30 Minute Treadmill Workouts For When You’re Short on Time

Depending on where you live, you may be ready to hibernate into the (relative) comfort of indoor training. While there are many reasons to love treadmill running–complete control over training specifics, avoiding potentially dangerous outdoor conditions, it can be easier on your body, and even works different leg muscles than running outdoors–doing it all winter long can get boring if you’re not switching up your workouts. After all, there are only so many shows you can stream in the gym before you just need to shake things up.

Here are three easy-to-execute (yet still challenging) workouts to do on the treadmill. These are perfect for days when you’re short on time, but still want to fit a good, hard workout into your day.

Don’t forget to do a dynamic warm-up with a 5-minute jog before jumping into these treadmill workouts and end with a cool down and some light stretching or foam rolling.

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Hill Climber

Hill training isn’t just for the outdoors. Trade slippery, icy hills for this 30-minute treadmill hill workout. The idea is to maintain the same speed throughout. The intensity of the workout comes from cranking the incline up and down.

• 8 minutes easy (a pace where you can easily talk to a friend or sing out loud) and 0% incline
• 2 minutes at 4% incline
• 2 minutes at 0% incline
• 2 minutes at 4.5% incline
• 2 minutes at 0% incline
• 2 minutes at 5.0% incline
• 2 minutes at 0% incline
• 2 minutes at 5.5% incline
• 2 minutes at 0% incline
• 2 minutes at 6.0% incline
• 4 minutes at 0% incline

Pyramid Intervals

Unlike the last one, in this workout you’ll leave the incline buttons alone.Instead you’ll vary the length of your intervals, trading off between easy and 5K pace.

• 8 minutes easy (a pace where you can easily talk to a friend or sing out loud)
• 1 minute at 5K pace
• 1 minute easy
• 2 minutes at 5K pace
• 1 minute easy
• 3 minutes at 5K pace
• 1 minute easy
• 3 minutes at 5K pace
• 1 minute easy
• 2 minutes at 5K pace
• 1 minute easy
• 1 minute at 5K pace
• 5 minutes easy

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Boredom Buster

For this workout, you’re going to focus on tuning into different speeds and working hard. Keep the incline either completely flat or at 0.5% if you prefer.

• 8 minutes easy (a pace where you can easily talk to a friend or sing out loud)
• 3 minutes at 10K pace
• 2 minutes at 5K pace
• 1 minute at 1 mile pace
• 5 minutes easy
• 3 minutes at 10K pace
• 2 minutes at 5K pace
• 1 minute at 1 mile pace
• 5 minutes easy

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