As you would expect, generally speaking the more you pay for a treadmill, the better quality and more features you get, but don’t be fooled by manufacturers’ jargon – why pay more for a treadmill with features you don’t need and won’t use?!
Obviously you want to buy a treadmill that is up to the task of keeping you active at your desired fitness level, whether it’s walking, jogging or running (different sized treadmill decks are designed to accommodate different stride lengths with the cheaper treadmills generally having the shorter deck lengths more suited to walking and the more expensive treadmills having a longer deck more suited for running).
Additionally your treadmill choice could be dependent on a number of options that are important to you and your fitness goals such as program/speed range and amount of incline levels to keep you challenged.
Before purchasing a treadmill, you also need to make sure that you are well within the manufacturer’s stated user weight limit to ensure it operates smoothly and efficiently without struggling, otherwise it could result in jerky jolty movements and ultimately break down. Going hand-in-hand with user weight limit is the power of the motor – generally speaking, the more powerful the motor is, the more pounding it can handle!
Having taken the above considerations into account, one of the most important things to look at is your intended usage of the treadmill, i.e. activity intensity (walking, jogging or running) and amount of time spent working out, as this will dictate the overall quality of the treadmill you need and this is what we are going to look at with regards to our Price Range Guide.
Logically, if you’re intending to use a treadmill for frequent heavy running / intensive workouts then the lower priced treadmills will not stand up to the pounding you’ll give it! On the other hand, if your intention is to use a treadmill for occasional walking or light jogging workouts then you’d be wasting your hard-earned cash paying out for a treadmill in the higher-end categories.
So based on your intended workout usage, let’s take a look at the table below to see which treadmills typically fall into which price range to help you decide on which category you should be looking at for your individual workout needs:
