Treadmill Machine - Auto or Manual?

miracle

miracle

New member
Manual treadmill or motor treadmill?

I've decided for my 18th birthday (or sooner) I want a treadmill. I'm not the richest 17 year old in the world but I can get a decent one for £250 with a motor, or £100 for a manual one. Both come with calorie, speed, distance etc counters, so I'm torn.

Should I spend the extra money or not? What is the difference, really?
 
I guess it depends on how good you are at pushing yourself. I like the motorised ones at the gym because you can't just stop. You have to actively make the decision to press the button to stop or slow down, and that's somehow much harder being able to think, "oh I haven't got the energy for this right now," and slowing down. The treadmill kind of makes you keep going.

Having said that, I haven't tried a manual one, but after my experiences, I'd buy a motorised one if I was going to get one at all.
 
^ Thank you for replying :) I've never been on one full stop to be honest, but even I'm thinking of a motorised one. I'm probably just thinking that its not worth the money, but if I get to my goal weight, and also help my brother out (hes almost obese at 15) then its worth it. :)
 
I'm 18 going on 19 as well so i'm no rich kid either but I recently about a week ago picked up a manual treadmill in PERFECT condition..., practically new if you ask me. I hate it..., I tried it out walking, running, and jogging. It just doesn't work for me. I don't know if it's the way i'm doing it or not but I really don't like this product otherwise. This one is very small as it doesn't really get in the way but I know there is motorized treadmills the same size that cost a little more than this would but I definitely think there's a huge advantage.

-Robb
 
Well I have this old manual treadmill which I have at home. The thing with the manual is that I have to use my hands to hold onto the bar or else I'll end up flying off with my legs manually pushing it. So my first question is does limiting my arms to virtually no motion take anything away from the benefits of running calorie wise?

I've ran on both the manual at home and an auto at the gym and have noticed that I can last a lot longer time wise on the auto and with much more ease, I assume this mostly has to do with the manual being... well.. a manual? Or could it be that being able to actually use my arms in a natural running motion as opposed to forcing them to be motionless actually make running THAT much easier?

My last question is, what do you guys recommend overall? A manual or an auto?

Thanks :)
 
manual and automatic? as in, the manual has no motor to spin the runway under you while you run on top of it? ive never heard of a treadmill being produced that was designed like that, but then again my experience with treadmills specifically is limited.

if this is the case, then the reason why you are running out of steam is because you are doing far more work. there is generally a lot of resistance to overcome to get a treadmill spinning without the motor running. think of it like cranking the "automatic" treadmill's incline way up, or running up a flight of stairs. even if you arent moving your arms, i guarentee that running on a dead treadmill for 20 mins is a heck of a lot more work than running on a live one. and more work means more calories. more calories does not mean it is better for you though. running on treadmills is considered one of the higher impact exercises, and not running with proper form (yes, there is form and technique to running) can be detrimental to your overall health and wellbeing.

in my humble opinion, youre probably safer and better off running or walking outside than you are hopping on a dead treadmill.

My overall recommendation: an elliptical trainer with adjustable resistance. relatively low impact, fairly natural motion, great workout.
 
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Yes, that's precisely what I mean when I say a manual treadmill; no motor. I've actually been running on the manual for about a month now but yah one of the things that concerns me is whether I'm running "properly" or not as said before, my arms are at a standstill and aren't in natural running motion.
 
Yea if this manual treadmil works like you say it does, then it sounds like you'd be burning more calories because the extra work required
 
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