Treadmills- whats important?

[rosehannah]

Hi all,

I have been thinking about buying a treadmill but I'm not sure what are the important features that make a good treadmill. there are so many to chose from and I have checked out sports stores and Ebay but I feel lost as to what I need. Who uses one and what features do you love / hate?

[Trillian]

I brought one recently and I must say its one of the best things I ever did, I use it everyday. When we brought it and were talking about the different ones with the salesperson, he said basically they are all much of a muchness in what they do (walking and running) but some of the cheaper ones wont have a power incline - you have to get off and manually raise the incline yourself (if thats what you want it to have, otherwise a manual one is fine) and naturally the dearer they get the more techno features they have - like TV's and more specialised programming features Also the length and width of them increases too and some of them are dearer because they are designed along the lines of gym treadmills and are longer and wider for people to run on them. The one we settled on has the power incline but only basic programming and I'm quite happy with that because its easy to use so you're not pushing a heap of different buttons all the time to increase speed, incline etc. The brand we brought was a Horizon one if that helps.

[Tracey Habron]

My view having used them in the gym - walk, run and if you can afford it, power incline. I doubt you will get off and raise it yourself manually......we think we will and we won't.

As for techo features - forget them. You don't need them and it just means there are more things that can go wrong and require repair. Listen to your MP3 player, the radio or walkman.

The power incline is my fave feature 'cos when I am out of puff when running, I can slow it down, put it on incline and still get a good heart rate going.

Good on you for thinking about getting one. Just don't use it as a laundry clothes horse - use it!!

[rosehannah]

Thanks for the replies Sherie and Tracey,

I have wanted one for a while now. I love going for walks and playing sport of any kind but with three kids I am finding it harder to find some time to exercise and it is showing. I have never been so heavy without being PG. I am finding I am getting poor self esteem from the weight gain which is effecting other areas of my life. Thanks again

[Trillian]

I know how you feel - I'm exactly the same and I just can't get out of the house to go for a walk and I can't play sport because of DH working shiftwork. It truly is the best thing I ever did because I can just pop on whenever I have a spare 1/2hr or so - some days I have even done two sessions. And I'm already seeing results and it's really keeping me motivated.

[Phteven]

I think the most important thing is the motor. If that's no good then the rest of the features are meaningless.
Ours has springs/shock absorbers under the track. If you're planing on running not just walking they'll make a big difference to your comfort.
I wouldn't buy one from ebay - the reason is that if it needs repairs under the warranty you might have to pay a fortune in shipping.
Most of the companies bring out a new model each year so if you can get last year's model on special you'll get a good saving without having to compromise on features.

[Yael]

Ok, we have a cross trainer rather than a treadmill, cos i have shocking knees and ankles, so i wanted something less impact, but i'll tell you what i looked for when buying it:

1) Good Quality, not the cheap junk. We ended up going with a York brand, we did buy it 2nd hand from trading post, but as it was one of the higher models, we were saving around 50% and it was only a few months old. We went there and tried it out before buying it. We also foudn out that York has a place when you can get it repaired about an hour from us if we needed to.

2) consol display - this was really important to us.

I wanted one where you could set different times and programs (fat burning, cardio etc), because i found tht if it automatically changed the resistance for me i would cope with it, but i probably would have just stayed on the bottom one if i was controlling it.

I also found the little bar graph display really good for keeping me going, i knew i only had 1 or 2 more lines to get through and i found it really motivating to finish it right to the end of the set time, rather than thinking "this is so hard i need a break". Instead i would say "just one more line, one more line".

It also tells you how far you have gone and Cal burned, along with monitoring your HR, so you cna try and have it in the optimal zone for exercise. Also when i was preg it was great, i could still exercise and keep my HR below 140 to be safe to the baby.

We love having it here - you just just jump on for 25 mins, and then have a shower etc when the kids are down... so my easier then all the time it takes to go to gyn, get changed, exercise, get re changed, come home, have a shower etc.

[*becstar*]

So did you get the treadmill? Is it working for you? I've just joined the mum-of-three club and its difficult to get any beneficial walking in.

[rosehannah]

Thanks for asking Bec.
Not as yet I keep finding other things to spend my money on now that I am a full time SAHM, it is still at the top of my wish list, but as they cost so much I feel guilty for wanting to spend the money, I have been doing more exercise though, walking and hockey but as yet I haven't seen any weight move. I do feel fitter though. With winter comming I would really love one so that I can exercise at home.

[Phteven]

Make sure it's mouse proof!!
A mouse got into ours while we were on holidays and when I turned it on after we got back there was abang and a spark and a burny smell and it doesn't work so we'll have to pay for repairs now. I bet the warrenty doesn't cover acts of mouse.

I blame the cat!! He bought the mouse inside a couple of days before we left and then let him go!! What kind of cat introduces mice into the home instead of erradicating them?

[rosehannah]

Thanks for the heads up Dach, we are having a bad time with mice here at the moment, no funny stories to tell yet touch wood. My SIL had one decomposing in the dishwasher and a friend found one in her bed YUK!

[Phteven]

OMG the worst mouse experience I ever had was when I was getting a lift somewhere with one of Dad's freinds and he told me that the car had been smelling funny because a mouse had died in the A/C somewhere but he thought it was ok now. Then he turned on the A/C to test it - I got decomposing mouse fur blown all over me. I nearly vomitted
I feel a bit ill now just thinking about it.