Today, let’s dive into the 12-3-30 workout craze that has been sweeping the fitness world by storm! Designed specifically for women, this workout is simple but requires a treadmill. In this article, we'll cover five essential facts about the 12-3-30 workout that every woman should know before incorporating this workout into their fitness journey. Whether you're a seasoned fitness enthusiast or a beginner looking to jumpstart your exercise routine, the 12-3-30 workout may have something to offer you. So, let’s jump right in!
What Is The 12-3-30 Workout?
The 12-3-30 workout is a treadmill routine popularized by social media influencer Lauren Giraldo that consists of walking on the treadmill at a 12% incline and a speed of 3.0 miles per hour for 30 minutes. After posting a video on Tiktok, the 12-3-30 workout has become a rave among women claiming it’s helped them to lose weight.
How Does 12-3-30 Work?
The workout is simple. Walk on the treadmill at 12% incline at a speed of 3.0 miles per hour for 30 minutes. The idea is that you can achieve an intense workout without high-impact activities.
It’s a cardiovascular exercise that also works the lower body, namely the hamstrings, due to the intense incline of the treadmill.
The goal of the 12-3-30 workout is to help women exercise at a high level of intensity, without the high impact on bones and joints of other high-intensity activities, and achieve optimum results in just 30 minutes. Everyone knows about the health benefits of walking, and increasing the incline adds a punch for muscle engagement and cardiovascular demand.
The 12-3-30 is NOT a daily workout (no workout is), although many people have tried doing the 12-3-30 daily for a short time. Instead, fitness enthusiasts should do it 1 to 2 times a week at most. (We explain why below!)
Is the 12-3-30 Workout Effective For Women?
While increasing current activity with any exercise can contribute to weight loss, there is nothing magical about the 12-3-30 workout. It is a great way to exercise at moderate to difficult intensity for 30 minutes. While activity matters, food is far more impactful for fat loss (at Momsanity, we aim to lose fat, not weight).
Calorie burn during a 12-3-30 workout, as with any exercise, depends on many factors, including overall body mass, composition, and exercise intensity. And after repeating the same workout many times, the body becomes more efficient so calorie burn decreases unless the intensity and/or duration of exercise increases.
Our Take On The 12-3-30 Workout
While the 12-3-30 workout can be useful as an occasional tool for cardio exercise and might be a great way to get started with consistent movement, it’s not an all-in-one fitness solution. And as stated above, it should not be done on a daily basis because:
- Our bodies adapt to exercise quickly, making specific workouts less effective with repetition
- Repeating the same workout all the time increases the risk of injury
- Doing the same fitness routine every day gets boring and reduces the likelihood that we’ll stick to it over the long term
If you choose to include 12-3-30 in your fitness routine, you must adjust workout intensity with speed, incline, and length (NO longer isn’t better) to continue seeing results.
What Workout Gets The BEST Results Overall?
At Momsanity, we are huge fans of weight training for women. Short-duration, high-intensity exercise that creates breathlessness, burning, heat, and heaviness using dumbbells or other weights packs the biggest punch when working to change one’s physique.
Weight training increases fat loss because additional muscle mass boosts metabolism, causing the body to burn calories at a higher rate, even after the workout is over. Whereas consistently doing the same exercise routine over and over again can cause the body to stop responding because our bodies are very smart and adapt quickly to the same movement over and over again.
Generally, we recommend 3 to 4 weight workouts per week combined with leisure walking at a slow pace that allows for easy conversation. Like any other exercise, we recommend working different muscle groups with each weekly workout and repeating workouts roughly 4 to 5 times before switching them up.
If desired, one of those leisure walks could employ the 12-3-30 method. That said, we generally switch things up and include all types of exercise in our fitness regimen, so varying speed and incline will be necessary for long-term results if you choose to incorporate the 12-3-30 method into your fitness routine.