Editor's note: This is a great article from www.TreadmillReview.net on how to burn more calories while walking (either on your treadmill or outdoors).
If you want to take a break from your elliptical trainer and enjoy a walk outside this article can show you how to burn maximum calories (and give your body some great crosstraining!)
Walking on a treadmill is one of the easiest ways to get in shape and burn fat. In fact, mile for mile, you can burn as many calories walking as you would jogging.
Want to start a treadmill walking program? Here are 5 tips to help you get the most walking bang for your buck:
1) Get your arms pumping.
Bring your upper body into your workout by pumping your arms. This is an easy way to burn more calories while walking. If you want to tone up, try using 2 - 5 pound handweights.
Another benefit: pumping your arms propels you forward and helps you move faster - which means more distance covered and more calories burned!
2) Build in incline intervals.
Walking on an incline is one of the fastest ways to drastically increase your calories burned. But you don't have to spend your whole workout on an incline. Try building in 30 - 60 second intervals of incline walking on your treadmill ever 5 to 10 minutes.
Building in intervals will also help your body continue to burn calories post-workout.
3) Increase your pace, not your stride
Got shorter legs? No problem! Instead of increasing your stride (and possibly pulling something), increase the number of steps you take.
This also increases your speed which means more distance covered and more calories burned.
4) Make sure you have excellent walking shoes
Ok, this isn't exactly a walking tip, but here's the thing: Walking in poor shoes can hurt your feet, knees, hips, joints and back. Then you won't be walking for a long time!
If you want to feel great after a walking workout (and ready for the next one tomorrow), make sure you have the best possible walking shoes you can afford. Why do all that work, just to pay for it with aches and pains later?
5) Take plenty of time to warm up and stretch to avoid getting painful shinsplints.
I could walk forever, I enjoy it so much. In fact walking is the best stress relief I know of. However there's the little thing called shinsplints that threaten to put me out of commission every so often.
Many walkers and runners struggle with painful shinsplints. This constant repetitive flexing of the shin muscle can create soreness when a walker increases their speed or distance.
To help ward off shin splints (or other muscle injury), take plenty of time to warm up before you really get into your workout. Also make sure you stretch. Pointing and flexing your foot helps stretch and build the shin muscle. Ankle rotations also help with this.
So there you have it - 5 essential treadmill walking tips. Keep these in mind and you're guaranteed to enjoy many stress-relieving, fat burning walks on your home treadmill!
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Was this information useful? This article on 'Treadmill Walking Tips' was one of several on our Elliptical Trainer articles section.
