Ready to take your treadmill workouts to the next level? Here’s a look at the best incline treadmills for home gyms.

Treadmill machines are one of the best cardio machines for burning calories and getting fit.

The benefits of treadmills are almost endless: they are highly functional, can be used during cold and yucky weather, and can be used with incline for even more calorie burn.

That said, not all treadmills have incline options. And among the ones that do, a select few step apart from the competition.

In this guide, we will focus on those few, the best treadmills with incline, highlighting the pros and cons of each, our experience using them, and more.

By the end, you will have a perfect idea of which treadmill with incline will help you slay your training goals.

Let’s jump right in.

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Best Incline Treadmill for Every Kind of Budget and User

Bowflex Treadmill 22

⭐ Best overall incline treadmill

Most incline treadmills come with a 15% degree max incline. But what if that is not enough for you? Got it. How about 20%?

And how about pairing that with a big and fancy 22” touchscreen for immersive training, whether that’s running trails around the world or doing online classes? And a weight capacity that is king?

The Bowflex Treadmill 22 (love the simplicity of the name) checks all of those boxes and more.

For starters, the Bowflex Treadmill 22 can be cranked all the way up to a 20% incline and a -5% incline, giving you tons of grade flexibility for simulating running up and down.

The screen is massive at 22”, ideal for either streaming your favorite shows (works with Netflex, Hulu, Disney+, etc) or JRNY, Bowflex’s library of classes and scenic trails.

Speaking of classes, the Treadmill 22 comes with 12-months of JRNY, Bowflex’s in-house immersive training platform.

This is a significant value compared to NordicTrack, which only gives new treadmill owners a month of free access to their online workouts and classes.

The Bowflex Treadmill 22 is also about $300 less expensive compared to the NordicTrack 2450 Commercial, has an extra wide, 22” running deck (most treadmill machines feature a running deck that is 20” wide), and a 400lb weight capacity that leads the category.

My only criticism of the Bowflex Treadmill 22 is that it is a bit bulky and cumbersome. Folding it up is relatively easy, but it still looks… busy.

If you can get past that, and I am sure many of you will, the Bowflex Treadmill 22 is hands-down our top pick for the best incline treadmill for home gyms.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Huge 22” touchscreen for using JRNY and streaming	Frame is bulky compared to other treadmills in this category
Extra wide running deck
Online programming is cheaper than iFit
Has a motorized 20% incline and a -5% decline
400lb max user weight

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Sole Fitness F63 Treadmill Machine

⭐ Best Sole fitness elliptical with incline

The Sole Fitness F63 Treadmill is the best-selling treadmill machine in Sole’s line-up. It’s got a sturdy 3.0 HP motor, and the 325lb weight capacity is ideal for heavier users (raises hand).

But does it have what you came for? You bet—the Sole Fitness F63 Treadmill has 15 levels of incline to crank up the angle and difficulty of your running or walking workouts. The motor on the F63 is 3.0 HP, which can get up to speeds of 12mph, perfect for those sprint and HIIT treadmill workouts.

And the foldable design means you can tuck it away quickly between sweat-drenched incline walks and runs.  

The Sole Fitness F63, like Sole Fitness’s line of treadmills, rides like a tank in the best ways possible. Never once did I feel like the deck was giving way or flexing, and I am at the higher end of the suggested weight range for this treadmill.

Although the actual running performance on the F63 is awesome, the display and tech could use an update. Treadmill machines—and this is a broader point about all cardio machines, too—are more and more adopting big and shiny HD touchscreens for doing online classes and streaming.

The F63 leaves a bit to be desired in this regard. But if you are looking for a sturdy, high-powered treadmill that nails the performance basics, the F63 is a great choice for your incline workouts.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Easy to fold up between workouts	Display is a bit dated
325lb weight capacity
3.0 HP can handle all speeds
Strong deck that doesn’t flex when running full speed

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NordicTrack Commercial 2450

⭐ Best treadmill with incline for doing iFit

Do you like doing online classes and training? How about simulating running through the alps and down a wooded trail while using your treadmill? Then the NordicTrack Commercial 2450 is going to righ tup your alley.

The Commercial 2450 has a 12-degree incline—and is also one of the few treadmills on the market that offers a slight decline feature, as well—that can be quickly adjusted from the console.

But the main thing I love about the Commercial 2450 is the big, 22” HD touchscreen that is awesome for taking advantage of iFit, an online portal of classes and workouts. iFit also has the “explore the world” feature which I really like, giving you the opportunity to simulate running in various exotic locales around the world.

Beyond that, you get all of the main features you expect from what I consider a premium incline treadmill, including a foldable design, a quiet 3.6 CHP motor, Bluetooth connectivity, and a low step-up height for those mornings when you are little stiff and sore from yesterday’s workout.

The NordicTrack Commercial 2450 Treadmill is priced at the higher range of the incline treadmills on this list, at around $2,999, which is a bit pricey, particularly for those who don’t plan on taking advantage of the iFit functionality.

Additionally, the weight capacity isn’t super high (300lbs), making it a less ideal option for heavier users, and the iFit subscription kicks in after a 30-day trial (at $39 per month).

Ultimately, the person who really gets motivated from doing iFit classes—and loves the dual incline and decline options—will get the most use of this treadmill machine.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Huge 22” touchscreen that is perfect for classes and running trails	300lb weight capacity not ideal for heavier users
Foldable	Only get a 30-day trial for iFit
Screen can be titled
Has both incline (12%) and decline (-3%) options
Bluetooth connectivity

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NordicTrack X32i Treadmill

⭐ Best treadmill with 40% incline

What’s that? 15% and 20% is still not remotely challenging enough for you? Fair enough. If maximum difficulty and grade is what you’re after, the NordicTrack Commercial X32i and its 40% grade are ready for you.

Yes, you read that correctly… the NordicTrack X32i can be tilted upwards to a 40% angle, which is basically like walking up a wall. (It can also be angled downwards to -6 degrees.)

Beyond the obvious challenge of a 40% incline, the X32i also has a best-in-class 32” touchscreen which is perfectly suited for doing online classes (with the option of trainer-led classes, too) or simply running around trails across the planet.

With the iFit subscription—you get a 30-day trial with the treadmill; $39/month afterwards—there is a huge library of workouts that you can do off of the treadmill.

The actual running experience on the X32i is excellent; it has a 4.25 CHP motor that can crank up the speed smoothly up to 12mph. The wide running deck (22”) and nearly silent belt operation were things I also really liked.

Downsides?

You can’t tilt the screen when doing non-treadmill workouts like yoga and strength training, which makes it hard to follow along at times. The treadmill is also very heavy, weighing over 460lbs.

And as you can probably guess with the big screen in industry-leading functionality, the X32i ain’t cheap, retailing for something like $4,500.

(NordicTrack also makes a less expensive version, the NordicTrack X22i Incline Treadmill, that has a smaller screen that sells for $3,499.)

And like NordicTrack’s other treadmills, the max weight capacity is just 300lbs.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Up to 40% incline! (and a -6% decline)	Heavy machine weight; difficult to move
Extra wide tread belt (22”)	Max user weight only 300lb
32” HD touchscreen that is awesome for immersive training and classes	Screen cannot be tilted for non-treadmill iFit workouts
Trainer-led classes	Ain’t cheap; ~$4,500
4.25 CHP motor

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Horizon Fitness T101

⭐ Best budget-friendly treadmill with incline

The Horizon Fitness T101 is the most affordable of Horizon Fitness’ line of treadmill machines at $649, has a motorized incline that can angle up to 10%, and a thick deck that makes for a comfortable running experience.

The T101 does the basics really well, with a folding design (it has a handle to make folding it up easier), six workout programs (including manual), and a lifetime warranty on both the frame and the motor of the treadmill.

Tech features include Bluetooth connectivity, pairing your training program of choice (i.e. Zwift or STUDIO) from your smartphone to the speakers on the treadmill.

The weight capacity on the Horizon Fitness T101 is pretty solid at 300lbs, matching far more expensive machines.

The running deck is 20” x 55”, which won’t be ideal for larger and taller users. I am 6’4ish, and found myself really having to focus on staying in the middle of the track to avoid wandering into the side arms or off the back of the tread.

Outside of that, the Horizon Fitness T101 is an excellent budget-friendly incline treadmill for people who want an easy-to-assemble machine that does all of the basics really well.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Best budget-friendly pick for incline treadmills	Running deck is a bit small
Solid weight capacity (300lbs)	Limited incline
Incline up to 10-degrees
Ideal for getting on and going

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Sunny Health Manual Walking Treadmill

⭐ Best manual incline treadmill for walking

For people who strictly want to walk on an incline, and who don’t want to spend a ton of money to do so indoors, the Sunny Health Manual Walking Treadmill is your best option.

