Moneycontrol.com

Everyone knows that the treadmill is the most popular excercise equipment in the whole world. Most of us love to get on the treadmill and press the speed button and to get started. Here is how to use the treadmill more effectively and breakout of your comfort zone.

Pointers for trekking on the treadmill:

Starting with the most important part of any excercise regime, the warm up. One can walk at a comfortable pace gradually increasing the speed to about 5 km/hr. It is important that you walk for atleast 5 to 7 minutes. A good indicator of a complete warm up is when one breaks into a slight sweat.

Stepping off the treadmill one can do a few stretching exercises. To begin with, a full body stretch, that helps elongate the muscles. Spending 30 seconds on each excercise along with a combination of quick stretching excercies can help muscles get ready for a challenging workout.

One can then move on to the interval training program which helps improve stamina. A quick two minute brisk walk on your treadmill - with the ideal speed at 6 km/hr. Shifting to a sprint - and continuing till it makes one breathless. The ideal speed should be about 11 km/hr.

After this, one can slow down and start walking at a convenient speed. This interval training routine not gears one for the an allround workout and also helps build speed and endurance. Trekking is a demanding cardio-vascular exercise.

Director of LM - The Fitness Academy, Leena Mogre, said, "Remember to warm up before any kind of exercise. With a warm up your core temperature goes up and your muscles are ready to workout."

She added, "Have lots of water before, during and after your workout because it helps to hydrate and increases the intensity of your workout. the moment you feel thirsty it's an indication that your body is already dehydrated.

Never forget to warm up. Have a great workout.