I want to buy a treadmill- Any tips?

Looking to spend $350-$500

Need to be able to go super fast (since i do HIIT)

I need it to have the possibility to incline (and not in some manual way- by pushing a button)

Digital screen would be nice like at the gym

If it had built in programs, that would be nice, but not necessary.

Anyone know of any good treadmills or if im crazy for what im asking for in my budget?

I think you might be asking for a lot for that price range. Granted, we bought our treadmill about 4 years ago, but it has all of those features and we got it on sale and it was still close to $1000.  I think its a Nordic Track C2255.  Check out their website and department stores, like Sears, and see what they have in stock and with what features and you might get a better idea of price ranges.

By the way, what is HITT? I see it in a lot of peoples posts, but I have never seen an explanation....could you send me a PM about it?

Original Post by gymcoach79:

I think you might be asking for a lot for that price range. Granted, we bought our treadmill about 4 years ago, but it has all of those features and we got it on sale and it was still close to $1000.  I think its a Nordic Track C2255.  Check out their website and department stores, like Sears, and see what they have in stock and with what features and you might get a better idea of price ranges.

By the way, what is HITT? I see it in a lot of peoples posts, but I have never seen an explanation....could you send me a PM about it?

Definition:

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) or sprint interval training is an exercise strategy that is intended to improve performance with short training sessions.

A HIIT session involves a warmup period, several short, maximum-intensity efforts separated by moderate recovery intervals, and a cooldown period. The period of alternating effort and recovery intervals typically lasts a total of 15 minutes.

Studies by Tabata[1], Tremblay[2] and others have shown this method to be more effective at burning fat and maintaining, or building, muscle mass than high-volume, lower intensity aerobic work-outs. A study by Gibala et al[3] demonstrated 2.5 hours of sprint interval training produced similar biochemical muscle changes to 10.5 hours of endurance training and similar endurance performance benefits. According to a study by King [4] , HIIT increases the resting metabolic rate (RMR) for the following 24 hours due to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, and may improve maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) more effectively than doing only traditional, long aerobic workouts.[5][6][7][8] Long aerobic workouts have been promoted as the best method to reduce fat, as fatty acid utilization usually occurs after at least 30 minutes of training. HIIT is somewhat counter intuitive in this regard, but has nonetheless been shown to burn fat more effectively. There may be a number of factors that contribute to this, including an increase in RMR, and possibly other physiological effects.

Ok laymans version short bursts (or sprints) during your cardio workout to achieve better results....btw I do HIIT training all the time its really great.

I do cardio 6 days a week...My cardio consists of modified HIIT (walking mainly)

Original Post by chelslaw1984:

Looking to spend $350-$500

Need to be able to go super fast (since i do HIIT)

I need it to have the possibility to incline (and not in some manual way- by pushing a button)

Digital screen would be nice like at the gym

If it had built in programs, that would be nice, but not necessary.

Anyone know of any good treadmills or if im crazy for what im asking for in my budget?

I have to agree with the other person...if your price range is $350-$500 you will be limited to your choices in treadmills and those choices will be of less quality...the warranty not as good...and if you plan to use it...(and not as a coat rack)..will replace it sooner and in the end buy another cheapo which will end up costing the same as the better models.  You could try some local papers "craigslist" maybe someone got one for Christmas or whatever and wants to unload it cheap.  BTW I wore out one treadmill (ProForm) and bought the current one at just under $2000 (not cheap but a HUGE difference).

k so i am wondering...when i am at the gym doing HIIT, i fluxuate between a speed of "3" for my walk  and "8" for my run...

any thoughts on how many MPH i need to have a treadmill go?

will up to 10MPH be fast?

Just got a Treadmill from dicks sporting goods for $599, which anything below looked pretty barebones.

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/ind ex.jsp?productId=2348106

Would say good for the $$, can't really expect gym quality treadmill for $599, but it goes 10 mph, has 0 - 10 degree motorized incline, 5 pre-built programs and does everything i would need to get through Winter.  Delivery was Free but took like 2.5 weeks.