Sunny Health makes ridiculously inexpensive workout gear, from elliptical machines to power racks, and the $179 on this treadmill is eye-poppingly budget-friendly.

The treadmill is incredibly compact, can be folded and rolled away when not in use, and has a fixed 13.5% incline that will help you burn more calories than ever. And because it is a manual treadmill, you actually burn more calories compared to a motorized treadmill as your legs are the motor to move the belt.

(See also: Manual vs. Motorized Treadmills: Which is Best for Your Goals?)

Being such a no-frills treadmill comes with some obvious downsides, including the fixed incline (you can’t raise it or lower beyond 13.5%) and the somewhat limited max user weight capacity of 220lbs.

All that said, the Sunny Health Manual Walking Treadmill is the perfect cardio machine for the person who likes walking uphill and wants a budget-friendly treadmill that can be tucked away easily between workouts.

✅ PROS	❌ CONS
Manual treadmill; burns more calories	Incline is fixed (13.5%)
Doesn’t need to be plugged in; can be used anywhere in the home	Not suitable for larger users
Easy to fold up
Extremely budget-friendly

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Incline Treadmills — FAQs

What should I look for when choosing an incline treadmill for my home gym?

When choosing the perfect incline treadmill for you, there are some key things to be on the lookout for.

They include:

Incline (and decline) levels

Obviously, the most important thing when shopping for an incline-specific treadmill is the incline itself. Treadmills with incline typically go up to 15 degrees as a maximum.

There are also a handful of treadmills on the market—such as the NordicTrack 2450 Commercial Treadmill—that have both incline and decline features, which allow you to get a more realistic sense of running hills and trails.

Motorized or manual incline

Treadmills that have incline use either a motor to generate incline or its set manually.

For long, extended incline walking workouts, a manual treadmill—like the Sunny Health Manual Walking Treadmill—can be a great choice for the “set it and forget it” walking crowd.

For people who like doing interval workouts, or want to simulate running hills, a motorized incline allows you to set a hill program or change the incline mid-run.

Running deck

Larger users—like myself—appreciate a little more space on the running deck. Smaller treadmills use a 20” wide running deck that are in the neighborhood of 50” in length. This can be a little too short for taller users, as well.

Footprint and Compactness

Treadmill machines, like most cardio machines, take up a lot of room. For home gyms, this is a primary concern as not all of us have unlimited space for exercise equipment.

All of the treadmills on this list are foldable, making them ideal for home gyms. The footprint when in use also varies, with some units extending out as far as 82” in length.

Screen

Gone are the days when cardio machines had a basic dot-matrix screens that spit out basic workout data like time elapsed and a rough approximation of calories burned.

Now, treadmills come with big, HD touchscreens that beam a library of workout classes and trainer-led workouts. Conversely, the screen can be used to stream your favorite digital streaming service like Netflix or Hulu.

The screen size correlates strongly with price, so if you love online classes and get better workouts from streaming, know that the price tag will be significantly higher compared to the no-frills LCD screens on more simple treadmill machines.

Which treadmills have the highest incline?

The NordicTrack X32i Treadmill and the NordicTrack X22i have the highest inclines for treadmills available for home gyms at a 40% maximum grade.

The Bowflex Treadmill 22, our top overall pick, comes in next with a 20% grade. Treadmills with the option of incline tend to max out in the 10-15% range.

What are the benefits of incline running and walking?

There are more than a few treadmill incline walking and running benefits, but the biggie is that running and walking uphill significantly increases metabolic cost and calorie burning.

Using a grade of 7% can increase the metabolic cost by over 50%¹ compared to running on flat ground. Other studies² have shown incline walking to burn 60% more calories compared to flat walking.

So, when it comes to efficiency and calorie-burning, using the incline is where it’s at. You can deliver a harder and faster workout by simply cranking up the incline.

Walking or running on an incline also helps prepare you for hikes and outdoor running. Adding a 1% incline to the treadmill simulates the air resistance we experience when walking outdoors³.

What are the downsides to using an incline treadmill?

Running and walking uphill at a steep angle forces you to shorten your stride (this study found a 4% step length decrease), which can change up your running and walking technique if done for extended periods of time.

Using the incline is also harder on the knees compared to flat running and walking.

While a treadmill machine is typically good for bad knees, cranking up the incline bends the knee further with each stride, placing more pressure on the quads, which are stabilizer muscles for the knee.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, if you are ready to elevate (ha! See what I did there?) your treadmill workouts at home, investing in an incline treadmill is a no-brainer.

After years of experience running and testing treadmills, we have compiled our favorites for home gyms.

To recap our top choices:

The Bowflex Treadmill 22 is a unique combination of huge 22” touchscreen, incline of up to 20% (plus a -5% decline), sturdy 400lb weight capacity, and better-priced immersive training options compared to the competition.

The NordicTrack X32i is the best HIGH incline treadmill with a staggering 40% incline. Additional pluses include the big 32” screen and a powerhouse 4.25 HP motor for a smooth stride.

Beginners will love the simplified functionality of the Horizon Fitness T101, budget-friendly pricing, and of course, the motorized incline of up to 10-degrees.

Pick the right incline treadmill that matches your goals and budget, crank up the incline, and watch those calories melt away!

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More Treadmill Guides and Articles

5 Best Treadmill Workouts for Weight Loss (Plus Tips for Turbocharged Weight Loss). Looking for some killer treadmill workouts for weight loss? Here are five weight loss workouts you can do on the treadmill, plus some tips for getting the most of your time on the treadmill.

6 Best Treadmill Alternatives (Pros and Cons of Each). There are other cardio machines out there that can help you lose weight and get fit. Here are our favorite treadmill alternatives for exercising.

The treadmill machine is a monster for building bigger and stronger glutes. Here’s how to target your glutes on the treadmill and some butt-building workouts to get you started.

Most people think of the treadmill as being a more quad-focused machine.

After all, when you walk, run, jog, or sprint, the big muscle group at the front of your legs do end up doing the majority of the work.

But, with a few simple tweaks, you can turn it into a much more glute-focused workout.

In fact, the treadmill may be one of the best machines for building better, stronger, and bigger glutes.

That’s what I want to focus on in this post…

Below, we’ll look at why the treadmill is so butt-friendly, and how you can adapt the workout to specifically target your glutes. I’ll even share a few of the best workouts you can do to shape and sculpt those glute muscles.

By the end of this post, you’ll have everything you need to get a truly butt-kicking—and butt-working—training session!

Why the Treadmill Kicks Butt for a Bigger Butt 

While there are plenty of cardio machines for weight loss in the gym, the treadmill is uniquely positioned for targeting your glutes.

Here is why:

Easy to Add Incline

Most treadmill workouts for losing weight involve training for longer periods at a slower pace or easier setting (lower incline) in order to maintain the calorie burn for a full 30, 45, or even 60+ minutes.

But while burning calories on the treadmill is important, you can also use it to specifically target your glutes by adding a bit of incline.

When you work at an incline, your glutes and hamstrings both engage more to propel your body both forward and upward.

As a result, you can still get a very good leg-focused workout that burns a lot of calories, but the posterior chain muscles (glutes, hamstrings, and lower back) will see greater engagement—and, as a result, greater endurance of muscular strength and endurance.

Really, all you have to do is turn up the incline on the treadmill machine—anywhere from 5 to 15%–and you’ll see the results!

Great for Walking Lunges

One of the benefits of the treadmill is that you can use it to walk endlessly, even if you’re working out in just a tiny home gym in your basement, attic, garage, or a corner of your living room.

You don’t need a lot of space to work out—just enough to fit in your machine, and that’s it!

This is particularly useful if you want to do exercises like walking lunges, but don’t have much space to work with.

Walking lunges are an amazing lower-body training exercise, one that maximizes glute engagement. You can actually set up the treadmill with your weights so you can do your walking lunges while carrying a loaded barbell or a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells.

Or, if you prefer to use only bodyweight, you can add a few more reps into each set to push your quads, glutes, and hamstrings hard.

What makes the treadmill so effective for walking lunges is that you can set a specific pace (typically a slower walking speed) and lunge for time rather than repetitions. You’ll very likely feel the burn more effectively trying to perform walking lunges for 60 seconds instead of targeting 10-15 reps.

And, thanks to the treadmill’s handles, you have an easy way to support yourself and maintain your balance while performing the exercise.

Unleash Speed

One of the best ways to train your glutes is by speeding up your pace from a walk or jog to a full-on sprint.

When you sprint, your glutes and hamstrings engage to propel your body forward at maximum speed, leading to development of explosive force from the muscle fibers (particularly the Type II fast-twitch muscle fibers) in your posterior chain muscles.

In fact, it could be argued that the explosive force demanded by sprinting can build muscular strength and endurance even more effectively than light resistance training.

