5 Responses to “Is it okay to split up my 30 minute treadmill runs into 10 minute segments?”

1. __Jean on June 28th, 2009 6:38 pm

   Absolutely.

   Varying time/speed is great.

2. iltmaemc on June 30th, 2009 2:39 pm

   SURE WHY NOT

3. hankster6@sbcglobal.net on July 1st, 2009 8:31 pm

   Yes…Yes and Yes.
   30 min. is 30 minutes. and anything that keeps your workout from being boring is a good thing.

   Whatever gets you to stick to your routine.

   Best Wishes.

4. Sylvia B on July 3rd, 2009 4:50 pm

   The majority of these people don’t really know. You can break up your workout, that is your choice. But if you keep it continuous and run for 30 minutes straight, you will get a better stronger workout. The longer you keep your heart rate up and pumping (cardio) the more you will burn. When you break it up, it takes a few minutes for your body to get back into full throttle exercise mode each time you start again. So you stop and rest and your heart rate goes down, then you start again and it goes back up. But if you go straight and keep your heart rate up for a full 30 minute workout, you’ll burn WAY more fat and calories.

   Good luck!

5. dvldogg187 on July 5th, 2009 2:09 pm

   So there is good news for you and bad news for you. The good news is that if you are only doing 30 minutes and your only goal is to burn calories then it doesn’t really matter much if you break up your treadmill time into 3 10 minute sessions. The bad news is that 30 minutes isn’t really gonna help you in your goal of losing weight.

   The real benefits of cardio exercise for fat loss are after 45 minutes. Up untill 45 minutes only about half of the calories you lose will come from fat. After 45 minutes of non stop exercise your body will begin using only fat (well about 90%) for energy. The key to this is that the exercise must be sustained, there can be no breaks or rests.

   If you burn 300 calories in 30 minutes jogging then you will only burn 150 calories of fat. Since there are 3500 calories in a pound of fat it will take 23 sessions of 30 minutes to burn 1 pound of fat.

   If you exercise for 1.25 hours instead you will burn 225 calories of fat in the first 45 minutes and 300 calories of fat in the second 30 minutes for a total of 525 calories. At that rate it will take about 7 days to burn 1 pound of fat, more than 3 times faster than the other way. You will also gain the cardio benefits by sustaining your exercise.