SWAT Treadmill Workout

Here's a cardio workout I got from SWAT. It only requires a treadmill, a pair of light dumbbells and some determination. I will put out three versions of the workout: Newbie, Vet and BEAST mode.

 The workout is 60 min total time divided into six ten minute intervals or sets. After each 10 minutes increase the incline by 1 degree and the speed by 0.1 mph. During the workout you will be holding dumbbells. Alternate holding them at your sides and resting them on your shoulders every two minutes. Do this workout every other day.

Newb*: 5 lb dumbbells

0-10 min: 7 incline, 3.0 mph
10-20 min: 8 incline, 3.1 mph
20-30 min: 9 incline, 3.2 mph
30-40 min: 10 incline, 3.3 mph
40-50 min: 11 incline, 3.4 mph
50-60 min: 12 incline, 3.5 mph

Veteran: 10 lb dumbbells

0-10 min: 10 incline, 3.0 mph
10-20 min: 11 incline, 3.1 mph
20-30 min: 12 incline, 3.2 mph
30-40 min: 13 incline, 3.3 mph
40-50 min: 14 incline, 3.4 mph
50-60 min: 15 incline, 3.5 mph

Beast: 15 lb dumbbells

0-10 min: 10 incline, 3.2 mph
10-20 min: 11 incline, 3.3 mph
20-30 min: 12 incline, 3.4 mph
30-40 min: 13 incline, 3.5 mph
40-50 min: 14 incline, 3.6 mph
50-60 min: 15 incline, 3.7 mph

At first glance the workout looks fairly pedestrian, especially the first 30 minutes. Do me a favor. Take a mental picture of yourself at the beginning, confidently walking along saying to yourself how easy this is etc. Recall that image when you hit the 45-50 min mark and see if you recognize yourself.

* I did the 'Newb' workout yesterday and it's a bear. I think once I hit the 35 minute mark I said "This isn't fun anymore." At the 50 minute mark it was "C'mon baby you got this" while panting heavily, looking like Ted from Airplane.

Couple of reasons why I like this workout:

1) Low impact
Considering the fact you are walking for the entirety of this workout you really eliminate alot of risk for your typical running injuries. The walking is easy on your joints especially if you have bad knees and back. As a rule workouts should be challenging but they shouldn't 'hurt'. It doesn't do you any good to push yourself to a point where you injure yourself and then have to miss some training time and/or go only 50%-75% because you are ailing.

2) High heart rate, high calorie burn
Using the hand held heart rate readers on the treadmill I got my heart rate to the 175-180 bpm range at the end of the workout. Personally I'm not a big fan of the so called 'fat burning zone' propaganda out there and think that cardio training should actually challenge and subsequently improve your cardio system. Also the workout really burns alot of fat/calories while sparing muscle.

3) Simple and adaptable
Anyone who can walk can do this workout. The starting and ending inclines, speeds and dumbbell weights are just suggestions. You can play with them as fits your needs and limitations. As an example you can try the Veteran speeds/inclines with 5 lb weights. I'd say the only 'rule' is to increase your incline/speed each ten minutes.

The biggest drawback to this workout is the time factor. 60 minutes is a long time and can be mentally exhausting, but push through it. It takes discipline to hold on to those weights and stay on the treadmill for the full 60 minutes but if you do cheat you are only cheating yourself.

Lastly, if somebody wants to name this workout I'm all ears. For some reason 'SWAT Treadmill Workout' does not sound cool at all but I couldn't think of anything.