Beat the Dread: 7 Tips for Making Treadmill Walking More Fun
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Ah, the treadmill. It’s where I started this crazy walking journey, so many years ago—and for that I will be eternally grateful. But ever since I stepped outside and realized what I’d been missing, I started to dread those incredibly long, incredibly dull walks in our gloomy basement workout room. There’s a reason why people have nicknamed it “the dreadmill.”
On days when the weather doesn’t cooperate—or on days when I just can’t get out of the house—the treadmill is a necessary evil. It’s a way to get a nice long walk in without getting drenched or losing digits to hypothermia. But do I enjoy it? Not really. I’d much rather be walking outside, breathing in the fresh air and greeting my fellow walkers.
Fortunately, though, there are ways to make those seemingly monotonous miles on the treadmill a little less…dreadful. Here are a few tips for surviving the miles.
Cover the Numbers
When I’m on my treadmill, I tend to spend a lot of time staring at the numbers on the display—especially the minutes and the mileage. I usually have a goal in mind—maybe an hour or a 5k—so I find myself staring at the numbers, willing them to move a little faster. I’ll obsess about how much time I have left—and I’ll even do the math to figure out the percentage of my workout I’ve finished. Seriously, guys…it’s pretty pathetic.
One way to battle this problem is pretty simple: just cover them up! Take a workout towel and drape it right over those slowly-moving numbers. Sure, you might find a way to cheat and make out the numbers through the fabric. But when you make it harder to spend your entire walk staring at the numbers, you’re more likely to do it less often.
Change Up Your Workout
One pretty great thing about walking on the treadmill is that you can adjust your workout. You can gradually build up your pace. You can do intervals, speeding up for a few minutes before slowing down for a few minutes—and then speeding back up again. Most treadmills also allow you to adjust your incline, to make it like you’re walking up hills. Many have pre-programmed workouts that will change up the pace/incline for you, but you can also create your own program, increasing and decreasing to push yourself more—or to give yourself a break. And if you spend your time focusing on changing up the settings, it might just make the workout go by a little faster.
Add Weights
Adding weights to your walking workout can crank up the intensity a bit. We’ve already taken a look at the benefits and the options. I often strap on some Bala Bangles while I’m on the treadmill for the extra resistance, and I’ll sometimes add to the workout by doing different arm movements while I walk—from lifting my arms over my head to punching out in front of me. If you’re already staring at the numbers on your treadmill’s screen, you can use your obsessive number-watching to start a new arm workout every five minutes (or three…or whatever will keep you from getting bored).
Binge Your Favorite Show—or Watch a Movie
You’re going to be on the treadmill for a while, so make it fun by watching a show (or a movie) that you might not have the time or ability to watch at other times. When I’m on the treadmill, that’s my time. My family isn’t there to choose the entertainment, so I can watch what I want. I can choose a silly rom-com or binge my way through Friends or Gilmore Girls, and no one can complain. And by the time I’ve watched a movie (or an episode or two), I’ve gotten in a great workout in the process.
Explore Faraway Lands
There’s nothing quite like walking outside and enjoying the fresh air—but if you can’t get outside for a walk on your favorite trail, you can still explore trails while walking on your treadmill. Thanks to the plethora of walking videos on YouTube, you can venture along seaside paths in Hawaii or wander through towns in Italy—or even enjoy a walk through Disney’s Magic Kingdom—all without leaving your home gym!
Just search for things like “walking scenery” or “virtual walk” on YouTube, and you can find a variety of different settings. Some include soothing soundtracks, while others just include the ambient sounds. You can choose long walks or short ones—trails or villages—and you can walk somewhere new every day!
Play a Game
Every once in a while, I find a game that just pulls me in and won’t let go. I find myself filling beakers of colored liquids or building islands or using letters to create words—and I end up wasting more time than I’d like to think about. If you’ve got a game like that—the kind that tends to suck up a whole bunch of time without you noticing—that’s the perfect way to pass the time on the treadmill. As long as it’s something that you can play while walking at a decent pace, you can use your treadmill time to boost that high score. Better yet, find some games from a paid-to-play app (I like Swagbucks), and you can earn yourself some coffee money while you play and walk!
No matter how you survive those dreadmill miles, you should be so very proud of your accomplishment. When you saw that ice storm outside—or when your kids ended up with a snow day—you could have called it a rest day. But you got on that treadmill and did the work. That takes dedication!
What are some things that you’ve tried to make your treadmill time more bearable? Do you have any special tricks?
