Treadmills have been around for ages and many people associate treadmill use with weight loss. The majority of individuals looking to lose weight do some form of low impact cardio. Treadmills give people the opportunity to do low impact cardio in their own time and at their own pace. They are an incredibly effective training tool and I have used them with many clients looking to lose weight.
I am a personal trainer and have helped many clients lose weight and keep it off for good. Most clients that I have trained do some form of treadmill workout at least 3-4 times a week. Treadmills give my clients the opportunity to change up their workout routine and switch the pace, incline, and distance ran frequently.
The ability to switch your workout routine is one of the most effective training tools for anyone looking to lose weight. If you do the same kind of cardio routine day after day your body will adapt to it and you will not see fast results. This is the problem that many people have that only run outside or on tracks. Although this is still an effective workout, it does not give you the ability to change much of your routine.
Treadmills also give you an exact mile per hour that you are running at so you are able to accurately track your progress. I have trained clients who started out running at a 6 mph pace and could only last 0.5 miles, that have progressed to a 10 mph pace and ran over a mile! Since he was using a treadmill for all of these workouts we could compare and contrast exact results. Knowing your exact improvements is key for staying motivated and sticking with a fitness program. If all you do is run outside on the road you really have no idea how much faster or efficient you are running compared to 2 months ago.
Another great weight loss tool that treadmills have is the ability to keep track of your calories burned. This is one of the advantages to working out on a treadmill. I have found out from my own personal experimentation that I can burn a lot more calories doing incline training at different speeds than plain static cardio. One of my favorite fat burning workouts is to sprint for 1 minute intervals on a treadmill and then walk for 90 seconds and repeat this 5-7 times. Believe it or not you will burn well over 200 calories in 10 minutes if you are able to maintain a fast pace on your sprints.
My best personal training weight loss story is from a friend of mine, who was able to lose 25 lbs in 8 weeks doing the majority of his workouts on the treadmill. I would put him through high intensity interval training for 30 minute workouts 4-5 times a week and his weight loss results were dramatic. The ability for him to track his workouts and see the amount of calories he burned really helped him to stay focused throughout the entire process.
In conclusion, treadmills offer users a wide variety of weight loss tools and are an incredible tool for burning fat and keeping you in great shape.
