Trying TikTok Treadmill Workouts

I’ll admit it: I’m a cardio junkie. I’m one of those people that enjoys a good treadmill session and doesn’t feel like a workout is complete without one. Yes, I love to switch up my workouts from time to time, and definitely incorporate more than just cardio into my exercise routine, but nothing starts a morning off better for me than a nice incline walk, jog, or run on the treadmill while watching old episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

So, after weeks of seeing the 12-3-30 and WJR workouts all over my TikTok feed, I knew I had to try to them…

First, the 12-3-30: For those of you that may not be too familiar with TikTok or this particular trend, the 12-3-30 workout involves walking at a 3 speed, with the treadmill at a 12 incline, for 30 minutes.

I’m no stranger to incline walking. One of my go-to treadmill exercises is a 30-minute incline walk at an 11.5 incline and 3.5 speed. So, in planning to do this particular workout, I didn’t think it would be much more of a challenge than my typical incline walk…Well, 30 minutes and 1.5 miles later and I was shocked. The first 15 minutes of the workout, I would say, weren’t too bad. I had a lot of energy and was really enjoying the slower pace that came with this exercise. However, at around the halfway point, I really started to feel the effect of that 12 incline. My legs began to feel very heavy, and I found myself holding on more and more out of fear that my legs would give out. At the end of the 30 minutes, I was hot, tired, and relieved that it was over. It was a challenge, to say the least, but I felt really accomplished when I ~finally~ finished. My opinion: never underestimate the power of any incline walk.

Now onto the WJR: This treadmill workout is definitely less known than the 12-3-30, so if you haven’t heard about it already, it’s a HIIT workout. You Walk for a minute at a comfortable speed, Jog for a minute, also at a relatively comfortable speed, and then finally, Run for a minute at a speed that is a challenge for you. Then repeat for a desired amount of time. I try and do at least 30 minutes every time I get on the treadmill, so I repeated this circuit 10 times.

Let me start off by saying that speed is definitely not my specialty. I like to run, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I’m “good” at it. I guess you can say I’m more for distance than I am for time…With that, I walked at a 3.5 speed, jogged at a 5 speed, and ran at a 6.5 speed. Let me tell you, this was really hard. At first, it may not seem that bad, but as you repeat the WJR circuit time after time, that one-minute walk feels more like a second and the two minutes of jogging and running feel like an eternity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fast-paced workout, and the constant shift in speed definitely keeps you on your toes—so much so that I found myself sometimes forgetting to move to the next speed after a minute had passed. I finished the workout feeling out-of-breath, for sure, but energized at the same time. Weird, I know.

Treadmill workouts, for most people, can get very boring very quickly…my advice: create a workout playlist with your favorite songs or find a show that you can’t get enough of and focus on that throughout your workout. Time will pass by faster than you think, and trust me, you’ll never regret a workout after you’ve already finished it. It’s also really important to keep things interesting and switch up your cardio routine, SO, if you’re in the market for a new treadmill workout, definitely give these two a try. You won’t be disappointed.