At Gym Source, we’ve built our business on helping people select the right equipment for wide variety of fitness goals. Our customers rely onus for guidance and sound advice. And we’ve been noticing a trend lately in our showrooms – when it comes to selecting a treadmill for our clients, we find ourselves coming back to the TRUE ES900 treadmill again and again. Continue reading “Gym Source Staff Pick: The TRUE ES900 Treadmill”
Category: Treadmill Equipment Tips
Ramp up your run
Some ambitious runners find that they want to constantly ramp up their workouts by adding another challenge to their usual routine. However, even the most casual of athletes can derive many benefits from ramping things up – literally. Use the advanced features of equipment such as the TRUE M30 Home Treadmill to run at anywhere from a 1 to 15 percent incline, and you’ll find that it can test your body more than running on a flat surface ever could. Continue reading “Ramp up your run”
Which machine is more effective, a treadmill or an elliptical trainer?
Gym Source is asked this question every day: Which machine is more effective, a treadmill or an elliptical trainer? Here’s our answer: While you can’t go wrong with either one, always let your goals be your guide.
If your primary goal is low-impact aerobic training, then an elliptical trainer might be best. Here’s why:
- Ellipticals are designed for low-impact activity, meaning they cause less stress on your knees, hips, and back than running might.
- Many elliptical machines are equipped with movable handgrips to work your upper body, challenging different muscle groups and providing a more robust aerobic workout.
- Most elliptical machines allow for reverse pedaling, adding variety to your workout and boosting the muscle groups worked-namely your calves and hamstrings.
Overall, elliptical trainers can be optimal for users recovering from injury or seeking to avoid joint stress. Note, however, that while a low-impact elliptical workout can help protect tender joints, elliptical trainers lack the ‘weight-bearing effect’ inherent to treadmills. Because the pedals of an elliptical trainer are suspended off the ground, they can’t-and don’t-go as far as a treadmill does to strengthen bones and muscles (achieved every time your feet pound the belt), which can be important to older users.
If your training goals involve higher impact activity-and perhaps even some road races-consider a treadmill. The benefits are easy to see:
- Treadmills offer a greater range of personalized settings with regard to speed, incline, and training programs than do elliptical trainers.
- Treadmills leverage the body’s natural movement and feel familiar from the start (as opposed to elliptical machines, which may feel awkward to some users). But that said, running on an incline is hard-and many elliptical machine users adore the smooth comfort level of their elliptical workout.
- The ‘weight-bearing’ effect of treadmills is proven to help strengthen bones and muscles-aiding posture and overall health with age.
- The energy required to move your body on a treadmill is substantial. For this reason, most research gives a slight advantage to treadmills with regard to caloric burn rate.
Today’s top-quality treadmills are designed to maximize your comfort, calorie burn, and workout enjoyment. Then again, so are today’s elliptical trainers. The bottom line is this: To truly determine the best machine for you-treadmill or elliptical-get to a specialty fitness retailer like Gym Source and try out a few for yourself. Once you’ve experienced the feel and features that today’s innovative treadmill and elliptical machines have to offer, you’ll know what’s right for you.
Source credits: Kevin Deeth, CPT, and Dr. Edward R. Laskowski
Five ways to burn more calories
If you’re trying to lose weight, you’re constantly looking for ways to cut out calories. Why not burn them instead? Exercising is an important part of any healthy lifestyle, and there are many different ways that you can burn more calories while working out: Continue reading “Five ways to burn more calories”
The 5 Most Important Considerations When Buying a Treadmill
Treadmills are among the most popular (and effective) training machines out there. But with so many makes and models on the market, how do you choose what’s right for you? We’ve got the five most important factors to consider when shopping for a treadmill. Continue reading “The 5 Most Important Considerations When Buying a Treadmill”
How To Burn More Calories During Your Run
We all know that running is one of the most efficient ways to burn calories, which makes it one of the best ways to go about losing weight (combined with a healthy diet, of course). But if you’re not seeing results from your runs in the form of disappearing pounds on the scale, you may want to try other ways to burn more calories during your fitness routine. So hop up on your home treadmill and use these strategies for more effective running. Let’s learn How To Burn More Calories During Your Run.
Ramp Up The Incline
When running on a flat surface, you burn approximately 270 calories in half an hour, but putting your fitness treadmill on an incline can help you burn hundreds of calories more! This is because one of the easiest ways to increase your heart rate is by running on an incline, and a faster heart rate means more calories burned. All TRUE Fitness treadmills allow you to adjust your incline, so try to challenge yourself by gradually upping the tilt of your running surface during your workout.
