Treadmills? iFit?

Resa52

Anyone have any treadmill recommendations? We realized tonight that it made no sense to have a $55/month gym membership when we both go to the gym and spend 90% of our time on the treadmill when we could buy a treadmill for a fraction of the cost.

The model we are looking at has a max speed of 10 mph and a max incline of 10% and is currently on sale from $900 down to $500 with great reviews, but I'm not sure what else to look at.

It's "iFit compatible" which looks like a cool feature, but it's a program that costs $100 a year. Anyone ever use that? It sounds neat and I know it's not a necessity, but it looks really cool (it basically lets you run "trails" using Google Maps so you can run routes in your neighborhood or in Paris or wherever, right from the comfort of your treadmill LOL)

Any feedback on treadmill shopping in general or iFit?

skadoosh33

I haven't heard of the iFit but I would be concerned about purchasing a treadmill that has a max speed of 10mph. The more you run, the faster you will get. You will also want to incorporate interval training with sprints and one of you might want to go faster than 10mph. Most gym treadmills go to 12mph and some at my gym max at 15mph.

tcatcarson

"we could buy a treadmill for a fraction of the cost. "

Or...go outside for free? Go on, give it a try, treadmills are the lite-beer of the running world; all the effort with none of the fun!

DavPul

Keep your gym membership and get your money's worth by using the strength training equipment. If you want to lose fat, look better, and perform better in your day to day life, start lifting. NOW. By the book New Rules of Lifting For Life and hop to it.

billsica

treadmill bike!

jennkain97

Keep your gym membership and get your money's worth by using the strength training equipment. If you want to lose fat, look better, and perform better in your day to day life, start lifting. NOW. By the book New Rules of Lifting For Life and hop to it.

THIS... weight training is essential. since it's both of you, also get New Rules of Lifting For Women. Excellent program-- not too difficult for beginners, but VERY effective.

but also, use the other cardio machines as well. using just one routine, your body becomes accustomed to it, thereby making it less effective.

GADavies

I have an iFit compatible treadmill, it has it's uses but the website is atrocious. I haven't completed the year that came with mine yet so undecided whether I'll continue the subscription or not. Here's a comment I made on their Facebook page a few weeks back which lists most of my gripes, none of which individually are dealbreakers but when paying a monthly subscription for a web service I expect perfection (especially when I know how trivial the issues are to fix but see no progress towards doing that).

Things I like
When it works, it’s pretty cool, there’s virtually no area that’s actually spot on at this point though.

Things I don't like
No integration with Facebook (this is a functionality regression over the old site). Peer expectations are a great motivation to success, “Damn, better do my workout or everyone will notice”.
No integration with MyFitnessPal API. Most of the other serious techie fitness toys out there integrate with MFP, their API is trivial to use and it would save me having to take the data from your site and enter it there as well. Be the best at what you do, but please play nice with others that are better at other things.
No average heart rate statistic shown on workouts.
No Android version of the app. There are a lot more Android users out there than iPhone users, and a lot of us are geeky IT types who need to get fit and like using technology to do so.

Problems
Inconsistent workout displays. There appear to be two workout displays, the first is broken and shows the average pace rather than pace changes, no heart rate data, and the summary in the headings says only total time 0:01 when the horizontal axis shows the correct times. The summary doesn’t show calories, distance, etc, only that incorrect total time. This is the workout summary you get clicking the links on the stats, summary, and dashboard pages and appears to be aimed at future workouts but even with that in mind it’s incomplete.
The second workout display shows most of the expected data but is only shown when you click a link in the workout history. Why do all links for completed workouts not link to this version as the other seems to be only appropriate for the schedule page?
Calorie calculation is all over the place, the dashboard, history, workout details, and schedule pages appear to use the default weight for calorie calculation whereas the stats page takes your logged weight into account (for me this is a big difference).
The scheduler is horrifically unusable, seriously. Just give me an easy way to say “This workout on this day” rather than trying to be clever, the current interface is a disaster.
Workout rescheduling doesn’t work properly, I missed a workout with the option set to reschedule and went to the treadmill the next day expecting it to be there and got a no workout message.
Average heart rate stat on the stats page appears to be the total of average heart rates for all workouts in the time range, 1470bpm for January appears unlikely.
Connection always times out the first time.
Sometimes I get your workout of the day, not my scheduled workout. Downloading again gets me the right one.
Treadmill is listed in equipment twice, one of which now shows distance travelled but the other one doesn’t go away when deleted.

stephaniemejia1671

"we could buy a treadmill for a fraction of the cost. "

Or...go outside for free? Go on, give it a try, treadmills are the lite-beer of the running world; all the effort with none of the fun!

