The treadmill area of any fitness club is one of the most popular exercise areas. Most treadmills are very flexible on how much work is programmed into each session, as well as how much elevation, the speed of the belt, how long a session and variables applied during the session; walk, fast-walk, run, raised elevation, lowered elevation and the like. Most of the large, commercial treadmills are heavy and take up a considerable amount of space. The treadmill area of the health and fitness center is usually one of the larger as far as space allocation for the number of machines available. Only the floor exercise area will be larger.
Compact treadmills were developed to solve the problem of limited spaces in which to use them. Most compact units are bought for home usage, but some fitness centers with limited space could use the more compact units. Though they may be compact in size, some of these treadmills may have the same features as the larger, commercially oriented units; powerful electric motors, multiple programs, multi-faceted controls and even TV receiver screens. Some compact treadmills fold for easy storage and there are even some offered that are manually operated.
There are a number of treadmill manufacturers who are now offering compact devices: Smooth Fitness, NordicTrack, Cardio Zone, Life Form Fitness, Horizon-Evolve, Precor, Star Trac, True, PF, Sole, Free Motion and others. When considering a compact unit, the evaluation should be the same as for the commercially-sized ones: Size/power of the electric motor, length and width of the track, track material, degree of elevation, and the speed range of the track, control board, program variables and entertainment features (TV monitor, pulse meter). Another consideration is the life expectancy of the wear components of the unit, particularly the belt and rollers.
For home use where storage may be a problem, a folding unit should be considered. Some of these will fold flat and may be stored under a bed or couch. Others are small enough that they may be stood upright in a closet.
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