[Hat Trick]

When the incline on TM reads 'level 5', it's a 5% incline right? Does the number of incline levels your machine has affect the '%' level? Not sure if I'm wording this right -- my TM has 15 incline levels. When I put it to incline level 8, is that the same amount of incline as a level 8 on a TM that only has 10 levels? Is an incline level 8 the same for either machine or is it a different percentage depending on how many levels your TM has? I'm wondering if a level 6 on a TM that has 10 levels is the same as that of a machine that has 15 levels or is it more like a level 9 on a machine that has 15 levels. Hope that makes sense. So sorry this is long and wordy.

I tried an incline w/out today based on some examples in another thread. I tried a 2.5 at 6% w/out for 5 min and it was like nothing. So then I tried a 3.8 w/out at 6% -- somewhat better but not that much. Upped it to 8% and realized this was better for me so then proceeded to up it one level every minute or so till I hit level 15. Levels 11-15 were where I felt it the most (obviously) then I backed down each level at 45 secs to 1 min each till done. I kept my speed at 3.8 the whole time. While I feel like I got a decent w/out, I was NOT flushed faced and sweating/breathing hard like when I do speed intervals (30 min w/out). Is this normal? Anyone else find incline w/outs to be like this?

Interestingly, the cal burned # (I pay no attention to this other than as a reference) said 270 w/ 1.8 miles done. When I do speed intervals, the cal burned # is lower while the miles done # is higher.

So I guess my other question is does lower speed at high incline burn more cals vs. higher speed and lower incline? Well, it might seem like a duh question as the # I got today indicates that the higher incline/lower speed w/outs do burn more cals; just looking for other's opinion/observations I guess.

Thanks for any info/insight anyone can provide. (Pssst, sorry this got a little long winded!)

[LittleMoonRabbit]

I am not sure about your first question: if incline steps=%. I have wondered that myself because my gym treadmills are the same way. It's possible that different treadmills are just different in how they are set up, so different levels mean different incline %s. I really don't know.

As for whether or not fast with little incline is better than slower with a bigger incline... I feel like each give me an equally tough workout- but it feels different. So I try to mix it up. some days I will do exactly what you do: 3.8 mph with a level 15 incline- other days I will have almost no incline and I will run instead. I feel that I get a more balanced set of workouts if I vary it. I know the incline seems to work my calves and my butt a little more- and anything that will help work my butt is a good thing, lol.

[Transformer08]

Just wanted to say that I've been wondering the same thing lately.

I read somewhere on 3FC about how it was important to use incline on the TM in order to make it more like running on the ground, so I've been randomly setting the inclines to between 1-4 for workouts, but I have no idea what I'm actually doing.