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Whether you want to walk or jog, this home gym equipment can get you into great shape. Running Exercise Machine
The single easiest way to build fitness is to make walking or running a part of your workout routine—there’s no lower barrier to entry in the world of athletics, especially for an endurance sport. But bad weather, busy schedules, and expensive gym memberships are all hurdles to getting in your exercise.
That’s when it’s helpful to have your own treadmill, which can offer a slew of workout programs and entertainment features to keep you motivated and moving. Plus, you can’t beat the convenience and safety of jumping on a quality machine in your own basement or garage.
Looking for a more heavy-duty treadmill that can handle higher speeds, longer miles, and more complex training plans? Check out our roundup of the best advanced treadmills, which cost more, but offer more training features and sturdier builds.
If you’ve ever run on a narrow sidewalk, you know how uncomfortable it can be to have limited side-to-side movement. The same goes for treadmills, which can easily trip you up if a stray stride lands you on the side of your treadmill instead of the track.
Your preferred track width will vary based on how closely your feet land to your center of mass, but a good place to start is 20 inches wide, minimum. If you’re walking, this may still be worth considering, but you have much more control over your feet and where they land, so you can opt for a narrower track if saving space is more important.
A problem you likely haven’t experienced in the real world, on the other hand, is running out of front-to-back space to plant your feet. If your treadmill is too short and you have a long stride, you could find your feet slipping off the back of the deck during your toe-offs.
Your minimum track length will vary a little more than width between individual runners, since we all have different heights and stride lengths, but a good baseline is to avoid anything shorter than 55 inches for running and 45 inches for walking.
As you climb the price ladder with treadmills, two of the sneakier upgrades you’ll find in nicer models are a stronger motor and more incline adjustment. A stronger motor allows your machine to maintain a higher max speed without slowing down under your weight, and more incline adjustment allows you to spice up the difficulty of your workouts.
The most common max speed on this list is 12 miles per hour—roughly a 5-minute mile—but not everyone needs something with that much oomph. Likewise, incline-adjustable treadmills normally have a max incline anywhere from 12 to 15 percent, which will get you a grade twice as steep as what’s allowed on any major US highway.
If you don’t need or want that kind of variation, save yourself some money and opt for a simpler model with less (or no) incline. But that variety can also turn a monotonous indoor run into something far more mentally manageable if you don’t have other entertainment handy.
Runner’s World’s team of editors has been testing, vetting, and nerding out about running gear and tech since 1966. We’ve evaluated everything from running shoes to performance shorts to smartwatches, both in our lab and outside on our daily trots around town. After all, we’re runners too, and we care about having the best gear just as much as anyone else.
Treadmills are an especially major investment—it’s not easy to test several before buying one, especially if you want to forecast long-term performance, which is why our mile-devouring test team does it for you. We have decades of experience running for work and leisure, knocking out quick intervals on our lunch breaks and slogging out long runs on cruddy-weather days atop these machines. And the more time we’ve spent on different models, the more we’ve learned what makes each brand, model, and generation stand out.
Every treadmill on this list has been thoroughly evaluated and tested by our team of editors. Several treadmills, like the NordicTrack Commercial 1750 and the Horizon 7.0 AT, have been mainstays in the workout room at Runner’s World HQ for years. Others reside in our editors’ homes. To provide better context for our own experiences walking and running on each model we’ve listed, we also spoke with product managers and engineers to better understand how these mills run under the hood.
We spent hours assessing all the features of these machines. We’ve walked while listening to music, done long runs while watching movies, and completed included workouts to test the machines’ interactive and studio class functions. We evaluated them on performance, price, comfort, durability, value, and reliability to come up with this list of treadmills that will best serve your needs when you can’t get outside.
When it comes to bang for your buck, the 1750 has always been one of the best treadmills. It has a high-speed 14-inch touchscreen console and a blissfully quiet incline motor, and it features all of the convenience options you can find on other NordicTrack machines—quick keys to jump to a particular speed or incline with a single tap instead of repeatedly pressing a button, for example.
Better yet, you may not need those speed adjustment buttons thanks to 1750’s enormous touchscreen and its ever-growing library of trainer-led workouts that auto-adjust your speed and incline.
The screen offers more than twice as much real estate as earlier models. We find it’s large enough to see the countryside in Germany, for example, where one tester virtually followed pro Lucy Bartholomew on a gentle trail run. (NordicTrack treadmills also come with a free 30-day trial of iFit, the program we used to access this workout.)
Underfoot, the new 20-by-60-inch deck size is spacious enough for long strides, and the machine’s wide body is stable enough to accommodate heavy impacts. The cushioning is just slightly bouncy out of the box, though you can adjust the firmness yourself to eliminate some of that springiness.
This budget-friendly treadmill from Sunny Health & Fitness is the cheapest option we recommend by a considerable margin—we wouldn’t normally suggest looking at this price point, but this model stands out as a clear exception to the rule.
Of course, to hit such a low price, Sunny did make a good few compromises: The belt is the skinniest we’ve seen, the motor tops out at 9 mph (roughly a 6:40 mile), and you have to get off the machine and flip a lever under the deck to adjust the incline.
All that aside, it’s smooth and reliable at walking speeds, and it’s handy for the occasional jog when you otherwise can’t get outside. It won’t withstand regular use like the pricier models on this list will, but it’s cheaper than some gym memberships—and it’ll last you longer than a year if you’re nice to it.
