Using an incline treadmill is a great way to work out and activate more muscles than the average flat treadmill. When you are searching for the best incline treadmill for your workout routine, there are a few major important factors to take into account. You will most definitely want to check out what all angles the treadmill is capable of adjusting to.
As well as you will want to check and see if the incline adjustment is done electronically or if it is done manually. If you are really looking at purchasing an incline treadmill it may also be important to note how long it takes to adjust the treadmills incline whether it takes a few minutes to do manually, or a few seconds; this can make a big difference on your decision.
When in doubt, be sure to contact the manufacturer or post a question under reviews about the product and you will surely be able to find an answer. It is also important to note how the treadmill declines as some treadmills have to be manually declined even if they have an automatic incline.
Some do incorporate shocks and have single button decline, but that is just something that you should keep an eye out for.
What is an incline treadmill?
An incline treadmill is basically a regular treadmill other than the fact that the actual running platform can be angled upwards making for a steeper more difficult run. Treadmills are generally made to incline in a couple of different ways.
Some treadmills have fully manual incline changing options; meaning that you have to lift it up and spin knobs until you get the treadmill even on both sides and to the height you want it at. The other option offered by some treadmills is fully electronic and the incline can be both increased as well as decreased at just the push of a button.
One nice feature of electronic treadmills is that you won’t have to deal with accidentally making the treadmill lopsided which can cause both joint pain and long term pain if it is ran on for a prolonged period of time.
The great thing about adjustable treadmills is that if you find a certain angle uncomfortable or even painful to run on; you can change the angle of the treadmill to something more comfortable while still challenging yourself more than you would be by running on a regular flat treadmill.
Why do you want an incline treadmill?
On an incline treadmill there are a wide variety of workouts that you can do in comparison to a regular treadmill. Hill sprints are one major benefit to owning an incline treadmill. Doing this exercise burns a lot more calories over an extended period of time and most definitely leaves your heart pumping faster than normal hours after your workout has ended.
If you are doing hill sprints it is recommended generally to sprint until you are tired, hop off do a physical exercise such as pushups and then hop back on again and repeat. Doing this exercise not only gives you muscles, but activates way more body parts and burns way more calories than just running would for the same length of time.
Some of the new treadmills actually adjust your incline as you are running. There are even some treadmills that mimic real life terrain and run you through the ups and downs making for a much more difficult and way higher calorie burning run.
As technology advances it seems as though exercising is becoming a lot more interesting and some of the newest treadmills really showcase this with their high tech touch screen consoles constantly changing the incline of your run without so much as a button push.
Doing a walk, jog, or run using an inclined treadmill uses different muscles compared to doing the exercise on a non-incline. It also burns more calories. To get an idea of how many, check out sparkpeople.com.
How to choose the best incline treadmill:
In order to choose the best incline treadmill you need to figure out what all you are going to be using the incline for. If you are just going to be changing the incline every once in a while, maybe, a manually changeable incline treadmill is not such a big deal.
However, if you are constantly changing the angle at which you are running on, in order to activate as many muscles as possible, then you may want to stick to purely electronically changeable incline treadmills. Getting a newer model will definitely have its perks and you can enjoy some of the cool automatic incline changing features that only the newer models on the market possess.
The older models or more budget friendly models still allow you to stay in control of your incline at the push of a button or at least be able to run at one set incline for a while with a manually changeable incline. It definitely is a tough decision to make, especially due to the fact technology is only getting better and the coolest features of today’s treadmills will likely become the standard features in the future.
To conclude:
No matter what treadmill you end up choosing, an incline is going to give you a lot more benefits than a flat treadmill will and it will allow you to do some more workout options as well. Using an incline treadmill will allow you to burn more calories, and make your workout a much higher intensity while doing the exact same exercise.
Incline treadmills are available no matter the size of your budget, it is simply the ease of how the incline gets changed that differs between the cheaper treadmills and the higher end ones on the market. So no matter whether you are training for a marathon, trying to lose weight, looking for a reliable thing to work out on or even just something to walk on; it is important to take into consideration the extra muscles in your body that get used when walking or running uphill and the degree of difficulty that you have access to.
Hopefully you have learned a few things about incline treadmills and will take them under careful consideration when you decide to get one.
Be sure to check out our article on best treadmill under $1000.
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