The treadmill is undoubtedly one of the most used fitness equipment. Irrespective of your current fitness levels, you can surely have a decent cardio session on it. You can either be a lover of morning walks or a jogger. The treadmill is surely going to help you in more than one way. Talking about amateur or professional athletes, a good cardio session on the treadmill is a significant part of their training regime. It helps in providing them with the stamina, agility, and endurance that they need to perform better in their respective sport.
Don’t you want to make your body more agile and active? Surely you do. This article is going to provide you with detailed information regarding how the treadmill can improve your fitness levels by working different muscles of your body.
If you are an overweight individual, your trainer must have surely advised you about using the treadmill machine to lose those extra pounds. You might be surprised to know that you can lose 40 pounds with a treadmill in 20-40 weeks. So, does it mean that the treadmill machine is only useful for losing fat? Of course not. Whether you walk, jog, or run on the treadmill, along with burning off the fat, it also helps in strengthening and enhancing the functionality of certain muscles. Let’s have a detailed analysis about it.
What Muscles Does the Treadmill Work?
In a general sense, the treadmill works your cardiovascular system along with working on your lower body. Your quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles, and even your glutes get properly trained while you walk, jog or run on the treadmill. Especially if you prefer running on it, it engages your core to a considerable extent. Overall, it can be said that the treadmill exercises help in toning up your body along with burning off excess calories. Here are some muscles that get prominently worked by using the treadmill:-
The Heart
Surely, the heart tends to be the most important muscle of your body. When you workout on a treadmill, your heart gets a good workout as well. As we mentioned earlier, the treadmill machine works wonders for your entire cardiovascular system. It does so by improving your heart rate and strengthening your heart. A better cardiovascular system also helps in keeping your blood pressure in a healthy range. It further aids in preventing strokes or other heart diseases. Overall, It leads to drastic improvements in your overall health and well-being.
The Core Muscles
Your core muscles are located in-between your rib cage and your hips. Their primary function is to keep your body erect. When you perform treadmill workouts, your core muscles get engaged and keep your body upright. Especially when you increase the incline of the treadmill, more engagement of your core muscles is promoted as they help in keeping your body upright.
If you want to train your core muscles to a greater extent, you can keep your abdomen area flexed while you walk, jog or run on the treadmill.
The Calves
Your calves basically consist of three muscles, namely, the tibia at the front and the soleus and gastrocnemius at the back. When you walk or run, the soleus and the gastrocnemius work as stabilizers. So whether you choose to walk, jog, or sprint on the treadmill, your calves will get their fair share of training.
If you want to increase the girth of your calves, try to walk on an increased treadmill incline. It will immediately activate your calves and would provide them with a great resistance workout.
Quadriceps
Quadriceps is a muscle group located on the front of your thighs. Whether you are walking, jogging, sprinting, or squatting, your quadriceps get engaged to a great extent. When you workout on a treadmill, your quadriceps also get adequately trained.
If you want to engage your quadriceps to a greater extent, simply increase the incline on your treadmill machine. It will provide you with adequate resistance to train your quadriceps well.
The Hamstrings
The Hamstrings are also referred to as the biceps of the lower body. They are present in the back of your thighs. Along with training your quadriceps, it is imperative that you provide a good workout to your hamstrings as well. Strong hamstrings help in preventing a number of injuries that are related to the lower body.
In general, your hamstrings tend to get stimulated while you do your treadmill workouts. If you want a greater involvement of your hamstrings, simply increase the incline of the treadmill and your hamstrings will start ballooning overtime. It will also help in enhancing both agility and overall acceleration.
The Glutes
The Glutes is a three-part muscle group that is located in the buttocks. They are the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius, and the gluteus minimus. When you run or sprint on the treadmill, your glutes help in providing the propulsion.
These muscles get worked on the treadmill along with your hamstrings to provide support and assistance to help you in lifting your knee off the belt. When you run or sprint on the treadmill machine, your glutes help in providing the propulsion.
Iliotibial (IT) Band
The Iliotibial (IT) Band muscles are found on the outside part of your thighs. These muscles act as the stabilizer muscles to your legs when you run or sprint on the treadmill. This muscle fiber present around your thighs gets adequately trained with the leveled up surface of the treadmill.
If you want to keep yourself away from the infamous IT band syndrome, which is a painful injury that you would never want to experience, strengthening up your IT band muscles becomes essential.
Along with working your cardiovascular system, your core muscles, and your lower body muscles, the treadmill machine can also work your upper body muscles to some extent. You can do so by holding a pair of dumbbells while walking or jogging. You can also perform some movements like presses or curls or raises while walking on the treadmill.
Final Words
We expect that you must be waiting to get on your treadmill machine to get a complete overall workout for your body in your next training session. The treadmill machine promotes versatility to a great extent.
Even a 15-30 minute workout on a treadmill machine can give you the results that you are looking for. Just ensure proper safety while working out on your treadmill machine and you are good to go. Whether you choose to buy it for yourself or invest some time working out on it, either way, you will be getting the best returns.
