Treadmills Help You Stay In Great Fitness Shape

By Anna King

Today, a majority of people live unhealthy way of life, as they are influenced by bad diet and long periods of inactivity. These things cause them to be overweight and out of shape. Getting fit will help you lower your cholesterol, shed some pounds, build up endurance and help prevent you from getting sick. A fitness machine, like a home treadmill, can make it easy to incorporate habitual fitness and exercise activities into your busy routine.

Benefits of Treadmills

Frequently using a treadmill will shape up your body over the course of a period of time. Treadmills offer more opportunities for engaging in intensive cardio workouts than other gym fitness machines. There are various treadmill workout apps to lose weight, build muscle or simply improve stamina. Many people find that the treadmill trainer is the best fitness machine to exercise on because it accommodates to so many different fitness needs and because it's so easy to use.

Popular Treadmill Highlights

Speed adjustment is a basic and essential feature on treadmills. Many treadmills also feature incline adjustments, which elevate the tread belt to differing height levels. Having these kinds of treadmill features allows you to stay motivated and interested in working out, because workouts sessions never have to always be the same.

Many of today's treadmills ship with pre-configured workout apps. You can select the program for weight loss, athletic training, muscle building or general body toning before the belt starts moving. When one of these workout programs is set, you'll find that either the speed or the incline, or even both will automatically change. The changes to the speed and incline levels are automatic and predetermined.

Some workouts are developed to control heart rate in line with a heart rate monitor. This monitor may need to be clipped to your body or held in your hand. High-quality treadmills use a chest-strap heart rate monitor to accurately track your heart rate and calories burnt. A treadmill can have several different monitors, in addition to a heart rate monitor. These monitors help you monitor various fitness levels as you workout.

One thing you might be surprised to know is that treadmills usually have personalization settings. Built-in system memory can allow you to remember personalized workout metrics or programs. This is beneficial especially when there are other treadmill trainer users. A handful of treadmills out on the market can use the onboard memory to store workout history, making it easy to see the fitness progress made and to target new fitness goals.

iFit Live technology is a premium treadmill machine feature that gives you hundreds of virtual courses replicating those at the live destinations. Train for marathons and various well known races by selecting maps and trails for each of these events. See how well you compare against others on certain race courses with iFit Compete Live. Any treadmill trainer that has Internet connectivity and is compatible with the iFit Live technology can run this multipurpose feature. Enhanced treadmills also have full-color LCD touch screens and a music player to keep the rhythm going while you exercise.

Parts of a Treadmill

The biggest component found on a treadmill machine is the tread belt, which is driven by usually an electric motor. This belt moves backwards over rollers, so you have to move forward while adapting your walk, jog or run to go with the speed of the belt and avoid falling off. The running deck fits with the treadmill machine belt and rollers to support and move you through. Premium treadmills have decks that have the capability to adjust incline levels. This functionality allows you to mix up the intensity of your workouts. Increasing the incline levels of the treadmill machine deck can give you more intense cardiovascular workouts.

Virtually all treadmill machine running decks sit on top of damping parts. A cushioning system, usually with adjustable tension levels, can help lessen the impact felt when your feet hit the tread belt. The belt, motor, rollers, running deck, and cushioning system all play a role in providing you with different workout experiences on a treadmill machine.

In addition to the components described, you'll find that some treadmill frames are foldable. Systems with foldable frames are ideal where space is scarce. The foldable treadmills have decks that can be lifted up vertically. Foldable treadmills tend to are more pricey than non-foldable ones. Non-foldable platform treadmills are best for personal training studios, as the treadmills here are constantly being used and need to stand up to a lot of wear and tear.

Assortment of Treadmills Available

Aside from the assortment of features, there are treadmills intended for different user types and usage. There are treadmills that are intended exclusively for walking and jogging and there are treadmills that are engineered especially for sprinters. More body weight causes more impact and wear on the treadmill machine; it needs a more robust motor to support heavy users and thus comes at a higher price. The treadmills with long belts and decks are great for tall people because they support their longer strides. Frequent use of a treadmill should justify a more powerful motor and a commercial-grade frame. For some, these workout products are worth the investment, and they're willing to pay more for the better designs.

Conclusion

A treadmill will help strengthen your health and your fitness lifestyle. You should think about adding this product to your home gym. Before rushing to make a purchase, consider your health, fitness and durability needs, and the features that you will use often. Also, look at the space available at home to place the treadmill machine and look at the type of users and intended usage. When you think about all these things, you'll be more ready to decide on a particular treadmill model that you want.

About the Author:

Fitness forums are good tools to pick up shopping advice. Research a few and see what people are chatting about and what models are sought after.

How Many Workouts Per Week Will Help You Build Muscle?

