If you’re looking for you first treadmill and are just getting into fitness, chances are some of the terms, features, and specifications of treadmills may be unkown to you. We’re happy to offer a glossary of exercise equipment terms to help you make an informed treadmill-buying decision:
- Continuous Duty Motor: Read my article What Type of Treadmill Motor Should Your Treadmill Have?
- Elliptical trainer: a low impact exercise equipment option. Your feet set in large pedals and the motion is elliptical. Many offer the elliptical motion both forwards and in reverse. Most elliptical trainers also have moveable handles offering a resistance workout to the upper body as well. The overall workout somewhat simulates cross country skiing.
- Heart rate monitor: Read “Buying a Heart Rate Monitor? 3 Types of Heart Rate Monitors.”
- Incline trainer: a combination of a treadmill and a stepper. Basically it’s a treadmill with a very steep inlcine – some up to 40%.
- LCD treadmill screen (monitor): LCD stands for “liquid crystal display”. Commonly an LCD screen is the screen used in digital cameras and are now found on exercise equipment such as treadmills. Read “What is an LCD Monitor” for a more detailed explanation.
- LED treadmill screen (monitor): LED stands for light-emitting diode” and is commonly used for lighting. Now LED screens are being used on exercise equipment such as treadmills. LED screens allow large screens be only a few inches thick and much brighter than traditional television screens. LED offers better contrast than LCD screens. Althought LED is produces better picture quality on TVs, for computer screens, LED and LCD are comparable.
- MET: MET stands for Metabolic Equivalent Tasks. What does this mean? One MET is how much energy you burn at rest – when sleeping. 2 METS means you’re using twice the energy (i.e. calories) than when resting. 4 METS is 4 times resting MET and so on. Light-intensity activities are 1.1 to 2.9 METs. Moderate inensity are 3.0 to 5.9 METs. Rigourous activites are 6.0 METs or more.1
1. Metabolic Equivalent – Wikipedia