Influencer Lauren Giraldo said in a YouTube video in 2019 that she gets “a lot of questions” about her treadmill routine. 1.6 million people have watched it to date. In it, the now 26-year-old reveals her very special training technique: the 12-3-30-Method.
And it is currently enjoying huge popularity, almost five years after the first video. Reaches millions of people on Tiktok too. This is by no means a particularly strenuous workout. Quite the opposite. Rather, 12-3-30 is about training without extreme effort. All you need is a treadmill.
This is how the 12-3-30 method works
The numbers represent the respective setting.
12 is the incline you should select for the treadmill, i.e. 12 percent.
3 stands for speed, 3 miles per hour corresponds to around 4.8 km/h.
30 refers to the duration, you should do the workout for half an hour.
Giraldo says he was never a “fitness person.” But especially when she did this workout in the morning, she felt good, says the influencer. Since then, she has done it as many days a week as she can manage. “The more times I do this a week, the better I feel.”
The method can also be varied, as the influencer shows in an Instagram post: Back onto the treadmill – and the bottom gets an additional workout, she reveals. To do this, you can set the speed as low as you feel comfortable.
What does “slow cardio” bring?
This type of workout is “slow cardio”. The focus is not on intensive exercise, but rather on long-term, permanent exercise. And that too is showing success.
Sports medicine specialist Christine Joisten confirmed this in an interview with the “Editorial Network Germany”. The high incline in particular ensures that the body is trained. Because 12 percent is relatively steep, this increases both endurance and strength in the legs.
She gives another important tip: stretch after your workout. If the legs are exposed to an incline for a long time, the muscles shorten. A similar feeling to that of hiking.