All you have to do is set the treadmill to sprint speed and work in a few HIIT sets (periods of high-intensity sprinting with periods of low-intensity jogging or walking for recovery).

While there are cardio machines that more specifically target your glutes (such as the stair climber or the Jacob’s Ladder), using the treadmill correctly can be game-changing to help you work your glutes more effectively every time you train. 

How to Work Glutes on the Treadmill Machine

Alrighty, let’s get into some glute-building tactics for when you hit the treadmill machine.

My go-to’s include:

Tip#1: Mix in Some Walking Lunges

If you’re warming up before Leg Day—or you just want to add a bit of muscle-building to your walking workouts—try mixing some walking lunges into your cardio sessions.

You can walk at a standard pace (typically 3.5 to 4.0 MPH) for the majority of the workout, then slow it down (to between 2 and 3 MPH) for 60 seconds at a time.

For those 60 seconds, use the slower pace to perform walking lunges with proper form and technique:

• Step forward into the lunge, and lower until your knee nearly touches the treadmill platform.
• Push off your back foot so you step forward to bring your feet together.
• Now repeat by stepping forward with the other foot, and keep switching feet for the full 60 seconds.

No matter what type of treadmills  you use, or whether you do this exercise with just your bodyweight or adding a load (weights), you’ll find this does an amazing job of hammering those glutes.

The more sets of walking lunges you can work in, the better!

Tip #2: Add Incline

Whether you’re walking, jogging, or running, adding incline will be absolutely game-changing for your glutes.

But don’t start at full incline just yet! You might not be used to it, and you risk straining your knees or hips if you go straight to max incline right off the bat.

Instead, start off at a “gentle” incline—usually around 5% incline will do. Walk, jog, or run at that gentle incline, feeling the engagement in your posterior chain muscles.

You can spend the entire workout at that mild incline, or switch between mild incline and flat road feel. However, with every workout you do, increase the incline slightly (working your way up toward 10%, then 15%) as well as the time you spend walking, jogging, or running at that incline.

If you really want to see results in the booty department, you’ll want to spend your entire cardio session working at an incline.

Not only will tackling those “hills” (simulated by the incline) tighten up and build your glutes, but you’ll burn more calories and eliminate more of the fat that clings to your butt and the backs of your legs.

Tip #3: Sprint  

Sprinting is an amazing way to build stronger glutes and hamstrings capable of generating greater explosive power.

Now, be warned: no human is capable of sustaining maximal exertion for long periods of time. The human body, no matter how fit, will eventually stop functioning if it can’t absorb oxygen and replenish depleted muscular energy.

That’s why sprinting is typically sustained for a short period of time—either a couple hundred meters, or 30 to 60 seconds.

After that, you mix in periods of low-intensity exercise that allows your body to recover. Slowing down to a walk or jog will allow your body to send oxygenated and nutrient-rich blood to your muscles. Spending 60 to 120 seconds moving at a slower pace will restore you enough that you can sprint all over again.

That’s why HIIT, sprint training, and Tabata are all such great options—not just for your booty, but for your fitness overall.

Sprinting at an incline will just double down on the effectiveness of the workout and help you build serious glute power.

Tip #4: Crab Walk

This is not an easy workout, but one that will do amazing things to help you develop powerful glutes.

The “crab walk” exercise is a fun one: you place a resistance band around your thighs or calves (depending on what feels best for your knees), squat, then “walk” to the side. First you walk to the right, then to the left.

Because you’re moving in a squat, your quads are contracting to hold your body in the squatting position. Your glutes, however, do the work of extending your legs to the side so you can actually walk, rather than just remain squatting.

Adding in the resistance bands makes the workout just that much harder—and therefore more effective for developing powerful glutes.

For this exercise, you’ll want to slow the treadmill way down, somewhere between 2 and 3 MPH. A slower pace will be much safer for you, as you’re going to be moving in very small, slower steps.

The focus isn’t on speed, but on maintaining your squatting posture and training those glutes and quads through your crab walk.  

Treadmill Glute Workouts

Time to put all the advice above into practice with some real-life workouts you can start doing today, no matter your experience level.

Workout 1: Incline Power Walk

With this workout, you’re going to stay at a walk the entire time. The only thing that will change during the workout is the amount of incline you work at.

Don’t worry: you’ll start off easy, and gradually work your way up to max incline. Then you’ll do it all reverse to end your workout at a nice flat road feel once more!

The Workout:

• Start off with a warm-up. Spend 5 minutes stretching out your lower body muscles (paying extra attention to your glutes and hamstrings), and 5 minutes walking at 0% incline at a slow speed.
• Increase your walk speed to a fast walk or “power walk” pace—between 3.7 and 4.2 MPH, depending on what feels more comfortable to you. The faster you can walk, the better.
• Raise the incline to 2% for two minutes.
• Raise the incline to 4% for two minutes.
• Raise the incline to 6% for two minutes.
• Raise the incline to 8% for two minutes.
• Raise the incline to 10% for five minutes.
• Raise the incline to 12% for five minutes.
• Raise the incline to 15% for five minutes.
• Lower the incline to 13% for five minutes.
• Lower the incline to 10% for five minutes.
• Lower the incline to 8% for two minutes.
• Lower the incline to 6% for two minutes.
• Lower the incline to 4% for two minutes.
• Lower the incline to 2% for two minutes.
• Cool down with 10 minutes of slow-pace, flat road walking and some light stretching.

Workout 2: Lower Body Resistance Training

This workout combines three resistance training exercises into one kickass walking workout that will do wonders to target your glutes.

But, because there’s plenty of walking between each exercise, you’ll find the active recovery reduces post-workout soreness and burns a few more calories, too!

The Workout:

• Start off with a warm-up. Spend 5 minutes stretching out your lower body muscles (paying extra attention to your glutes and hamstrings), and 5 minutes walking at 0% incline at a slow speed.
• Walk at a gentle incline (1 to 5%) at a moderate walking speed (around 3.6 MPH) for one minute.
• Slow the speed down to between 2 and 3 MPH (according to what feels comfortable) to perform 60 seconds of walking lunges. Use only your bodyweight initially, but feel free to add weight in future workouts.
• Resume moderate walking speed for 60 seconds of rest.
• Perform another set of walking lunges at a slower speed, followed by 60 seconds of moderate walking speed.
• Repeat for 4 total sets of walking lunges, followed by two minutes of moderate walking speed for active recovery.
• Continue with crab walks, interspersing 60 seconds of crab walking (on alternating sides) with 60 seconds of recovery at a normal walking pace. Repeat for 4 total sets.
• Continue with squat walks (facing forward, holding on the treadmill handles for support if needed), again interspersing 60 seconds of work with 60 seconds of active recovery for 4 total sets.
• Set the treadmill to a faster walking speed (around 4.0 MPH) and 10 to 15% incline for the last 5 minutes of your workout.
• Cool down with 10 minutes of slow-pace, flat road walking and some light stretching.

Workout 3: HIIT Sprint Training

This workout is going to push your body hard, but the sprints will do wonders to increase both your calorie-burning and your glute explosive power.

The Workout:

• Start off with a warm-up. Spend 5 minutes stretching out your lower body muscles (paying extra attention to your glutes and hamstrings), and 5 minutes walking at 0% incline at a slow speed.
• Raise the speed to between 8 and 10 MPH, depending on what feels comfortable for your sprint. Sprint for 30 seconds.
• Return to a moderate walking pace (3.5 to 4 MPH) or a jogging pace (4.5 to 5 MPH). Recover for 90 seconds.
• Repeat the intervals of 30 seconds of sprinting and 90 seconds of recovery (walking or jogging as you can) for a total of 20 minutes. 
• Cool down with 10 minutes of slow-pace, flat road walking and some light stretching.

Glutes on the Treadmill Machine – FAQs

How much of an incline should I use on the treadmill for glutes?

The answer is really quite simple: the more incline you use, the better it will be for your glutes!

The greater the incline, the more your glutes engage to attack the “hill”. For maximum booty work, set the incline to the full 15%. You can even increase the speed to a fast walk to make it even more challenging.

Is walking backwards good for building glutes?

Walking backwards does engage your glutes, as well as your hamstrings and calves. However, the real benefit of walking backward is the increased engagement of the lower quad muscles—a.k.a., the muscles that support your knees. 

The Bottom Line

The treadmill may not be most people’s go-to machine when trying to target glutes, but the truth is that it can offer some pretty significant glute-specific benefits.

As you saw above, there are a lot of workout options that can help you maximize posterior chain muscle engagement and hammer that booty to build strength, endurance, and even explosive power.

Set the treadmill to an incline, speed up to a sprint, and mix in leg exercises like walking lunges and crab walks, and you’ll come away from your treadmill workouts noticing real change and improvement in the shape and strength of your glutes.

