Whether you define yourself as a gym rat, a bodybuilding enthusiast or a weight room freak, you most likely aren't that affectionate towards doing cardio. Why run on a hamster wheel when you could be lifting? The truth is cardio can help to add some muscle to your body while keeping you defined and trim. Check out these ways of beefing up your treadmill workout and remember that all-around workouts give you an all-around kick ass body.
Inclines
The only downside to running up an actual mountain is... Well, it has another side that goes down. If you're looking for the ultimate challenge on the treadmill, there is always a limitless mountain at your disposal, at any time. Hit the incline button repeatedly and get started on your uphill trek. Remember, if you're running with no incline, you're hardly getting the workout you'd receive running down the street. A one percent increase in incline will match street level conditions, but push yourself harder and bump up the percentage.
Vary Your Runs
While it's important to keep your body moving at a steady incline, beefing up your treadmill workout means traveling through some valleys and peaks. Give your body a strenuous and varied run and it will be key in making sure you don't get too comfortable at one certain setting. Additionally, any program that you build for yourself on a treadmill is something that should be altered at least once a month.
Weights
We know... You love weights, you have a lifetime membership to the gym and you carry your meal management system everywhere. It's great! One place that larger weights don't belong though are on the treadmill. Adding any sort of heavy duty weight to your treadmill workout could potentially be dangerous to your body and end up taking you out of your typical gym regimen. With that being said, you can use smaller weights during a run for some light strength training. Try starting out with 10-pound dumbbells and, instead of increasing the number of your weight, push up the incline on your treadmill for a tougher challenge.
Forget Presets
Despite going by the name of "weight loss mode," the typical presets on a treadmill are a little misguided. Yes, "weight loss mode" will help, but this setting is specifically talking about burning a higher amount of fat in your caloric expenditure. Anyone who has spent time in the gym knows that these fat burning settings make for a pretty slow, arduous run. The facts are that running harder always makes for a better run, so it's best to skip the preset and just work at a pace that gets you sweating faster.
Whether you're just not that into cardio or are craving a heavier workload, these tips and tricks for treadmill workouts will help bodybuilders feel more at home on the track. If you kick up your workout a couple of notches, you'll not only gain muscle in places that don't get hit during weightlifting sessions, but you'll be in better shape overall.
