What is a treadmill incline?
Many newer models of treadmill have all sorts of new bells and whistles and settings, and one of those mainstay features is the treadmill’s incline setting.
This feature allows you to use the machine while elevated at a slight angle of your choosing, generally anywhere from 2 to 15 percent, as a result, the treadmill incline benefits offers a whole host of practical uses and additions, from higher calorie burn, more effective weight loss, to better muscle building.
Let’s get right into it!
The treadmill incline burns more calories than walking on the flat surface.
It’s a well-known fact that climbing stairs and walking uphill are very effective ways to burn calories and get the heart pumping, as well as build stamina, and the same benefits are there with the use of the incline settings on your treadmill.
Your body burns an estimated 3 to 5 extra calories per minute depending on your incline’s settings and, turned to the average max settings of 15 percent, you burn 60 percent more calories running or 150 percent higher when walking!
The increase in effectiveness is because the extra steepness works the body harder than the regular flat surface of the treadmill base, elevating the heart rate, and engaging more of the muscles, which in turn, heightens the intensity of your workout.
Walking downhill and or on a level surface tends to put marginally less strain on the body, but isn’t the best for calorie burn or getting a good workout, so if that’s your goal, using the incline or taking a jog somewhere uphill or with stairs is the way to go.
The treadmill’s incline offers a variation to workouts, making them less stale and repetitive.
Treadmills are a common and reliable form of exercise equipment primarily because they’re easy for anyone to use, considering that as long as the individual can walk and does not suffer from mobility problems, the treadmill will provide a safe, effective, and low impact form of exercise.
This trait might make them ideal for many, but a problematic sticking point does come as a result of that simplicity, which is that walking in a straight, fixed line with no bumps, curves, or changes of scenery can be uneventful and boring.
Very boring.
Especially considering the average person will workout on their machine for 10, 15, 30, or more minutes, so that can be a lot of time spent walking in place and staring and nothing, even if the treadmill sits in your TV room!
Making use of your treadmills more modern features will add more spice and variety to your exercise routine and allow one to break up the excess monotony present in your workouts.
The incline setting, like the speed options, offer a way of relieving some of the boredom that can come from the same old motion, along with reducing the risk of a repetitive motion injury or stress fracture from overuse of the same muscles each treadmill session.
The treadmill incline helps more realistically simulate walking, rather than a static flat surface.
Whether you’re training for a 5K or just looking for something that allows you to get in your jogging, running, or walking routine while staying out of inclement weather, the treadmill is a great choice to do so!
Making use of the incline allows you to have a more natural gait when running or jogging on your machine, and as a result, the motion will put less strain on your body and allow you to get in your routine morning jog, regardless of the weather, and without the risk of falls!
There are controversy and debate on if setting the incline at 1 or 2 percent can better match the conditions that the average runner would encounter, however, many experts agree it’s the body’s “perceived effort” that aids in the runner pushing themselves harder outdoors during workouts than they do dissociating from boredom while on the treadmill.
So, in general, making use of a heart rate monitor on your outdoor runs and focusing on what your stride is like, and how your body moves during the process can help to get a better average of what your energy expenditure is like, which you can then do your best to emulate during your treadmill sessions.
Treadmill inclines build more muscle, especially in the ankles, calves, and upper legs.
Walking on a level and entirely flat surface is not only boring and repetitive but also isn’t all that helpful at activating muscle groups and helping build them, mainly due to the simplicity in the exercise sessions and them not being very challenging or higher intensity.
The incline option is a game-changer for this, however, and works muscle groups in the legs, calves, ankles, and upper thighs as well as the glutes, as the steepness simulates walking uphill, which is an excellent way of building muscle and strength in the legs.
This is especially helpful for those who have leg or joint pain or are newly out of rehab or hospital stay in general and need something that won’t aggravate the existing injury or pain too much.
The steeper the incline settings, the better the muscle build and toning, so gradual experimentation with increasing the incline is a good way of determining how much you can handle at the start.
Using a treadmill’s incline settings help enhance and intensify your workout, furthering your stamina increase, and elevate your heart rate, helping shed calories easily.
Treadmills can burn calories with fairly little effort, especially in comparison to machines like the rower, which makes use of many of the bodies major muscle groups, creating an exhausting but effective workout.
But many people aren’t up to something quite as strenuous, especially if they have lower back issues or problems with mobility.
This is again where the treadmill shines through with its low impact and simple to use design, coupled with the incline, average treadmill sessions can easily burn anywhere from 100 to 300 or more calories.
This, of course, depends on your weight, height, and gender, and plenty of online calculators exist to plug in your individual stats so you can tailor your workout to accommodate your calorie-burning goals.
Other important aspects to remember is that any exercise is better than none, such as if you only have 10 or 15 minutes to spare for your treadmill sessions, exercising at a faster speed and at a sharper incline increases the intensity of the workout, which equals higher calorie burn.
It’s essential to not overdo this, however, and start out gradually during these brief sessions of higher intensity with a warmup to ease your body into the process, lest you risk injury and unneeded soreness.
If you have more time to spare, longer sessions, such as 30 minutes of moderate-intensity running, or varying your pace for several seconds of higher intensity during the moderate to low level workout, can also aid to increase calorie burn without putting extra strain on the body like going hard for the entire duration would.
Overall, it’s best to experiment and do what feels and works best for you, and remember that warmups and gradual increases in incline, speed, and intensity are essential for working out safely!
Wrapping up!
Treadmill inclines offer a wide range of benefits and potential uses, and really very few if any, drawbacks, so you should give some good thought to purchasing a treadmill with this option if you are in the market for one.
The treadmill may be an old machine, but who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?
Thanks for reading, and well wishes in health and fitness!