Today while incline walking (3.2 mph / 11% incline) my lower back started to cramp/get sore to the point where I had to stop for like 30 seconds a few times. Any idea how to stop this from happening??
You have to stretch your lower back out!!! Your hamstrings and hip flexors are probably really tight too. Been there done that, got the Toradol shot, naprosyn, and tshirt from doing cardio waaayyyy too much. live and learn.
Just put it at a lower incline and walk a little faster until you get used to it. Or you could do interval work. One thing I have done is start at level 9 then jack up the incline one level (either 9.5 or 10.0 is next) for 5 min, etc etc until you get to a high point. then back down the pyramid. So it might look like:
9, 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11, then 10.5, 10, 9.5, 9 that is a total of 45 min.
or something like 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 is also 45 min.
or 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 etc is 50 min
or 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 is 60 min
another option is just work up to it. start at 9.0 at 3.0mph for 30 min. when you can do all 30 min, increase the speed to 3.1, and do 30 min. when you can do 30min at 3.1, increase to 3.2 for 30 min etc. when you get to 3.5 for at 9.0 for 30 min, increase the incline to 10.0 and start over at 3.0 mph. and work up to 11, 12,…15 incline. you get the idea.
just play with it, progressively increasing it just like adding weights to a bench press either speed or incline or duration for a max of 60min. just don’t do too much too fast or you will get shin splints and spasms like you got. stretch.
good luck
Dude, put two and two together… Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness . Your situation prob has little to do with the incline walking.
When I was walking the incline treadmill for 2 hours per day, I started to get lower back pain and also very tight hips/flexors. It was when I was using incline of over 8% (8.0) that it really started getting noticeable. The only relief I found was changing the cardio up instead of doing all 2 hours on the treadmill - bike, stepper, bb complexes, etc…
Also, you are going at a fast clip. I only walked at 3.0 mph and Shelby Starnes does his at about 2.5 - 2.6 mph.