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The treadmill is easily the most popular of all the cardio machines, both at regular gyms and for use in home gyms.

After all, what other machine can deliver such a functional workout that is so easily adapted to a wide variety of terrains and speed settings? Treadmills are also an absolute boss for torching calories and increasing cardiovascular health.

But if you don’t have space in your home for another machine and you’ve got to make do with those already in your gym, then it’s important to know which of the various cardio machines make a suitable alternative to the treadmill.

Below, we’ll look at all the best treadmill machine alternatives, looking at the pros and cons of each and comparing how they stack up against what is arguably the “king of cardio machines.”

By the time you finish reading this post, you’ll have a much clearer idea of which machine is your top pick to replace your treadmill.

Let’s jump in. 

How to Choose a Treadmill Machine Alternative

It’s pretty tough to argue that there are better machines to get in a kickass cardio workout than the treadmill.

On the treadmill, you can walk for an easy workout, jog or run to push the pace a bit, or even full-on sprint to max out calorie-burning and build explosive power. No matter how you use it, you’re guaranteed to see results when training on the treadmill.

But if you don’t have space in your home gym (or gym setup budget) for yet another machine, you’ll want to know which machine is the right alternative.

Here are the crucial factors to keep in mind when considering other cardio machines:

⭐ Equal (or Better) Calorie-Burning

We all know that treadmills are easily among the best cardio machines for burning calories—and I mean serious calories!

Running is one of the best exercises for torching calories (and burning fat), and no other exercise can burn as many calories-per-second as a full-on sprint.

However, if you look at the data collected by Harvard Medical School, a few other types of cardio can come pretty close to the same number calories burned on the treadmill.

For example:

• A 125-pound person can burn 240 calories in 30 minutes of running at 5 MPH
• A 155-pound person can burn 288 calories in 30 minutes of running at 5 MPH
• A 185-pound person can burn 336 calories in 30 minutes of running at 5 MPH

Speed it up to sprint training, and you see real results:

• A 125-pound person can burn 453 calories in 30 minutes of running at 10 MPH
• A 155-pound person can burn 562 calories in 30 minutes of running at 10 MPH
• A 185-pound person can burn 671 calories in 30 minutes of running at 10 MPH

Time to stack that up against other machines:

• A 125-pound person can burn 255 calories in 30 minutes of rowing at a vigorous pace
• A 155-pound person can burn 324 calories in 30 minutes of training on the elliptical
• A 185-pound person can burn 441 calories in 30 minutes of vigorous cycling on the stationary bike

As you can see, some of the other cardio machines come fairly close to burning around the same number of calories as a running workout. Those are the machines you want to use, then!

⭐ Functional Training

One of the greatest benefits of the treadmill is that it’s incredibly functional. What that means is that training on the treadmill will translate into more efficient performance of your everyday activities.

The benefits of treadmill walking will extend to walking around town, on holiday, going for a hike, or strolling along the beach. The time you spend jogging and running on the treadmill will help you to jog and run more efficiently around town. And if you add sprint training, well, you’ll find you can sprint for longer (and maybe even faster) when in real-life conditions.

The treadmill is the most functional of all the cardio machines, because walking and running are two activities you do literally every day of your life. It’s for this reason (almost more than any other) that the treadmill is such a popular cardio machine.

However, there are a few other machines that can give you a nearly-as-functional workout (as you’ll see below) that will help you perform your activities of daily life more efficiently, too.

⭐ Versatility

No matter what types of treadmills you’re using, you can expect quite a lot of versatility.

For example, on a motorized treadmill, you can just set your desired run speed and maintain that pace for the duration of your workout. Or, if you like to change things up, you can raise or lower the speed as desired.

To make the workout more challenging, add some incline on the treadmill so it feels like you’re tackling hills. Without leaving your gym or home gym, you can train for trail running and hill sprints like a boss.

Manual powered treadmills add in a leg strength training component, too. Because you’re providing the “power” to turn the belt, your quads, glutes, and hamstrings are engaged more efficiently with every step. It effectively simulates real-life outdoor conditions!

⭐ User-Friendliness

How hard is it to walk? The answer: not hard at all! And when it comes time to jog, run, or sprint, you’ll find it doesn’t get a whole lot more challenging, either.

The treadmill is very likely the most user-friendly of all the cardio machines. There’s no real learning curve; just hop on, switch it on, and get working.

Sure, it takes a bit of practice to run fast while maintaining your balance and staying in the center of the platform, but that’s far easier than trying to perfect your rowing stroke or adapt to the unusual feel of the elliptical.

The treadmill is one of the most popular machines for beginners because everyone already knows how to walk and run. Any machine that’s equally (or nearly) as easy to master will be a suitable treadmill alternative.

The Best Alternatives to the Treadmill Machine

Machine #1: Elliptical

The elliptical machine makes the best alternative to the treadmill for one simple reason: it involves movement that is most similar to the treadmill.

On the elliptical, you’re “walking” on the pedals, which have a glide that can feel odd at first but quickly feels natural after a few minutes of stepping.

The addition of the handles actually shifts the workout from exclusively lower body-focused (which the treadmill is) to a full-body workout that engages your core and upper body.

It’s both functional and fairly easy for newbies to master, but it’s also highly effective for pushing your body to the max with HIIT.

You won’t be able to “sprint” like you can on the treadmill, but the faster-paced pedaling/pumping the handles will be as effective a workout as any HIIT sprint session.

Additionally, there are elliptical machines that have an adjustable stride length, giving you the sense of that longer gait that is common with running that you simply cannot replicate on other cardio machines.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Full-body workout, not just focused on your legs	Movement feels a bit strange at first
Low-impact and very comfortable	You can’t quite reach sprint speed
Highly functional training—translates into more efficient walking and running
Burns a lot of calories (nearly on par with the treadmill)

Elliptical Trainer Reviews

Ellipticals are an excellent low-impact alternative to running on a treadmill.

There are also tons of options for home gyms, from your bare-bones, budget-friendly ellipticals that cost a few hundred bucks to studio-grade machines with online classes and workouts.

A few of our favorites include:

The Sole Fitness E95 Elliptical Trainer is an absolute monster in terms of stride smoothness, stability, and workout features, including incline, adjustable foot pedals, and available online workouts through Sole’s STUDIO portal. [Shop at Sole Fitness]

The Nautilus E616 is a budget-friendly elliptical–under $800–that has a power incline (to crank up the calorie burn to compete with running on a treadmill), a longer stride length (22″), 25 resistance levels and a heavy-duty 22lb flywheel for a smooth stride. [Shop at Nautilus]

The Sole E95s is our favorite elliptical that has an adjustable stride length (up to 24″), perfect for taller users and those who want that long stride that more approximates running. [Shop @ Sole Fitness]

We’ve researched and tested a lot of ellipticals over the years, and you can read more about them in our round-ups:

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Machine #2: Stationary Bike

The stationary bike is another cardio machine many people turn to as an alternative to the treadmill.

It’s particularly functional for cyclists or anyone who spends a lot of time riding their bikes around town (mountain biking, commuting to work, etc.).

Also, like the treadmill, it’s entirely focused on the lower body muscles. This makes it a suitable form of exercise to use as post-training cardio after a hardcore upper body resistance training session.

The main benefit of the stationary bike and where it actually performs better than the treadmill is in relation to your knees.

All of your weight is supported by the bike seat, which means your knees only work to push the pedals downward.

For people who have weak knees or knee problems/injuries, the stationary bike may be a more knee-friendly choice.

✅ Pros:	❌ Cons:
Gentler on the knees	More likely to cause lower back injuries
Functional training for cyclists	Some risk of foot numbness as you pedal
Good calorie-burning
Very low-impact

Stationary Bike Reviews

Stationary bikes come in a few different flavors, with varying types of exercise bikes, including the standard upright bike, spin bike, and recumbent bike.

When it comes to the best “standard” stationary bike, we love the NordicTrack VU 29.

To be sure, it’s more of a premium stationary bike, but it has a ton of workout functionality, including a tank-like 19lb flywheel for a wobble-free biking experience and a massive 14″ HD touchscreen for doing online classes and workouts using iFit.

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Machine #3: Stair Climber

The stair climber is one of the few machines that could be considered as functional as the treadmill.

After all, just like you walk and run every day, you also end up climbing stairs every day—in your office building, at home, in the supermarket or shopping mall, pretty much anywhere you go.

While the treadmill does allow you to work at an incline to target your glutes and hamstrings, it’s more like climbing a semi-steep hill.

If you want to train specifically for very steep hills (like those you’d encounter when hiking) or climbing stairs more effectively without tiring (such as in case of an emergency where elevators don’t work), the stair climber machine is your best bet.

