MY TOP 5 TREADMILL WORKOUTS!

Hi Friends!  Happy SPRING!  Many of you have just enjoyed spending Spring Break this past week with your kid(s) and/or friends and some of you are enjoying it this week...I hope you are being ACTIVE and enjoying the gorgeous outdoors.  One of my FABULOUS Blog Followers has asked a great question for me to speak on today which is "how do you get the most out of a treadmill workout?"  For those of you in the mid-west or other parts of the country that are SNOWING right now, you have to get your workout inside...if you go to a fitness facility or own a home treadmill, I will give you my TOP 5 ways to get the most out of the treadmill.  Ready?  Here you go!

Counting down...#5, Looking to work out your glutes (butt), hips and thighs??  Who isn't right?!  Well, do yourself a favor...put your INCLINE on the treadmill up to 10 with an RPM (speed) of 3.2-3.5 after 15 minutes, hike it all the way up to 15.  PUMP YOUR ARMS!  If you hang on  then you are defeating the purpose which is to feel a great burn in the areas I mentioned while burning the most calories that you can.  Here's the GREAT NEWS...you only have to do this for 30 minutes and you will burn 300-400 calories!

#4, Interval Train.  Start with a warm-up of walking briskly at 4.0-4.2 pumping your arms at a FLAT incline.  After 10 minutes, change the RPM to 4.5-5.2 and jog for 5 minutes.  Then move the RPM back to 4.0 moving your incline up to 4 and walk briskly at the incline pumping your arms (DO NOT HOLD ON) for another 10 minutes...back to 5.2-5.5 and run at the 4 incline for another 5 minutes.  After the 5 minutes, incline to 6 with 4.5 RPM walking briskly pumping your arms for 5 minutes and lastly dig deep, keeping your incline at 6 move your RPM back up to 5.5-6.0 and sprint for 5 minutes up the hill...don't forget to breathe!  Finally, move the incline back to FLAT with RPM at 4.0 pumping your arms for 5 more minutes and then down to 3.5 for 2 minutes for a COOL DOWN.  You have now completed 45 minutes with a 2 minute cool down of Interval Training.

#3, Work out those calves, hamstrings and glutes!  Keeping your treadmill FLAT, put your RPM at a 3.0-3.3 and walk backwards for 30 minutes.  If necessary, HOLD ON TO THE SIDE RAILS.  30 minutes is all you need to do this particular workout because you WILL feel the burn...enjoy!

#2, SIDE SHUFFLES.  Keep your treadmill at FLAT, set the RPM to 3.3-3.5 and carefully turn your body sideways on the treadmill.  If necessary, using the hand that is closest to the front handles of the treadmill hold on lightly and start to side shuffle.  Don't forget to BREATHE!  After 20 minutes, carefully turn your body to face the opposite way so that your other hand is now lightly holding on to the front handles and shuffle for another 20 minutes.  Finally, turning yourself to face the front of the treadmill walk pumping your arms for 5 minutes at 3.0-3.2 as a COOL DOWN.  You have now completed 40 minutes with a 5 minute cool down.  This particular exercise on the treadmill WILL get your heart rate up so prepare to BURN some serious calories and feel your heart rate go up.

#1, PUSHING YOUR BODY WEIGHT!  This is by far the most challenging exercise of them all (in my opinion).  Keeping your treadmill turned OFF, holding on to the front handles RUN as fast as you can for 5 minutes.  This is a strength builder and high calorie burner!  After 5 minutes, step off the treadmill and do 50 Jumping jacks...give yourself a 60 second rest and step back onto the treadmill and complete round 2 of 5 more minutes of running as hard as you can with the treadmill OFF...repeat the first round again with 50 Jumping jacks.  Repeat all of this 2 more times with the total amount of time of running on the treadmill for a 20 minute workout and 200 Jumping jacks TOTAL.  Great job!!

I hope you enjoyed my top 5 Treadmill exercises!  Remember, some of these are quite challenging so be sure you are ready for the challenge and make sure you BREATHE when performing them.  Mixing up your workouts will help you continue to work towards accomplishing YOUR Fitness Goal and should always be FUN!  Spring is here friends and Summer is right around the corner...so be sure to stay active for both your MIND and BODY!

If you enjoyed today's blog and haven't done so yet, join TODAY as a follower.  Feel free to post any comments or questions you may have about today's blog or any other topics you may want me to speak about in the future.

Make sure you do something to promote your health and fitness TODAY!  Have a beautiful, fitness filled week!  I'm off to Hot Yoga...NAMASTE....

As Always...Stay Fit and Happy!
Famisha :-)