Physical Fitness Studio

The easiest and simplest form of exercise is walking.  Having either a manual or an electric treadmill makes walking or even running kilometers possible inside your house.  It makes it possible for you to burn off excess calories, strengthen your heart by cardio workout, and ultimately stay healthy in the comfort and convenience of your own home.  Here is a guide to choosing the treadmill that will best suit you.

Manual Treadmill vs. Electric Treadmill

Manual treadmills have a few advantages over electric treadmills.  For one thing, they cost much less than their electric counterparts; prices range from below $100 to over $200.  Electric treadmills, on the other hand, are priced from $500 to $5000.  Rarely can you find cheap electric treadmills, unless they are secondhand.  Another advantage is that manual treadmills are lighter and smaller so it’s easier to store them.  They consume a relatively smaller space inside the house.  Since manual treadmills don’t have a motor to keep them moving, your legs, hips and thighs will need to do all the work.  This makes the lower extremities of your body worked out better.

However, there are also a few drawbacks with manual treadmills.  Since your legs and thighs do all the work to get the belt to start moving, your joints might get too stressed out resulting to injury.  And once you’ve kept the belt moving, you will need to get off to manually change or adjust the incline.  This might be too tiring and would require a lot of patience.  Also, with manual treadmills, you go only as fast as you can push yourself.  If you slow down, it slows down.

As for electric treadmills, with higher price come more benefits.  The additional dollars you’ll spend for an electric treadmill will surely not be put to waste.  Here is a list of the advantages of an electric treadmill over a manual treadmill:

• Because electric treadmills are run by motors, you need not worry about straining your joints and muscles to keep the belt moving.
• During your workouts, you have the option to change the speed and the incline level, giving you the option to change the amount of workout you want to do.
• Since you can set the speed of the belt to a specific rate, the workout provided by the electric treadmill is consistent.
• Electric treadmills have built-in functions that track speed, incline level and distance, allowing the user to monitor his workout.

What to Consider in Choosing an Electric Treadmill

Price

How cheap is cheap?   If you find something that is so useful you forget about its price, then “cheap” and “expensive” lose their meanings.  Besides, what’s the point of buying manual and cheap treadmills if you’ll only end up injuring yourself, and you won’t get the same benefits as with electric treadmills?  Electric treadmills are very beneficial but if you’re still worried about your budget, you can always look for a refurbished electric treadmill for sale online.  Or you can search for brand new ones that don’t cost that much.

Warranty

You may want to look for warranties as they indicate whether the machine is durable or not.  More lengthy warranties imply better durability of the product because manufacturers won’t put an extensive warranty on a machine that is likely to fail and breakdown.

Features

There are electric treadmills that offer safety features like hand rails, emergency shut off and safety lock or switch that may be especially useful if you have children who might play with it.  There are those that offer a voice-guiding feature that tells the user to lower or increase the speed based on the heart rate measured by a pulse sensor.  There is a wide variety of features you can choose from.

Size and Design

The size of the treadmill should also be considered.  You need to know how much space you can allot for the treadmill in your house.  Also, the length and width of the belt should fit you.

Motor

Most electric treadmills’ motor power rating ranges from 1.5 to 2.5 horsepower.  This should be sufficient for your home fitness workout but for some people who plan to do a lot of running, they might need to go for something that offers a higher power rating.

User rating and user reviews

Reading user reviews will give you an idea whether the electric treadmill is worth buying or not.  By checking the user rating and user reviews, you can save yourself from wasting your money on an unsatisfying product.

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