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I did a 10-minute incline walk every day for two weeks and my energy levels skyrocketed
I’ve been a runner for almost 20 years, but pregnancy forced me to take a break.
Once I was cleared for exercise again, I knew I would need to gradually rebuild my strength and endurance.
At first, I tried steady state, low-intensity walks on the treadmill, with no incline and at one speed.
That got easy—and boring—rather quickly, so I wanted to up the ante.
I decided to add 10 minutes of incline to my walks for two full weeks, and was impressed at how much it impacted my fitness.
Is incline walking safe?
Before starting my incline walks, I reached out to physical therapist Dr John Rusin for advice on how to safely incorporate them into my routine.
Dr John Rusin is a physical therapist and certified trainer. He has nearly two decades of experience as a coach, working with both professional athletes and general members of the public.
Rusin explained that adding an incline to your daily walk can ramp up the challenge to your cardio system, making your body work harder and improving your fitness.
He cautioned that it’s best to start small, with a very slight incline of 1-5%.
“The slight angles are easier on the body as they don’t tend to alter normal gait mechanics enough to cause unwanted compensations, shifts in walking technique, or acute overloading of muscular areas,” says Rusin.
He also advised that I limit my top speed and incline on a walk to around 3.5mph and 10-12%, as anything above this would alter my gait and increase my risk of injury.
My treadmill incline walking workout
With Rusin’s advice in mind, I decided to try the following incline walk workout for two weeks:
- 1 minute at 0% incline, 3.5 mph
- 2 minutes at 2% incline, 3.5 mph
- 2 minutes at 4% incline, 3.5 mph
- 2 minutes at 7% incline, 3.0 mph
- 2 minutes at 9% incline, 3.0 mph
- 1 minute at 0% incline, 3.0 mph
My experience
Here are some things I noticed.
My cardio fitness improved
I use an Apple Watch to track my activity and health metrics, and after the first week of incline walks, I started to see some changes.
Adding inclines to my walks forced my heart to work a bit harder, so I saw a much higher average heart rate across my workouts. That increased heart rate eventually translated into better endurance.
According to my phone’s health app, I had been hovering right at the top range of “below average” in cardio fitness for a while (thanks, pregnancy). By the end of the two weeks, I was in the “above average” category once again.
I should note that fitness wearables aren’t always accurate at evaluating cardiovascular fitness, but they are good at noticing broader trends and changes in your health.
Daily activities became easier
After nine months away from my usual workouts, I was surprisingly deconditioned.
Climbing a flight of stairs had become significantly harder, and I had trouble doing things like carrying my laundry basket to the basement and back.
Not only did my incline walks improve my endurance, but they also strengthened my lower body.
After two weeks, my laundry basket didn’t feel as heavy as it used to, and my legs weren’t burning by the time I got to the top of the stairs.
My calves were sore
One drawback of this experiment was that my calves felt tight after a few days.
However, that was easily remedied once I started doing stretches for the gastrocnemius and soleus, the two main muscles of the calf.
Doing calf-focused stretches after each incline walk diminished my tightness and pain, and I was able to continue my workouts without issue.