I agree. You also need to lift weights. Keep the membership and just take FULL advantage of what the gym has to offer by adding more activities to your workout.

Mokey41

I have iFit on my elliptical and just buy the cards for Jillian Michaels workouts. I like that it automatically changes the resistance for me although having Jillian yelling at you is annoying.

I have a treadmill, elliptical and a stationary bike at home because it takes me at least a half hour to get to the nearest gym. It's been much cheaper to gather these things at home for those long snowy winter months when going outside isn't always necessary.

Lifting is great if you want to lift but to each his own. I do some minor strength training at home with free weights and I've survived quite nicely. You don't have to belong to a gym to be fit and I know if I had to go to a gym to exercise it would never happen so base your decision on what will work for you.

EOHerrera

I, too, have the elliptical, treadmill and stationary bike at home, and also do minor free weight lifting and all for the very reason you stated - I can have them at home to use for years, all without continuing to "rent" gym equipment from someone else for the rest of my life. Also, having a treadmill vs. outdoor running eliminates all the excuses - "I can't run today because it's raining, snowing, too cold, too hot" or whatever else! Plus I can multi-task by watching my favorite shows while working out - no choosing one over the other due to time restrictions!

That being said, I have iFit on both my elliptical and my treadmill and not once used it. Buy one that has the built-in workout programs for weight loss or calorie burn, incline, speed, etc. so that it will automatically adjust your incline and speed as you walk/run those "paths". I have found those to be a really good workout. I think you will be just as happy with that and save some money at the same time.

justal313

treadmill bike!

Is that a real thing? I want one just because it looks like a big toy and I already have an XBOX and a Bocce ball set.

justal313

I have a gym membership. I weight train 2-3 days a week and in the middle of a new england winter, there's black ice on the roads, or at least ususally. So right now if it's not an organized race, where I can trust the roads, I'm running at the gym. I cannot wait until the spring to start doing most of my running OUTSIDE

Resa52

"we could buy a treadmill for a fraction of the cost. "

Or...go outside for free? Go on, give it a try, treadmills are the lite-beer of the running world; all the effort with none of the fun!

I live in Wisconsin where we currently are covered in snow and ice on all the roads. I also have asthma that temperatures below 60º causes mass flareups. This means running outside about 9 months of the year is basically out of the question....

Resa52

The other part of this equation is my nearest gym is 10 miles away and I have a toddler. Getting to the gym is a giant PITA unless I want to sacrifice an hour of the three hours a day I see my kid (since I also work full time). I used my gym membership probably 20 times in the last year because of this. I would like to think it would be much more convenient to just go into the basement when the kid falls asleep at night than find a sitter, etc.

I'm currently doing 30 day shred and hope to incorporate kettleball videos etc into my future workout, so I guess I'm not looking for advice about whether to keep my unused gym membership, I'm curious to learn more about treadmills in general.

Thanks for all the feedback though )

Resa52

I have an iFit compatible treadmill, it has it's uses but the website is atrocious. I haven't completed the year that came with mine yet so undecided whether I'll continue the subscription or not. Here's a comment I made on their Facebook page a few weeks back which lists most of my gripes, none of which individually are dealbreakers but when paying a monthly subscription for a web service I expect perfection (especially when I know how trivial the issues are to fix but see no progress towards doing that).

Things I like
When it works, it’s pretty cool, there’s virtually no area that’s actually spot on at this point though.

Things I don't like
No integration with Facebook (this is a functionality regression over the old site). Peer expectations are a great motivation to success, “Damn, better do my workout or everyone will notice”.
No integration with MyFitnessPal API. Most of the other serious techie fitness toys out there integrate with MFP, their API is trivial to use and it would save me having to take the data from your site and enter it there as well. Be the best at what you do, but please play nice with others that are better at other things.
No average heart rate statistic shown on workouts.
No Android version of the app. There are a lot more Android users out there than iPhone users, and a lot of us are geeky IT types who need to get fit and like using technology to do so.

