A Brutal Cardio Routine For You

If you really want to torture yourself at the gym one day, try out this cardio routine. If you can complete it from start to finish without dying, then I would say that you are probably in pretty good shape. The entire routine takes about 1 hr 10 mins from start to finish (including the cool-down period). I can get about an hour in, and then I completely fall apart. To do this routine, you just need a treadmill that is able to give you different incline slopes. Here is the routine from start to finish:

1. Stretch out your legs.
2. Hop on the treadmill and run 30 minutes at 6 miles per hour (a fast jog) with zero incline.
3. When the 30 minutes is over, have a 5 minute cool-down period. When you finish your jog, decrease the speed every minute until you are walking.
4. At this point you are about 35 minutes into the workout. If you made it this far, then congratulations, but the hardest part is yet to come.
5. Increase the incline to 5.0 and set the speed to 3.5 miles per hour. Stay here for 3 minutes (you'll be walking).
6. Reduce the incline to 2% and increase the speed to 4.0 miles per hour (a fast walk).
7. For the next three minutes, up the incline every 30 seconds (ok, you'll start to feel the burn).
8. For the next three minutes, decrease the incline by 1.0 every 30 seconds, but slightly increase the speed (you'll soon break into a slow jog).
9. For the next three minutes, do a 5.0 miles per hour jog at zero incline.
10. For the next three minutes, increase the incline to 2.0 and decrease your speed to 4.8 miles per hour.
11. For the next three minutes, increase the incline by 1.0 every thirty seconds while maintaining your speed.
12. For the next three minutes, decrease the incline by 1.0 every thirty seconds while maintaining your speed.
13. For the next minute, increase the incline to 8.0 while maintaining the 4.8 miles per hour speed.
14. For the last three minutes, decrease the incline to 2.0 and increase the speed to 5.0 miles per hour.
15. Five minute cooldown. You're done!

I can make it about halfway through #11 before I have to stop. That's when the incline is at about 5.0 and I am running 4.8 miles per hour. It's harder than it seems, especially when you have tired out your legs running 3 miles just beforehand.

Try this routine out. I lifted it from the most recent copy of Men's Fitness, and added a couple things of my own. I'd put the degree of difficulty as pretty high for this workout - as I said, if you can complete it, I would imagine that you are in pretty decent shape.

Filed under: Health + Fitness | General Knowledge