Fitness is a word with many meanings. To some, fitness means being able to run a marathon. To others it indicates the ability to perform at a top level in their chosen sport. Many believe fitness is related to ideal weight and body fat percentage. The point is that the true meaning of fitness depends upon your goals and daily activities. If you are a highly active athlete, fitness means lofty levels of endurance, strength, flexibility and stamina. To a more sedentary person, fitness may mean simply being able to perform daily tasks without undue difficulty.
Those two definitions may sound very different and unique. In reality, they are very similar. Both require adequate levels of cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength. It’s just the level of fitness that is changed. Fitness is being able to live your life the way you want to live it. Some individuals live to be fit, but when you dig deeper, it isn’t really a matter of living to be fit; it’s more like being fit to live. It’s being fit enough to live the life that you desire.
To obtain the balance of endurance, strength and stamina you need to be fit to live you need to perform cardiovascular, strength and stamina building exercises on a consistent basis. There’s no better way to do that than by using your treadmill. Your treadmill allows you to design nearly any type of exercise to meet your goals. Best of all you can to it in the comfort of your home or gym at any time of the day or night and in any weather.
This fit to live program uses five basic workouts rotated over a 15 day period. Just keep repeating this 15 day routine, changing the intensity and length of the workouts to match your life goals and current fitness level. The five workouts are easy endurance runs, strength circuit, aerobic circuit, stamina builder and VO2 max building mile repeats.
Easy Endurance Run
This is a basic workout that will build up your endurance and improve your ability to burn fat. To perform this workout, elevate your treadmill to level 1 or 1 percent and run at an easy pace. Your pace should feel fairly comfortable. A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to talk but not sing. If you can’t speak clearly you are running too fast. If you can sing you’re running too slowly. Start with your longest run in the past 3 weeks. Each time you do this workout add about ½ mile until you reach the longest run that meets your goal. For most fitness goals a run of up to 6 miles is sufficient. For more high level athletes a long run of 12 to 15 miles may be more appropriate.
Strength Circuit
This workout uses short runs alternating with simple strength exercises. There are an unlimited number of ways to design this workout. Below I have outlined just one sample. Feel free to adjust this workout to meet your needs.
• Run at an easy pace at 1% elevation for 5 minutes
• Abdominal crunches for 30 seconds
• Run at a hard pace at 3% for 5 minutes
• Body weight squats for 30 seconds
• Run at a hard pace at 5% elevation for 5 minutes
• Bicep curls for 30 seconds
• Run at a hard pace at 3% elevation for 5 minutes
• Push ups for 30 seconds
• Run at an easy pace at 1% elevation for 5 minutes.
Aerobic Circuit
This is another treadmill circuit workout. During this workout you will alternate between treadmill running and another cardiovascular exercise. Just as the strength workout, there are a nearly unlimited number of ways to design this routine. The circuit below is just a sample to get you started. Make any adjustments you wish to customize this routine to meet your needs. Possible cross training exercises include stair steppers, elliptical machines, exercise bikes or jumping rope.
• Run at a moderate to hard pace at 1% elevation for 5 minutes
• Cross train for 5 minutes
• Run at a hard pace at 3% elevation for 5 minutes
• Cross train for 5 minutes
• Run at a hard pace at 5% elevation for 5 minutes
• Cross train for 5 minutes
• Run at a hard pace at 8% elevation for 3 minutes
• Cross train for 5 minutes
• Run at a hard pace at 5% elevation for 5 minutes
• Cross train for 5 minutes
• Run at an easy pace at 1% elevation for 5 minutes
Stamina Builder
Running at an easy pace does a good job of improving your cardiovascular fitness, fat burning ability and of course your overall endurance. One thing it doesn’t do a great job of is improving your stamina or your ability to maintain a relatively high level of exercise for an extended period of time. This workout will raise your stamina level to new highs. To perform this workout you will run on your treadmill for 20 to 60 minutes at a pace that feels moderately hard. If you are a runner this pace is about 15 to 20 seconds slower than your 10K race pace. For you heart rate monitor users out there it is at about 75% of your maximum heart rate. Start with 20 minutes for your first workout and gradually build up the distance to about one hour.
One Mile Repeats
This is a workout that is very popular among track and cross country athletes that is easily accomplished on your treadmill. These faster paced runs will do a good job of building your VO2 max. VO2 max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen you body can process to fuel your running. Higher VO2 levels indicate a superior level of fitness. This workout is just like is sounds. You simply run one mile repeats with rest intervals between each run. Run your repeats at a pace that feels hard or about 10K pace for you runners out there. Your heart rate should be maintained at around 85% of your maximum heart rate. Start with 2 repeats and build up to around 6 repeats. Take 5 minutes of rest between each repeat.
