I find that when I use my treadmill I *feel* that I get workout when I either alternate between jogging and walking OR high incline. I was trying to walk/jog but I was getting sore shins. Today I tried staying at 3 miles per hour and bumping up the incline to 10 and that did it! My heart was in target zone, no sore shins, it really felt good! I tried speeding it up a little bit but it got to be too fast, I tried putting the incline down so I could get a bit more speed, but my shins started to hurt.
So is incline just as good as speed? I know that machines are usually wrong for calorie counts but it said I burned 712 calories when my usual walk would've only burned between 100 and 200 because I had to go slower because of my shins.
Yes - calories burned is all about heart rate, and either going at a faster pace or raising your incline will increase your heart rate, and therefore your calories burned.
Doing some of both will get you the most fitness improvement (slightly different muscle working) - but if the speed hurts your shins, do just incline for now.
I find there is an "in between pace" that KILLS my shins, so as you get fitter you may be able to alternate hilly intervals with some FASTER jogging intervals and your shins will feel better.
Yep, both are good for calories. Though, in the past I had always relied on speed; now I increase incline/resistance and I'm noticing better results. However, I think it's due to changing things around as apposed to one being better at fat burning than the other.
Funny you should post this. I was on my TM this morning too, doing incline. I used to run, that is, until I ran myself plantar fasciitis a year ago. I am almost good now, but not enough to run again, so I just do incline.
I walked about 30 minutes today at incline 10 at 3.6 / 3.7 mph. To my surprise, my heart rate stayed fairly low but I didn;'t have time to experiment more. Normally, I do "waves" - I keep increasing the incline by from 5 by 1 up to 10 (the highest on my TM) and then decreasing again. My heart rate remained the same after 2 minutes at 10 so I just left it at that.
The next time, I will wear my heart monitor as it is more precise that the one built in into the handles of the TM.
I use a body bugg to track my calories burned and it is pretty close to the same for incline or for speed. It actually alternates. Sometimes I get a better burn with incline and sometimes it's better with speed, but it's always pretty close to the same anyhow. Now, no 2 people are the same, but for what it's worth that's how it works for me.
3.6/3.7?!?!?! Holy cripes! LOL. I would've gone flying off the back! I was at 3.0 mph and my heart was pounding!
With time and practice you too will be able to do it.... Promise ...
I agree with the others, both incline and speed are good as long as your heart rate gets up there... Plus doing both prevents your body getting used to doing one exercise, protecting you from injury, plateaus and boredom...
I get so bored on the treadmill as well. I alternate days...one day I'll run, next day I'll do incline, next day I'll up the speed and run .5 mile intervals...next day I'll do incline but keep upping the incline every .05 miles until I'm up to 15, then bring it back down every .05 miles... I try to get at least 3 miles in, every day, in addition to weight training.
Speed or incline?
With time and practice you too will be able to do it.... Promise 
...
I alternate days...one day I'll run, next day I'll do incline, next day I'll up the speed and run .5 mile intervals...next day I'll do incline but keep upping the incline every .05 miles until I'm up to 15, then bring it back down every .05 miles... I try to get at least 3 miles in, every day, in addition to weight training.
