Treadmills. People either love them or hate them. They have huge benefits but there are definitely some reasons to hate them. Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding, a bariatric surgeon at NYU Langone Medical Center, will look at how to learn to love your treadmill in this informative series on treadmill workouts. She will explain health benefits, ways to work out, tips and safety information related to the machine.

Treadmill Workouts: The Cardiovascular Health Benefits

Cardiovascular refers to the heart and blood vessels that transfer oxygen from the heart to the organs. Having a healthy, strong heart is vital to health. For this reason, it’s important to get cardio into your exercise. One way to do this is through treadmill workouts.

Treadmills are machines with a continuous belt on loop. Most treadmills can be adjusted for speed and incline. They can be used in any weather and for exercisers of all different fitness levels.  Walking, jogging, running and uphill workouts increase the heart rate which is the key to cardiovascular health. By raising the heart rate the heart becomes stronger.

Getting Started With A Treadmill

Many people find treadmills boring. They don’t offer a change in scenery and are often facing a wall, mirror or another row of treadmills or other cardio machines. Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding suggests that these workouts are only boring if they are too easy. For example, walking 10,000 a day is the recommended amount. If all of this is done strolling throughout the home or office, around aisles of the grocery store or with the dog it’s not much exertion. Adding a challenging treadmill workout, even at a walk, can engage the mind and heart in a workout that will increase cardiovascular health and performance.

Make It Count

Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding suggests looking up treadmill workouts. The best workouts play with incline and speed but don’t worry, you don’t have to run! Walking workouts can be just as effective, you just have to sweat. Here’s how to get in a great treadmill workout as a beginner.

Vital Components

Make sure your treadmill workout includes the following.

• A two minute warmup. Walk loosely at a pace you can maintain while carrying on a conversation. You should not struggle to talk during this portion of your workout.
• 20-30 minutes of work. After the warmup you should sustain 20-30 minutes of work. During this time you should not be able to sing and conversation should be at least a little work. You should sweat. You can vary the level of exertion but don’t fall back to the warm up pace/incline.
• A five minute cooldown. After exerting yourself you’ll want to give your heart a chance to slow back to a more normal heart rate.

Many people new to exercise like to skip the warmup and cooldown but Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding advises against this. Your heart needs time to work up to exertion and to recover.

Suggested Beginner Workout

If you’re new to treadmill workouts here is a great beginner workout. You can adjust the incline and speed to be comfortable for your current fitness level but be sure to push yourself a little. The key is to be able to sustain the effort.

This workout may be a challenge for beginners who have been sedentary. Try decreasing the inclines by .5 or 1 or the speed by .2-.5 mph.

Learn More About Treadmill Workouts from Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding

Dr. Christine Ren-Fielding believes that treadmill workouts are great once you’ve been cleared by you doctor. In future articles she will share different workouts as well as important tips and safety information.