Treadmill interval training offers a powerful way to boost your fitness and add some variety to your cardio routine. With incline settings and adjustable speed, treadmills offer a controlled environment where you can challenge yourself to improve your speed, endurance, and overall health.
Whether you're a beginner or a runner with a few races under your belt, understanding interval training and how to structure your workouts will help you improve your training program.
What Is Treadmill Interval Training?
Interval training keeps your body guessing. You pump up your heart rate via short bursts of exercise before resting. Then repeat! A common pattern is 30 seconds of movement followed by 30 seconds of rest, repeated until you complete your workout. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is similar, but the exercise portion is performed at a high intensity.
Whether normal interval training or HIIT, this type of training is like a series of mini-challenges. With HIIT, in particular, you want to push your heart rate up to over 70% of your maximum, which you can calculate by subtracting your age from 220.
Using a treadmill for interval training involves alternating between periods of high-intensity running and lower-intensity recovery periods. For example, in a 30-minute HIIT session, you might sprint for 30 seconds and walk for one minute, repeating the cycle until you are done. This is a great way to increase your fitness, burn calories, empower your body, and stress your muscles in a positive way.
Tips for Using a Treadmill in Your Interval Training
You want to get the most out of your treadmill interval training, so it's important to use the treadmill correctly to optimize your workouts. Here are some tips to safely use a treadmill in your interval training:
- Warmup and cooldown: Start your session with a five- to 10-minute warmup to prepare your muscles and lower the risk of injury. You'll also want to do a five- to 10-minute cooldown to help your body recover properly. Add this time to your workout — it doesn't count toward your total interval training time.
- Gradually adjust speed: If you're new to this type of training, start with short intervals, increasing speed and intensity as you get more comfortable.
- Use the incline: Mix things up using the incline feature to simulate hill training and build strength. You can also change your interval lengths and speeds to keep your workouts challenging.
- Listen to your body: If you start feeling too fatigued, shorten the high-intensity intervals or increase your recovery time. Stop when you need to — exercising is about feeling good, after all.
- Stay hydrated: Keep your water bottle or electrolytes nearby, and drink regularly to stay hydrated.
- Focus on form: Hold a good posture and keep a steady stride to stay balanced.
HIIT Treadmill Workouts
HIIT offers a dynamic way to improve your fitness. HIIT treadmill workout benefits include strengthening your muscles, improving your cardiovascular health, and keeping your body and brain guessing so you'll really enjoy yourself.
Whether you need a beginner treadmill interval workout or are an advanced athlete, you can easily adjust these workouts to meet your needs. Use these treadmill sprint interval suggestions as the foundation for your HIIT.
Beginner HIIT Workout
If you are just starting out, follow the beginner workout, which focuses on short but manageable intervals and longer recovery periods. After your warmup, sprint for 20 seconds at a challenging speed. Recover by walking for a minute and 40 seconds. Repeat this for up to 10 rounds before you cool down.
Intermediate HIIT Workout
Ramp up your HIIT workout intensity by sprinting for 30 seconds at a high speed after your warmup routine. Recover with one minute of jogging or walking, and repeat this process for up to 12 rounds before you cool down.
Advanced HIIT Workout
As your fitness increases, so should the intensity of your HIIT workout. To get started, add a 1% incline to your warmup routine. Sprint for 45 seconds at your maximum speed, and recover for 45 seconds with a walk or light jogging. Repeat this for up to 15 rounds and end with your cooldown routine.
Incline HIIT Workout
Challenge yourself by simulating hill sprints. Warm up at a 1% incline and sprint for 30 seconds at a 5%-7% incline. Recover by walking for a minute at a 2%-3% incline, and repeat for up to 10 rounds before you cool down at a 1% incline.
Tracking Your Progress
Tracking your progress is a key part of your fitness journey and helps you stay motivated. It lets you see how your fitness levels are increasing and find room for improvement. Here are some ways to do it:
- Monitor your heart rate: Use a heart rate monitor or the built-in sensors on the treadmill to track your heart rate during intervals. Over time, you should see a faster recovery rate during rest periods, which indicates improved fitness.
- Record your workout: Use a fitness device to log each workout so you can see the duration, speeds, inclines, interval lengths and total distance you covered.
- Assess perceived exertion: Rate how hard each workout is on a scale of one to 10 to see how each session starts to feel easier, which shows how you are improving.
- Use fitness apps: Many fitness apps can sync with treadmills to track workouts automatically and provide detailed analytics.
- Set goals: Set realistic, achievable goals for yourself, whether it's reducing recovery time, extending interval lengths or increasing your sprint speed. It's a great way to stay motivated and challenge yourself.
- Take fitness tests: If you are competitive, you can periodically take fitness or VO2 max tests to get more insight into your cardiovascular fitness and endurance.
- Celebrate milestones: Celebrate each time you hit a milestone, such as completing a challenging session or reaching a new top speed. It's important and motivating to recognize your hard work!
Connect to a Healthier Life With the Greater Philadelphia YMCA
HIIT treadmill workouts let you control your speed and incline, making them a flexible and convenient option for people of varying fitness levels. These sprinting treadmill workouts are also time-efficient, so they're ideal workouts for anyone on a tight schedule.
At the Y, we're ready to help you start or maintain a healthier life at our family-focused gym. Our facilities have indoor tracks, pools, group exercise classes and more to support your health and fitness goals. We offer family memberships and two hours of free babysitting for parents. You can also reach out to one of our fitness consultants to help you start your workout journey.
Sign up for the Y today to start your fitness routine or continue improving your current program.