Problems
Inconsistent workout displays. There appear to be two workout displays, the first is broken and shows the average pace rather than pace changes, no heart rate data, and the summary in the headings says only total time 0:01 when the horizontal axis shows the correct times. The summary doesn’t show calories, distance, etc, only that incorrect total time. This is the workout summary you get clicking the links on the stats, summary, and dashboard pages and appears to be aimed at future workouts but even with that in mind it’s incomplete.
The second workout display shows most of the expected data but is only shown when you click a link in the workout history. Why do all links for completed workouts not link to this version as the other seems to be only appropriate for the schedule page?
Calorie calculation is all over the place, the dashboard, history, workout details, and schedule pages appear to use the default weight for calorie calculation whereas the stats page takes your logged weight into account (for me this is a big difference).
The scheduler is horrifically unusable, seriously. Just give me an easy way to say “This workout on this day” rather than trying to be clever, the current interface is a disaster.
Workout rescheduling doesn’t work properly, I missed a workout with the option set to reschedule and went to the treadmill the next day expecting it to be there and got a no workout message.
Average heart rate stat on the stats page appears to be the total of average heart rates for all workouts in the time range, 1470bpm for January appears unlikely.
Connection always times out the first time.
Sometimes I get your workout of the day, not my scheduled workout. Downloading again gets me the right one.
Treadmill is listed in equipment twice, one of which now shows distance travelled but the other one doesn’t go away when deleted.

This is great info! Very disappointing to hear of all the problems AND the lack of Android compatibility.

I'm thinking that if I can score an unused widget off eBay for $40, we will try it out, otherwise we'll just skip it. Kind of irritating that all the sales points on the treadmill in the store act like all these features are included with the treadmill when really, it's an expensive add on with lots of bugs....

brownmousemama

The other part of this equation is my nearest gym is 10 miles away and I have a toddler. Getting to the gym is a giant PITA unless I want to sacrifice an hour of the three hours a day I see my kid (since I also work full time). I used my gym membership probably 20 times in the last year because of this. I would like to think it would be much more convenient to just go into the basement when the kid falls asleep at night than find a sitter, etc.

I'm currently doing 30 day shred and hope to incorporate kettleball videos etc into my future workout, so I guess I'm not looking for advice about whether to keep my unused gym membership, I'm curious to learn more about treadmills in general.

Thanks for all the feedback though )

I totally understand this point. I live in Portland where it pretty much rains every second of every day except for a handful of weeks in the "summer," and I have a 4 year old. The only time I could go to the gym that I have a free membership to through the university I work at and attend classes is when she is at preschool, BUT that time is spent in class and teaching my pre-kindergardners at work. I have a treadmill at home for this reason, and use it at least 3 times a week if not 5 or 6. Mine is the Reebok Crosswalk, and has the same specs as the one you described (10mph, 10 inclines, ifit, etc) I found that I have never used the ifit, and don;t really care about it. Though having the ifit means that it also has an AUX cord outlet so I can plug my phone in to the speakers on it and listen to Pandora. It also has a laptop shelf type thing that you slide your laptop down into and I could watch a movie while I use it. I started our running doing Couch to 5k, but due to an old knee injury I've started doing incline walking until my Doctor okays running again. I saw a previous comment say that she wouldn't buy a treadmill that only went to 10pmh, and honestly, unless you want to do time sprints and compete, I don't see why this would matter, especially for a beginning runner. When I was running, my fastest was 6mph, which might be slow for some but as a beginner, it was VERY fast for me. I don't foresee ever needing to run past 10mph. The point of running is to run at a comfortable pace for a longer time/distance, not necessarily to go as fast as you possibly can.

Definitely check the review on the one you buy, and if possible, go try out a few in a store. Also, check craigslist, we got our Reebok for $400 ($1200 brand now, on sale now a year later for $799) and it was pretty much brand new.. the guys wife had used it *maybe* ten times.

Be aware though, if your toddler is like my daughter, he/she will be bugging you ever time you run to "walk on the walking machine too Mama!" Hahahahaha!

MichaelBrewer2634

Before you buy an expensive piece of equipment try some free things. Interval training is free, and much more effective that hours of walking/running on a treadmill. Check out Bodyrock.tv, youtube, or just google routines. Don't buy a very expensive dust collector. Been there done that. Good luck.

nomeejerome

I have an iFit compatible treadmill, it has it's uses but the website is atrocious. I haven't completed the year that came with mine yet so undecided whether I'll continue the subscription or not. Here's a comment I made on their Facebook page a few weeks back which lists most of my gripes, none of which individually are dealbreakers but when paying a monthly subscription for a web service I expect perfection (especially when I know how trivial the issues are to fix but see no progress towards doing that).

Things I like
When it works, it’s pretty cool, there’s virtually no area that’s actually spot on at this point though.

