American Fitness Professionals & Associates

By: Scott Gray

 A great piece of equipment that can help you secure a healthy lifestyle is a treadmill, a machine that makes aerobic training easy and convenient.   If you are trying to control your weight, achieve maximum fitness, and/or improve your health, fitness experts recommend vigorous walking or running as an ideal workout.   These wonderful forms of exercise require very little equipment — running shoes are pretty much it — and no particular talent.   It’s no surprise that runners and walkers who are committed to a healthy lifestyle turn to treadmills to reach and maintain their health and personal fitness goals safely and conveniently at home.

The problem is that it isn’t fun or even feasible to walk or run in seriously inclement weather; it isn’t safe to run in various districts in cities or on deserted roads; and it’s not a good idea to run late at night without one or more running partners.   If there isn’t a track nearby, you may have only concrete available as a running and walking surface, and this can cause horrendous wear and tear on your joints and also make you prone to shin splints.   Treadmills allow you to enjoy a safe and convenient indoor workout, and with so many choices, you will have no trouble finding a treadmill that is just right for you at a price you can afford.

Important Elements Should be Considered When Shopping for a Treadmill

The mechanics of treadmills are easy to understand and review, and these are the important points to remember about the various features:

1. Motor, Belt, Frame, Deck, and Cushioning

• You need a treadmill with a smooth, quiet and cool motor and 1.5 continuous-duty horsepower, and it should have a rating of two to three horsepower if any of the users weigh over 180 pounds or if the machine will be used more for running than walking.   Ignore the “peak horsepower” number, which is not relevant for runners; “continuous duty” is the key phrase here.

• The belt should be two-ply and at least 17 inches wide and 48 inches long.   It should allow for your natural stride, which means longer and wider is better if your stride is long.

• The frame can be made of either steel or aluminum.   Steel is heavier and sturdier but can rust after long use; aluminum is lighter but won’t rust.

• The deck should be flexible with decent cushioning to absorb the impact of your footfalls.

2. Speed and Incline

• Five miles an hour is a comfortable walking speed, and your treadmill should be capable of ten miles an hour if you are a runner.
• The incline should be adjustable to 10%, or even 15% if you really love walking or running hills.

3. Stability and Safety

• The more stable the treadmill the better; avoid any that rock and roll.   Machines that fold are less stable, in general.   Handrails are a good safety feature, and so is an auto-shutoff button.

4. Controls, Displays, and Programs

• Push-button controls are best because you can adjust them easily and quickly while you are doing your workout, and you will be happiest with easy-to-read, large displays of speed, pace, incline, time, and distance.   It’s also nice to have other options such as heart rate monitors and digital displays of the number of calories burned.

• Programs can be useful especially if you want to customize one that will adjust the speed and incline in order to maintain a particular heart-rate zone.   However, you can have too much of a good thing here, and lots of people don’t have the patience to design a program or want to be restricted to those provided by the various machines on the market.   Selecting a treadmill that does or does not feature a large number of preset programs is a matter of taste.

If price is a major consideration, you should be looking for discount treadmills or a factory refurbished model.   You can also find used machines, but keep in mind that both discount and factory refurbished will carry guarantees on parts and labor; used machines may be less well covered.   Check exactly what guarantees are offered on the used treadmills if you decide to go that route.   You can also find a cheap treadmill if you supply the horsepower yourself — in other words, a manual treadmill is less expensive than an electric one that comes with all the bells and whistles.

Find the Best Treadmill for You

Buying the best treadmill means choosing one that is best for you and is both affordable and meets your needs.   You can find up-to-date information on the Internet with descriptions of all the popular and even the more obscure models.   Begin your search by looking at treadmill reviews that are published online.   Runner’s World, Treadmill Doctor, Consumer Reports, Treadmill Buyer’s Guide, and a host of other publications rate the machines and their individual features and will help you make your selection.  
There are many quality models of the ProForm treadmill, for instance, and they range from inexpensive manual to top-of-the-line with a variety of options, and you can find them rated against other similar machines in these reports.

An alternative to the treadmill is the elliptical machine, and these are also known as elliptical trainers.   The elliptical machines are designed to offer a total body workout that allows you to exercise arms and legs without suffering the wear and tear on joints that comes from pounding the pavement — or anything else, for that matter.   The price for ellipticals range as low as a few hundred dollars to over five thousand dollars, which means they are priced about the same as treadmills.

You can get in shape and stay in shape and improve your health and energy levels by working out at any time of day or night in the safety of your own home.   You don’t need to be a big sports enthusiast or require a trainer for this form of exercise — you already know how to walk and run.   The Internet is the newest way and becoming a very popular way to buy fitness equipment for both commercial and home use.   You can research, comparison shop, make your selection, and order right on line.   Your new treadmill will be delivered right to your door, and the only thing you need to do to get the maximum benefit is use it regularly.   We want to help you walk or run your way to good health and fitness.

About the Author

Scott Gray is currently freelance writing and enjoys providing information and moneysaving tips to consumers who are in the treadmills, discount treadmills and Precor treadmills.