Walking or running for fitness has many health benefits, and investing in a treadmill has lots of advantages over pounding the pavement…

Treadmill Benefits:

• There’s less strain on your joints – treadmills are sprung and are a more shock absorbent surface than a hard pavement or road.
   
• It doesn’t matter what you look like – you can wear your oldest shorts or trackie bottoms, have scruffy hair and don’t need to worry about your wobbly bits!
   
• Use your treadmill whatever the weather – howling wind, pelting rain or even snow needn’t stop you from training.
   
• Walk or run anytime of the day or night – don’t be held back by darkness, exercise on your treadmill whenever you want to.
   
• There are no personal security worries – particularly if you’re female, you don’t need to worry about personal safety issues when you’re in your own living room.
   
• Easily vary your workout – change the speed or incline on your treadmill when you want to, no need to go in search of hills or struggle when you’re tired.
   
• Have your workout worked-out – most treadmills have pre-set programs to help you get the most from your treadmill training.
   
• See immediately the good you’re doing – most treadmills also tell you how many calories you’re burning, really useful for those who want to lose weight.
   
• Encourage yourself to exercise more – when you have a treadmill accessible at home you’re more likely to use it. Walking and running are perfect for any age group – so you may get the whole family training on the treadmill too!
   
• You can even watch the telly – position your treadmill in front of the telly and there’s no excuse not to use it!

Extra Calories Burned Walking and Running on a Treadmill:

(Extra calories are those you burn on top of the calories you use for day to day living.)

Treadmill Speed	Calories burned in 30 mins – Woman*	Calories burned in 30 mins – Man*
2mph/3kmh	66.5	70.6
3mph/5kmh	105.7	120.4
4mph/6.5kmh	150.5	177.4
6mph/9.5kmh	273.7	334
8mph/13kmh	382.9	472.8

*These figures are based on an average man and woman who are normally moderately sedentary and within a healthy BMI range.

Walking and Running Benefits

Walking and running are perfect ways to increase your overall fitness. You can progress at your own pace, it can fit in with any lifestyle and doesn’t require any technical skill.

Walking or running can help:

• Reduce body fat as part of a weight loss program
• Increase bone density, helping to prevent osteoporosis
• Reduce stress and increase energy levels
• Help to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke

For more general information on walking or running for fitness and weight loss see our other articles ‘Running for beginners’ and ‘Walking To Lose Weight’.

Useful Links and Resources:

Walking For Weight Loss– Lucy Knight

WLR dietician Juliette Kellow reviews this great new book written by fitness instructor Lucy Knight – a great choice for anyone wanting to lose weight.

Walking For Fitness– Nina Barough

A comprehensive book giving advice, tips, and training programs. Help for beginners to marathon runners.

WLR Walk The Weight Off Challenge

Take a look at Weight Loss Resources annual ‘Walk The Weight Off Challenge’. Get and stay motivated to reach your walking for weight loss or fitness goals and get support from others along the way. Or challenge yourself and use WLR’s virtual route resources. WLR also has a year round walkers board for those like minded to people to swap tips, stories and to encourage and motivate each other.