Need an intense cardio session that will challenge you? Try a HIIT treadmill workout! This is ideal for those of you who will be using the treadmill inside on snowy days this winter – and is also a great way to bust plateaus and beat boredom. Read on for more details about what HIIT is, how to design your own treadmill workouts, and X sample workouts you can try out.
Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only. Consult your doctor prior to beginning any new exercise program.
What is HIIT?
If you’ve been working out in the last several years, it’s highly likely that you’ve heard of HIIT training. However, hearing about it, understanding it and doing it, are definitely three separate things–especially when it comes to something as intense as HIIT.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), is exactly what the moniker states. It is interval training of a specific capacity that is designed to get your blood pumping and your muscles working.
HIIT utilizes short and very intense periods of work with quick rest cycles and usually lasts no more than 20-25 minutes per session.
An important part of HIIT is to make sure you’re approaching the sprints and rest cycles appropriately. You don’t want the sprints to be too easy, or the rest cycles to be too hard. The key is that polarization between a very tough sprint and a comfortable recovery.
Benefits of HIIT
High intensity interval training offers several benefits. Here’s a quick overview:
- Saves time: HIIT workouts are generally quicker than steady state cardio sessions.
- Increases metabolic rate after exercise: Performing a HIIT workout can actually increase your metabolic rate, meaning that you burn calories for hours after exercise. These effects are from EPOC, which stands for Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption, and is a physiological response to this type of training. Essentially, your body takes in more oxygen post-workout for a while before it is restored to it’s normal level of metabolic function. This causes the body to continue to burn more calories for a while after you’ve finished your session. (Source).
- Torches calories: Working at a high intensity burns calories fast. This makes sense – you know that if you’re sprinting for 1 minute versus jogging for 1 minute, the sprint is more difficult (and hence burns more calories). However, don’t get caught up in forcing yourself to do HIIT if you’re not a fan. Because there are intervals of sprint and recovery, the total calorie burn from the workout plus EPOC actually ends up being similar to that of a steady state session. (source). It may just be slightly less active time overall.
- Helps burn fat: Both steady state exercise and HIIT exercise can help reduce excess body fat. Research has shown that both are about equal in this benefit. For example, a systematic review and meta-analysis in Obesity Reviews concluded that there was no difference in any body fat outcome between steady state exercise and HIIT – both help!
- Utilizes different muscle fibers: Moderate paced steady state treadmill sessions recruit mostly slow-twitch (Type I) muscle fibers. These fibers are smaller with lower force production, but are more resistant to fatigue. Sprinting, on the other hand, will recruit more of the fast twitch (Type II) muscle fibers. These are larger and can provide more force production, but fatigue much more quickly. Mixing in HIIT exercise in addition to steady state is thought to be potentially helpful for muscle mass since they recruit different fibers.
- Improves cardiovascular health: Both steady state exercise and HIIT offer a ton of cardiovascular benefits. Research shows that among those with larger bodies, HIIT training can reduce blood pressure and fasting glucose, and increase VO2 max. (source). There are a few studies that show possible additional minor HIIT benefits compared to steady state exercise. For example, a study in Sports Medicine found that interval training led to a greater improvement in brachial artery function compared to moderate intensity exercise. And another study found that there were greater gains in VO2 max with HIIT.
Remember though – ALL exercise will help your body. If you try one of these HIIT treadmill workouts and you don’t like it, that’s completely fine. The best exercise plan is the one you actually stick with. 🙂 (PS – if you’re interested in learning more about the differences between steady state and HIIT when it comes to running, check out this post about sprinting vs. jogging).
Drawbacks of HIIT
Even though HIIT offers many benefits, there are also some drawbacks to be aware of:
- It’s INTENSE: If you are truly utilizing HIIT workouts as they are designed to be, you shouldn’t be able to hit up a class everyday. This type of training is meant to be intense, meaning that you cannot sustain the workout for very long and you certainly shouldn’t be able to do it everyday of the week. Some people may love this type of training and others may loathe it.
- Risky for injuries: If you’ve got an injury – or you tend to be prone to injury based on your past exercise history and don’t have a solid base yet – you’ll want to avoid intense sessions. Intervals put extra force and pressure on the body while running. Doing this with an injury can prevent proper healing. And doing this before you’ve developed a solid base will increase the risk of injury. Instead, focus on a couple months of injury-free running before adding in HIIT treadmill sessions.
