The benefits of treadmill hill training
At Fitness 4 Home Superstore we see a lot of cool premium quality fitness equipment products for people to own for their personal home gym. But many, when they come to our stores are looking to find a quality treadmill. And with throngs of treadmills to choose from, there are countless ways to work on your speed, endurance and overall fitness – one way is hill training. Hill training is a great way to increase your speed, become a stronger runner altogether and work on different muscle groups that you don’t normally use on flat surface running. And while not all of us live in mountainous areas, having a good treadmill that has a wide range of incline functionality can make your inside treadmill workouts sometimes more challenging than running through the woods or trails.
Treadmill hill training safety tips
What you need to be aware of when running on a treadmill – no matter if you’re running flat or in on an incline is following:
- Ease into the pace you want to run. You don’t want to pull a muscle by starting out too fast on the treadmill. Take the first 5-10 minutes to warm up before you increase your pace.
- No your limitations: If you pick a pace that is too fast for you, you could end up being thrown off the machine or pull/tear a muscle. Don’t try to be a hero on your treadmill. Use it first at manageable paces before you test yourself.
- Pay Attention: Especially if you’re running/walking on an incline at a quick pace. One wrong step and whoosh! Off you go catapulted to the ground. While I do see people reading and watching tv while they’re working out, I still say it’s safer to focus on your workout and not try to multitask too much.
- Use handrails as support not as crutches: Handrails are a great safety feature, when you do lose your balance or have a muscle cramp. But you shouldn’t be holding on to the handrails the entire time you’re on the treadmill – this defeats the purpose of the workout. And if you’re going at a fast pace or on a steep incline that you really can’t sustain, then you open yourself up to injury if your hands slip off or your try to let go of the handrails. Bottom line is workout at a pace and incline that you can do without the support of the handrails – it’s a harder workout, but you’ll get a lot more out of it.
Paces and inclines for different hill workouts
Depending on what you’re trying to work on, the use of the incline feature on your treadmill will vary:
- To work on speed – steep incline, 90-95% of your top speed for short bursts – 10-20 seconds.
- To work on hill endurance – low to moderate incline, 70-80% of your top speed with longer intervals – 3 to 30 minutes.
- To simulate a hilly race – vary the inclines from flat, moderate and high inclines at various speeds and intervals.
You can run downhill indoors!
But what if you want to run downhill on your treadmill – is that even possible? Yes, with some of the treadmills on the market, they have a decline feature as well. Here are some that we carry in our stores: Precor 9.35:– 2% decline; FreeMotion Treadmills: -3% decline; ProForm Treadmills: -6% decline.
For more information about buying any of these treadmills, or any other type of fitness equipment for your Phoenix area home, contact Fitness 4 Home Superstore today and we’ll be happy to match you up with the perfect piece of exercise apparatus – cardio, strength, core or flexibility.
