When I first heard about the 12-3-30 walking workout, I was intrigued! It’s an incline workout you can on a treadmill. Although I prefer walking in the quiet, hilly woods near my house with my dogs, since it’s a great workout for my muscles and heart, and essential for my mental health. But sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate, so the 12-3-30 workout is a great indoor workout option.
What is the 12-3-30 Workout?
The 12-3-30 workout is a treadmill workout where you set the incline to 12 percent incline, the pace to three miles per hour, and you walk for 30 minutes. Simple, right? Created by influencer Lauren Giraldo, she first introduced the 12-3-30 workout on YouTube in 2019, but it didn’t gain such intense popularity until Giraldo posted a TikTok about it in late 2020, crediting it to how she’s lost and kept off 30 pounds for two years. That’s what interested me, the weight-loss aspect. Since I was still trying to lose some of the COVID pounds I had gained over the past two years from stress baking, I wanted to see how the 12-3-30 workout compared to my other workouts, and see if it was more effective at helping me get leaner.
I Tried the 12-3-30 Workout
I already have a treadmill that I MacGyvered into a walking desk for work, so I used that. I decided to try this workout for two weeks, just to see what all the excitement was about. Giraldo said she did it about five times a week, so that’s what I did, too. I wanted to see how this walking workout compared to the rowing I had been doing, to the running I had been doing in the summer and fall, and to the HIIT workouts I’d been throwing in at home. Could a walking workout really be as effective? Keep reading to find out my 12-3-30 workout results.