Endurance is a crucial aspect of fitness, and endurance activity helps keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improves your overall fitness. Whether you are an athlete or someone who wants to improve their overall fitness level, endurance training is a great addition to any workout routine. One way to improve your endurance is by using a treadmill with an incline.

What is a Treadmill Incline?

A treadmill incline refers to the angle or slope of the running surface. Most treadmills have an incline feature that allows you to increase or decrease the angle of the running surface. When you increase the incline, you create a hill-like environment that makes your workout more challenging. Incline treadmills, like the NordicTrack Commercial X22i and Commercial X32i, offer an industry-best 40% incline and can be used to simulate outdoor running or add resistance to workouts.

How Treadmill Incline Can Help Improve Your Endurance

Increases workout intensity

When training on an incline, you work against gravity, requiring more effort from your muscles. This increased effort may translate to a more intense workout that can help improve your overall endurance.

Builds endurance in specific muscles

When running on an incline, you activate different muscles than you would running on a flat surface. In particular, you engage your glutes, hamstrings, and calves more when running uphill. If you want to hike in the outdoors, this is a great way to prepare yourself for real-world terrain! 

Increases aerobic capacity

Aerobic capacity refers to the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during exercise. By running on an incline, you can increase your aerobic capacity, which means your body can use more oxygen during exercise.

Tips for Using Treadmill Incline

Take it slow

If you’re new to using incline treadmills, start with a small incline and gradually increase it over time. Your body needs time to adjust to the increased intensity, so don’t push yourself too hard too soon.

Mix it up

Don’t use the same incline every time you use an incline treadmill. Mix it up by varying either the incline or duration of your workout. This will help prevent boredom and challenge your body in new ways.

The Bottom Line

Treadmill incline training is an excellent workout to help improve your endurance. First-timers should start slowly and use proper form. To keep things interesting, mix up your workout to challenge your body in new ways. Check out NordicTrack’s Incline Treadmill Series to learn more about incline treadmills