My treadmill got delivered on Thursday. The UPS person was nice enough to bring it upstairs, right to my door. Thanks to my ability to work at home, I was able to be there for the delivery. It required a signature, so if I was not at home, it would have been a major hassle to get it to me. While the treadmill is advertised as portable, it is heavy. I’ll have more to say on that later.
After I got the thing out of the box, I realized there isn’t much assembly required at all. You just attached the power cable, put the battery in the remote, and everything is ready to go. There’s an app you can download on your phone but that’s not necessary at all. The app can control the treadmill but the remote is easier to use. The app does track your workouts on the treadmill but that’s the only utility it has. It’s also buggy and doesn’t track all the exercise you do.
As for using the treadmill, the one thing I immediately noticed is how I am totally used to using regular treadmills with guard rails. Even if you’re not holding onto them, they provide a good measure of psychological safety. You know if you slip or take a wrong step, you can just shoot your hands out to steady yourself. With this treadmill, none of that is there. If you stumble, you’re basically gonna just fall off the side of the treadmill onto whatever surface you’re on. Many times, I’ve used a treadmill and placed my hands on the rails while I’ve lazily looked at TV and the rails keep you within the confines of the treadmill surface. You don’t really need to pay too much attention as long as you keep your feet moving. With this treadmill, it’s not enough to just keep up the pace, if you lazy stare off into space, you can easily not notice you’re veering off to the left or right and you run the risk of stepping off the treadmill accidentally. At least for now, it requires an additional bit of focus to stay centered on the treadmill. I am guessing that you can get better at this the more you use it though.
As for the speeds, I took it from the slowest speed, 0.5 mph, to the fastest, about 3.75 mph. I was worried that this thing wouldn’t go fast enough for me to run or jog but I guess I’ve never clocked my own running speed because at 3.75 mph, I found it impossible to keep up with just a walking gait. I had to jog/run to keep up and I felt like I had to go at a decent clip. This was a great revelation because this treadmill allows me to get in anything from a light cardio workout to something more intense.
The treadmill is advertised as “quiet” but I was afraid this was just a marketing claim but I was pleasantly surprised at how little noise the motor made, even at the highest speed. I prepared to have to use some sorta sound-absorbing mat to prevent my downstairs neighbour from being annoyed but I don’t think that’ll be necessary. If I had to make a comparison, I think a hair dryer is noisier than the treadmill in most cases.
Lastly, I’ll address the portability aspect of this. Yes, it is totally portable, let’s just get that out of the way. If this were a normal treadmill, it would be practically anchored to where ever I put it in my apartment. This treadmill has two wheels on the front that allow you to “wheelbarrow” it to where ever you want to store it. That said, remember that I wrote that this thing is heavy. So when it’s all folded up, it’s very low to the ground and you have to bend down really low to lift up one end so you can wheelbarrow it to your storage location. It also doesn’t have handles for you to lift it with, so the ergonomics sucks. Combine that with the awkward low posture, makes it really uncomfortable to get it into that wheelbarrow position. To solve this, I use a thick and long luggage strap which I wrap around the end of it when I need to lift it. That way, when I go to lift the end, I’m not hunched over. My body is much more up right, and I can lift mostly with my arms, which feels way more comfortable. Now that I use the luggage strap, this isn’t really a problem anymore. It takes me less than five minutes from taking it out from underneath my bed to me walking on the treadmill in front of my TV.
It’s early days but so far, I’m really glad I bought this treadmill and it hasn’t given me any major reasons for me to not like it or to not use it. If this winds up just catching dust, that’ll be solely because of my own lazy ass.