Great Calorie-Burn Workouts You Can Do On Your Treadmill

Enter any commercial gym at 6pm on a weekday evening and you’re guaranteed to see one thing – hoards of punters gathering round the treadmills, waiting for their turn on the gym version of a gigantic hamster wheel.

This might seem bizarre as going for a run outside is completely free, and you get the benefits of the great outdoors, yet in gyms across the country you’ll witness this scene time and time again.

The treadmill isn’t necessarily a bad piece of gym equipment – used correctly it can burn calories, increase your fitness levels and help you shed fat. The number of calories you burn in a session depends on a number of factors, including your body-weight, age and most importantly, how hard you work or how quickly you run.

Here are some rough estimates as to the calorie burn during a 30 minute running workout, courtesy of the Harvard School of Public Health:

At a 12 minute mile pace – between 240 and 355 calories
At a 10 minute mile pace – between 300 and 444 calories
At an 8 minute mile pace – between 375 and 555 calories
At a 6 minute mile pace – between 495 and 733 calories

The lower estimates are for a 125 pound person and the upper estimates for a 185 pound person. If you’re lighter than 125 pounds you’ll burn fewer calories and if you’re heavier than 185 pounds you’ll burn more.

The trouble is, it isn’t all about how many calories you burn.

Your metabolism is like your weight loss control center – the faster it goes and the harder it works, the more fat you burn. Steady state cardio, such as going for a run at the same pace for half an hour has very little impact on your metabolism. Not to mention the fact that the average gym attendee would seriously struggle with a 6 minute mile pace for more than a few minutes and even a more advanced trainer would fine 10 minute miles relatively challenging.

Then you have the issue of boredom – who really wants to spend half an hour or more plodding away on a treadmill, gazing idly at a TV screen, or even listening to music on your headphones.

Overall, treadmill running isn’t a hugely effective way to burn calories and fat.

This is where interval training comes in.

What is Interval Training?

As the name suggests, interval training revolves around performing intervals of varying lengths and intensities. Not only does this make your workout feel like it’s going much quicker due to the variety, but you’ll actually burn more calories in less time, meaning shorter overall workouts, get a far greater boost to your metabolism and get fitter too.

There really are hundreds of ways that you can set up your interval training, but a sample workout would include –

- A short warm up at a slow to moderate pace
- A short burst of close to maximum intensity effort, followed by a slightly longer resting/ recovery period at a comfortable speed.
- This sprint/rest protocol repeated as many times as your program prescribes
- A cool down similar to your warm up

These are the basic guidelines, but read on to find out exactly how to implement intervals into your treadmill training.

Fat-Torching, Calorie-Burning Treadmill Workouts

Beginner

There’s no need to go over the top when starting out. A simple 20 minute interval session is all you need to take your results from good to great.

- 3 minutes warm up at a steady pace
- Sprint for 30 seconds, fast walk for 90 seconds
- Repeat 7 times
- 3 minute cool down

While there’s no specific speed needed for your sprints, a good rule of thumb is to use the RPE scale, or “Rate of Perceived Exertion.”

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being about as much energy as you’d need to go for a gentle stroll and 10 being an all out maximum effort, your sprints should be a 7 to 8, and your fast walk a level 5.

Intermediate

To step things up a gear you could simply make the beginner workout a little harder by increasing your sprint time to 45 seconds and reducing your rests to 75 seconds.

Alternatively increase your total time. Stick with the three minute warm up and cool downs, but try shooting for 10 intervals.

Your other option is to put your treadmill on a slight incline – just taking it up from zero gradient to a level 1 or 2 will make this surprisingly more challenging and increase your calorie burn.

Advanced

Okay, now things get interesting. Treadmill hill sprints are about to become your new ultimate calorie burning fat loss friend.

Stick with the same 3 minute warm up on a low gradient. As you’re coming to the end of the 3 minutes, with about 10 seconds to spare, increase your speed to a full on sprint and take the gradient up a few notches. Go as hard as you can for a full 20 seconds, then reduce the speed and gradient to a very fast walk on a low incline.

Walk at this speed for 60 seconds, then go again.

To start with five of these should be enough. As you get fitter and faster, aim to add more intervals, or increase your speed and gradient. You’ll probably find that as you start to get faster you’ll need to jump your feet onto the sides of the treadmill at the end of your sprint, rather than slow down your pace. This is fine; just make sure you have a firm grasp of the handrail and land lightly on your feet.

Finish with the same 3 minute cool down.

General Interval Guidelines

No matter what level you’re at, you must adhere to these guidelines:

- Warm ups and cool downs are not optional. You need them to fully prepare for the tough road ahead and to help you recover afterwards.
- A whole workout (including warm up and cool down) should be half an hour max. If you can go for longer than this you probably aren’t working hard enough.
- Rest periods should be at least as long as your work periods. A ratio of between 2:1 and 4:1 rest to work is ideal. Again, if you find you can go before your rest is up, you need to go harder on the sprints.