Only downside I see so far is ramp is a little narrower than I was used to ( 17" versus 20" I think would be good). 

Had decent reviews and good bang for the buck.

Original Post by chelslaw1984:

k so i am wondering...when i am at the gym doing HIIT, i fluxuate between a speed of "3" for my walk  and "8" for my run...

any thoughts on how many MPH i need to have a treadmill go?

will up to 10MPH be fast?

 8 MPH is a 7:30 min mile, which is pretty fast for most people (23:15 5K) and 10 MPH is a 6:00 min mile and an all out sprint for most people, you would be winning most races if you could sustain that speed.

I have a ProForm Trainer 420 that I got on sale at Sears last year for $349. It goes up to 10mph, can incline at the push of a button, has a digital screen (shows time, speed, cals, and distance), and has some programmed workouts but I have never tried them. It works well for me. There are only two things I would change about it: I wish it folded up smaller so I could put it away somewhere, and I wish I could enter my weight so it would give me a more accurate number of how many cals I burned. But all in all, I'm happy with it.

Look for used ones in the Classified section of your local newspaper or place ads for a used treadmill.  I was so enthusiastic about getting one, I went out and spent $$$$ for a brand new one only to find out that quite a few people have them sitting around their houses as expensive coat racks.

As posted above, just be sure to look for a good quality piece of equipment and be willing to spend a little more.

FYI -- I eventually found a used one that was much nicer then my original purchase.  Of course I didn't get a warranty with it, but it was a $1,200 unit (clean and in great shape) that I picked up for $300.  Not bad!  I was able to sell my $500 cheap model for $200.

Original Post by kristianne:

I have a ProForm Trainer 420 that I got on sale at Sears last year for $349. It goes up to 10mph, can incline at the push of a button, has a digital screen (shows time, speed, cals, and distance), and has some programmed workouts but I have never tried them. It works well for me. There are only two things I would change about it: I wish it folded up smaller so I could put it away somewhere, and I wish I could enter my weight so it would give me a more accurate number of how many cals I burned. But all in all, I'm happy with it. 

I have a ProForm Crosswalk trainer that looks something like this.  Besides the dashboard look and mine has 2 preset programs (not 3) it's almost the same thing.  I got it a couple years ago at Sears for the same price this one is going for...$350.  The only thing I don't really like about it is it doesn't tell me what pitch incline I'm at; other than that I can't complain.  The crossbars are a nice feature and I love the cushion-y feature to it too.  It's max speed is 10mph.  edited to add, mine does fold up and has wheels for easy moving.

BTW:  my HIIT speeds vary from 3mph-6mph.  I've only gone as fast as 7mph a couple times so far.  I've never had a problem with it at any speed. 

i cant sustain an "8" on the treadmill (is that 8 mph?)

i do HIIT, so i sprint for 1 minute, then walk for 1 minute for a total of 20 min

it sounds like Sears would be a good place to go check out.

The $350 one that you linked to on their website, looks great for me!

i'm going to go check it out this weekend. 

Thanks!

Original Post by chelslaw1984:

i cant sustain an "8" on the treadmill (is that 8 mph?)

i do HIIT, so i sprint for 1 minute, then walk for 1 minute for a total of 20 min

 

An "8" on the treadmill is the same as 8 mph. 

That is already very fast for most people -- it's great for HIIT training, but sure hard to sustain!

Most treadmills do go up to 10mph, though, so if you want to up your HIIT training there will still be room to do so.

Good luck in your search!

Thanks! I plan to go out tomorrow and look at some- hopefully Ill come home with one.

If you're into HIIT, make sure the treadmill changes speeds at a reasonable rate. This something you take for granted at my nice gym. I joined a small gym over school break back home and the treadmills took FOREVER to speed up & slow down. Very annoying.  Good luck!