Incline on the treadmill

I like to use the incline because it allows me to burn more calories than without it...also a friend who is also a Dr. and avid runner told me that if I run on the treadmill using a 1-2%incline will be easier on the knees than no incline. (I was having pain after running on the treadmill and it did work!) When I walk I pop the incline up to about 6 and it will burn the same ammount of calories as running at 2% and 5mph. for the same length of time.

I run at various inclines because outside is rarely flat. I set up for doing hill repeats up to an 8% incline just to build up stamina for hills.

I'm a pure walker right now. Currently I do 3.0-3.2 mph at 10% incline the entire time to keep my heart rate ~85% max. I'll do brief periods (~6m) at 15% around the middle of my workout then drop back to 10%. I feel awkward using a treadmill at anything lower than 3%; just doesn't feel right. Probably because my home unit bottomed-up at 1.5% When I finally work may way up to jogging, I'll probably start at 3% and work my way up from there (speed first, then inclination).

Funny thing is that the LifeFitness treadmills at work often calculate more than 1,000 cal/hr, but my burn is sometimes in the 800-900 cal range. My thought process is that the cal/hr measure is based on static calculation (speed, incline, and weight) but the actual burn measured also factors in my average heart rate (handle sensors). I probably avg 1 heart measurement every 1-2 minutes. Thoughts?

I'm a pure walker right now. Currently I do 3.0-3.2 mph at 10% incline the entire time to keep my heart rate ~85% max. I'll do brief periods (~6m) at 15% around the middle of my workout then drop back to 10%. I feel awkward using a treadmill at anything lower than 3%; just doesn't feel right. Probably because my home unit bottomed-up at 1.5% When I finally work may way up to jogging, I'll probably start at 3% and work my way up from there (speed first, then inclination).

Funny thing is that the LifeFitness treadmills at work often calculate more than 1,000 cal/hr, but my burn is sometimes in the 800-900 cal range. My thought process is that the cal/hr measure is based on static calculation (speed, incline, and weight) but the actual burn measured also factors in my average heart rate (handle sensors). I probably avg 1 heart measurement every 1-2 minutes. Thoughts?

Life Fitness treadmills use only the actual workload (speed and elevation) to calculate estimated calories. They do not use heart rate. If you are not holding on to the handrails, the calorie estimates on Life Fitness treadmills are the most accurate method there is -- more accurate than an HRM.

Calories are calculated continously based on workload--if you are seeing a lot of "1000 kcal/hour" displays, but the total after an hour is less than that, it just means you are spending more time below that threshold than above--and if you are doing a program workout, there is a lower-intensity warm up that is included.

My absolute maximum would be 600 calories burned in an hour. My treadmill (not LifeFitness) thinks I easily get up to 1000 calories in an hour but there's no way. I'm more likely to average around 500 for a good workout, up to 600 for a very very intense workout. If I'm just walking on the treadmill, it would be no more than around 300 calories.

If I went by what the machine said, and ate back my calories, I'd be wondering why it's not working for me. After a long workout, that 400 calorie difference would make quite a big difference in my opinion. The shorter the workout and the less intense, the closer the treadmill is to what I believe to be the truth, but over time the difference drifts further and further apart.

I have been hill training for a 10K and I use the incline interval for my runs.

I have knee/hip issues and I don't mind the treadmill, but I was getting bored when I read this recommendation. After a few minutes of warming up, increase the incline up by one every two minutes, until you achieve ten. After two minutes at ten, decrease by one every two minutes, then cool down. This makes for about a 40-45 minute walk. Keep the speed at 3 mph throughout. I'm a beginner in cardio, so this works really well for me! (And I have to keep at least fingertips on the handles, for balance.)

That's how I like to do a cooldown after a run on the treadmill, if I have the time. It's great - the highest inclines are really hard, but they're over soon enough.

I saw Jon Jones running backwards on the treadmill so i tried it. I almost killed myself!

i had a trainer tell me once that as long as it gets your heart rate up the same way, a high incline is a good lower-impact alternative to jogging. i like to push it up and down in intervals

My trainer once had me do a CRAZY incline of about 14 or something, at a pace of 2.5. It is just something different. You use different muscles, like hiking up a hill. You should try it sometime. See if you like it

How do you log incline walking? I've searched but not found anything, if I just put walking at 3.5 its fewer calories than it should be...

1% will mimic running outdoors, so most runners use that setting.

When I use the treadmill, I have it cycle through a "fat burning" setting that mimics hills. It'll start out flat, gradually increase the incline as high as 6% or8 8%, and hen go back down. The little graph on the treadmill looks like an EKG because it varies the incline so much. It's like walking along a path that has hills. I really like that setting because it's cruise, cruise, ugh, ugh, pant pant pant, much better, easy mode, easy mode, cruising, oh crap here we go again, homahgod kill me, etc.

Life Fitness treadmills use only the actual workload (speed and elevation) to calculate estimated calories. They do not use heart rate. If you are not holding on to the handrails, the calorie estimates on Life Fitness treadmills are the most accurate method there is -- more accurate than an HRM.

Calories are calculated continously based on workload--if you are seeing a lot of "1000 kcal/hour" displays, but the total after an hour is less than that, it just means you are spending more time below that threshold than above--and if you are doing a program workout, there is a lower-intensity warm up that is included.

@Azdak - Re: Lower intensity warm-up; that's what I thought but I disproved that. My warm-up/cool-down phases are very short, less than 7 min total. I did the math by ignoring the time from the 'outer' phases and focused only on the active part in the middle. I never drop below 900 cals/hr, so a 50 min active phase should be 750 cals by itself. That doesn't even count the 5-6 minsin the middle of the active phase where I'm at ~1200 cals/hr (15% incline). The outer phases are at least 700 cals/hr. Yet the entire workout will barely hits 800 cals for the hour. I dunno...