Making walking on treadmills less boring
It's an avoidable fact of Minnesota weather that walking for exercise is best done on an indoor treadmill. It's certainly possible to walk outside between December and April, but ice on the ground discourages walking fast, snow covered walkways and sidewalks limit where you can walk, and the cold temperatures discourage being outside for long periods. Unfortunately, walking on a treadmill can quickly become boring with its lack of variety. Here are some strategies and ideas for making treadmill exercise more interesting.
Playing with the incline and speed
Nature is not perfectly flat, and we are not robots that walk at a perfectly consistent pace. The easiest thing to do, for anyone using a treadmill, is to slightly vary the speed and incline. Let's say you're at a typical 3 mph/4.8 kmph pace, with a 0% incline. Every few minutes, randomly bump the incline up or down a % point. Go crazy and jump from 0% to the max for a little while, drop it down to 2%, back up to 5%, down to 0%, whatever you feel like doing. Likewise for the speed, don't sit at a steady pace the entire time, increase and decrease the speed slightly as your fitness permits. Basically, emulate the experience of walking in real life on the treadmill.
Rucking
For generations, humans have moved from place to place with their stuff on their back, and there's no reason to not do the same on a treadmill. You don't need any expensive hiking backpack, any simple backpack that sits comfortably will do. Throw a few heavy books in it, and then walk like normal. The additional load will change the mechanics of how you walk, and gently increase the amount of work done on the treadmill.
Loaded carries
Technically, rucking is a loaded carry, but for this section I'm talking about holding something heavy in your hands. Walking while carrying also changes how you walk and move, and depending on the load and distance can drastically increase the amount of work. There are many, many ways to do a loaded carry, but they do require that you have something heavy-ish. Here are some examples:
- Farmer's walk: hold a pair of kettlebells or dumbbells in your hands, arms down at your sides.
- Suitcase carry: hold a single kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand, arm down at your side. Occasionally switch hands as you walk.
- Rack carry: hold a kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand up at shoulder level. Occasionally switch hands as you walk.
- Waiter walk: hold a single kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand over head. Occasionally switch hands as you walk. Be very careful to not go heavy with this one, and be aware of any fatigue. No one wants a weight accidentally dropped on their head!
- Sandbag carry: if you're fortunate enough to have a sandbag or other similar soft, heavy bag, they can make for challenging carries. Try bear hugging it to your chest, throwing it over one shoulder, or across both shoulders like a fireman's carry.
Heavy Hands
Heavy Hands is a specific kind of loaded carry done with very light weight in each hand. You can use very light dumbbells, but even a pair of soup cans will do the trick. It might look a little silly, but believe me when I say that 30 minutes of brisk walking while vigorously pumping the arms will get you sweating.
Dance walking
Speaking of looking silly, try dancing while you're walking! I know that my middle-age white dad moves won't be seen on the streets, but on a treadmill it's a fun activity (as long as you're careful to not trip). Make a playlist with your favorite dance music that also matches the tempo of your walking pace, crank it up, and just do whatever feels fun. Move all around, swing your arms, walk funny, hop and skip, whatever comes to mind is fair game.
Circuit training
Sometimes, in order to make treadmill walking interesting you have to get off the treadmill. For this, walk for 2-3 minutes at a brisk pace, then get off briefly and do one of the following exercises for 30 seconds:
- Push ups
- Pull ups
- Air squats
- Burpees
- Lunges
- Toe touchers
- Bear crawls
Entertainment
Sometimes the easiest way to make treadmill walking less boring is just add some kind of entertainment. Use your phone to listen to music, or if you listen to podcasts this is a perfect time for that. If there's a TV in front, feel free to turn on a show or movie. I don't have a TV, but I built a platform that goes over the treadmill console to hold a laptop, which serves the same function.
If your TV or laptop is directly in front of you, a unique entertainment option is watching point-of-view footage of other people trail walking. You can find plenty of videos on YouTube with amazing locations and scenery. It's easy to get lost in watching these, and time will fly by.
Fan
This is a simple thing, but if your treadmill doesn't have a built-in fan I recommend setting up one so that it blows towards your face and chest. Walking outside usually involves a slight breeze, even if it's just from your own movement through space. Adding this bit of air movement to treadmill walking helps immensely, especially if you're working up a sweat.
It doesn't seem like much, but combining a fan with watching trail walking videos and changing the incline with the video makes for a very interesting walk.
In praise of consistency
As a final note, and in contrast to all my previous comments about introducing variety, I'd like to offer a small bit of praise for consistency, especially if you have something for monitoring heart rate like a smart watch or exercise device, or if the treadmill has that functionality. Let's say you do the same walk once a week, 3 mph/4.8 kmph at a 3% incline for 30 minutes. Over time, as your health improves you should see your average heart rate slowly going down.
Another example might be spending 10 minutes at that consistent, steady pace at the start of every workout. Those 10 minutes can become a great time to listen to your body and check in with how you're doing. Are you stiff and sore? Are you tired? Do you feel bright eyed and ready to run? Are you hungry? Basically, that consistency provides a baseline for your emotions and physical state, and can help you judge yourself from day to day.
I hope these ideas are helpful, and wish you all the best.
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