Things To Look For In A Good Commercial Treadmill
A commercial treadmill is a treadmill designed for repeated use in public places like gyms, not a treadmill that happens to have a commercial on television. Sometimes, you can find commercial treadmills in hotels, hospitals and spas as well as health clubs. You might wonder how the business owner came to decide on his or her choice of commercial treadmill. Wonder no more.
Weight Capacity
Unlike treadmills for home use, commercial treadmills should never look like they can be folded up and stuck into a closet. A commercial treadmill should look somewhat like a war chariot meant to be pulled by rhinos. (What - you mean you never saw a war chariot pulled by rhinos?) Commercial treadmills should easily be able to carry people up top 400 or even 500 pounds for eight to ten hours a day, every day.
Workout Variety
Commercial treadmills will have bells and whistles on them that you won't believe in order to appeal to a wide variety of customers. They will be loaded with workout options, incline grades, speed settings, monitors, places to stick your iPod, and lots of flashing lights. Their monitors will often be very large in order to be more easily used by half-conscious customers.
More Comfort
One of the reasons commercial treadmills are so much more expensive than treadmills for home use is that they are designed to give you as low-impact a workout as possible. Although exercises like jogging can be beneficial to your over all health, it can do terrible damage to your joints. There will be a lot more cushioning with commercial treadmills to help lessen the impact of walking, jogging or sprinting.
Another reason these kinds of treadmills are more comfortable is because of their rollers. They will be a lot larger than for home use treadmills. Generally, the bigger the roller, the smoother the belt moves and the more comfortable it is to use. This also means that the roller has to turn less, which helps to keep the roller bearings from wearing out prematurely.
Slow Start, Slow Stop
A cheap treadmill (including many for home use) will start and stop very abruptly, resulting in lots of film being sent to "America's Funniest Home Videos". Good commercial treadmills start and stop slowly in order to make you easily adjust to the movement. A slow start and slow stop mean a safer commercial treadmill, because no matter how much you use the treadmill, the fatigue of a workout can make you become easily off balanced.
