Treadmill blues: To purchase or not?

On rainy days, I do wish I have a treadmill at home so I could get my daily 20-minute cardio high. Fitness First is but 15 minutes away from my home but the street where I live gets flooded easily. This is so frustrating for me as I have made it a point to never, ever miss a day of running however busy I am. This has been my daily mantra; so much so that I keep my pair of fave running shoes by the door so I am always reminded of my goal. So many of my friends at the gym have tried and failed to keep the weight because they slack off when they reach their desired weight.

The issue of a treadmill at home has been hounding me for quite some time. To purchase or not? I am still undecided because I lack space for it. I have tried out quite a few especially the folding ones that can be stored under the bed, also the small treadmills on sale that cost around Php5,000 at Toby's but because I am so used to the big treadmills at the gym, I find it too wobbly; I can't even get on it comfortably and swing my arms freely as I do at the gym. The trampoline I had parked infront of the TV hasn't been used for quite sometime because it has been folded and placed behind the piano. If I get the folding type that has to be moved around (okay, I'm lazy, I admit) chances are it's going to be the same thing with the trampoline.

Treadmill Purchase

Fitness First has Precor and Technogym treadmills. What I like about these treadmills, specially the Technogym treadmills, is that they have big handles that help me balance my weight around the machine and I don't feel like the person next to me is too close for me to smell his odor (my friend laughed out loud when I said this). Yeah, I'm such an OC over personal space.

Run or walk, the belt on the machine is long and wide enough which allows me ample space that my feet won't hit the front deck, nor get caught on the sides of the tread. I've seen this happen once because a woman was holding her cellphone and texting while on the machine. Stupid, and very dangerous. I once closed my eyes while wiping off sweat from my forehead while walking at a fairly moderate setting and lost my balance.

I've been experiencing joint problems of late, probably from all the running I do, whether at the pavement or on a treadmill. Typical problem that affects runners, they say. Cushioning becomes important at this point. Gym treadmills have shock absorbers that give me the cushioning I need so much so that when one foot hits the tread, I get the spring that I need for the next step.

What I do when get on the treadmill is that I set it to 5.5 miles per hour (mph) for 5 minutes at an incline or gradient of 1.0 degrees. This is like hiking up a moderate slope to strengthen the legs a bit. Don't be fooled by the speed because as slow as it is, walking at an incline burns up more calories as do running at a pace of 8.0 mph at zero incline/gradient. After my five-minute briskwalk, I set the speed range to about 8 to 8.5 for 10 minutes, keeping my breathing even and pacing my steps carefully so that I won't tire so easily; one foot after another, concentrating as much as I can. I don't have time to spare; I just want to do my workout and leave the gym to do other stuff like writing or errands, unlike some people who distract themselves with the TV or fidget with their water bottles, cellphones or clothing. Towards the end of my 10 minutes, I sometimes feel like breaking into a run and set it to 9.0 for 3 minutes. I taper off by going back to 5.5 and then meander for quite a bit till I'm done.

The important thing to remember is to get the heart racing at 60% of your maximum heart rate. Ace, my fitness trainer at Fitness First (FF) Manila, taught me how to get my maximum heart rate. You determine your maximum heart rate by taking the number 220 and subtracting your age. I used to program my run when I had Ace for my gym trainer. These gym treadmills are helpful in that respect. The machine's console has program settings so that you keep you heart rate at a level that you have pre-determined. The consoles has programs for speed, calorie and distance so you know what speed you are going, how far you've gone or how much time you have left. The monitor shows this at intervals; you don't have to push buttons for the info. It has steel magnetic handles you can place your hands on as it reads your bpm (heartbeat per minute). The treadmills at Fitness First are user-friendly as it has less buttons in its console (they probably did a study on this). For people like me who want to get moving right away, the quick start button is very helpful. I rarely program my run and the arrows that move up and down allows me to operate manually, set my pace as I see fit.

At the end of the day, I feel like I'm still not sold out on the idea of a treadmill purchase, one big factor being it takes up so much space for the type of treadmill I want and need. Just thinking about it, well, I would rather generate energy when out running outside my home, rather than consuming energy when I plug on the treadmill. Think of how much electricity I can save. I just might have to content myself with running around our three-car garage; running in circles perhaps (LOL)...

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