two kick-in-the-pants treadmill workouts

When the weather outside is frightful, my workout moves from the gym to the basement, which is where we have our treadmill. I don't do cold and I don't do icy roads. Actually, the basement has been my gym away from gym for a while now. With two little ones at home and a mom who prefers the midnight hours to the crack-of-dawn hours, working out at home has been a good fit.

Don't get me wrong, I miss the gym and the weight machines and actually getting out of my house to exercise, but all in good time (i.e. when colds no longer abound in the gym daycare). I've actually used our treadmill enough to warrant one visit by a repairman and I fear a second one here soon. Though I don't have a specific treadmill workout, I do try to vary my routine so I keep my body guessing. One day it's run/walk intervals, another it's hills and another it's distance. At least it's not boring. (America's Next Top Model on the flat-screen helps too.)

It's been a while since our last take it off tuesday so I thought I'd share a few intense treadmill workouts from Fitness magazine so you too can shake up your routine a bit. And if you have more dust than sweat on your treadmill, this is a great excuse to power it up!

• The 20-Minute Treadmill Hill Workout (not as highly rated as the Glute-Sculpting one below but at least with hills you can read a good book!)
• The 20-Minute Glute-Sculpting Treadmill Routine (who doesn't love a nicely sculpted glute?)
• Burn 2,000 Calories on the Treadmill (the perfect 7-day plan for blasting those holiday goodies)

If you don't own a treadmill but are interested in buying one, Treadmill Shopping Tips from Fitness magazine is a great place to start. I also love the sites Treadmill Doctor and Treadmill Ratings and Reviews. We actually bought ours off the local classifieds, which is a great place to shop. Most treadmills end up being used as a clothes drying rack rather than an exercise machine so they still have a lot of life left in them! --Emily