There are a couple of downsides, though: the stair climber is harder on your knees than even the treadmill, and they tend to be very large, bulky machines that take up a lot of space.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Excellent for training your body to climb stairs and steep hills	Bulky machines take up a lot of space in your home gym
Highly effective at targeting your glutes and hamstrings	May increase risk of knee strain/injury
HIIT-compatible
Decent calorie burning

Stepper Reviews

Stepper machines tend to be a pain in the butt when it comes to home use as they take up a lot of horizontal and vertical space. The commercial stairclimbers you see at the gym are a great example of this; when standing on the top step you tower above a standard ceiling height in a home.

The best stepper machine I’ve ever used for home gyms–especially when you are looking for something treadmill-ish–is the NordicTrack FS14i.

The FS14i is a three-in-one cardio machine; stepper, elliptical, and “treadmill.” The path of the stride responds to your leg motion, which means that you can change up between stepping and a full-stride running gait mid-workout. Best of both worlds, really.

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Machine #4: Rowing Machine

With the rowing machine, we’re back in the realm of “full body workout.”

Your legs engage to slide your body forward and backward on the seat, your upper body does the work of rowing, and your core has to engage to maintain your balance and posture throughout the full range of motion.

The rowing machine, like the stationary bike, takes all the load off your knees.

This makes it a much more knee-friendly cardio machine than the treadmill. It’s also significantly lower-impact, so you can use it to rehab your knees following an injury you sustained running or sprinting.

See also: Is the Rowing Machine Good for Bad Knees?

You can use the rowing machine for HIIT the same way you would the treadmill: just speed up your pace so you’re rowing (rather than running) at maximum exertion.

Best of all, the rowing machine delivers calorie-burning roughly on par with the treadmill, so it’s just as effective for weight loss and fat-burning!

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Excellent calorie-burning on par with the treadmill	May increase your risk of lower back and wrist injury
HIIT compatible	Rowing stroke isn’t easy to master
Compact—many are foldable and space-saving
Low-impact workout very gentle on your joints

Rowing Machine Reviews

Rowing machines–and this goes for most cardio machines for home gyms–have come a long way in recent years in terms of technology. Huge strides have been made in terms of online training and programming, with brands like Peloton and iFit leading the way.

The NordicTrack RW900 is perfect for the person who enjoys doing online classes. Paired with iFit, an online library of almost 20,000 workouts (!), the RW900 has an almost preposterously large 22″ HD touchscreen, whisper-quiet flywheel, and tons of resistance levels to keep you working hard.

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Machine #5: Assault Bike

The assault bike is a truly challenging cardio machine and the Rogue Echo Bike–the hands-down best air bike on the market–was the first cardio machine I ever purchased for my own home gym.

Assault bikes (also known as air bikes or fan bikes) designed with a fan rather than a flywheel, and the variable resistance will grow more challenging as you pedal/work the handles faster.

You’ll find it’s one of the best cardio machines for HIIT—better even than the treadmill, because you can raise or lower the intensity by speeding up or slowing down, with no need to press buttons.

It’s also a full-body workout (like the rowing machine and elliptical) and will burn a lot of calories. The fact that there’s no direct load on your knees makes it a low-impact, joint-friendly training solution, too.

Perhaps the main benefit of assault bikes, however, is just how hard of a workout it is. (It’s called the “Devil’s Tricycle” for a reason.)

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Excellent calorie burning on par with sprint training	Very difficult training at higher intensity/speed (not ideal for beginners)
Low-impact and no load on your knees	May increase risk of shoulder and lower back injuries
HIIT-compatible
Works out your full body
Super hard workout

Air Bike Reviews

Air bikes are excellent for burning maximum calories and mimicking the high-intensity effort of treadmill sprinting.

They are also mostly cheaper than treadmills, making them a solid budget-friendly cardio machine for home gyms.

The best air bike on the market is the Rogue Echo Bike, and the competition isn’t even really all that close.

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Machine #6: Jacob’s Ladder

The Jacob’s Ladder is one of my favorite machines for training your lower body. It simulates climbing an endless ladder, which places the effort squarely on your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves.

However, your upper body and core also get a great workout because you’re supporting yourself/pulling yourself up the ladder at the same time.

It’s definitely one of the best cardio machines for burning a lot of calories in a short amount of time—easily on par with a fast running speed. However, it’s more difficult to climb for longer periods; harder even than the stair climber.

Though not the most newbie-friendly machine, it’s an excellent option if you want to switch up the way you train and push your fitness to the max.

✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Highly effective workout for your entire body	Very expensive and bulky machine
Excellent for HIIT	Difficult to sustain exertion for long periods—average workout lasts 10 to 30 minutes
Hammers your glutes, hamstrings, and calves	More of a specialty machine; not a lot of gyms carry it
Burns a lot of calories

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The Bottom Line

Let’s be honest: no machine can ever really replace the treadmill. The only thing that can do that is an outdoor run—it’s the only alternative that pushes your fitness to the same limits as running on the treadmill.

However, as you can see by the options above, there are a few machines worth considering if you just don’t have space for a treadmill or need a viable alternative that’s within your budget.

For my money, I’m going to choose the elliptical machine, assault bike, or rowing machine every time.

However, the Jacob’s Ladder and stair climber are both excellent for anyone who wants to pay greater attention to their glutes, to sculpt that booty to the max. And if you’re looking for an easy, low-impact workout on par with a walk or jog, the stationary bike will be a great option.

Choose the right treadmill alternative for you and unleash the gains!

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Wondering if your bad knees and a treadmill are a good match? In this guide to treadmills and knee pain, we look at why the treadmill is a good option for you and list some tips for avoiding knee pain when using the treadmill.

Ask anyone with knee problems, and they’ll have more than a few horror stories about which cardio machines and cardio workouts led to the greatest number of knee injuries or pains.

Really, for every one of us with knee problems (and I count myself among that number), there is a cardio machine that we tend to avoid because of the way it impacts our joints.

So it’s no surprise that people might wonder if training on the treadmill can be bad for your knees. After all, treadmill running is a high-impact workout, and it’s well known that high-impact workouts can be hard on knee joints.

Below, we’re going to focus on how the treadmill benefits people with bad knees, and how it can actually lead to significant improvements in your knee health if used correctly.

Of course, that means we also need to talk about how to run properly on a treadmill so you protect your knees from injury while training.

By the end of this post, you’ll know exactly why the treadmill is a great choice for your knees, and what to do to avoid knee pain.

Let’s get started!

Benefits of Treadmills for People with Bad Knees

The treadmill is a great choice for people with bad knees for a few reasons.

They include:

Benefit #1: Improves Your Balance

Running on a treadmill is actually quite different from running outdoors.

When you run outside, you’re focused entirely on moving forward. Your weight is leaning slightly forward and shifting from foot to foot without much tilt to either side. As long as you place your feet squarely, your balance should never suffer when running on level terrain.

However, when you run, your foot never strikes in exactly the same way. There are minute shifts in your muscles and joints that cause you to step slightly wider or narrower every time you place your foot. Outdoors, there is space enough that it’s not an issue. On the treadmill, though, you have to stay in the center of a fairly narrow platform.

What this means is that your muscles, joints, and bones have to adapt to the specific running form needed to learn on a treadmill. Your body actually gains greater control over each step it takes, to make sure that you land squarely in the center of the treadmill platform. Over time, your control over your lower body improves, and this in turn translates to better balance overall.

Running is already excellent for your balance, but treadmill running specifically is an excellent way to counteract balance issues that may develop as you age.

And, as you probably guessed, proper posture and balance are crucial for preventing knee pain.

Benefit #2: Strengthens Your Leg Muscles

There is no doubt about it: running is great for your leg muscles.

Running engages your quadriceps muscles, and works your hamstrings, glutes, calves, foot muscles, and the muscles along your shins. These muscles all play a crucial role in quite literally every movement you make when walking, running, cycling, hiking, and doing pretty much everything else in your day.

Plus, these muscles all work together to support your knees. The muscles in your upper and lower legs are both connected to the bones around your knee joint. Strong leg muscles make the joint more resilient and are better-able to support your body weight as you run.

When your muscles can’t support your weight (or they tire out quickly), the bones and joints compensate. You literally end up resting the excess weight on your skeletal system, which in turn places a lot of pressure on the joints and can lead to joint pain or injury.

Strengthening the muscles around the knee is one of the most straightforward solutions to combatting joint pain, and treadmills are a great way to do it without placing extra stress on the joints.

Benefit #3: Builds New Joint and Bone Tissue

One of the best treadmill workout benefits is the fact that it strengthens your joints and bones in the long term.

Why do I say “in the long term”?

Well, here’s the thing…

Running is a high-impact exercise. What that means is that when you place your foot down with every step, there is impact (vibrations) that run up your skeletal system. The greater the impact, the more “damage” there is to your bones and the joint tissues that cushion them.

