11 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 12kmph and 12 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 13kmph and 13 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 14kmph and 14 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 15kmph and 15 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 16kmph and 16 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
Most treadmills top out at 16 degrees of incline from my experience (and maintaining 16kmph on 16 degrees of incline is no joke!).
This is what I like to call the summit of our mountain treadmill workout; now it's time to head down...
- 16kmph and 16 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 15kmph and 15 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 14kmph and 14 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 13kmph and 13 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 12kmph and 12 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 11kmph and 11 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 10kmph and 10 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 9kmph and 9 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 8kmph and 8 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 7kmph and 7 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 6kmph and 6 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
- 5kmph and 5 degrees of incline for 1 minute.
Now you've made it back down to the base of the mountain!
As with all of the workouts I share, I recommend scaling the above to your current fitness level... it took me quite some time to work my way up to being able to maintain 16kmph on a 16-degree incline after completing all of the other speeds and incline adjustments beforehand.
Work your way up to the highest speed and incline you can maintain for a minute, and let this be your summit. Now from here, do one more round at that speed and incline before working your way back down, decreasing your speed and incline by one for each passing minute until you're back down to 5kmph and 5 degrees.
What's Your Take On My Mountain Treadmill Workout? Let Me Know Below!
