3 February 2010
Burn It: Making the Dreadmill Fun Again
Oh, treadmill. I have such a love/hate relationship with you. On the one hand, I love you because of all the stats you provide (pace, mileage, calories burned, time — all at my disposal!). I love you because I can watch TV, read a magazine, AND listen to music at the same time while I’m on you. But I hate you because you bore. Me. To. Death. I understand full well why Gina calls you the RAD (Revolving Apparatus of Death).
Today, however, I mastered you. I made you fun again. I spiced you up, and breathed some life into your horrible revolving belt.
All this to say, this treadmill workout I created is anything but boring. You’ll get a nice upper-body toning workout while keeping your heart rate up with cardio intervals. It’s going in my regular rotation, for sure.
For this 45ish-minute workout, you’ll have three speeds/levels. Let’s call them BASE, WEIGHTS, and SPRINT.You’ll also need a pair of dumbbells that you can squeeze 25-30 reps out of for most upper-body exercises. I used 10- pounders.
Your base level (B) should be at a speed and incline that’s somewhat challenging, but also can be used as recovery. For a slightly easier workout, I’d suggest a 2-3% incline and a 4.0 to 4.5mph speed (speed walking). For a harder workout, take it up to an easy jog (still at a 2-3% incline).
Your weights level (W) is really slow. Like, REALLY slow. Less than 3.0mph. This is the speed you’ll be doing your strength work at. You can keep the incline at 2-3%, but probably no higher than that.
Your sprint level (S) shouldn’t actually be a sprint, but almost. Pick an incline and speed that will get you winded in a minute. Maybe 7.0 to 8.0mph with a 2-3% for regular exercisers.
And here’s how we get ‘er done:
- B - 5 minutes (warm up)
- W - 1 minute with military presses
- S - 1 minute
- B - 2.5 minutes
- W - 1 minute with arnold presses
- S - 1 minute
- B - 2.5 minutes
- W - 1 minute with chest squeezes (start with arms in a goal post position and then squeeze elbows together)
- S - 1 minute
- B - 2.5 minutes
- W - 1 minute with regular bicep curls
- S - 1 minute
- B - 2.5 minutes
- W - 1 minute with hammer curls
- S - 1 minute
- B - 2.5 minutes
- W - 1 minute with overhead tricep extensions
- S - 1 minute
- B - 2.5 minutes
- W - 1 minute with tricep pulses (with weights in your hand, arms at your sides, and palms facing backwards, pulse weights away from your body. Keep triceps engaged the whole time.)
- S - 1 minute
- B - 5 minutes (cool down)
If you try it, tell me what you think! Also, due to the overwhelming amount of questions I got, and because people get annoyed with too many Q&As on their dashes, I’ll only be answering a few a day. But keep ‘em coming!
