Some people interested in a treadmill for home use just want to be able to walk on a softer surface than concrete, and don’t plan on running at all. Their knees might not be able to with stand the high impact of running and their doctor may even recommend not running for cardiovascular exercise. These people don’t necessarily need to go drop a couple thousand dollars on the “best” treadmill out there. My parents were in this situation exactly. They ended up with a $600 treadmill and they love it. Other athletes will want a treadmill to run at almost full speed and for an extremely long period of time. These people will most likely be better off by avoiding cheap electric treadmills and spending more on a top-end machine. The treadmill companies out there have made it fairly easy and reasonable to get into a treadmill, which is great for people like my parents, but if you are a seasoned athlete don’t unnecessarily buy the lowest priced treadmill out there.

How much do you want to spend on your electrical treadmill? Again, decide this before you go looking. You’ll see machines from $300 to $3000 and at every price in between, and not deciding how much to spend before hand could just lead to an overwhelming shopping experience. Also, figuring out first how you’re going to use the treadmill will help you decide how much is necessary to spend. From everything I’ve seen, read, and experienced, you pretty much get what you pay for with a treadmill. Don’t think that you’re going to get a three thousand dollar machine for $1000- it doesn’t work like that. And realize that the fitness equipment resellers like to play games a little bit with the pricing. They will usually have the MSRP at twice their price, suggesting that you’re saving 50%. Really, that’s just the price they normally sell the machine. If you do your research and don’t rush into something, you won’t be fooled.

The other two questions are answered pretty easily. Do you need to save space and do you have a friend with an electric treadmill you could talk to? A folding electric treadmill is awesome for someone with a smaller home or apartment and can’t have the treadmill laying out the entire day, everyday. Many treadmills fold and roll extremely easily so you can store it in the corner of a room. If you don’t need the space and don’t want to bother with folding and unfolding, then there are non-folding treadmills out there as well. A distinct advantage to non folding electric treadmills is they are more stable. Our final word of advice is to talk to a friend who has a treadmill and ask them questions. They’ll be straight with you, which you can’t necessarily expect from a salesman, and they may have questions for you to ask that you haven’t thought of yet.

So, though we’ll be writing more about specifics of treadmills, which brands are the best, and where to buy them, etc., we think asking these few questions before everything else will help you make a more informed and confident decision when you actually buy the electric treadmill. They are great machines for cardio, there are a lot out there that will accommodate many different types of people and workouts, and the more research you do and questions you ask the better off you’ll be.