thinking about a treadmill

GeorgeC

GeorgeC

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GeorgeC
I never did buy the elliptical I was looking at, but am now pondering a treadmill instead. Which one should I get? Same rules as before, keep it under 1 AMU.
 
I have a nice elliptical in my shed that has no place in the house (since moving). If you are in the Savannah, GA area... I spent around $1500 a few yrs ago on this one.

You can get a very nice tread mill for 1 AMU. If you are on Facebook, they pop up all the time in the local sales groups.
 
JOhnH said:
You can buy a nice clothes rack for much less than that.
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I am replying to my own post here. I know it was a snarky reply, and for that I apologize.

To be honest, I have often thought about buying something like that, but my wife objected on similar grounds, and I didn't push it. She would always point out how many people buy these things and only use them for a short period of time, then they sit neglected. And as the years rolled on, I noticed how right she was by observing several friends that bought various types of exercise equipment that wound up being stored away or just taking up space. I always thought I would be different, but on reflection, I realized she was right. Now, I go for a long power walk after dinner and it is much more fun and much cheaper. And I feel better afterwards.
 
Yard sale - I bought a nice treadmill new 15 years ago, with heart monitor and lots of other features. It was in the high hundreds or maybe even just over an AMU. Sold it in a yard sale a month or so ago for $25.. There's tons around gathering dust.
 
You can buy used "pro gym" ones for that price. The expensive/difficult part is moving it.
 
JOhnH said:
To be honest, I have often thought about buying something like that, but my wife objected on similar grounds, and I didn't push it. She would always point out how many people buy these things and only use them for a short period of time, then they sit neglected. And as the years rolled on, I noticed how right she was by observing several friends that bought various types of exercise equipment that wound up being stored away or just taking up space.
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We have a little home gym and it gets used 3-4 days/week for many years. But yes, you have to make exercise part of your life. I rather get on my bike and enjoy working out, but if it's -20 and blowing snow out , I'll take the treadmill.

With treadmills it's a bit of a 'buy once cry once' deal. A good running treadmill is going to set you back more than $1000. If you buy used, make sure it hasn't been stored wet with all the internals corroded.
 
We bought a fairly advanced NordicTrac treadmill several years ago. It's got an Android based 7 or 8" screen, heart rate monitor, does all kinds of fancy crap if you want to sign up (and pay) for iFit.com. It's really a pretty nice treadmill, but the Android device is shockingly underpowered, and the interface to the treadmill hardware itself is buggy as hell. Buttons don't work as they should, and the pulse sensors are useless. The basic treadmill is great, the electronics are a disgrace.

I think I wasted many hundreds of dollars on crap that never worked the way it was supposed to. If I had it to do over again, especially now, I'd buy one with basic features -- speed, incline, MAYBE some canned incline/speed patterns, and not much else - and a place to set a tablet so I could watch YT videos or listen to podcasts while walking/jogging. EVERYTHING else that this thing is supposed to do, all the fancy stuff, all the heart rate and calorie tracking, is done far, far better by my FitBit.
 
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I finally bought a treadmill about 10 years ago as I got tired of losing fitness over the winter (gym wasn’t practical, wasn’t motivated enough to run in 40degrees/rain all winter).

Bought a Sole after doing some research. The first one had an issue within a year (fluke-bad weld allowed a crack to start in the frame). They sent me a whole new treadmill for free under warranty and took the old one.
Had one small issue with the replacement a year or two ago. That’s after two adults and a pre-teen using it regularly daily. Still going.
 
I just sold a nice Landice treadmill. I even delivered it, 70 miles away and put it in an upstairs bedroom. Luckily I had some help, and the buyer paid extra.

About a year ago, at the request of a family member we moved it to the main level. I doubt if it was used over 45 minutes in that year. It was time to move it again. I thought it may as well go by-by. I’d rather walk the dog on the bike trail, she feels the same way.
 
