Try this killer treadmill workout – especially if you’ve got bad knees

Go backward for a better burn

Have you ever seen someone go backwards on a treadmill? I'm sure you have, and you may have thought to yourself, "What is that idiot doing?!" Well, according to researchers from South Africa, they are not idiots after all. In fact, you may consider doing some backwards cardio from time to time — especially if you're getting over a knee problem.

The researchers had 39 subjects with various knee injuries follow a rehabilitation program that involved either forward- or backward-pedaling on the treadmill and elliptical machines. They reported at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine that the group going backwards increased their aerobic capacity by 10% more than the forward group. The backward group also increased their quad and hamstring strength more than the forward group.

(Flickr photo by OIST)

Jim’s take-home point

If you have a knee injury or are getting over a knee injury you should definitely consider going backwards on the treadmill and elliptical from time to time. But even if you have no knee injuries you still might consider going backwards, not just to mix it up but the boost your leg strength more and even your aerobic capacity. The elliptical is the easiest to do this on. For the treadmill, be sure to start slow until you get the hang of it and gradually increase your speed. You can also go backwards on the track or anywhere outdoors, just be careful about what's behind you.

Source: Terblanche, E., et al. Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, 2011.

Go manual for more muscle

One thing that I preach is doing shorter — but more frequent — bouts of cardio throughout the day.

This will actually help you burn off more fat than just doing one long cardio session. If you have followed my advice here, you may have looked into purchasing a treadmill for your home so that you can get in your cardio workouts at any time of day. But maybe you were daunted by the price tag. After all, many quality, motorized treadmills can cost you more than id="listicle-2627551358",000.

I have some good news for you — the best treadmill that you can buy may be closer to just 0

This kind of treadmill is known as a manual treadmill. Yes, the kind that you have to keep going with your own leg power. It's no frills and no thrills, but the two studies below show why manual or non-motorized treadmills are better than their motorized counterparts.

First, University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee) researchers compared the calories burned and heart rate during walking at similar speeds on a motorized treadmill versus a non-motorized treadmill. They reported that the non-motorized treadmill lead to a 20% higher increase in heart rate and a 40% greater calorie burn! So forget about running on the motorized treadmill, using a non-motorized one will give you more a workout for faster fat loss.

(Flickr photo by David Ohmer)

Researchers from Carroll University, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, measured muscle activity of the vastus lateralis — one of the four quadriceps muscles — the hamstrings and gastrocnemius (calf muscles) when subjects walked on a standard, motorized treadmill and on a non-motorized treadmill. They discovered that the non-motorized treadmill increased muscle activity of the quads by over 50% more and muscle activity of the calves and hamstrings by 100% more than the motorized treadmill. This means that using a non-motorized treadmill to do your cardio on can also help you to bring up your quads, hams and calves development.

Jim’s take-home point

A harder workout, bigger leg muscles, more calories burned, and the cost can be as low as 0—why wouldn't you get a manual treadmill?! Try doing a few 10-minute bouts of sprinting HIIT workouts on one of these bad boys and you will feel it in your legs for sure and see it on, er off your waist.

Source: Snyder, A. C., et al. Energy expenditure while walking on a non-motorized treadmill. Annual Meeting of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, 2010.

Source: Edilbeck, B. P., et al. Comparison of muscle electromyography during walking on a motorized and non-motorized treadmill. Annual Meeting of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, 2011.

This article originally appeared on G.I. Jobs. Follow @GIJobsMagazine on Twitter.