Treadmills can be cardiovascular training machines that can help you reap the benefits of exercise in your own home. But before you start running, it’s important to think about what kind of treadmill you need to accomplish your goals. For example, if you are just looking to increase your general everyday activity, then consider a basic treadmill without all of the electric and computerized bells and whistles. But if you have a specific goal like losing weight or training for a marathon, then they’re certain functions you should evaluate when you start shopping.
We know that there are a lot of variables you can track on a decked-out treadmill. So, we made a list of three variables you can track to reach your individual running goal.
Incline Variability
Having the ability to change the incline of your treadmill deck can have a significant effect on your workouts. Since treadmills are used indoors, you don’t have the added air resistance of running outdoors. Running on a flat treadmill surface may not give you the same exercise intensity benefits, either. However, just a slight increase of one percent can increase the resistance of your run, jog, or walk to match the same air resistance you would find in outside workouts. In turn, boosting treadmill incline can increase your total calorie expenditure – even without having to run or jog.
Heart Rate
Monitoring the intensity of your workout is critical to working out. The best way to monitor the true intensity of your workouts is to check your heart rate. Many treadmills come with pulse sensors that are often placed on the handlebars.
While all workouts will help you burn calories, specific heart-rate ranges can help you train for recovery, cardiovascular fitness, cardiovascular endurance, and cardiovascular strength. While you can still experience a good workout without heart rate monitoring pulse sensors, the effectiveness of your workouts could be greatly increase with treadmills that provide this functionality.
Calorie Count
Besides increasing general cardiovascular health and performance, many people purchase treadmills so they can increase the convenience of having the ability to exercise in the comfort of their own home. While many people are concerned with general health and cardiovascular performance, many individuals may want to lose weight along the way.
One way to ensure that your activity is optimal for losing weight, is to use the calorie counting function on the treadmill monitor. Burning excess calories is critical to helping you lose unwanted fat stores. If you know you need to burn 500 calories per day to lose a pound of fat each week, then the calorie count function on the treadmill can help you determine how long you need to workout to reach your goal number of calories burned.
Check out this great in-home treadmill that has all the necessary training variables to take you to your health and fitness goals to the next level!
