'I did the 12-3-30 workout everyday for a week, here's everything I learned' (2023)

FAQs

'I did the 12-3-30 workout everyday for a week, here's everything I learned'? ›

After 30 days, I noticed a big difference in my body and overall wellness. My legs felt and looked stronger and I shrunk a size in jeans.

After 30 days, I noticed a big difference in my body and overall wellness. My legs felt and looked stronger and I shrunk a size in jeans.

So, depending on your fitness level (and whether this workout is moderate or high intensity for you), doing the 12-3-30 treadmill routine about 3 to 5 times per week meets those benchmarks, Metzl says.

Floyd-Jones warns against this and recommends sticking to the 12-3-30 workout two or three days a week max. Intervening days are better spent building up other muscles—like those of your core and back—by doing resistance- and mobility-based training or body-weight exercises at home.

Weight loss and health benefits

Bassett estimated a person who weighed 150 pounds would burn 283 calories per “12, 3, 30” workout. In comparison, walking at that speed for 30 minutes without the incline would burn 113 calories, he said.

The takeaway. The 12-3-30 treadmill workout is an effective way to increase aerobic fitness, burn calories, boost your mood, and improve your heart health while engaging muscles in your lower body. Combined with a healthy diet and calorie deficit, it can also promote healthy weight loss.

Due to her influence, many have started taking her lead and the results were quite surprising. Those who have tried it out claim to have lost around 20 pounds in a month and are now calling it the 12-3-30 lifestyle. So, what is this workout all about and does it really work? What is the 12-3-30 workout?

Using the incline on the treadmill effectively burns belly fat, even if it's a 30-minute walking workout at a moderate pace.

Walking on an incline causes your body to use more energy, which leads to more fat being burned. Additionally, walking on an incline is easier on your joints than running, making it a safer and more effective way to burn fat.

It builds lower body strength. It helps improve cardiovascular fitness. It burns fat. It strengthens bones.

Does incline walking burn fat or build muscle? ›

Incline treadmill walking is a great way to shed body fat when paired with the right weight loss supplement and diet plan. It's an aerobic exercise that will also get your heart rate up and improve blood flow throughout the body.

When it comes to the muscle-strengthening benefits of incline walking vs running, in most cases, as long as the incline is at least moderate, incline walking trumps running. Incline walking is essentially a form of resistance training because walking up an incline requires contending against the force of gravity.

In general, it may be a good option if you're looking for a challenge in the area of cardio or to re-energize your workout, she adds. However, as with many workouts, you want to be sure not to overdo it with the 12-3-30 given its repetitive nature that can cause additional stress and strain on joints and muscles.

If you're a 160-pound body weight person walking on an incline for one hour, you can expect to burn 440 calories. The same 160-pound person running at 6 miles an hour for one hour burns 720 calories on flat ground. Therefore, over the same period of time, running burns a greater amount of calories.

The steep, 12 percent incline forces your body to work harder than walking on a flat surface, which will burn more calories, she says.

The 12-3-30 workout is an intermediate workout that may be too hard for beginners, people with knee issues, or anyone with a significant weight to lose. One 12-3-30 modification is to drop the incline. You could start with 1-2% incline and each week up the incline by 1% until you hit the super steep 12% incline.

Try to avoid holding onto the treadmill while walking, as it reduces the benefits of the workout. “If you feel like you need to hang on, you probably should consider changing the incline or speed,” notes Lawton. Use good form, with a bit of a lean to your body as you stride.

According to Healthline, running burns the most calories. A tried and true exercise that requires little more than your legs and the open road, running burns just over 800 calories for a 155-pound adult per hour.

Does 12 3 30 tone your legs? ›

If you want to tone your legs and build more strength in the lower body, the 12-3-30 workout can help. “Incline walking is great for your leg muscles, helping to develop muscular endurance and strength, particularly in your glutes, hamstrings and calves,” explains Folusha.

One study found that compared to walking on a flat surface, participants burned 17 percent more calories at a 5 percent incline and 32 percent more calories at a 10 percent incline. If walking on the treadmill is already part of your fitness routine, increasing the incline is an easy way to maximize your next workout.

Increases activation of lower leg muscles

Research shows that walking on a medial incline ramp activates the peroneal muscles significantly more than walking on a normal or flat surface. These findings support the use of incline walking to strengthen the peroneals and help people with weak ankles ( 5 ).

Holding on to the treadmill cheats the lower back out of doing work, weakening the all-important core muscles. Tall people who hold on are even more at risk for leaning forward, and exercising with a slumped posture. View a tall person from the side who's clinging to the machine and note their poor posture.

When you walk on an incline, your body uses a greater percentage of fat. Studies have shown that walking 3 miles per hour on an inclined raised between 16 and 18 percent will burn 70 percent more fat than running on a flat surface.