DaleB said:
I think I wasted many hundreds of dollars on crap that never worked the way it was supposed to. If I had it to do over again, especially now, I'd buy one with basic features -- speed, incline, MAYBE some canned incline/speed patterns, and not much else - and a place to set a tablet so I could watch YT videos or listen to podcasts while walking/jogging. EVERYTHING else that this thing is supposed to do, all the fancy stuff, all the heart rate and calorie tracking, is done far, far better by my FitBit.
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Fitness trackers like Fitbit and Garmin watches should have killed off all those fancy electronics on fitness equipment. Considering the wall-wart advertising for 'Peloton', maybe not.
I don't even use the programs on the treadmill. Set the speed, set the incline and go.
 
A good solid treadmill will set you back $800-$1K min for not a piece of junk.

They can usually be had all day long for a third of that price on Craigslist for those that need to get rid of their clothes hangar.
 
The cheaper treadmills don't hold up to running or may not even go fast enough for real running, so check the specs. Wider belts are nicer. If you buy a used one from a gym; they do require maintenance with heavy use and often new belts, so you may need to get it serviced. The electronic bells and whistles aren't important. They can be supplemented easily with portable electronics (Garmin exercise watch, iPad, etc.).
 
We have a Pacemaster, my wife uses it pretty regularly. It will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary with us later this year.

A new one is > 1 AMU, but if you find a used one I'd grab it.
 
FormerHangie said:
We have a Pacemaster, my wife uses it pretty regularly. It will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary with us later this year.

A new one is > 1 AMU, but if you find a used one I'd grab it.
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Same here. Not sure of the model, but we put tons of miles on it. My wife and I each did 5k and 4 milers on a regular basis. I like the solid feel of the deck. The ability to program a heart rate set point is great. It automatically adjusts speed and incline to keep you in your target zone.

I quit running a few years ago when my knees wore out and I took up swimming, but my wife still uses it.
 
weilke said:
Fitness trackers like Fitbit and Garmin watches should have killed off all those fancy electronics on fitness equipment.
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And with good reason. The companies that manufacture exercise equipment, from what I have seen, SUCK at electronics hardware and software, and/or farm the work out to people who suck at it.

One example is our treadmill. Dedicated buttons to set speed and incline, set the fan speed, plus up/down speed & incline and and start/stop buttons. NONE of them actually work right. You might press a button and get ignored, or the thing may see that button press 2, 3, or half a dozen times. Pulse sensors might read your pulse at 110, or they may register 160. Or 180. It's pretty obvious that they're using an Android app to scan the buttons whenever there's time to do it. It's not interrupt driven or done by a real-time OS. It's an impressively incompetent job.
 
One thing I've never understood is why treadmills display speed in MPH rather than pace, which would be minutes per mile. That's the way every runner I know looks at things.
 
Bought the best selling one on amazon. About $600, been using it daily for six months, works great.

However, I don’t run on it, just a brisk 2 mile walk with incline.
 
FormerHangie said:
One thing I've never understood is why treadmills display speed in MPH rather than pace, which would be minutes per mile. That's the way every runner I know looks at things.
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Mine does, it’s selectable. I normally only wanted to see time and distance remaining, though.
 
JOhnH said:
She would always point out how many people buy these things and only use them for a short period of time, then they sit neglected.
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Funny - we have a rowing machine and elliptical at home that we stopped using a few years ago. Last year we finally overcame our laziness so now we go to the gym 7 days a week, and we still don’t use the home equipment. Go figure.
 
We have a generic treadmill we got on craigslist for $150 but I don't really like using treadmills. Doctor said get more exercise last last year so I decided to buy an elliptical. Was seriously considering one the deluxe Nordic Track models. I happened to search craigslist and found the same $1500 model hardly used for $600. I brought it home the next day and I've been using it regularly. I don't bother to subscribe to their online workout thing. I just use the default workouts in the machine and the free sample workouts that download every week or so. Works great.
 