We have always appreciated the value a ProForm delivers. The sibling brand to NordicTrack, ProForm shares much of the same technology, like the former’s iFit interactive workout programs. You get a free one-year subscription to iFit when you buy one of these treadmills, too.
The Carbon TLX is an updated version of the Carbon T7, which is now discontinued. The machine is still dialed back just a little to keep the price in check, costing less than Carbon T7 at $999. Like the Carbon T7, you get only a 7-inch touchscreen display, but the top speed has gone from 10 to 12 mph, with a horsepower motor that’s now 3.0 HP instead of 2.6 HP.
Instead of locking you into its own training ecosystem, Horizon keyed in on this treadmill’s adjustment features to give you greater control of your workouts. The 7.0 AT has limited built-in training options, but it connects easily to an iPad or Android tablet. That keeps costs in check because there’s no built-in television, and it allows you freedom to take Peloton classes or run using Zwift.
We like the thumb dials mounted chest-high on the hand grips that let you quickly adjust your speed and incline—it feels way more fluid than trying to stab at buttons on a console. While we don’t often recommend home treadmills that cost less than $1,000—they generally have small motors and shaky frames—the 7.0 AT is surprisingly steady. We set it up in one tester’s home, and he found that the deck didn’t shake at all, even after months of use. The belt is narrower and shorter than we’d prefer for high-speed running, but it’s an ideal size if you’re jogging or walking. Plus, you’ll appreciate the small profile if you’re setting it up in a small room.
Though it has a smaller motor than the NordicTrack and LifeSpan machines we’ve selected, and it lacks the fancy touchscreen you find on other models, the Sole F80 treadmill is still a serious training tool. The durable frame can support runners up to 375 pounds, so it’ll take any beating you can deliver, and the gentle bounce is soft underfoot but not so much as to cause stability issues.
A handy feature on the F80 is its rail-mounted buttons to control speed and incline, which let you grip the rail and squeeze the button with a thumb, rather than jabbing at the console when you’re pushing a hard tempo. If you need interactive coaching, the iPad holder lets you bring your own device. Or, just prop this machine up in front of a big screen TV and binge some Netflix on your long runs.
NordicTrack long offered a “T Series” of treadmills, which were just a step below its “Commercial” line—they had smaller motors and rollers, plus a slightly narrower deck. That saved you hundreds on the cost, but the machines were still strong performers.
Now, the EXP line steps into that role, with the 10i at the top of that range. (The number in the name indicates the size of the touchscreen on the console.) The Commercial 1750 is still our top pick here if you’re training for a marathon or competing in road races, but you can save some cash to put toward new shoes if you can work with scaled-back specs. The 20-inch belt is still plenty wide for walking and jogging, and its 12 percent incline is as steep as the Mount Washington Auto Road, so it packs plenty of power and variety to suit a challenging training regimen.
We awarded this walking pad the best overall under-desk treadmill because it’s simple and effective—it comes pre-assembled and ready to use. We tried it out at our offices and it was easy to move around (especially compared to the full-sized treadmills we recommend here) since it’s lightweight and has wheels on the bottom. While you shouldn’t use this for lots of run training—the max speed is 6 mph and the deck is relatively short—it’s a great tool to get walking while you’re otherwise busy working at your standing desk or attending virtual meetings.
Folding treadmills don’t really disappear—you’re not sliding one into a closet when you’re done with your jog, at least not a standard-sized one. But the City L6 collapses nearly flat and could slip under your bed frame, your desk, or a big couch to save you some real estate in a crowded living space.
Because of its small motor and low top speed, this option is best if you want a machine only for light walking—we say the same for most other treadmills that fit under a desk. Running is doable, but you’re likely not going to get an accurate readout of your speed and distance as the motor slows down under your weight. It still packs a lot of the training tools you can find on Pro-Form’s running treadmills: If you have a tablet, you can connect to the iFit interactive training platform to get coaching, workouts, and virtual walks through scenic locations.
Even a light-duty folding treadmill is a very large piece of equipment—one that isn’t going to go unnoticed in the corner of your living room. While most can be tipped and rolled by one person, actually setting one up or moving it to another room (or floor) of your home can be a real challenge. So we spoke with Ed Pryts, Chief Sales Officer at Gym Source, who has been selling treadmills for over 30 years, to learn the most important considerations before you purchase a new treadmill for your home.
Adam Schram is an Assistant Editor of Commerce at Runner's World, though you might see his byline on Bicycling and Popular Mechanics, too. A lover of all things outdoors, Adam's writing career comes after six years as a bike mechanic in his hometown of State College, PA. His journalism experience is steeped in cycling and running gear reviews, and he's also a published creative nonfiction and satire author. When he's not writing, riding, or running, you can catch Adam at home mixing cocktails, watching Star Wars, or trying in vain to do the Sunday crossword. You can check out his latest work below.
Jeff is Runner-in-Chief for Runner's World, guiding the brand's shoes and gear coverage. A true shoe dog, he's spent more than a decade testing and reviewing shoes. In 2017, he ran in 285 different pairs of shoes, including a streak of 257 days wearing a different model.
Amanda is a test editor at Runner’s World who has run the Boston Marathon every year since 2013; she's a former professional baker with a master’s in gastronomy and she carb-loads on snickerdoodles.
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