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Whether you are looking into purchasing a treadmill as a wedding weight loss tool or to just support your health and fitness, the question comes down to this—is a home treadmill worth the cost?
To help you determine whether a treadmill is right for you or not, I wanted to share the process that assisted me in deciding to invest in a treadmill.
Review Your Options
Before you even start to consider treadmills, start with looking at your available options for running or walking. For me, it looked like this:
- Outside - I do love the outdoors, but I live in an area where the winters are cold and icy, then the summers can be scorchingly hot. Also, with children at home, it is difficult to find the right time to slip out for a run that wasn’t incredibly early or dark and late.
- Gym - I’m naturally a frugal person, so it rubbed me the wrong way to think about paying to workout. For some people, paying to work out will help to motivate them, but honestly, I found it never helped me much. Also, I didn’t want to pay for the daycare center at the gym on top of my monthly fee.
- Treadmill - Growing up, my family were dedicated runners. While we did go running outside, we always had one or two treadmills. So for me, it made the most sense to purchase a treadmill, because then I wouldn’t need to arrange a babysitter for my children.
Even if you don’t have children as I do, often treadmills are a more cost-effective option if you are interested in regularly walking and running.
Set Your Treadmill Budget Before You Look
When I decided to start looking for a treadmill, I came across a treadmill buying guide that recommended setting your budget before you start searching, which makes a lot of sense. There are a lot of treadmills out there, and if you don’t have a firm price range in mind, it is easy to feel overwhelmed with all the options.
To help set your budget, consider how often you will really set foot on your treadmill. For me, I run 25-30 miles a week when not in training and my husband puts in about 15-20 miles. A cheap, mystery brand treadmill from Amazon would be pounded to bits with that kind of mileage, so I knew I was looking at the $1,000-$1,500 range to ensure I didn’t have to call customer service for repairs all the time.
If you have a lower weekly mileage or are predominately a walker/light jogger, a more affordable treadmill in the $500-$900 range is likely just fine.
Potential Benefits To Having A Home Treadmill
So, if you aren’t quite sure the potential price of your future treadmill is worth it, here are some of the potential pros of buying a treadmill for your home.
- Workout whenever - Sometimes it can feel like the stars have to align to find time workout. For me, balancing my career, family, and other responsibilities made finding time to workout tough. But with a treadmill in my garage, I can jump on whenever I find a moment.
- Protect your body - The difficult truth is that as we age, our bodies are less able to take a beating. I found this out when I fractured both feet after my first marathon. So, if you have joint or bone issues, the right shoes and a well-cushioned treadmill can make all the difference in your workouts.
- More entertainment options - If you’ve ever been on a gym treadmill, you know that usually the TVs are set to HGTV, ESPN, and a news channel. I don’t know about you, but I can only watch so much Property Brothers and house flipping. At home on my own treadmill, I am free to jam out to my music without headphones or binge watch Netflix as I put in my workout.
- Pay once, not forever - Rather than having money constantly dribbling out of your accounts for a gym membership, you can just pay for a treadmill and be done.Even if you can’t pay the whole price outright, financing a treadmill will still leave you owning the machine after you finished the payments, which is more than you can say when paying for a gym membership.
Some Considerations Before Committing To A Treadmill
While it was pretty easy for me to convince myself that I wanted to buy a treadmill, there are some things you may want to consider before you decide it’s worth it to buy a treadmill for your home.
- Treadmills can take up a lot of space, even when folded up. I didn’t own a treadmill while living in apartments because of space constraints.
- Like any other machine, treadmills can have issues. If you aren’t interested in putting some minimal treadmill maintenance a few times a year, you may become frustrated with your treadmill.
- Some treadmills can be very loud. Check reviews mentioning the volume of the machine if this is an issue for you.
- If you aren’t interested in running or walking but are hoping that a treadmill will change that, I would say you are better off saving your money. Treadmills are basically the essence of running and walking, so if you don’t at least like these activities, you may want to look at an elliptical or stationary bike instead.
By working through this process, you should be able to come to decide if a treadmill is worth the cost. For me, buying a treadmill has been the right step to decrease my stress and improve my overall fitness. I hope I was able to help you take the necessary steps to reach your health and fitness goals.