Try Some Intervals
A really effective way to burn calories is by training in intervals, that is to say, combining short spurts of sprinting with your regular running pace. While there are many different combinations of interval training that you can choose from, the fact remains that the body is less “fuel-efficient” at higher speeds, which means you will burn more calories as you continue to run. Some interval-adherents even say they are able to run for longer periods of time when using this exercise strategy.
Run For Five More Minutes
Speaking of running longer, lengthening your run by a mere five minutes can help you burn more calories. Those few extra minutes allow you to burn approximately 50 more calories – which adds up pretty quickly if you’re a regular runner. Start slowly by running just a minute longer each day, and by the end of the week, you’ll have reached your five-minute goal.
Focus On Speed
If you’re a regular runner, it can be easy for your body to get too comfortable with your exercise routine, which means it may not burn as many calories as you would like. To combat this problem, you’ll have to ramp up the intensity of your run by increasing your speed. After warming up, run 0.5 miles per hour faster than normal. You can start by increasing your pace for just a few minutes at a time, and then returning to your normal running speed. Lengthen the amount of time you spend at a faster pace during each successive run, and you’ll be a speed demon before you know it.
Is walking better than running?
The age-old debate rages on: Which is better for you, walking or running? The answer? It depends on who you talk to, and what home gym equipment you use.
Findings published by statistician Dr. Paul Williams from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory revealed that it can really go both ways. In fact, it seems that both walking and running have numerous health benefits, they just differ. Continue reading “Is walking better than running?”
How to make your workout go by faster
Sometimes the biggest obstacle in convincing yourself to work out on a more regular basis isn't your schedule or your physical ability, it's that time sometimes seems to go by so slowly when you're on your home treadmill. When it comes to exercising, finding the right motivation is really half the battle. If you're looking for waysto make your workout more enjoyable and go by faster, try out these creative ideas:
1. Find the right treadmill
Your home treadmill should be working with you, not against you, so make sure you have the home gym equipment that is best suited to your fitness needs. For example, the TRUE PS300 treadmill has an easy-to-read LCD screen that will help you monitor your progress. Like many TRUE Fitness treadmills, the PS300 also comes with preset workout programs, so you can make sure you're exercising in a way that will help you see results.
2. Create an epic playlist
What music gets you pumped up and in a good mood? The theme song from "Rocky"? "Eye of the Tiger"? How about the latest tune from Beyonce or Swedish House Mafia? Upbeat music has been proven to increase strength, speed and endurance, so picking the right playlist can truly help your workout cruise by. You can even sync your iPod with the TRUE Fitness PS850 treadmill.
3. Use the power of imagination
When you've hit the point in your exercise routine when you just don't think you can run any longer, turn to the power of imagination for a little inspiration. Where's your favorite place in the world? The coastline of the Mediterranean Sea? The streets of your alma mater? Picture yourself there – reliving those memories – and the rest of your workout will fly by in a flash.
4. Make it a contest
If you're looking to put your competitive nature toward a purpose, this is it. While personal goals will certainly help motivate you to workout more regularly, whether your objective is to lose weight or lower your body mass index, telling a friend about your plans and competing to see who can reach their goal first will make each workout go by much more quickly. If you keep tabs on each other's progress you'll not only be more likely to exercise, it will also serve as a bonding experience.
Avoid injuries when getting back into shape
With summer rapidly approaching, you may be thinking about getting back into shape after a long winter of hibernation. While it's certainly a good idea to start exercising again – staying fit will keep you happy and healthy – you want to be careful about jumping back in too quickly and potentially injuring yourself.
Find a fitness treadmill that will work with you
Running on a home treadmill that will reduce the impact on your joints and knees is key to avoiding injury as you start getting back in shape. The best-selling TRUE Fitness PS300 treadmill comes equipped with an orthopedic belt, which is specifically designed to decrease the likelihood of injury so you can have a more comfortable run. Its side handrails also make the PS300 extremely safe for fitness novices.
Start slow
Even if you worked out on a regular basis just a few months or years ago, don't assume that your body can still handle that same level of exercise intensity. If you used to run five miles a day, consider that a goal to work toward, not a starting point. If you don't ease yourself in gradually you could sustain an injury, which would completely derail your workout plan.
Get plenty of rest
If you stick to low-intensity exercise, you should be able to work out every day. However, high-intensity training requires at least two to three days of rest in between each session. If you give your body time to recover, you will be able to do more during each workout.
Mix it up
Another great way to reduce your risk of injury as you get back in shape is to regularly switch up your fitness routine. Run a mile or two on your home treadmill one day, and concentrate on strength training the next. By working different muscle groups, you will have more effective workouts and build up your strength.