Incline Walking Exercises

Hill Walking Workout

There's no better walking workout with inclines than a fat burning, leg sculpting hill workout. You can sculpt your glutes and legs quicker and burn more calories with at a 17-minute mile pace better if you include hill walking, according to Fitness Magazine. You can perform this workout routine outside or on a treadmill. Start out with a 15-minute walk on a flat surface or zero incline. Your pace should be at a pace where you’re walking rapidly, but still able to speak sentences. Find a hill or set your treadmill to a 4 to 6 percent incline and walk up the hill quickly for two minutes. Walk downhill to recover or set your treadmill to zero incline for two minutes. Continue the uphill and downhill sequence until you've reached your goal time. For those just starting out with hill walking, alternate between hill inclines or treadmill inclines and five minutes on a flat surface or zero incline.

Interval Incline Walking Workout

Interval training is used by elite athletes, but you can also incorporate intervals with your incline walking routine for great workout. Start with a five-minute warm-up at a comfortable pace, such as 3 mph, and raise the incline to 0.5 percent. After your warm-up, speed up your pace and the incline to 3.5 mph and 1.5 percent for five minutes. Return to your warm-up pace of 3.0 mph and 0.5 incline for two minutes. Speed up at an incline of 3 percent and a pace of 3.5 mph for five minutes. Slow down the pace for two minutes and recover, but keep the incline where it is. For the next five minutes, pick up the pace to 3.5 mph and raise your incline to 4 percent. Recover for two minutes, bringing the pace back down to 3.0 mph and lower the incline by 1 percent every 30 seconds. Next is a five-minute cool-down. For the first two minutes, lower the pace to 2.5 mph and the incline to 0.5 percent. For the last three minutes, walk with no incline, but keep the pace at 2.5 mph.

Glute Sculpting Incline Walking Workout

For those who want to focus on the rear of their body, Fitness magazine offers a heart-pumping walking routine that keeps the speed high and the incline higher. For beginners, keep your pace at a 3.5-mph pace, and for those who are intermediate or advanced, a 4-mph pace will get you a better workout. For the first five minutes keep the incline at 3 to 3.5 percent. For the following two minutes, increase the incline to 8 to 10 percent. For the next minute, bring the incline down between 4 to 6 percent. Bring the incline back up for two minutes to a 10 percent incline. Bring the incline down again between 5 to 7 percent. Rev it up again for the next two minutes at a 12 percent incline and bring it down slightly to 10 percent incline for one minute. You’ll feel the burn again as you push yourself for one more minutes at a 12 percent incline. Cool down for five minutes and bring the incline down between 2 and 4 percent.

Considerations

Warming up can help prepare your body for cardio activity, according to MayoClinic.com. You want to take at least five minutes before a workout to warm up to increase the blood flow to your muscles and to raise your overall body temperature. Cooling down is beneficial as well. It helps to regulate blood flow and bring down your heart rate. Take at least five to 10 minutes after your workout to cool down and consider stretching your muscles afterwards for five minutes. Use static stretches, don’t bounce, and hold each stretch for approximately 30 seconds.