Speed walking is a great alternative to jogging on a treadmill because your joints do not feel nearly as much impact. If you worry about running hurting your joints at all, you should definitely consider speed walking. It’s also perfect exercise for anyone who has an injury.
There are a few things to learn about speed walking and a few precautions you should learn before speed walking on a treadmill. First off, you should know that speed walking on your treadmill is great for cardiovascular exercise and burning calories. You should also know that speed walking elevates your heart rate and keeps it high throughout the workout. Another great thing about speed walking is that you can add variety in your workouts, such as different inclines, or dumbbell exercises.
There are some precautions you should take before speed walking on a treadmill. Treadmills can be dangerous in general, because if you misstep your foot at all, you could fall and really hurt yourself. So, speed walking on a treadmill can be just as dangerous as running on a treadmill. First, you should get used to changing the speed and incline of your machine. Then, you need to make sure you know where the stop button is on a treadmill, so in case you do lose your footing, you can hopefully press that button and avoid injuries. Last, test out your speed at different intervals before going into a full-on speed walk.
To get full benefits of speed walking, you should start slowly at about 2 mph for roughly one to two minutes, then as you get used to that, raise or lower your incline to add some variety. Then once you’re ready to speed up, raise the speed only .5 mph for every minute after that, until you reach a comfortable speed that you can continue your workout without stopping. You do not want the speed to be too exhausting, because you do not want any pauses or breaks during your workout. It is best to stay at a pace you can handle and finish the entire workout successfully.
Well, this is the basics of speed walking on your treadmill; However, you can always add variety to your workout. A great way to increase your workout difficulty is through adding an incline, or adding dumbbells. Most people say that the drawback to treadmills is that you cannot work your upper body at the same time like you can with ellipticals. We have just proved that you can work your upper body at the same time as your lower body if you speed walk and use dumbbells at the same time.
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