By Russ Howe-Pti

Most people in the gym have many questions they'd like to ask on the subject of how to build muscle, but they get confused at the wide variety of answers available so instead just struggle on by themselves. One of the most popular questions undoubtedly concerns how many gym sessions per week are optimal when it comes to building lean tissue. Today we will show you how to answer this.

Before you visit your local gym there are a few changes you should make at home in order to ensure your workouts are more productive.

If you are just starting out with weights or haven't exercised on a regular basis you might find it daunting if you have been told that you need to hit the gym every day of the week. Of course, the good news is that you simply don't need to workout every single day.

A good place to get started is to combine resistance training with cardiovascular training two to three times per week. The best way to get your body ready for a positive change is to ease your way into it rather than blasting your muscles as hard as you possibly can.

This will get your body ready for the lifestyle change you intend to put it through.

Of course, you didn't just start exercising so that you could quit a month later. You want to enjoy lasting results, naturally. Phase two of your exercise routine occurs when you start noticing a positive change in your physique. Instead of worrying how many times you need to exercise, you face an altogether different type of challenge.

When you reach this stage, people tend to buy into the false philosophy that more equals better. In terms of exercise and fitness, it doesn't work that way.

On the contrary, when it comes to muscular hypertrophy your body will progress at a slower rate if you blast it too often. Rest is very important.

When it comes to muscle growth your body simply needs those all important rest periods between sessions. They are almost as crucial as the workout itself. You see, your body does not grow while you are in the gym throwing the weights around. It grows while you are at home resting and sleeping.

If you neglect to take a day off to let a muscle recover before you hit it again you will inevitably just be treading over the same ground for the rest of your training.

If you utilize a split routine there is nothing to stop you from hitting the gym five times a week, however those two extra days should be reserved for rest. One of the most important factors in learning how to build muscle which lasts into the long term is understanding the importance of rest.

About the Author:

About today's writer: Russ Howe PTI is the UK's premier fitness instructor. If you need to learn how to build muscle or how to lose weight our free video guides will help you get the most from your training.

Debunking Muscle Building Myths

By Russ Hollywood

While there are many myths surrounding how to build muscle, there are five which stand out more than most. Today we will be looking at each of these popular theories and examining why they are simply not true.

Should women lift weights? Are supplements good or bad for you in the long-term? These are all questions which will be answered for you. Sadly, many people get so lost in all of the myths out there that they convince themselves building a better body is too confusing for them to succeed. That needn't be the case.

No matter what your fitness goals may be, there are so many myths out there that you can over complicate almost any situation. The moment you feel you have found something which works for you, you can be set back to square one by telling you what you're doing is wrong even though it is working for you... When you base your decisions on scientific research rather than popular opinion you will notice greater results. []

1) Should females do resistance training?

Thanks to stereotypes developed in the mid eighties, lots of women are afraid to venture into the free weights section of their local health club. They need not be afraid. If a lady wanted to bulk up she would need to supplement with testosterone pills and eat an awful lot of calories per day, so you needn't worry about obtaining a bodybuilding physique unless you actually want to. Free weights are vital for getting leaner and the also improve weight loss results dramatically, too.

2) Are supplements vital to success?

Too many people get caught up in the hype surrounding the latest supplements and they place far too much importance on them. You'll see them in the gym after a workout, acting as if they can 'feel it going into their muscles'. They're looking for a miracle product, which does not exist. Prioritize your diet and workout program, then use supplements as an added benefit to push results further.

3) Which workout frequency is best for results?

Contrary to popular opinion, more does not always mean better. This is particularly true when it comes to exercise. In fact, gym newcomers should not train more than three times per week for maximum results. Those rest periods are as important as the training itself, so be careful not to neglect them. Once you feel ready to step things up try alternating onto a two day split routine, focusing on each muscle a little bit more and hitting different body parts on different days of the week.

4) Is diet crucial to success or not?

If you diet but you don't train, you will find it more difficult to lose body fat and you'll struggle to look any better. If you train but don't diet, you'll enjoy your time in the gym but never see the results your hard efforts deserve because you'll always have stubborn layers of fat covering them up. It's a partnership, not a competition. One aspect is not more important than the other.

5) How many calories should you eat per day?

Most of us don't know whether we are eating the right amount of calories during the course of an average day. In fact, there are many people out there consuming nowhere near enough. Take your target body weight (in pounds) and multiply by 15.

At one stage or another, everybody who uses the gym hears one of the myths discussed today. Now you know the facts, leaning how to build muscle becomes an altogether more straightforward affair.

About the Author:

Next Step: You can learn how to build muscle using Russ Howe PTI's quick, proven guides. Answer questions such as should women lift weights with the latest scientific research and remove myths from your fitness routine.