The most versatile
If you don’t want to buy a standing desk, check out the Lifesmart 3-in-1 Treadmill. You can roll the lightweight machine into any room, place the desk accessory on the handrail and get to work and walking. The height of the desk doesn’t suit everyone: it was lower than I would like and I’m 1.70m tall. But for quick, basic work like answering emails or attending a meeting, it did the job very well.
The 3-in-1 treadmill gets its name from its ability to serve as a walking mat (with the rail lowered, the speed reaches 3.7 mph), a treadmill (with the rail raised, you can run up to 7.5 mph), and a workstation (with the rail raised and desk attachment).
It’s easy to install, and transitioning between treadmill, treadmill, and work modes is quick and easy (just use a small tool to adjust the rail, which is magnetized so it can live on the rail and never get lost in a junk drawer). You can adjust the speed with buttons on the rails or with a Bluetooth remote, and a screen on the front of the machine cycles through your workout metrics. Its sleek, modern design means you won’t be embarrassed to have it in your living space. The only downside is that there is no tilt option.
The quietest carpet
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Photography: Kristin Canning
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Photography: Kristin Canning
Flexispot
Automatically Inclined Walking Treadmill
This treadmill had the most intuitive setup on this list (probably thanks to its lack of a companion app, which often isn’t really necessary). I was able to set it up in just a few minutes and the remote connected immediately, no Bluetooth pairing required. Like many treadmills, this one has a screen on the front that shows you your workout metrics. If you pause the machine to go down, you can resume where you started, relying on these measurements until you turn the machine off. One drawback: it doesn’t follow the steps.
The auto-incline walking treadmill offers a wide incline range, up to a nine level, or 12% incline. This is one of the highest recline capacities I found in my testing. You can walk up to 4 mph on this machine and you can connect your phone to play music through the speakers. The remote also lets you follow pre-programmed 30-minute walking workouts, during which the machine automatically adjusts the speed (but not the incline). Otherwise, you can use it in manual mode and adjust the settings as you wish.
