Credits: Social Media
I tried the 12-3-30 treadmill workout, and it was so much harder than I expected
I’m always looking for new fitness challenges to try, and when I saw the 12-3-30 trend involved ‘walking’, I had to give it a try.
The 12-3-30 has been circling TikTok for years and is one of the internet’s most viral workouts. A walking challenge can’t be that hard, right?
What is the 12-3-30 workout?
12-3-30 is a fitness challenge that only uses one piece of equipment – a treadmill. You have to set the machine to an incline of 12%, a speed of 3 miles per hour and walk for 30 minutes.
It was started by American influencer Lauren Giraldo, who shared it on YouTube in 2019. She then posted it on TikTok in November 2020 and it got more than 14 million views.
In the clip, she shared photos of herself before and after, revealing she had lost 30 pounds and kept the weight off using this one simple exercise.
“Literally all you need is a treadmill,” she said. “You put it on an incline of 12, speed of 3 and for 30 minutes as many times as you can a week.”
Giraldo revealed she “used to be so intimidated by the gym” and didn’t find it very motivating, but now does this one workout and it makes her “feels good about herself”.
Four years on, it’s still one of the biggest fitness challenges on TikTok, but this one really isn’t for the faint hearted.
So much harder than I expected
I set my treadmill onto 12% incline, put the speed up to 3 miles per hour and started my 30-minute stroll. “This is easy,” I thought – but I spoke too soon.
The challenge seems painless at first, and I was even tempted to increase the incline or speed. However, once you get about five minutes in, things ramp up and that hill suddenly feels like you’re climbing a mountain.
For most healthy adults, 3 miles per hour is the average walking speed, which is easily doable when you’re on flat ground. However, when you add a 12% incline into the mix, it gets a lot harder, and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the 30 minutes.
To put it into context, the highest incline on a treadmill is 15%. So, 12% is the equivalent of walking up a really steep hill – for 30 whole minutes!
As someone who goes to the gym four times every week and would consider myself to be fairly fit, I found the workout really strenuous on my legs, and it seems like I’m not the only who was surprised by its difficulty either.
One person wrote on Twitter/X: “12-3-30 is so hard I could not even do five minutes,” while another added: “I am a really fit girl but that 12-3-30 is HARD.”
Expert says it’s not for beginners
On social media, it looks like the treadmill challenge is an easy walking workout that anyone can do, but personal trainer Chris Higgins told Healthline: “This is definitely not a beginner-friendly activity.”
“Walking on a steep incline is very taxing on the body, especially if one is overweight, obese, or suffering from underlying muscle and joint conditions,” he said.
Higgins added that running or walking at a level 12 incline rapidly shortens the chest and pectoral muscles while lengthening the upper back and scapular muscles.
This means it is detrimental for anybody struggling with breathing, and it could badly impact your posture if you don’t properly pull your shoulders back.
Giraldo described her workout as a “game changer,” and it certainly is a great way to build lower body strength, burn fat and improve cardiovascular fitness – but it’s important not to push yourself too hard to begin with.
Another personal trainer, Morgan Rees, recommends starting with an easier version and increasing the intensity over time. She says beginners should do 20 minutes at 2.5 miles per hour, with their treadmill at a 4% incline.
