There is no doubt that life feels more hectic than ever these days. Kids have to be ferried between multiple extracurricular activities. More Americans work overtime or take on extra side jobs. So, it’s no wonder that we all feel crunched for time, and that it is harder to squeeze in the time to exercise.
However, skipping out on workouts wears down our overall health. Exercising helps you to have more energy, relieves stress, and helps you get a better night’s sleep. All things we need to power through our hectic daily schedules. So we’ve got suggestions on how you get all the benefits of exercise in half the time.
How to cut your exercise time in half
One of the simplest ways to burn calories is to walk. It is recommended that you exercise thirty minutes a day five times a week. However, this recommendation is based on the intensity of the exercise.
The 30 minute recommendation is conditional upon a moderate-intensity activity level. If you chose to exercise at a vigorous-intensity activity level then the recommendation lowers to 15 minutes five days per week. Most people automatically jump to running to increase their activity level but that doesn’t work for everyone because some prefer not to run. Others have joint issues or other health concerns.
One way to increase the difficulty of your walking without increasing speed is to walk on an incline. Finding a treadmill with an incline feature is probably the most convenient way to accomplish this on a regular basis.
Incline training works because it forces your body to work harder to accomplish the same action as simply walking. As a bonus, you won’t have to find a walking route with a lot of hills or drive to a distant nature trail that meets your criteria. Also, instead of grinding away on the treadmill for a half hour, you can incline the treadmill and cut your exercise time down to 15 minutes instead.
Other benefits to incline training
Incline training has these additional benefits:
- Studies have shown that incline training reduces the amount of stress on your knee joints.
- It also reduces the stress on your shins. So if you’re struggling with shin splints incline training might be a solution.
- Incline training forces your leg muscles to work harder and so it is a great way to get your legs into better shape without straining your joints.
- You can substantially increases the number of calories that you burn while working out, and it burns more fat than regular walking.
- Increases cardiovascular and lung strength when you can’t increase your speed for health or recovery reasons.
So if you want to maximize you time spent working out, find the right treadmill for you and start reaping the benefits!