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20 Minute HIIT Treadmill Workout For Beginners

Christian Pinedo

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20 Minute HIIT Treadmill Workout for Beginners
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In this quick article, we’re going to go over a quick 20 minute HIIT Treadmill Workout For Beginners.

This is assuming that you have a treadmill to work on at your gym or at your home, I have one at my home in my garage. Some treadmills are different, however, so this article is going to assume that your treadmill can go up to at least speed 11. Just want to make that clear before we move on.

11-13 Treadmill Sprints

So the workout is pretty simple, you’re gonna do 11 to 13 sprints (and there’s a range because this is a beginner workout) in a high-intensity intervals fashion on a treadmill.

These 11 to 13 sprints should be done in an almost all out intensity.

Meaning if you’ve ever seen Rocky 2 when they’re sprinting on the beach, him and Apollo, this is my go-to example for every video/article, if you take a look at their faces when they’re sprinting, they’re not messing around, they’re going pretty much almost all out and they are they are booking it!

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So when I mean almost all intensity that (above) is what I mean.

This could be anywhere from speed 9 to 11 for you since you’re a beginner, so adjust accordingly depending on if you’re a natural runner or you’re good at running and know how to run with good running form. If you have never done HIIT before, especially sprints, then I highly recommend doing lower speed.

30 Seconds of All Out Sprints on the Treadmill

So what you’re going to do is sprint for 30 seconds.

Now I know in my previous videos/articles I have said you should your high-intensity intervals, your sprinting sessions, should be anywhere between 15 seconds to 25 seconds.

However, since you’re a beginner and more likely have not done high-intensity interval training that much, I recommend just going a little tiny bit longer just to get used to the sprints.

Also, please take the time to figure out how to run with good form. You shouldn’t be falling over or you shouldn’t look crazy when you’re running. It should be a smooth and natural-looking motion. You should have good form, I don’t want you to get hurt, so please make sure to check out a video on how to run with proper form on a treadmill.

Now let’s get on to the rest time for this high-intensity interval training treadmill workout.

1 “Minute-ish” of Rest After Your Treadmill Sprints

I want you to do one minute of rest or more if needed, so as you can see, this is double the amount of time or sprinting.

So 30 seconds x 2 is one minute.

Since you’re a beginner, I want you to follow a 1-2 ratio.

Meaning, if I was to sprint or run for one minute, that means I would rest for two minutes,

If I was to run for two minutes, that means I would rest for 4 minutes, etc.

Not saying you should sprint for two minutes, this is just an example.

Now since you’re a beginner this might not be enough rest time for you to recover completely, so adjust this accordingly.

That’s why I said before, this workout could be anywhere from 11 to 13 Sprint’s.

Basically, if you follow this exact format, so if you if you can get 13 sprints in, that means you’re doing 30-second sprints’ followed by one minute of rest on the dot.

So again rest more or less if needed and adjust accordingly since you are a beginner.

I recommend doing this to three times per week at max for if you’re trying to lose weight or just trying to keep up your cardiovascular health.

All of us need a little more help on our cardiovascular health so this is a really good workout.

If You Have Time, Try This AFTER Your Treadmill Sprint Workout

If you have longer than 20 minutes to work out on the treadmill, I highly recommend you do, on at least some of your days that you do cardio, 15-20 minutes of steady state cardio right after your sprints, because of this illustration right here:

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This illustration comes from Rusty Moore’s Visual Impact Cardio Course.

Let me explain this picture to you really quick.

Intense Exercise (sprints in this case), get rid of glycogen quickly in your body. Glycogen comes from eating carbs. Glycogen is what fuels are body. It’s our main energy source.

With me so far?

When your body is depleted of glycogen (usually, this happens after a hard workout, but HIIT gets rid of it fastest), it starts pulling from either muscle or fat.

Now if you have a lot of fat to lose it, the more likely it is going to come from fat.

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That’s why Rusty Moore, once you’re done with your sprints, recommends to do strategic cardio, in this case being steady state cardio right after that, so you can tap into those fatty acids and burn them.

Visual Impact Cardio – Great Program For HIIT Workouts On The Treadmill

And this all comes from this Visual Impact Cardio course that I highly recommend you check out.

Again, you do high intensity interval training to burn through glycogen as much as possible and as fast as possible. Then you use strategic cardio, which in this case would be 15 minutes of incline walking or something, some form of steady state cardio to tap in and burn those fatty acids.

Again, this all comes from Visual Impact Cardio.

If you guys like doing cardio or high intensity interval training on cardio machines, then I highly recommend this course.

That’s going to be it for this article you guys. If you got any value from this article, consider sharing this with your friends, and leaving a comment if you have any questions!

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Christian Pinedo

Hey there, Christian here. I'm a former fat guy who just wants to help you succeed in your fitness journey. I share my own experiences and experiments right here on this site. Let me know how I can be of help by leaving a comment below. If you want to learn more about my 50 lb weight loss journey, click here.

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