Treadmill workout ideas: 3 ways to shake up your running routine

The treadmill can sometimes get a bad rep for being repetitive, predictable and, let’s face it, a little bit boring. But if you’ve fallen out of love with yours, don’t ditch it just yet.

Whether you’re pounding the tread at home or squeezing in a session at the gym, the beauty of the treadmill is its versatility. Change the speed, crank up the incline, play with intervals or simply mix up the duration and suddenly that same old run can feel like a completely different workout.

Ready to hit refresh on your sessions? Here are three ways to shake up your treadmill workouts.

The 12-3-30 treadmill workout

The viral 12-3-30 workout has taken social media by storm as it’s proved a super popular way to liven up an otherwise mundane walking workout. Created by American content creator Lauren Giraldo, this is has an incredibly simple format: set the treadmill to a 12 per cent incline, walk at 3mph (around 4.8km/h) and continue for 30 minutes. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not necessarily. The steep incline will soon have your heart rate climbing and your leg muscles firing up. And, because you’re walking rather than running, it can be a useful way to increase your cardiovascular output without the impact of running. It’s also a great way to rack up some of the NHS-recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity per week for adults. Brisk walking is classed as moderate activity and regular walking is linked with better cardiovascular health. Plus, you don't necessarily have to spend hours on the treadmill to benefit from being more active. Research has found that even relatively small amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity are associated with health benefits.

Make it work for you: Don’t feel obliged to launch straight into 12 per cent. Start with a moderate incline and build up as your fitness improves. Keep your posture tall, avoid holding onto the handrails and give yourself a few minutes to warm up and cool down.

Try interval training

Interval training involves alternating periods of more intense effort with periods of recovery. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a popular but more demanding form of interval training that typically involves repeated bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by recovery. The trick is finding a pace and duration that feels challenging but manageable for the effort interval. Think ‘I can do this’ rather than ‘why on earth did I agree to this?’ For example, a 20-minute session might include five minutes of easy running or walking to warm up, followed by six rounds of 30 seconds at a challenging pace, then 90 seconds of recovery in a comfortable jog or brisk walk, plus a few minutes cool-down. The beauty of intervals is that they keep your brain as busy as your legs, so you’re less likely to spend the entire workout staring at the timer. They can also help improve cardiovascular fitness and running speed. Add in some incline variations and you’ve got yourself a decent workout session right there.

Make it work for you: New to intervals? Start with a 20-second fast burst followed by two minutes of recovery. You can gradually increase the work period as your fitness improves. And remember, ‘hard’ is relative. Your challenging pace might be someone else’s warm-up pace, and that’s absolutely fine.

Attempt a fartlek treadmill workout

It might sound rude, but fartlek is actually the Swedish word for ‘speed play,’ and it’s a fun and engaging way to make treadmill training feel less like, well, like training. Unlike structured intervals, where you follow set periods of effort and recovery, fartlek lets you mix things up according to how you feel. Speed up, slow down, jog, walk, incline up, incline down, sprint. There are no complicated timings or treadmill calculations to worry about, which makes it perfect if you like a workout to be a bit more spontaneous. If you’re struggling to think what to do, make it fun and pop on your favourite TV show and choose a character. Pick up the pace whenever they speak, or use a recurring moment in the show as your cue to increase/decrease inclines etc. Or, if you’re on the phone with a friend, take turns shouting out challenges: ‘Sprint for 10seconds!’, ‘Incline up to 12 for one minute!’ etc. Suddenly you’re chatting, laughing and getting a workout in without obsessing over the clock.

Make it work for you: Keep the faster bursts short to begin with and make the recovery periods as long as you need. You don’t have to sprint flat out. As you get fitter, play around with longer bursts, steeper inclines or shorter recoveries. The whole point of fartlek is that you’re in charge of the speed play and have fun.