https://youtu.be/rpQPmTJWCvs

The treadmill is more often than not a starting place for most who are new to the gym and it’s understandable why. We all know how to walk or jog so it’s logical to start with something we know how to do before venturing further.

Most treadmills have the capacity to tell us a lot about that we have done, they track our average pace, distance and time to name a few, so it’s easy for us to see if our performance is improving.

We see a lot of people chucking on their headphones and going for a long walk or jog for 30min or more. This is great as we are working on our ability to exert ourselves over a long period of time. However, don’t forget we have other aspects to our health and fitness too.

We can actually use the treadmill to help train two other important aspect of our health and fitness. Firstly, our ability to exert ourselves in fast but short burst of energy. This is great for things like running around with the kids at the park, flying up those flight of stairs at home or work, running between wickets while playing cricket with the family. By setting the treadmill speed at the fastest pace you can maintain over say 20seconds and alternate between that fast pace and resting until you have the energy to go again, repeating for a number of sets can be a great way to achieve this.

Secondly power, yes you heard right power. We can actually use the treadmill to help improve our power. This is not only great as it helps us when we come to lift weights in the gym, but it also is so important in our daily lives. We can still have the same set up as before with short fast burst, however, increase the incline to emulate us running up a hill.

Has the sled track ever been occupied and your wandering what to do? Did you know you can also use the treadmill while its off too? It will take some effort to get that belt rolling but it emulates pushing the sled very well also.

So next time you want to hop on the treadmill why not try some shorter interval sessions, use the incline function and don’t forget you can use it like a sled push too.