3 Workouts for Effective Treadmill Jogging

Two people jogging on a treadmill

Sean Locke Photography/Shutterstock.com

By Simon Gould

For those who are beginners to running sometimes jogging is all they can do. If you’re overweight or older than others a good jog on the treadmill is a really good workout. It gets you fit and healthy and can burn plenty of calories. Jogging counts as vigorous physical activity by the CDC so you only need do 1 hour and 15 minutes of it per week for “important health benefits”.

Jogging is between 4.0 mph and 6.0 mph so it’s a steady speed. We’ll take 5 mph in our calculations and 30 minutes of jogging at this speed can burn 347 calories so you’re looking at around 115 every 10 minutes. Here we’ve got 3 jogging workouts for you that will test your jogging abilities and give you some variation on a treadmill.

Always warm up and cool down

In the workouts below I’ve used a slower jog as the warm up and cool down. But you can replace this with brisk walking if you wish. The idea of the warm up is to prepare your body and heart for the main exercise to come. This is recommended by experts around the world. Everyone does, or should do it. It’s easy to introduce it into your routines.

We cool down to slow the heart and get your body to recover from the main workout. They can be the boring parts of the workout, but it’s worth doing. I do it and you get used to it. The idea is to reduce the intensity to allow your body to recover. Some people recommend stretching. Here are some examples of stretching before and after running.

Jogging workout #1

We’ll give you some jogging faster and slower for this routine. It’s called a pyramid where it starts easy and get’s hard at the middle to where it’s easy again. This is all wrapped around 5 minutes of a warm up and cool down.

  • 5 minutes warm up: 4.3 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.5 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.7 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.9 mph
  • 2 minutes: 5.1 mph
  • 2 minutes: 5.3 mph
  • 2 minutes: 5.1 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.9 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.7 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.5 mph
  • 5 minutes cool down: 4.3 mph

Jogging workout #2

This one is going to be an interval workout. You’ll be jogging slow for 2 minutes then fast for 2 minutes and then repeat. This will get you used to running a bit quicker for what is still jogging. After a few times of you doing this routine it will make you used to jogging a bit faster so it will be easy when you go to do it again.

  • 5 minutes warm up: 4.3 mph
  • 2 minutes: 4.5 mph
  • 2 minutes: 5.3 mph
  • Repeat the above 5 times
  • 5 minutes cool down: 4.3 mph

Jogging workout #3

Now finally one for the experienced joggers out there, this one you should only attempt if you can jog 30 minutes or more as we’re going to up the length of time you’re exercising for. This is still jogging pace but should represent a challenge to you. If it doesn’t then extend the distance even further.

  • 5 minutes warm up: 4.3 mph
  • 1 mile: 5.0 mph
  • 2 miles: 5.3 mph
  • 1 mile: 4.8 mph
  • 5 minutes cool down: 4.3 mph

Jogging is something everyone can do

You may need to build up to it, like doing 5 minutes per day for a week, then extending that by 5 minutes every week. But jogging is a speed everyone can achieve. Even overweight people can manage some jogging. It’s so beneficial for our health that taking up an exercise routine involving jogging is essential. Anyone of any age can benefit.

I’m 46 and the running I do on my treadmill is really just jogging. I go at 5.2 mph and I feel I’ve had an amazing workout when I’ve done my 30 minutes. I was much faster in my 20’s but you don’t need to run fast to get a good workout. I always recommend people who begin exercising to take it slowly and jogging speed is the best way to do that.

Summary

The 3rd jogging workout is quite a hard one because you’re going for 4 miles. You can always adjust this to what you can do. Any running is good for you and 30 minutes should be your aim. If you’re struggling to get jogging for a decent amount of time I have a couch to 5k treadmill plan. This is a routine to get from walking to running for 30 minutes over 9 weeks.

Remember speed is not important unless you run to win races. If you’re looking to lose weight or get healthy then jogging is absolutely fine. When I was younger I could run a lot faster for a long period of time. I’m in my 40’s now and jogging speed is just fine. When you start seeing results you’ll appreciate what you’re doing and there’s no need to compare yourself to other runners.

Thinking of buying a treadmill? Here’s my favorite, I always recommend it when asked.

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