Things I don't like
No integration with Facebook (this is a functionality regression over the old site). Peer expectations are a great motivation to success, “Damn, better do my workout or everyone will notice”.
No integration with MyFitnessPal API. Most of the other serious techie fitness toys out there integrate with MFP, their API is trivial to use and it would save me having to take the data from your site and enter it there as well. Be the best at what you do, but please play nice with others that are better at other things.
No average heart rate statistic shown on workouts.
No Android version of the app. There are a lot more Android users out there than iPhone users, and a lot of us are geeky IT types who need to get fit and like using technology to do so.

Problems
Inconsistent workout displays. There appear to be two workout displays, the first is broken and shows the average pace rather than pace changes, no heart rate data, and the summary in the headings says only total time 0:01 when the horizontal axis shows the correct times. The summary doesn’t show calories, distance, etc, only that incorrect total time. This is the workout summary you get clicking the links on the stats, summary, and dashboard pages and appears to be aimed at future workouts but even with that in mind it’s incomplete.
The second workout display shows most of the expected data but is only shown when you click a link in the workout history. Why do all links for completed workouts not link to this version as the other seems to be only appropriate for the schedule page?
Calorie calculation is all over the place, the dashboard, history, workout details, and schedule pages appear to use the default weight for calorie calculation whereas the stats page takes your logged weight into account (for me this is a big difference).
The scheduler is horrifically unusable, seriously. Just give me an easy way to say “This workout on this day” rather than trying to be clever, the current interface is a disaster.
Workout rescheduling doesn’t work properly, I missed a workout with the option set to reschedule and went to the treadmill the next day expecting it to be there and got a no workout message.
Average heart rate stat on the stats page appears to be the total of average heart rates for all workouts in the time range, 1470bpm for January appears unlikely.
Connection always times out the first time.
Sometimes I get your workout of the day, not my scheduled workout. Downloading again gets me the right one.
Treadmill is listed in equipment twice, one of which now shows distance travelled but the other one doesn’t go away when deleted.

We have a Proform treadmill and were told to press the start and stop button at the same time to reset the entire machine. It worked and issues have disappeared for now......

CMorning99

Why is it that when someone asks for reviews on a product...the main one is from the peanut gallery telling them how to exercise without it?

I just ordered my EPIC iFit treadmill and look forward to using it...I appreciated all the reviews regarding iFit and think that for MY lifestyle it is going to work out fine. I am more of the "suffer alone" type of personality when it comes to exercise and don't like sharing equipment with a hord of ooglers and preeners. How did weight lifting get into this conversation again?...I thought the question was pertaining to iFit? While I agree muscular fitness is important, one can find a plethora of studies that contradict themselves on the "amount" required of each type. I also think that if a person has the means for a "home gym"...i.e. treadmill and basic free weights...there is no need for the gym other than to have that public accountability or social aspect.

RGv2

"we could buy a treadmill for a fraction of the cost. "

Or...go outside for free? Go on, give it a try, treadmills are the lite-beer of the running world; all the effort with none of the fun!

Pretty easy for the guy from South Carolina to tell the gal from Wisconsin to "go outside".

Dude, I'm in MN. When I went to the gym this morning there was a legit blizzard. Almost all of January was double-digit below zero(w/o windchill factor) went I went to the gym.

PeteWhoLikesToRunAlot

Speaking from personal experience, having gone through two sub-$1000 treadmills... they don't tend to hold up if they're getting regular use. I try to do 40+ miles per week, and being in Massachusetts, a good portion of those miles are done on a treadmill in winter. I bit the bullet and dropped $1500 on a NordicTrac C1500. Definitely not the best one out there, but a good compromise between the real commercial $5000+ ones in the gym, and the $500 throwaway ones I've used. It's got a 20" width and 60" length tread, which gives you a little more real estate to use versus most of the cheaper models.

If you have to go with the cheapest one period, perhaps get a service plan on it to cover the various repairs it may very well need. Good luck.

Linli_Anne

When we bought our treadmill 2 years ago we bought one that has the iFit thing you speak of. We never used it....I just use the treadmill for my jogging/running in the winter months.

Zelinna

We have a Reebok treadmill with the same specs you described. We paid around $1000 a year and a half ago, and it is one of the best investments we have made. I would not have been able to get into the exercise habit if it was not for that treadmill. And now I can't wait for winter to be over so I can run outside.