Designing Treadmill Workouts
HIIT on the treadmill can be a great way to get a great, intense workout in without spending hours at the gym or doing cardio in general. There are four main ways that you can adjust a treadmill session to create and modify HIIT sessions:
- Increase the speed
- Increase the incline
- Increase the length of the sprint
- Decrease the length of the recovery interval
In addition to changing these variables, here are some helpful tips to put into place when designing your treadmill workout:
- Always begin your workout with a warmup of at least 5-10 minutes. Perform your designated intervals, then move into a cool down for another five minutes before getting off.
- Set the incline to 0.5-1 for a more realistic road feel.
- Keep safety in mind. With a fast moving belt, a sprint period and trying to get your recovery on, there’s a lot to focus on. Ensure that you know how to properly change the speed quickly so that there aren’t any scary trips or anything of the like. If you’re going to be changing your speed drastically, you may want to even consider jumping off to the sides of the treadmill for a second or two to allow the belt to slow down before you fatigue from the fast pace.
- In setting up a treadmill HIIT workout, think about your current fitness level and goals when deciding which variable to play with – speed or incline. For established runners, playing with speed first may be ideal. For walkers just getting started, manipulating incline a bit may offer a way to increase the intensity without putting extra force into the stride.
As with any exercise, know your limits, pace yourself accordingly and know that exercise may always pose a risk.
How to Measure Intensity
In designing your own treadmill HIIT workouts or using the options below, think about the fact that you want to be working hard during the sprints. You’re going to want to pick a speed that is challenging. By the end of the workout, it should definitely be a challenge to maintain the interval at the current speeed/incline.
So how do you decide how fast or hard to go? There are two methods you can consider: heart rate and RPE.
1. Heart Rate
If wearing a heart rate monitor or smart watch, your heart rate should be between 75-90% of your max heart rate during a hard interval (lower end for new exercisers; higher end for seasoned athletes) and around 60-65% of your max during your recovery, or before you go into the next interval.
The only challenge with this is knowing what your max heart rate actually is.
There are several ways of estimating this. Many of you are probably familiar with the Fox equation – you take 220 and subtract your age, and that’s supposed to give you an estimate of max. As an example, someone who is 30 years old, would have a max heart rate of 190 with this equation. At 85%, that heart rate would be around 161 beats per minute and at 60%, 114 beats per minute.
There are also other formulas, like the Tanaka formula, which uses 208 minus (age x 0.7) to determine max heart rate.
The problem is that all of these are simply estimates. Studies have shown that your max heart rate decline with age is not perfectly linear, with slower losses in max heart rate in your 20’s and 30’s, and quicker losses with advancing age. Similarly, BMI can impact the rate at which your max heart rate declines over time. (source). And of course, there are massive genetic differences in max heart rate from person to person.
That’s not to say the formulas are useless, but if you’re using them to guide your workout and you feel like it’s too easy or too difficult – that’s a sign to adjust.
If you’ve run a best effort 5K recently and have effort from your heart rate data in the last few minutes sprinting towards the finish – that gives a pretty good real-world estimate of your max heart rate. It’s definitely a better estimation for me personally compared to the above formulas.
2. RPE (preferred for beginners)
But if you don’t have that heart rate data or if you’re just getting started, don’t get too caught up in this! Instead, just use RPE – rate of perceived exertion. In fact, that’s what I’ve included for all the workouts below.
If you think of your effort on a scale of 1 to 10 – where 1 is sitting on a couch and 10 is running away while being chased by a bear – your effort during the sprints should be at an 7-9, and your effort during the recovery should be around a 3-5. The ranges for these vary a bit based on how long, how fast, and how much of an incline are used in each interval/recovery period.