In the short-term, this damage can lead to inflammation, pain, stiffness, and reduced mobility. That’s why you might feel achy, tired, and sore after a run.

However, your body responds to the presence of this damage by making repairs. It not only builds back what was damaged, but it adds new bone and joint tissue to prevent damage in the future.

Over time, your bones and joints will become stronger as a result. High-impact exercise is the best form of exercise for strengthening your skeletal system and making it more resilient against damage.

That is why people who regularly engage in high-impact exercise tend to have stronger bones, joints, and muscle tissue than those who only perform low-impact exercise.

This may not seem very important when you’re young, but it becomes critical as you age.

With age, your body has a harder time repairing bone and joint damage. There are also less nutrients available to make those repairs. This can lead to problems like osteoporosis, brittle and easily broken bones, as well as stiff and inflexible joints—which, of course, includes your knee joints.

Benefit #4: Burns Excess Body Fat

One thing all types of treadmill workouts have in common is that they are great at burning calories, as well as fats.

The more you train in cardio (and resistance training), the more fat you burn.

Fat, unlike muscle, doesn’t contribute to your movement. It’s simply stored as a means of maintaining energy supply through periods of food scarcity. However, given our modern society, food scarcity is rarely an issue for us. We simply keep adding to our fat stores—unless, of course, we make a concerted effort to burn them.

Well, that’s what treadmill running does!

Cardiovascular exercise like treadmill running eliminates that stored fat—and can actually prevent the body from storing more fat (when paired with a proper diet).

With every pound of fat you burn, there is one less pound weighing on your hips, ankles, and, of course, your knees.

How to Avoid Knee Pain When Using a Treadmill Machine

Alrighty. Now that we have all the benefits of using a treadmill, let’s get into how to use it most effectively to avoid knee pain while using it.

Tip 1: Lower the Incline

While there are a lot of treadmill incline benefits, it’s important to know that working out at an incline will increase the strain on your knees.

Your knees bend farther when working on an incline, which means there is more pressure placed on the lower quadriceps muscles directly around the knee joint. There is greater risk of strain and inflammation on your knees because of this.

If you feel knee pain when working on the treadmill, keep the incline between 1 and 5%. Don’t go above that 5% mark until you’ve trained for a few weeks at this incline to strengthen the lower quadriceps muscles specifically.

Tip 2: Don’t Hold the Handrails

Having handrails to lean on is important for your safety, but you should never actually lean on them while working out.

You want the handrails close enough that you can grab them if you’re ever losing your balance.

However, holding the handrails while you walk, jog, or run will negatively impact your posture. It will cause you to lean forward and shorten your stride, both of which will contribute to higher risk of knee pain.

Tip 3: Shorten Your Run

If your knees protest when treadmill running, consider shortening your workouts.

Remember that treadmill running is a high-impact, repetitive exercise. What this means is that not only will there be impact on your knee joints with every step, but you will be repeating the same movement over and over again, essentially compounding the impact over the duration of your run.

Try knocking a mile or 10 minutes off your current runtime. If that doesn’t help to alleviate the knee pain, shorten your workout more and more until you’re no longer feeling pain afterward.

You can always work your way back up to your original workout time gradually. Just do it slowly enough that your knees have time to recover, as well as adapt to the strain of a sustained run.

Tip 4: Lower Your Speed

Sometimes, the culprit behind your knee pain could be your speed, not the duration of your run.

Running too fast can increase the strain on your joints. As you run at a high speed for longer periods, your muscles will fatigue and begin to rely more heavily on your bones and joints for support.

Try slowing down your speed by 0.5 mph. Or slow down more if you think you need it.

Running at a slower pace will help you to focus on your posture, stride, balance, and the smoothness of your movements. You may find that there are issues with your running form that you didn’t realize, which may be contributing to knee pain.

Tip 5: Warm Up and Cool Down

Last, but perhaps most importantly of all, take the time to warm up before and cool down after every workout.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make—and one of the greatest contributors to knee pain when treadmill running—is starting “cold”. What this means is jumping on the treadmill without giving your joints a proper stretch and your muscles sufficient time to warm up.

Stiff, inflexible joint and muscle tissue is more likely to be strained or damaged by your workout.

Taking even just 5 to 10 minutes to stretch and warm up beforehand will loosen up muscles that have likely grown tight over the course of your sedentary day, enabling them to move more efficiently as you run.

Cooling down after your run is equally important. It enables your body to purge lactic acid from your muscles and increases blood flow to your joints, which in turn speeds up recovery times and decreases post-workout inflammation.

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FAQs

What other cardio machines are good for people with bad knees?

Outside of the treadmill machine, the best cardio machines for people with bad knees include the rowing machine, elliptical machine, and stationary bike.

All three of these machines are excellent because they reduce the strain on your knee joints and encourage more natural movement while maintaining a high-intensity energy burn nearly on par with a good run.

How long should I exercise on a treadmill if I have bad knees?

As mentioned above, your knee pain may be caused by a run that is too long. Try starting out with just 20 to 30 minutes of treadmill running.

If you can get through that full workout with no pain, add 5 to 10 minutes. Continue adding 5 to 10 minutes as desired until you begin to experience minor knee pain following your workout.

Pairing running with walking is also an excellent way to extend your workout—and the calories burned—without placing extra stress on your joints.

That will tell you how much effort your body is capable of sustaining without excessively damaging the knee joints.

The Bottom Line

Running is one of the best forms of exercise you can do for your knees. Because of its high-impact nature, it will actually strengthen your leg muscles and the bones and joints in your knees. It will also make them more resilient and better able to repair themselves.

However, it’s important to remember that running too fast, for too long, and with the wrong posture can be major contributing factors to knee pain.

Use the tips above to help you maximize the efficiency of every treadmill workout so you can enjoy your runs without feeling the pain!

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Brand-new to working out on the treadmill? Not sure how to make the most of the time you spend training?

Well, you’ve come to the right place!

In this article, we will talk about how to get in the best treadmill workout possible, even if you’ve never stepped on the treadmill before.

We’ll walk you through the basics of how to run properly on a treadmill, from the beginning of your workout to the end, with advice specifically crafted for beginners.

By the time you finish this post, you’ll be ready to get in your first treadmill workout and start pushing yourself to new heights of fitness.

So let’s dive in…

Treadmill for Beginners — Tips for Success

Here are the basic steps to getting in a truly epic treadmill workout even if you’re a total newbie:

Set a Goal for Each Treadmill Workout

Start off with a time goal.

Often, when it comes to running on the treadmill for beginners, people find it easier to work if they have a specific amount of time in mind.

For example, if you’re fairly certain that you can run for five minutes without struggling, set yourself a goal of running for 10 minutes. Or if you’ve tried jogging in the past and hit 15 minutes of running time, push yourself a bit harder and set a 20-minute goal.

Or, you can set yourself a distance goal. Some people prefer to focus on how many miles (or kilometers) they run—say, if they’re training for a 5K or 10k race. Or they find it easier to track their distance when running rather than watching the clock.

The key is: Whatever works for you, do it!

You have to go into your workout with a goal of some sort, either time, distance, or calories. That way, you can push yourself hard and stay focused without feeling like your run is endless and pointless.

You can simply get in, get the work done, and get off when you’re finished.

Warm-Up First

Even though you are keen to get your workout on, resist the urge to jump onto the treadmill “cold.”

Your muscles, joints, and cardiovascular system need time to warm up. Warming up will loosen stiff muscles and joint tissue, enabling them to flex, bend, and contract more efficiently. It will also reduce your risk of injury—i.e. a pulled hamstring or sprained ankle.

But warming up also serves a second purpose: it gets your body burning fat.

Initially, your body starts off burning glucose-based energy. This energy is available in your bloodstream, your liver, and stored in your muscles.

Your body has anywhere between 400 and 500 calories’ worth of this energy available. The more you burn through it, the more your body has to activate stored fats to use to power your muscles when you work.

Warming up (doing some light exercise) will get the internal combustion engine of your body working, burning through this glucose-based energy. However, because it’s low intensity, your body can activate the stored fats into energy.

Over the course of your workout, especially if you are doing a low-intensity workout like jogging, your body will shift more to burning fat than glucose—or at least in equal measure.

Your warm-up is crucial for getting your body into fat-burning mode, which makes your jog more effective overall for consuming your stored excess body fat.

How should you warm-up?

• Start off with some light stretching. Limber up all your muscles and joints—not just the ones that will be doing the work when you run, but your upper body muscles and joints, too. Spend 5 to 10 minutes doing dynamic stretches (i.e arm and leg swings) stretching out your entire body from your neck muscles down to your ankles.
• Move on to light exercise. Most people will walk to warm up because walking is easy on the body and unlikely to risk injury when your muscles and joints are “cold.” Plus, it’s low-exertion so you won’t tire out before your workout starts.

