How to use your treadmill for a strength workout

(FOX 2) - This week, Jill Washburn, our Jill of All Trades, shows us her alternative strength workout on a treadmill.

Jill discovered that crawling on a treadmill is a fantastic strength workout.  It works many muscle groups in the body including the arms, shoulders, core (both front and back), glutes and legs.

The first things you’ll need, says Jill, are kneepads and some sort of gloves. When Jill first tried this out, she used a pair of gardening kneepads and some biking gloves. Once she realized how great it was, she bought some volleyball kneepads (ASICS brand low-profile ACE are her favorites) and some inexpensive weight-lifting gloves.

To start, Jill sets her treadmill speed to 1 mph. Some treadmills will go slower than that. If so, you may want to start at .8 or .9 miles an hour, until you get the hang of it. 

To get started, just crawl like a baby would crawl. Try to lift your knees as you go, instead of “scootching” or dragging them on the surface of the treadmill. Lifting the knees will help work your abdominal muscles, and flatten your belly. 

Initially, that’s all Jill did, starting out for 10 minutes, and then quickly working her way up to 20 minutes a day.

If you’re looking for more of a challenge, you can start switching things up a bit to up the ante on the workout. Instead of crawling with the standard opposite hand/opposite knee combo, Jill recommends trying some of the crawling with the same hand/same knee.  This variation works different muscles, particularly the lower back.

Another challenge is to crawl without using the knees, meaning you’re bear-crawling, only using the hands and toes. This version is much tougher and really works the shoulders and the core. Jill says that it’s tough to do for very long, but even a little bit of it yields great results.

Sometimes, Jill will get down on her forearms and do a kind of military crawl. This is another shoulder strengthener, says Jill, and really stretches the butt muscles, too.

An easier variation is to just do a basic crawl and try to keep the feet from touching the treadmill belt. You’ll really be able to feel this one in the hamstring and butt muscles.

You will probably think of other variations on your own, says Jill. Feel free to get creative to find other ways to strengthen your problem spots. Originally, Jill started do this workout to help heal and strengthen a running injury. Jill found that crawling helps balance your body strength from side-to-side, front-to-back, and top-to-bottom. Achieving that helped heal her injury and has helped to prevent further injuries.

Jill adds that you can do this workout even without a treadmill. When she doesn’t have access to a treadmill she just crawls around the house, if necessary. Yes, it’s weird, she admits, but the results are worth it.

There you have it! Another alternative workout that you can do right at home, from Jill of All Trades.