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“Treadmills” are great machines used for walking, jogging and running while providing the user with a truly safe and effective aerobic fitness workout.  A treadmill should be your #1 choice when considering an indoor exercise program.  Many other fitness machines like the elliptical trainers, indoor exercise bikes, rowing machines, home gyms, stairclimbers or strength training equipment can also fit well into your aerobic fitness or cross training program.

Shopping For A Quality Treadmill

More and more people are realizing that shopping for a treadmill is more difficult than they had originally planned. You don't have to look far to see that treadmills are everywhere. Treadmills can be found in department stores, sporting good stores, shopping malls, mail order catalogs and even those hyped up television infomercials.

The harsh reality is that you will never find a good quality treadmill at any of the above. Think about it for a moment. How can a store that sells candy, toasters, roller skates, golf balls or whatever possibly know about treadmills? It simply can not!

There are stores however, that do specialize in quality exercise equipment. At most of these specialty fitness stores you will find quality exercise equipment and personnel. Keep a watchful eye to make sure that the particular store you choose is specializing strictly in exercise equipment. Avoid internet only stores.... if you choose an internet store, be sure they have a physical location. Just because they know how to build a website, hardly qualifies them as an exercise equipment specialist.

Here are some specific considerations when shopping for a quality treadmill:

DC Motor ! The treadmill motor should have a Continuous Duty rating only. Continuous Duty means the motor is more durable and will perform steady and continuous. A Continuous Duty rated motor in your treadmill will give you a more quality performance and longer life. Treadmill duty and peak performance ratings are two other rating systems that should be avoided at all costs. DC Motor warranties should be 2 yrs. or greater.

Deck / Belt ! The treadmill deck should be designed and manufactured to require very little maintenance. The noise generated from the belt moving along the deck should be minimal. Some deck / belt combinations required a lubricant to help reduce friction. Remember, high quality decks / belts require very little lube. Deck / Belt warranties should be 2 yrs. or greater.

Operating / Control System ! The Treadmill control panel should be easy to read and use. Always check for an emergency stop button and / or shut off that can attach to your body / clothing. A good quality treadmill will start slowly and stop slowly. (Sudden starts and stops is another sign of a cheap treadmill). There's a host of programs and options available on today's models. It's very important to choose the machine that has features of interest to you and not the salesperson. Computer / Electronics warranties should be 2 yrs. or greater.

Rollers ! The treadmill rollers are another important item to consider. Basically speaking the larger the better because the larger roller creates a greater surface for the belt to make contact which in turn means less belt tension. This also means that the roller turns less therefore the roller bearings heat up less. Remember larger rollers means less tension, less heat and longer life (generally 2" in diameter and up). Roller warranties should be 2 yrs. or greater.

Frame ! The treadmill frame should be constructed of a high alloy steel or aluminum / aircraft aluminum. Any materials less than the above would not be appropriate for a treadmill frame. Steel is heavier and more sturdier than aluminum. Welded frames will hold up far better than bolts or glue. Frame warranties should be Lifetime.

12-Week Treadmill Workout | Treadmill Buying Tips | Consumer Information

The treadmill you choose should feel sturdy and comfortable to walk or run on and quiet enough to hear yourself think.

Finding a quality treadmill at an affordable price will take some shopping around. At specialty fitness stores you will find a wide variety of makes and models with a variety of prices to match. Expect to pay $2000.00 and up for a good quality home treadmill. Anything much less than $2000.00 means that you are trading off quality at some point and could very well end up paying the difference or more in future repairs. Many treadmill buyers have traded off quality for a less expensive treadmill and ended up spending more than if they would have bought the real thing. Trading off quality sometimes turns into an ugly cycle where the buyer re-enters into yet another quality trade-off. This new quality trade-off almost always translates into more problems and money. Thousands of treadmill buyers spend more money and have more breakdowns while using lower quality treadmills that perform poorly. Consider a real treadmill from professionals at specialty fitness stores.

Just a Half-Hour Walk Keeps Pounds Off -- by Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay Reporter -- MONDAY, Jan. 12 (HealthDayNews)
Want to foil that one- or two-pound yearly weight gain that eventually turns many of us into overweight or obese Americans?

Commit to a half-hour walk or other moderate exercise every day, and that will prevent the gain -- and perhaps lead to a modest loss, according to the results of a new study published in the Jan. 12 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Thirty minutes is enough," says Cris Slentz, an exercise physiologist and senior research scientist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and the lead author of the study.

This modest amount of exercise can prevent weight gain and sometimes lead to minor weight loss without changes in diet, he says, adding more exercise can result in weight loss in overweight exercisers, he says.

Slentz says his study findings suggest that the 60 minutes of daily exercise suggested in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine may not be needed to prevent weight gain.

For the study, Slentz and his team assigned 120 subjects, ages 40 to 65, who exercised less than once a week and were overweight or obese, to one of four groups for eight months. Some did no exercise, some did low-dose moderate activity such as walking 12 miles a week, some did low-dose vigorous activity such as jogging 12 miles a week, and some did high-dose vigorous activity such as jogging 20 miles a week. Subjects could choose to exercise on treadmills, elliptical trainers, or stationary bikes.

They didn't change their diets and they were asked to maintain their starting body weight. If they dropped 2.5 percent or more of their body weight, a nutrition counselor advised them on how to increase it back to starting levels.

The high-dose, vigorous exercise group lost 3.5 percent of their weight, while the two low-dose groups had a 1 percent loss. The no-exercise group had a 1.1 percent weight gain.

"Thirty minutes daily is enough to prevent weight gain and lead to modest weight loss," says Sletz. By modest, he means about two pounds over six months.

The half hour a day is not going to make an overweight person look sculpted, he cautions. And the 30 minutes should be devoted to aerobic exercise that elevates the heart rate for the duration of the workout (such as walking or jogging), not strength training (such as lifting weights). "Weight training burns about half as many calories as does aerobic training," he says.

Probably the easiest exercise for sedentary people is walking, Slentz says. He suggests walking at a moderate to brisk pace, covering about 2 miles in a half hour.

Another expert calls the new research "an important study." But John Jakicic, an exercise research expert at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the university's Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center, has a concern about the research.

When body weight fell by 2.5 percent, the diet was altered to bring the subject back to starting weight. "Thus it is unclear if this is the real effects of exercise on weight," he says.

But Slentz counters that the body weight only fell that much in the high-vigorous group, not in the less active groups.

Jakicic, who has studied the topic extensively, says, "I think that the message should be that to prevent weight gain an individual should start with at least 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity exercise per day." If that doesn't prevent gain, it may be necessary to increase to as much as 60 minutes or more per day, he says.

And if that still does not prevent gain, diet changes should be started, he adds.

(SOURCES: Cris Slentz, Ph.D., exercise physiologist, senior research scientist, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.; John M. Jakicic, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center, University of Pittsburgh; Jan. 12, 2004, Archives of Internal Medicine)

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