Start Out at a Walk

Your workout begins with a warm-up walk, but you don’t have to start running right away. In fact, you can keep walking in order to give yourself a chance to adapt to the workout.

Granted, walking at your slow “warm-up” pace won’t really give you that cardiovascular workout you want. So, push the speed by a bit.

For example, I like to warm up for the first minute or two at 3.2 MPH. However, as my body limbers up and warms up, I push the speed to 3.5 or 3.6 MPH for the rest of my warm-up.

If you aren’t yet ready to push it to a full jog (4.5+ MPH) or run (5+ MPH), try a bit of speed walking. Really, any pace around 4 MPH will be a fast enough walk that will get your heart pumping and your body moving.

Raise Your Pace Slowly

Don’t make the mistake of going to a full-on run (or sprint) before you’re ready!

The treadmill benefits really kick in over the course of your full workout. If you push your pace too quickly and run out of steam prematurely, you won’t be able to get in a proper treadmill training session. You’ll “gas out” before you really start burning calories or reach your time or distance goal.

So, raise your pace slowly. If you’re walking at around 3.6 to 3.8 MPH, try raising your pace to a jog, between 4.3 and 4.8 MPH. That’s a good starting place for newbies working out on the treadmill for the first time.

Give yourself a few minutes running at that pace and see how it feels. Initially, it may feel a bit easy, and that’s because you’re burning through glucose-based energy, which is plentiful in your bloodstream and muscles. However, after 5 to 10 minutes, your body will begin making the switch to burning more fat-based energy, so you won’t feel as energized as you did in the beginning.

But don’t give up yet! Push through this period of sluggishness; when you come out the other side, you’ll be reinvigorated as your body adapts to burning both fat and glucose.

When you hit the 10 to 15-minute mark, you’ll get another jolt of energy that will deplete more slowly. You’ll feel yourself growing more and more tired the longer you run. That is when you push yourself to hit your time or distance goal.

If you’re feeling like the 4.3 to 4.8 MPH pace is too easy, try pushing it to 5 to 5.5 MPH (a “run” pace). Give yourself a few minutes running at that speed to see how it feels, to see if it’s a sustainable pace for the duration of your run (based on your time or distance goal).

However, give yourself leeway to lower the pace to a jog, or even a walk, if necessary. See how you feel throughout the run and choose the pace that best suits your current fitness level.

Walk-Jog-Run

An easy way to test your fitness is with the Walk-Jog-Run test.

Once you complete your warm-up, work in three-minute intervals:

• Walk for one minute.
• Jog for one minute.
• Run for one minute.

After you finish that interval, return to a walk and see how you’re feeling. If you’re breathing hard and struggling to maintain the run pace, settle for a slightly slower pace (perhaps a jog will suit you best).

If you find that you can complete that last one-minute run without struggling too hard, set a faster pace, somewhere between a jog and a fast run.

Play around with the increased speed, repeating the three-minute interval test as needed to see how your body goes through the workout.

Raise the Incline Slowly

There are lots of treadmill incline benefits, including increased engagement of your glutes and hamstrings, a greater challenge for your cardiovascular system, and more calorie/fat-burning.

However, just because there are benefits of this type of workout, it doesn’t mean you have to run at an incline on your very first workout. Especially if you have experienced knee pain running on the treadmill in the past.

Don’t get me wrong, running at an incline is a great way to simulate outdoor conditions. In fact, you should set the treadmill to a 1% incline– it essentially mimics the difficulty of added air resistance when you are running outside¹.

If you want to test an incline workout, start out at a gentle incline—anywhere up to 5%.

See how that feels on your body: how much your muscles struggle, how much more energy you burn, how much faster you tire out, even how it strains your knees, ankles, hips, and lower back.

For those who feel great at this gentle incline, consider raising the incline more. But for those who just aren’t feeling it yet, or who aren’t up to tackling this challenge on their first treadmill workout, return the incline to 1% and focus on the time and distance goals to begin with.

Always End with A Cool-Down

Just like you had to spend a few minutes warming up in order to give your body a chance to prepare for the exercise, it’s imperative that you take the time to cool down afterward.

You can just step off the treadmill and get on with your day, sure. However, spending a few minutes cooling down by walking at a slow pace and stretching out your muscles will do wonders to reduce post-workout stiffness and soreness, as well as prevent injuries.

There are so many benefits of treadmill walking and running both!

By following the tips above, you’ll be able to take advantage of this awesome cardio machine and use the treadmill to maximum effect for fat-burning and improved fitness.

Treadmill Machine Workouts for Beginners

Ready to get started with your first workouts? Here are some simple, newbie-friendly cardio workouts that you can try from day one:

Workout #1: Cadence Count

This workout focuses on how many steps you take in a minute, and uses that cadence count to push yourself a bit harder every minute.

The Workout:

• Start off with five minutes of stretching, and five minutes of slow-paced walking or jogging. Get your body nice and warm and ready to train!
• Set the treadmill to a pace you feel comfortable with. If you can, send it to a jog speed (say, 4.5 MPH). If you’re more comfortable starting off at a walk, set the speed to 3.6 to 3.8 MPH for a slightly faster walk.
• For the first minute, count how many steps you take in that 60-second period.
• For the second minute, speed up your pace just enough that you take two more steps than you did in the previous minute.
• For the third minute, add two to five more steps per minute.
• Every minute on the minute, keep adding 2 to 5 more steps per minute. Your pace will gradually speed up until you go from a fast walk to a jog to a run.
• Push yourself until you can’t speed up anymore.
• Return to your starting pace for five minutes of low-intensity cardio exercise.
• Cool down with 5 to 10 minutes of slow-paced walking and some light stretching.

Workout #2: Easy HIIT Workout

This workout will teach you the basics of high intensity interval training, or HIIT.

It combines periods of high-intensity exercise to push your cardiovascular endurance to the max with periods of low-intensity exercise that allow your body to recover.

The Workout:

• Start off with five minutes of stretching, and five minutes of slow-paced walking or jogging.
• Raise the speed to 8+ MPH (sprint speed). Sprint for 30 seconds.
• Drop the speed back to a fast walk (3.8 to 4.2 MPH). Walk for two minutes.
• Continue alternating these 30 seconds of high-intensity exercise with two minutes of recovery.
• Aim to complete 25 minutes of this back-and-forth running, but allow yourself to stop at the 20-minute mark if you are gassing out.
• Cool down with 5 to 10 minutes of slow-paced walking and some light stretching.

Workout #3: Ladder Workout 

This workout starts off slow but pushes your body to move faster and faster until you reach a higher speed.

You work until you are moving as fast as you can (a pace you can maintain for 60 seconds), then you work back down to your starting pace.

It’s a great option for burning serious calories and pushing your fitness!

The Workout:

• Start off with five minutes of stretching, and five minutes of slow-paced walking or jogging.
• Start off at a standard walk speed, say 3.6 MPH. Walk at the speed for one minute.
• At the one-minute mark, raise your speed by 0.2 MPH. Maintain the speed for one minute.
• Raise the speed again by 0.2 MPH for another minute.
• Continue raising the speed until you are running at 5 to 6 MPH (whatever feels like a fast run to you).
• At the one-minute mark, reduce your speed by 0.2 MPH. Maintain that speed for one minute.
• Every minute on the minute, decrease your speed by 0.2 MPH until you are back at your starting speed.
• Cool down with 5 to 10 minutes of slow-paced walking and some light stretching.

The Bottom Line

Just because you’re new to treadmill running, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer!

In fact, you’ll find the treadmill is a very beginner-friendly machine that can help you get an amazing workout no matter your fitness level.

The tips above will help you to get in your first treadmill workout the right way. You’ll be safe, work hard, and see the long-term results that you want!

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Treadmills are one of the most effective cardio machines in the gym. Here’s how using the incline on the treadmill can make your workouts even better.

When you walk or run on the treadmill, it’s common to settle into a groove and keep a light pace.

But going too “easy” can actually work against your fitness! In order to see real results, you’ve got to put in the effort—which could mean either speeding up or (and I recommend this highly) adding some incline to your walk or run.

In this article, I’m going to talk about how you can take your treadmill workouts for weight loss to the next level with one simple adjustment: raising the incline.

We’ll look at the benefits of adding incline, the effects that it can have on your fitness, and why it deserves to be included in your daily treadmill workouts.

By the end of this post, you’ll be looking forward to your next session on the treadmill to test out just how much better you feel after an incline workout.

Treadmill Incline Benefits

💪 Benefit #1: Burn More Calories

Did you know that you can burn nearly as many calories walking at an incline as you can with a jog?

That’s right, the number of calories burned on the treadmill when doing an incline walk is roughly on par with a slow-paced run/jog.

