Buying a Treadmill

I’ve found that it’s far easier to workout from home as a parent - every minute you’re able to save in a day becomes important. Taking time to go to the gym are extra minutes lost.

Building out a gym at home can be a really cheap, or a really expensive endeavor. Depending on how much you like working out, and what your goals are, you may be going on the cheaper end. If you’re not already dedicated to working out, I would start on the cheaper end with basic equipment. From there, work your way up to some more advanced equipment. Finally, start to build out with the equipment that makes the most sense for you.

Do you need a treadmill

If running is one of the things you enjoy doing, then a treadmill may be on your list of equipment to buy. This will likely be the most expensive piece of equipment that you’ll buy for your home gym. Treadmills are expensive pieces of equipment in general, and you’ll want something reliable. Go into it prepared.

If you live in an area where you can always run outdoors, then a treadmill probably doesn’t make sense. Some areas of the world have great weather year round - just run outside in those areas. However, many people live in areas of the world where there are times of the year where it’s not possible to run outdoors for long periods of time. If that’s the case, a treadmill probably makes sense.

Running outdoors in the cold is actually possible, and many people do it. You’ll need plenty of cold gear for running, but you can run outside in a lot of different weather. However, it does get difficult to run when there’s a ton of new snow falling on the ground - you’ll slip all over the place. In other words, you’ll probably need a treadmill if you live in such an area or if you want to avoid running in the cold.

Ultimately, you need to figure out if a treadmill is your only option for running, and if you’ll actually run on it. Buying a treadmill will not force you to start running. You should already have a consistent running habit before buying a treadmill and know that you’ll need it.

Figure out what type of treadmill you need

Do you need to run fast? Do you need to run on an incline? Can you run your own program? There are a lot of questions that you should ask yourself in order to figure out what you need. Figure out what features are important to you.

The first question to determine is how fast you need to be able to run. Having a treadmill that goes to 10MPH is pretty standard across most of them. If you need 12MPH, you’ll need to spend a bit more, and 15MPH is quite expensive. Most people are generally fine with 10MPH, but figure that speed out.

Next up, figure out how much incline you want and need on your treadmill. If you don’t really need anything special, most treadmills have basic incline settings - 10% is common. If you want more, you’ll start to pay more. There are some awesome treadmills that go up to 40% incline for those that really like a heavy incline.

How wide and long do you need your running belt. You can get really thin and really short belts - they’re not fun to run on if you’ve got a bigger body. I find it hard to run on a treadmill with a skinny belt. I also need something that’s longer, but I’m also taller. If you’re on the shorter and smaller side, a smaller treadmill may suffice.

How much space you have is an important factor as well. Will you need a folding treadmill, or can you have one that’s always down? Figuring out your space availability will help you to choose a treadmill as well.

You should go and try several different treadmills to figure out what you feel comfortable on. If you buy a treadmill that you can’t run on, you’ll have an expensive piece of equipment just sitting and collecting dust. Walking and running a little on a treadmill will help you to decide what you want and need.

Research and Buy

Once you know what you want, it’s time to start actually figuring out what treadmills fit your needs. You’ll also need something that is in your budget. There are a lot of different options, and places to buy your treadmill. I’d recommend that you start out by limiting everything down based off of your max budget number. That will help you to start figuring out what’s available out there.

Once you have that list, the next step will be to put each treadmill through your list of requirements - figure out which treadmills fit your requirements. If nothing makes the cut, then something will have to change (budget, or specs).

After narrowing down your options, I’d go to the newest model from each different treadmill company and use that as the treadmill you’re going to consider. Newer models will have nicer options on them. They will be more expensive, but they should already be within your budget from the above options. You can step down later to an older version before buying, but this will help you to compare across companies.

Your final research step is to compare your top models from each company across the brands. You may need to get on the treadmills and test them out. Ultimately, each company has different options and things that set them apart from each other.

You're now ready to buy your treadmill. There are plenty of places to buy a treadmill from - directly from the manufacturer in some cases, from a big box retailer, Amazon, or you could buy a used treadmill off of a resell website. Whatever you choose, make sure you know where the treadmill will be delivered. Each will have different options and may add to your final price. If you need a treadmill moved up a set of stairs, you’ll want someone else to do it. Treadmills are extremely heavy. Have some help to get it into place, especially if you have to do it yourself as you won’t be able to do it alone.

Conclusion

Buying a treadmill is an involved process. Adding a treadmill to your gym can be a great investment in yourself, but can also be stressful. Go in prepared and do your research before buying.