If you want to lose weight using a treadmill, then you are probably looking for the best treadmill workouts. Besides being the best cardiovascular machine, a treadmill is also one of the best weight loss equipment. Its effectiveness and popularity have seen it becomes one of the common gym equipment. Therefore, making it a more accessible weight loss machine. So if you are a beginner aiming to lose weight, then a treadmill is an ideal choice. But do you know how to use it effectively? What are the treadmill workouts to lose weight for beginners?
Note: While on your workouts, make sure your target heart rate is within maximum heart rate (MHR) limits or fat burning zone.
- Women’s Maximum Heart Rate is = {226 – age}
- Men’s Maximum Heart Rate is = {220 – age}
Therefore, here are four best treadmill workouts to lose weight fast for beginners. And, more importantly, the tips on how to make the most of these workouts.
4 Fast Fat Burning Treadmill Workouts for beginners
So, since you are a beginner, your work out plan will need to start from the simple treadmill workouts while you advance. The importance of this is to ensure a gradual and safe fitness process that will deliver optimum results while avoiding injuries.
⇒ Simple intro workout
This is a compulsory stage to begin with, and it may take up to 1 week. The aim here is to get your body used to treadmill workout routines. It will be preparing your body for the next challenging workouts yet to come. In this phase, you will need not to push yourself too hard, and you should stick to a 15 to 30 minutes’ light exercises.
How to do:
- Start by light walking at a speed of 1 mph for about 10 minutes on your treadmill.
- After that, you can increase the speed to 2 mph and start walking quickly for a few minutes.
- Increase the speed by 1 mph after every 2 minutes until you hit a max speed of 5 mph.
- To end the workout, reduce the speed to 1 mph and then walk for about 5-10 minutes.
- Since it is a one-week plan, you will have to increase your workout time from 15 to 20 to30 minutes. Also, increase starting speed from 1 mph to 2 mph, and you can go up to 8 mph maximum speed. You can do this after the first 2 and 4 days.
High-intensity interval treadmill workouts training for beginners
After you are done with the intro workouts, then it’s time to go for HIIT workouts. This is where the fat burning process will be triggered, and you will start losing weight quickly. So, let’s begin with inclined interval workouts.
⇒ Inclined interval workout
In this workout, you will be increasing incline and speed at the same time. But the main thing is that you will be doing it on an interval basis. An interval aim is to enhance endurance while pushing you further, thus burning more calories. It also helps you avoid injuries.
How to do:
- Set the incline at 1 or 2 and speed at 3 mph, then start a 3 minutes’ light walk.
- Once wormed up, increase incline to 3.5 and speed at 5 mph run for about 5 minutes. Then return the incline to 1 and speed 2.5mph and walk for 2 minutes. Alternatively: You can increase the speed gradually from 1 mph to 5 mph, but for this, you will have to run for at least 10 minutes.
- Increase the incline to 4 and speed at 6 mph and start running for 5 minutes. Return the incline to 2 and speed 2.5mph and walk for 2 minutes.
- Return the incline to 3.5 or 4 and speed at 6-8 mph and run for 2 minutes. After that, you can return the incline to 1 and walk for about 5 minutes at a speed of 2mph. And you are done!
With this workout, you can vary time taken but ensure you balance it with speed so as not to push too hard. For a beginner, the incline interval workout should take at least 20 minutes, but ensure that you increase time after 3 or 4 days.
⇒ Sprint interval walkout (Non-inclined workout)
This workout is similar to the second one, only that there is no incline workout involved. This is meant to simulate running on a track or any flat terrain. So, the way this workout will be incorporated into your training plan is through interchanging it with incline. So if you performed HIIT inclined exercise today, then after a day do HIIT non-inclined workout.
How to do:
- As usual, begin with a light walk for about 3 to 5 minutes at 1mph to warm up.
- After warming up, set the speed of 5mph and start running for about 3-5 minutes (depending on your fitness level). After that, turn down the speed to about 1.5 mph and walk for 3 minutes before heading to the next interval.
- Increase speed to 7 mph and run for about 4-5 minutes again. Then reduce the speed to 1mph and walk for 3-4 minutes.
- After resting for 4 minutes, increase speed to about 3.5 mph and run for about 6 minutes.
- End the workout with a 5 minutes’ light walk at 1mph.
Extra advanced treadmill workouts
To increase effectiveness and avoid boredom of other treadmill workouts, then you will need to be creative. This is where workouts such as sideways workouts come to play. These exercises don’t only add fun to your workout but also increases treadmill workout intensity and effectiveness.
⇒ Sideways workout
This exercise involves light walks that are to perform them facing different sides per set (sideways and forward). In addition to weight loss, this workout also helps you strengthen your thigh, calves, and hips. It also ensures that you work out body parts that other exercises haven’t.
How to do:
- As usual, begin with 5 minutes, 1mph light walk to warm up.
- While on the same speed, turn to your right side and start walking sideways. You can then increase the speed to about 1.5 or 2 mph and walk for about 2 minutes.
- After two minutes, turn to your left side and then perform the same workout for the same amount of time.
- When you are done, face forward, increase speed to 4mph and run for at least minutes
- Repeat the entire workout process until you reach a total time of 25 minutes.
Tips on improving fat burning treadmill workouts
Time is a factor, and most of us might be a lot busy and only have a few minutes or an hour to spare. Therefore, learning how to maximize your treadmill weight loss workouts will a positive thing for you. So, here are five treadmill hacks to help you do so.
» Mix it up. Increasing your workout duration or intensity may get you tired quickly since you’re working close to your MHR. And slow move means you will need to spend more time for significant results. But mixing it up can be a game-changer. So, someday do a bit faster workout for 25 minutes and on the next day do slower but for about an hour or so.
» Do incline the smart way. This exercise aims to help you avoid cranking up your machine and hurting yourself. Doing hills the smart way allows you to burn more fats faster. And to do this, you can employ the interval routine involving incline and flat workouts.
» Include other workouts. The best way to lose weight faster relies on the type of exercise incorporated into your treadmill plan. Therefore, you should find resistance exercises that perfectly fit your workout plan—for instance, stretching, swimming, etc.
» Master your speed. Interval workouts are the key to having an effective and more prolonged exercise. So, to burn more calories, you can have a short burst that includes a 2-minute hard run and 3 minutes slow run or walk.
» Adjust to some days. There are days where 5 miles feels like 2 miles, and these are the day where you need to adjust. To do this, you will need to run for 35 0r 40 minutes instead of the usual 25 or 30 minutes run.
Final taught
Overall, a treadmill is a very useful exercise equipment that you should utilize when it comes to weight loss. With a treadmill, you can burn up to 350 calories (depending on your fitness, weight, muscle content, etc.). And since you are a beginner, be sure to do the warm-ups and cool-down exercises thoroughly.
Another important thing that you should note is that these exercises should be done 3-4 times a week. This is important for your cardio fix, plus you won’t strain your entire body muscles too much. Those three or four days you rest allows your muscles and other body parts to recovers also. To make treadmill workouts more effective, try coupling with other strength training exercises.