One study found that participants who walked at a 5% incline burned 17% more calories than a flat-level walk, while those who walked at a 10% incline burned 32% more calories.

You may not burn as many calories as you would doing a fast-paced run or a full-on HIIT sprint training, but you will burn more than walking on flat ground at a slow pace (3.5 mph).

When you walk and incline, more muscular energy is required with every step. You’re not just propelling your body straight forward, but also upward.

The result is a greater calorie burn with every step. You’ll see a significant difference in energy expenditure by the end of your 30, 45, or 60-minute walk workout!

And that’s just walking. If you run at an incline, you’ll burn a lot more calories than running at flat-level settings.

💪 Benefit #2: Improve Knee Strength

No matter what type of treadmill you use, walking and running will always be an excellent workout for your needs.

Walking and running trains your body to move smoothly through that forward motion, and all of your weight is supported by your lower body (including your knee joints). The more you walk and run, the more efficiently you are able to walk/run, and for longer.

But training at an incline takes things a step farther…

When you training at an incline, your lower quad muscles engage more in order to propel you forward and upward. These lower quad muscles also play a significant role in the support and function of your knee joint.

By strengthening them, you make your knees more resilient overall. You’ll be less likely to suffer injuries to your knees when participating in high-impact and high-intensity exercise.

Downhill walking or running, on the other hand, can be harmful for your knees. Though the activity engages your leg muscles more efficiently than flat-level walking/running, studies have shown that downhill walking and running can impair proprioception, which in turn can raise your risk of injury.

💪 Benefit #3: Focus on Your Posterior Chain Muscles

One of the great things about incline walking and running is that it focuses on the posterior-chain muscles: hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

There is still plenty of engagement from your quads, but because your body has to propel you forward and upward on the incline, the muscles in the backs of your legs (and lower spinal muscles) end up doing more of the work.

This is absolutely critical for long-term mobility and resilience!

Let me explain…

We all spend a lot of time sitting down every day. Many of us can spend 6+ hours in a chair, with only the occasional break to move around for a few minutes.

Over time, sitting down for so long actually weakens the posterior-chain muscles. Our glutes and hamstrings weaken and the actual muscle fibers shorten so they can’t contract as efficiently.

This leads to reduced mobility and strength in these muscles, as well as the lower back muscles to which they are connected.

This may not seem like such a problem when you are sitting down. However, when you try to lift heavy weights and load up those muscles, that’s when this weakening and muscle fiber shortening becomes an issue.

Essentially, you won’t be able to lift as much weight or support as heavy a load because of the time you spend sitting down. Plus, you will be more prone to injury.

But not if you walk or run at an incline.

Incline training targets the muscles that are weakened by the time you spend sitting down, making them stronger and better-able to support heavy loads. It also increases their flexibility and enables them to move more efficiently with every step.

Ultimately, incline walking and running can help to mitigate the negative effects of sitting down for long hours every day. For that reason alone, I strongly recommend it!

💪 Benefit #4: Better Cardiovascular Health

As we all know, some of the best treadmill benefits (and the benefits of all cardio machines, really) is that working out will help to improve cardiovascular health.

Your blood pressure will lower. Your blood vessels will accumulate less cholesterol and triglycerides, which in turn reduces your risk of heart attacks and strokes. You are less likely to develop type II diabetes or metabolic disease.

And it’s all because you are spending more time training!

As you saw above, walking and running at an incline will burn more calories per minute (or per workout) then regular flat-level training. That means it will burn through more stored fats, more blood sugar, and more fatty acids in your bloodstream.

The end result: a healthier cardiovascular system better able to keep up with your activities of daily life and less likelihood of heart disease, diabetes, and other cardiovascular disorders.

💪 Benefit #5: Improved Cardiovascular Conditioning

Cardiovascular conditioning goes a step farther than just cardiovascular health.

The “conditioning” part refers to increasing the ability of your heart, lungs and blood vessels to perform during periods of high-intensity exercise.

Your heart beats faster in order to deliver more oxygenated blood to the muscles that are working. Your lungs absorb more oxygen with every breath. Your blood vessels dilate to accommodate increased blood flow.

Put this all together, and you have a body that works more efficiently when you train.

The only way to improve your cardiovascular conditioning is to push it using higher-intensity exercise. Any exercise that pushes it above the “standard” heart rate zones will lead to improvements.

No surprise, flat-level walking isn’t going to make a huge difference for your cardiovascular conditioning. Flat-level walking maintains a fairly steady heart rate, never really pushing it into a zone where it “struggles”.

However, because incline walking requires more muscular energy, it will push your heart rate into a struggle zone. Your heart will beat faster, your lungs will work harder, and your blood vessels will dilate. The increased metabolic strain will lead to improved cardiovascular conditioning on par with a slow run/jog.

And if you jog/run at an incline, it will improve your conditioning even more. It will feel similar to sprint training, but without running at full speed. You’ll increase your maximal oxygen update (VO2 max) and train your body to sustain a higher heart rate for longer.

💪 Benefit #6: More “Real” Training Environment

When you are training in the great outdoors, it’s not easy to find perfectly flat terrain to walk or run. Most of the time, you’ll find yourself tackling shallow hills, climbing stairs, or moving across incline and decline terrains.

Even your favorite parks, hikes, and forest trails will have varying terrain. When it comes time to hit those uphills, you’ll find yourself sweating and struggling if your body isn’t properly trained.

One of the best reasons to turn up the incline on the treadmill machine is to simulate “real to life” environments. You can raise the incline for a few minutes before returning to flat-level feel, leave it at the incline setting for the entire workout, and mix-and-match however you like.

At the end of the training, what matters is that you have simulated the sort of outdoor environment where you are walking or running up hills. That way, when you actually get outside, you will be conditioned for the terrain you’ll face.

You’ll find every hike, run, and jog is a whole lot easier because you spent time training with your treadmill and incline.

💪 Benefit #7: Better Core Strength

Walking and running is great for your core. Your abs, lower back, and oblique muscles all have to contract in order to keep your upper body stable and balanced as you move.

Adding the incline just takes the core workout to the next level!

When you are walking or running at incline, you have to lean forward into the angle of the hill in order to walk efficiently. Your abs muscles engage to lift your legs high enough to tackle the incline with each step.

Your lower back muscles engage to keep you from toppling forward. Your oblique muscles provide support to both your abs and lower back to maintain stability and balance.

The result: a stronger, more resilient core!

💪 Benefit #8: Suitable for All Fitness Levels

What I love about walking at an incline is that anyone can do it!

With jogging or running, you have to have at least a baseline fitness level capable of sustaining that level of exertion.

Many newbies struggle to jog or run for more than 10 or 15 minutes because they just aren’t fit enough to keep up with it. They have to put in the time and consistent effort in order to develop the muscular and cardiovascular endurance necessary to run for longer periods.

But with treadmill walking at an incline, anyone is able to hop on and get moving. You will still feel the burn, and it will still be a challenging workout, but there is less impact and a lower perceived rate of exertion.

The slower pace will actually feel easier than a jog, so it will be easier to maintain that pace without feeling as tired.

At the end of the workout, however, you will have burn (nearly) as many calories as you would with a jog for slow run. Essentially, it’s nearly equal results for noticeably less perceived effort.

For newbies who are just getting into cardio training, this lower perceived rate of exertion can make all the difference. It’s much easier to sustain an incline walking workout for 30 to 45 minutes then it is to maintain a jog for 20 to 30 minutes.

But as your cardiovascular and muscular conditioning improves, you’ll find that you cannot only walk at an incline, but also jog and run at an incline. You’ll go from newbie to intermediate-level trainee much faster because you’re training at an incline.

Treadmill Incline – FAQs

Is using the incline on a treadmill better for weight loss?

Using the treadmill at an incline is much better for weight loss then walking or running on a treadmill set to flat level. The angle of incline will engage your muscles more effectively and demand higher energy expenditure than training on flat terrain.

More calories burned by your incline training means more fat activated and eliminated. Over time, you’ll see much better weight loss as a result of training with the treadmill on incline versus flat-level training.

What treadmill incline is best for burning fat?

As I mentioned above, setting the incline to 5% will burn 17% more calories than flat-level terrain, and setting the incline to 10% will burn 32% more calories. The higher the incline, the more fat and calories you will burn!

The Bottom Line

I hope I made it clear enough to you why you should be setting your treadmill to an incline every time you train!

Not only will you burn more calories, it will be better for your joints, it will strengthen the critical posterior-chain muscles that maintain lower back and leg strength, it will improve your cardiovascular health and conditioning, it’ll simulate real to life training environments, and it will improve your core strength overall.

The fact that anyone can do it, regardless of fitness level, makes it an absolute game changer for your treadmill workouts.

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