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When I first began my trek to better health and fitness at the gym, the treadmills at my local YMCA quickly became my best friend. To this day, I always recommend that people just starting out in the gym explore treadmills fully to see if they work for them.

Now seeing as how I'm definitely not a runner (never have been and never will be) I was hesitant at first to step onto those "never ending sidewalks" in the back row of the cardio equipment at my gym. But after exploring the stationary bikes and elliptical cross-trainers I found that I was too prone to "being lazy" and wasn't able to push myself enough to gain the most benefit from those pieces of equipment. So with some trepidation, I stepped onto a treadmill for the first time and found a cardio machine that was able to challenge me at a level I was ready for.

Any treadmill you find will have a variety of fitness options to pace and challenge yourself, including speed and pitch variences. My favorite thing about treadmills is that once you're on, you have to keep moving forward or you'll fall off. Sounds sadistic, but at the time I needed that level of incentive to get me moving.

After my cardio training began to progress, I learned that it isn't necessary to use a treadmill exclusively for "running." Obviously this ia a common use for treadmills, you see those marathon guys and girls going all out for thirty to sixty minutes at a time. And if that's one of your goals - fantastic! Keep it up. But seeing as how distance running wasn't for me, I loved the fact that as a beginner with bad joints and "dedication issues" I could step onto a treadmill, lock in a steady speed at a moderate incline and just go for a walk. It may sound silly, but try it sometime. Take a steady walk on a five degree incline. Your legs will burn and you'll have a healthy sweat going by the end of it.

And that's the whole point.

To this day I will use treadmills in rotation with other cardio training devices. While I have tried several other brands I definitely prefer the "LifeFitness" ones. I find that they are the most sturdy, durable and consistant treadmills on the market. But any brand will do the trick.

So to all of you looking to get your cardio on and shed a some extra weight; grab a good book, set yourself at a moderate pace with a steady incline, turn on you Mp3 player and take a walk. You'll be glad you did.

See you in the gym.

Learn more about this author, Adam Knight.
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