10 Awesome HIIT Treadmill Workouts:
Here are 10 different workouts you can try out:
Workout 1: 4/4 (good for beginners)
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete 4 intervals of the following:
- 4 minutes hard (RPE 7-8)
- 4 minutes light (RPE 4)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
Workout 2: 4/2 (good for more advanced)
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete 4 intervals of the following:
- 4 minutes hard (RPE 7-8)
- 2 minutes light (RPE 4)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
Workout 3: 60/75
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete 8-12 intervals of the following:
- 60 seconds very hard (RPE 9)
- 75 seconds light (RPE 4)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
Workout 4: HITT & Steady State Mash-Up
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog at a comfortable pace on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Next, complete the following 4-6 times:
- 20 second sprint (RPE 9)
- 40 seconds light (RPE 4)
Then, do a 15 minute steady state jog (RPE 5-6).
Lastly, finish with another set of 3-4 intervals:
- 20 second sprint (RPE 9)
- 40 seconds light (RPE 4)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
Workout 5: 10-20-30 Training (non-traditional HIIT, great for improving 5K time)
Start with a very easy jog for 10 minutes.
Then complete the following:
- Jog for 30 seconds at an easy pace (RPE 4)
- Run for 20 seconds at training pace (RPE 6-7)
- Sprint all-out for 10 seconds (RPE 9-10)
Repeat this 5 times in a row, then recover for 2 minutes with walking (RPE 2-3).
Now, repeat the above steps (5 intervals followed by 2 minute recovery) another 3-4 times.
Cool down with 10 minutes of jogging or walking at an easy pace.
(Find more info about 10-20-30 training here).
Workout 6: 30/2 (good for beginners)
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog at a comfortable pace on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete 5 intervals of the following:
- 30 seconds sprint (RPE 8-9)
- 2 minutes light recovery (RPE 4-5)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
Workout 7: HIIT Incline Pyramid
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog at a comfortable pace on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete the following, at a speed of around 2.5 to 5 mph (speed stays steady throughout workout):*
- 4 minutes at incline of 2 (RPE 7), followed by 4 min of recovery at 0.5 to 1% incline (RPE 3-4)
- 4 minutes at incline of 3 (RPE 7-8), followed by 4 min of recovery at 0.5 to 1% incline (RPE 3-4)
- 4 minutes at incline of 4 (RPE 8-9), followed by 4 min of recovery at 0.5 to 1% incline (RPE 3-4)
- 4 minutes at incline of 5 (RPE 9), followed by 4 min of recovery at 0.5 to 1% incline (RPE 3-4)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
*In this case, I’m giving examples of speed and incline to illustrate how this works, but these can all be adjusted here based on your fitness level!
Workout 8: HIIT Speed Pyramid
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog at a comfortable pace on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete the following:*
- 4 minutes at 5 mph (RPE 7), followed by 4 min of recovery (walk/slow jog, around 3-4 mph) (RPE 3-4)
- 4 minutes at 5.5 mph (RPE 7-8), followed by 4 min of recovery (walk/slow jog, around 3-4 mph) (RPE 3-4)
- 4 minutes at 6 mph (RPE 8-9), followed by 4 min of recovery (walk/slow jog, around 3-4 mph) (RPE 3-4)
- 4 minutes at 6.5 mph (RPE 9), followed by 4 min of recovery (walk/slow jog, around 3-4 mph) (RPE 3-4)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
*In this case, I’m giving examples of speed to illustrate how this works, but the speed can be adjusted here based on your fitness level!
Workout 9: 10×1
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog at a comfortable pace on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Then complete 10 intervals of the following:
- 1 minute high intensity (RPE 8-9)
- 1 minute light intensity (RPE 4-5)
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
Workout 10: Roll the Dice Treadmill HIIT
Start with a 10 minute warm up walk or jog at a comfortable pace on an incline of 0.5 to 1.0.
Have a die with you that you can roll in the cup holder on the treadmill – or just decide random numbers based on what you feel like. For whatever number you land on, you’ll do that many minutes at the accompanying intensities:
- 1 – RPE 9
- 2 – RPE 8-9
- 3 – RPE 7
- 4 – RPE 5-6
- 5 – RPE 3-4
- 6 – RPE 3-4
Roll as many times as you need to get to a 20 minutes. If you roll a lot of 1s and 2s in a row, hop on the edges of the treadmill and let yourself rest completely for a minute or two in between bouts in order to get recovery time in.
Cool down with 5 minutes of walking at a comfortable pace.
I hope you enjoyed this! Don’t forget to pin it so you can refer to it later. 🙂
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