Review Wednesday

Exercise equipment is one thing that I buy all the time thinking that if I just have it I'll use it, you know? I live in a small apartment and don't have room for large pieces of equipment, nor does our complex have any sort of gym. I bought a BodyBoss, which is a cool idea in theory, using resistance bands on weighted base so you don't have to deal with attaching it to a door, and if you have a bench you can do a chest press. But do I ever use it? Hell no.

I've also never spent as much money on a piece of exercise equipment as I did for my review product: Treadly. Treadly is an interesting concept. They managed to fit a huge, normally bulky treadmill into a very compact package. They do this by getting rid of everything unnecessary. You can't specifically change any settings, there are no safety arms or safety latch. The only information you get to see is your distance, your steps, and your time (kind of wish they could add your pace or the speed of the treadmill in real time). 

You change the speed by walking in a specific zone. It's kind of a frustrating experience actually, because I am often inadvertently changing the speed of the pace unintentionally because I have a long stride. But when I'm spot on, it's great. I decided to order the hydraulic bar attachment, which allows the speed to increase from 3.8 to 5mph, in case I ever wanted to run on it (might take me a while to work up to that, but it's good to know the option is there). 

I bought this because I wanted the ability to increase my steps goal without having to go outside (I'm an introvert, what can I say?), especially while watching TV. In reality though, I was making all kinds of excuses. I live in an urban area, I'm a young woman who lives alone, and I'm not in the safest of neighborhoods. Living in WA state, the weather is only 3-bears perfect probably 2 months out of the year. Right now it's in the 90s and the last thing I want to do is go for a stroll and have to shower afterwards. The rest of the year it's raining or threatening rain. And besides, it's so boring to walk around the neighborhood. With this baby, I can set it up in front of my TV and concentrate on watching my program while getting my steps in.

It is still heavy. They could only reduce the weight so much. It's large and unwieldy enough

to be glad that I have it set up right where I want to use it because I just know that trying to pull it out from under my bed and roll it down the hallway and getting it around my furniture would not be happening. It definitely could have used some kind of handlebar system on the back end to give me something to grasp while wheeling it around, though. If the hydraulic bar could lock in place when it was down that would be perfect, but it moves so it won't work for that.

The other issue I have it that it is so thin that it doesn't work well on carpet. Some thicker rubber feet on the bottom would be ideal. As of right now, I have to place a piece of particleboard under the back end so that the tread doesn't rub against my carpet. It had left powdery streak marks, which I didn't realize was a problem (it can be vacuumed up) until the treadmill gave me an E2 error code one day from overheating due to all the friction on the carpet. Which, by the way, is no fun when the treadmill abruptly stops and you so weren't ready for that. Thank goodness I wasn't running on it!! Maybe some warning beeps or something? Slow before stopping? Anything? lol

Really though, those are minor gripes for what I'm getting here. I mean look at how little space it takes up! As long as I'm watching TV, I can pull that sucker down and get in a few extra steps. My goal is at least 10,000 steps a day. And now the weather doesn't even matter. I can do it any time. NO MORE EXCUSES! :D