The Benefits of Using Treadmills to Exercise
Hi guys, the weekend is nearly upon us and I hope you have all had a great week up till now. Today, I want to talk about exercising, specifically using treadmills. I’m sure you have all tried this either at home or at the gym. While using treadmills tend to lead to tedious exercise, there are actually many advantages and benefits that can come with using one.
So What Are The Advantages?
The treadmills is extremely easy to use, once you figure out what buttons to press! It is a predictable piece of machinery and the belt only ever travels in one direction, so all you have to do it keep up with the speed. There’s no risk of tripping over curbs, or stumbling on uneven sidewalks. You also don’t have to get out of the way of other joggers and their pesky pets!
No pets allowed! (pic from a3bs.com) |
In addition, the intensity and other aspects of the workout are controlled by you alone. The speed, incline, energy spent and more are all in your hands and you can choose what suits you best. Of course this needs to be coupled with discipline as well, but generally most users will follow, or even design, their own customised workout programme to fit into their schedules. The more advanced treadmills also keep track of other stats such as heart rate monitors, speed, distance covered and more so you can keep up with your progress easily.
Also by working out on a treadmill, you can pass the time by listening to music, talking on the phone or even watching television. These can be done if you were to jog outside but it poses some danger to yourself, and is also extremely troublesome. There’s also no risk of rain if you jog indoors!
What About the Health Benefits?
If you use a treadmill to workout, you are probably looking to cut some weight or increase your speed and stamina. Running or jogging is a fantastic way to burn calories as it increases your heart rate, but it also strengthens your heart and your lungs since your oxygen intake will also increase.
Your speed and stamina will improve by adopting specific treadmill workouts (pic from popsugar.com) |
Approximately 100 calories are burnt with every mile you run (about 1.6 kilometres), and this adds up pretty quickly so you should notice the pounds shedding in no time at all. If you amp up the intensity, not only can you burn more calories, this burn will continue longer even after the workout has been completed!
By burning more calories, you can enjoy more of this! (pic from marketwatch.com) |
Studies have also shown that using a treadmill for just 30 minutes thrice weekly can improve the quality of your sleep, stamina, and energy levels, while reducing your cholesterol levels. That’s a lot of benefits for just 90 minutes of effort a week! The lower levels of cholesterol in your body can also lead to a lower risk of heart disease, which is not a bad perk at all. You don’t even have to jog or run for 30 minutes; it just needs to be a brisk walking pace. In addition, if you cannot do this for 30 minutes straight, you get the same benefits if you split this into three 10-minute walks. That’s not too bad now is it?