When we think of exercising or going to the gym, most of us will imagine someone running on the treadmill - and for good reason! Treadmills are actually one of the most popular exercise machines available, and plenty of people have them within their own homes.
There are many benefits to using a treadmill for your workout. From the fact that they can benefit your health - of course - to the fact that you can get those benefits without even needing to go outside, there's a lot that treadmills have to offer.
But if you're only just starting off on your fitness journey, you may wonder if a treadmill is a good place to start. Let's look at how treadmill exercises can help you become fit and how they can improve your health!
Benefits of Treadmill Exercises
Enhances Cardiovascular Health
One of the most glaring advantages of using a treadmill is that it offers you great cardiovascular exercise, which in the long run can improve your heart health. Cardiovascular exercises are those where you have to increase your breathing and heart rate to a certain level and then keep them constant.
This helps because it strengthens the muscles in your heart and improves your blood flow. As your heart muscles get stronger, they need to work less to pump more blood through your body, which lowers your resting heart rate.
During cardio exercises, because your heart rate is at a much higher level than usual, your body also burns fats and calories much faster to release energy. As a result, cardio exercises can also help with reducing the risk of cholesterol build up and artery blockage.
In fact, cardio exercises are one of the best ways to stay fit. Treadmills are great in this regard because you can get all of these benefits from the comfort of your own home!
Helps in Losing Weight
Weight loss is a common concern for plenty of people, and treadmills are often the go-to for many of them. There's a pretty good reason for that! Weight gain happens when your body starts storing extra calories and fats from the food you eat. This storage, while helpful in providing a source of energy, is not good for you in the long run, since it can get stored in the form of adipose tissue, which can be dangerous.
A treadmill, as mentioned earlier, provides cardio exercise, which puts your body in a state where it burns up calories and fats at the fastest possible rate. This means that all those extra calories stored in your body are now being used up to provide energy to your heart and lungs.
Therefore, treadmills can help you lose weight really easily. The best way to lose weight with a treadmill is to run for about 150 minutes per week, and you can increase the rate at which your calories get burnt by running longer and faster.
Improves Muscle Strength
Cardio and weight loss are the most common reasons to use a treadmill, but this machine can do a lot more than that. In fact, you'd be surprised to learn that it's also a great way to strengthen the muscles all over your body!
This is especially true for your legs and thighs - naturally, since they'd be the ones you're using the most - but they can also help with other muscles. For example, treadmills are also great for toning and strengthening your glutes.
Different types of treadmill workouts will also engage the different muscle groups in your body. Besides your leg muscles, those in your lumbar region and abdomen are also involved in the running process. This means that you'll also get a toned stomach and a decent back workout as well.
Treadmill workouts can also give you some benefit to your arms and shoulders, though this really depends on the intensity of your workout. For example, if you are running at a fast speed without holding onto the side bars, there is a high chance that your arms will be swinging by your sides. This gives your arms and shoulders some mild exercise.
You can ramp this up by holding weights while you run and give these muscles some proper exercise.
Improves Mental Health
Mental health conditions are quickly becoming more and more widespread, with a very large number of people being diagnosed with some problem or the other. Treadmill workouts can have an effect on mental health as well - and this effect is almost immediate, too!
Physical activity and mental health has been studied for quite some time, and plenty of research shows that there is a connection. For example, people with depression who exercise regularly experience fewer depression days than people who don't exercise often.
This is because engaging in physical activity triggers the release of neurotransmitters in the brain like dopamine and serotonin. These are your brain's happy chemicals that improve mood and reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety.
When you exercise more often, not only do more of these neurotransmitters get released, but your brain's sensitivity to them also increases. This results in less dopamine having a greater effect on your mood than it would otherwise.
In fact, exercises also happen to have an instant effect because your brain releases these chemicals while you're exercising, and you don't have to wait for a few days to see the difference! Next time you feel a bit down in the dumps or stressed out, try running on the treadmill!
Enhances Neurological Health & Memory
Most often, once you hit 30, the speed at which you process your thoughts and your memory start to decline. This is because the number of cells in your brain starts to decrease, and thus, learning new things takes some time.
This is a natural process, but regular exercise can actually improve your 'functionality and prevent memory loss for a greater amount of time.
Research shows that there is actually a direct link between your brain health and cardiovascular fitness. A study conducted on adults showed that people with better heart health had more robust brain tissue. This is likely because better heart health improves the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain, and thus also improves the growth of your brain cells.
Research also shows that physical activity helps with the growth of your hippocampus, which is the part of your brain associated with memory and learning. Therefore, running on the treadmill can trigger a sort of chain reaction. When you run, your heart works better, which improves your blood flow to the brain, makes it grow and thus makes it work better.
Diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinsons, which are degenerative and progressive diseases, can be avoided by improving brain health through regular exercise.
Helps You Sleep Better
Beyond all of that, regular exercise like running and walking on the treadmill can also help you with your sleep! Sleep disorders are quite common, especially with the emergence of blue light and screens in our daily lives.
But cardiovascular exercises like treadmill workouts can help you by causing your brain to release melatonin, which is a hormone that helps with sleep.
At the start, when you're just starting off on your treadmill exercising, you'll feel that your energy gets depleted and you become tired. This makes your body start the repair process while you sleep. Running also causes your body temperature to rise, and when you sleep, this temperature drops and your sleep actually improves as a result.
In fact, research shows that people with insomnia found that they slept better and longer once they started incorporating regular exercise into their routines.
Regulating Blood Sugar Levels
Another benefit to treadmill exercises is that they can help prevent chronic diseases like diabetes, which are often caused by lack of exercise. This is because exercise helps with regulation of insulin, which is a hormone that converts the stored glucose in the blood to energy.
When insulin levels are too high or too low, blood sugar levels get disrupted. Therefore, by regulating insulin, treadmill exercises can help make sure that you stay healthy.
Diabetes can also be caused by having too much body fat stored, and thus exercises can also reduce this risk by burning up this extra fat.
With so many benefits to treadmill exercises, there's no doubt that you're considering getting one for yourself. FlexiSpot's Folding Treadmill is an excellent option to help you meet your fitness goals. This treadmill has preset programs and modes that allow you to simulate real motion scenes and thus make your workout a lot less stagnant.
The machine is also very sturdy and has a very low-noise motor that makes it great to use in apartments and houses without disturbing other people.
The treadmill also has long curved handrails that you can hold on to while you run. This way, you can run while you watch TV without worrying about slipping and falling. The best part is that this treadmill is very easy to assemble, and have tool kits included so you can maintain it and get the most out of it for a longer period of time.
