Treadmill program question
 

I starting back to the gym this week and I overheard one of the trainers telling a woman that the workout you get on the treadmill would be better if you program it or manually change the speed and/or incline every 5 minutes through your workout. Since I'm just starting back I don't use an incline yet, but the speed I use is consistant at 2.5 or 3.0 for 30 minutes. Should I start changing the speed to get better results? Any advice on this would be helpful since I'm just starting to exercise again after 10 years. Thanks!

Hi

I like to change up the treadmill mainly to keep from getting too bored...but i'm sure there are some other 'benefits' to it, mainly getting your heart-rate up more, etc...

I like using the "hill" setting, which changes the incline for you automatically. I have slowly been increasing the level of difficulty (I believe my gym's treadmills have 20 levels).

One of the important things about exercise is to keep challenging ourselves. It is important to change up what we are doing so that our bodies don’t become to conditioned to one thing. If that happens the exercise will start to be less effective. Adding resistance in the form of speed change or incline is a great way to add some challenge on the treadmill.

If you are just starting back my suggestion would be to do it gradually over several weeks. Depending on how often you go to the gym you could do one day of what you are presently doing, the next of hills, then an easy day, then intervals ie: speed walking/jogging for a minute then easy walking for the next, next interval a bit more difficult walking/jogging then easy walking for a minute and so on....

Since you are in a gym I would suggest you take a session or two with a personal trainer and have him/her show you a weight training routine. Muscles burn more calories at rest and speeds up your metabolism. And muscles look sexy ;)