Meatsies

I just ordered an elliptical machine from Nordic Track that is iFit compatible; I'm glad to see this topic because I was also wondering if anyone had any experience with iFit. I'm getting it as an add-on simply because the dude offered me a 5-yr warranty and iFit bundle for $150-ish (normally their 3-yr warranty is $150) so it seemed like a great deal. I'll be curious as to whether I enjoy the iFit - my elliptical isn't one of those uber-fancy ones with the full-color monitor so that you can actually 'see' the streets of Paris as you run them, but I'm more looking forward to having Jillian Michaels verbally whomp my *kitten* while I ellipticise. (Whoa, I totally just made that word up - I love it.)

themedalist

Speaking from personal experience, having gone through two sub-$1000 treadmills... they don't tend to hold up if they're getting regular use. I try to do 40+ miles per week, and being in Massachusetts, a good portion of those miles are done on a treadmill in winter. I bit the bullet and dropped $1500 on a NordicTrac C1500. Definitely not the best one out there, but a good compromise between the real commercial $5000+ ones in the gym, and the $500 throwaway ones I've used. It's got a 20" width and 60" length tread, which gives you a little more real estate to use versus most of the cheaper models.

If you have to go with the cheapest one period, perhaps get a service plan on it to cover the various repairs it may very well need. Good luck.

Seconded! I went through 2 starter treadmills (under $1000) in a few short years before I purchased my $2200 Landice treadmill 10 years ago. It's still going strong. If you know you will use a treadmill it's worth getting a quality one.

christianteach

We have been looking at treadmills for a few weeks now and wanted one with iFit. We just bought a NordicTrack C1750. We got a great deal on it at a Sears outlet, new in the box for $879, plus $10 off for opening a Sears card and 5% more off for using the Sears card...even after adding delivery, installation, extended warranty and tax it was only $1254! It will be delivered Tuesday. Will we have to buy a membership for iFit to work or will it come with it the first year? Is it $99?

Seeing other responses in this post I feel I should add this: We have had gym memberships in the past but find it more convenient and cost effective to work out at home. We have a mini home gym with an elliptical, bike, total gym and weights. This will be an addition to that. We also own several workout dvd's, Wii Fit and P90x (I think that's the name, we ordered it about a year ago and it's still in the box.) So even tough we work out in the privacy of our home, we are able to change it up whenever we want. I occasionally miss my step or zumba classes but I had plantar fasciitis for almost three years and my podiatrist has recommended I not do the high impact workouts but instead use machines which are easier on my feet.

pkirill

Regarding the iFit service... I purchased a NordicTrack elite 9500 two years ago (December of 2011) and one of the deciding factors was the iFit feature of creating custom maps on the treadmill and saving them for reuse. A month or so after I bought it, iFit completely changed their service and that functionality was no longer supported. Actually, for several months, NO features were supported because you had to do everything from the website which you could not log into. Then later, when you could log in, your online account would not sync with the account you created on the equipment. So, blah, blah, blah - iFit stinks, etc. Fast forward to a couple months ago when I finally decided to give iFit another shot - after all I had paid for it. Now it turns out that much of the logging in issues have been settled - except that now when you log in you get prompted to buy their workouts or other workout junk even though you already paid for the service. The real problem now is the actual user interface and functionality is horrible. You can no longer create a list of maps to just access - instead, you have to schedule them in the online calendar. And you can't schedule a workout for multiple days - only the workouts you BUY from iFit will do that. Connectivity between the equipment and the iFit service is still intermittent from day to day. Thankfully I have figured out how to use my Elite 9500 without iFit - just as a regular treadmill - and we are friends again.

d0db0b

When it s assaciated to a fitness device, IFIT is a scam... expensive, a lot of bugg, pour functionality, and no longer supported by your future device. For example you pay 10$/month + 5 $ for your program.
I have a Nor****track T25.

Amitysk

treadmill bike!

I saw someone on one of those in my neighborhood recently.... True story

Azdak

Grrrrrr.......f-ing zombie thread again :explode: :grumble:

How do people find these?

nuclearjen

I just got an elliptical with iFit on it. It is absolutely amazing and I'm never going to the gym again. There are hundreds upon hundreds of workouts on there for anything you would want to do. Studio running walking lightweight lifting, etc. I am in love with it because you can go on there and decide you want to hike a hill in South Africa and see zebras and the trainer takes off with you and your treadmill automatically adjusts to the terrain. It's AWESOME AND THE MOST WELL SPENT MONEY EVER! This morning I did a run through Portugal and yesterday morning I ran through the markets in Morocco. Last week I was in the Great pyramid of Giza! the trainers give you information on the surroundings and the history. It's well worth it! If you feel like just doing a class workout with some light weights like aerobics those are on if it as well and you can just pull it up on your smart TV or tablet.