Omalley1537 said:
Bought a Sole after doing some research. The first one had an issue within a year (fluke-bad weld allowed a crack to start in the frame). They sent me a whole new treadmill for free under warranty and took the old one.
Had one small issue with the replacement a year or two ago. That’s after two adults and a pre-teen using it regularly daily. Still going.
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LOL, we bought a Sole elliptical. Had problems within a year, ended up getting a free replacement. That one also was replaced within a year, still covered under warranty. That one had problems within a year, and again was replaced under warranty. It's nice when products fail within their warranty period. Kinda.

We have a Nordic Track now and we've had maintenance on it but it's still going and seems like a pretty good machine.
 
My treadmill died a few months ago; it was around a decade old.
So I have been doing my morning walk outside. But this week the weather was -5F before windchill; that killed the morning walk. Therefore, I also need to replace the treadmill. But this time, I decided I wanted low impact; most of the stuff I have been reading is steering me toward rowing machines. The low impact, fewer parts, lower price, and works more muscles than my legs is rather appealing.

Tim
 
If buying new, here's a second vote for a Sole. We bought one about a year ago this time (model 63). I'm down to 195 from 245. As others have said, it needs to be a lifestyle change.

Jim
 
I do really enjoy row machines, I find them to be far more fun than treadmills or spin bikes. What I've recently done though is get a bike trainer where you put your own bike up and ride on it. It connects to a cool program called zwift where you can virtually ride around a few cities and their countryside's with thousands of other riders. It's a lot more fun because you aren't just arbitrarily making it harder with a knob, but rather you're changing gears and going up hills and using your actual bike. For me fun is an important part of exercise, if I'm not enjoying the experience then I'm not going to do it for long.
 
I have a Smooth 5.0P. It's at least 15 years-old, likely older. Only thing I've done to it is replace the belt (treadmilldoctor.com). I do 2 to 2.5 miles on it at least three times a week when the weather sucks. As someone else said, treadmills are boring as hell. Mine was built long before iPad shelves were contemplated so I built an entertainment rack for my iPad and some decent quality computer speakers with a subwoofer. YouTube concerts make the 40 minutes far more bearable. Right now I'm about 1/2 way thru a Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris show.
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If you don't like to take long walks or run outside, save your money. If you like to take long walks and run outside, do more of it!
 
I find I use my rower a lot less than the treadmill. Don't know why, but I get bored within minutes when using the rower, but I can zone out on the treadmill and go for miles.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
If you don't like to take long walks or run outside, save your money. If you like to take long walks and run outside, do more of it!
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I started easing into running outside a couple of months ago. I got over the initial hump and I can feel speed and endurance beginning to build. When it's cold or rainy out, though, I'd like to have an indoor option.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
If you don't like to take long walks or run outside, save your money. If you like to take long walks and run outside, do more of it!
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The first sentence fragment makes no sense. How does not liking walking outside affect saving money?

Tim
 
GeorgeC said:
I started easing into running outside a couple of months ago. I got over the initial hump and I can feel speed and endurance beginning to build. When it's cold or rainy out, though, I'd like to have an indoor option.
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Then make sure you get a good running treadmill with a flexible/dampened deck that is long enough to run on it. I find the width of the belt doesnt matter all that much. No need for any of the computerized flimflam.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
If you don't like to take long walks or run outside, save your money. If you like to take long walks and run outside, do more of it!
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If you live in a place where the weather allows you to exercise outside all year 'round, then sure. But I don't voluntarily exercise outside when it's 90*+ & 90%+ RH or raining cats & dogs or 20* & the wind blowing at 40mph like it was here on Monday.
 
Teresa did the research a few years ago and then bought a Landice treadmill - a quality piece of kit.

I don’t treadmill - really use my Concept 2, Model D rower erg a lot tho. If you’ve not tried rowing as exercise you might sample it before investing in a treadmill.
 
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