Generally, 4 to 6 mph is the average jogging speed. You can increase the speed or add more minutes to make this workout harder. For an easier version, increase the incline by 0.5 percent each minute. Repeat until you've reached a 4 to 5 percent incline, then work in reverse.

How Often Should You Do Incline Walking? Since an incline walking workout doesn't put as much pressure on your muscles and knee joints as walking you can perform it every day. A simple walk on the incline for 30 minutes per day can improve your muscular endurance.

For a well-rounded fitness routine, Robinson recommends pairing the 12-3-30 workout with other exercises, such as strength training, yoga or Pilates. Almost anything is welcome so long as you're mixing it up. “Your body will plateau if you're only doing the same thing for weeks or months at a time,” she says.

Everyone's body is different, so the number of calories you burn during the 12-3-30 workout will vary from my experience. However, when I did the 12-3-30 workout, the treadmill readout said I burned about 195 calories.

If your treadmill incline walking workouts increase your heart rate into the moderate-intensity physical activity zone, doing 30 minutes of incline walking five days per week will help you reach the guidelines for physical activity, whereas you will only need to walk 25 minutes three times per week if you push up into ...

Does walking tone your butt? ›

Walking is absolutely a great form of exercise, and one that doesn't get a ton of love because it's so chill and easy compared to other forms of exercise, Saltos says. But, rather than building butt muscles, walking can actually make your bum a bit smaller.

Incline Walking vs. Squats: Which Is Better For Glutes? Squats take the cake (no pun intended) over incline walking for building a bigger butt. Squatting places the glutes through a large stretch under heavy loads, increasing muscular tension.

From a cardiovascular standpoint, this increase in work means your heart rate will be higher than walking on a level surface alone. A 2013 study that measured the effects of incline running found that a 2 to 7 percent incline increased heart rate by almost 10 percent when compared with running on a flat surface.

While the number of calories burned by each person is based on individual factors, walking or running at an incline of two percent or more burns more calories than walking or running outdoors on a level surface —the body uses a greater percentage of fat for fuel.

Bhusri suggests walking at 3 mph at an incline between 16 and 18 percent. In general, "the greater the incline and the longer the period of time spent exercising on that incline, the faster you'll see results."

For every 1% of uphill grade, a 150-pound person burns about 10 more calories per mile (an increase of about 12%). That means that at a 10% grade, that 150-pound person burns more than twice as many calories per mile as they would walking on flat ground.

The primary benefits of an incline treadmill workout include that it: Targets different muscles. Additionally, incline walking targets different muscle groups in your legs, such as your glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves – making it an effective way to tone and strengthen these areas.

For starters, the 12/3/30 method is a total lower-body workout, says Haley Gott, a certified personal trainer. "It's a great way to activate multiple muscle groups in your legs," she adds, including your quads, your hamstrings, your glutes, and your calves.

The 12 3 30 treadmill workout is quite simple, though not necessarily easy. You set the incline of the treadmill to 12%, the speed to 3.0 miles per hour, and then walk for 30 minutes. Given the walking speed and duration, the 12/3/30 treadmill workout involves walking 1.5 miles.

Walking on an incline will help you shed off the extra fat from the hip and thigh area. The higher the incline, the more calories are burnt. Since, fat reduction is based on caloric burning process, walking on a hill or incline will help in slimming the hip and thigh area.

How to lose belly fat? ›

After 30 days, I noticed a big difference in my body and overall wellness. My legs felt and looked stronger and I shrunk a size in jeans.

“You will in fact burn more energy during an intense cognitive task than you would vegging out watching Oprah or whatever,” he says. But in the context of the average person's overall energy expenditure, the difference in calorie burn from one mental task to another is a tiny amount, he adds.

Scientific research from 2020 shows that exercising around 300 minutes a week can lead to weight loss and a reduction in body fat.4 The 12-3-30 workout, unfortunately, doesn't quite meet that standard—even if you do it every day (which the experts don't recommend; more on that in a minute).

It builds lower body strength. It helps improve cardiovascular fitness. It burns fat. It strengthens bones.

Yes, the '12-3-30′ treadmill routine can be helpful for weight loss. Walking on a steep incline can burn a lot of calories and increase your metabolism, which can help you to lose weight over time.

Although thinking hard uses calories, the energy burn is minimal. It's not enough to burn fat and cause weight loss. The brain is also an organ, not a muscle.

Incline walking involves walking uphill. It can burn a similar number of calories as running. You burn more calories at an incline than just walking on a flat surface. Look for a hilly area or walk on an incline on the treadmill.

Fast for 12 hours a day

According to some researchers, fasting for 10–16 hours can cause the body to turn its fat stores into energy, which releases ketones into the bloodstream. This should encourage weight loss. This type of intermittent fasting plan may be a good option for beginners.