BadBoy_4_Life’s BodyBlog

I have long been unimpressed with the quality of equipment from York but this latest escapade takes the cake.

About 6 months ago I decided to buy a treadmill as a backup for all those times when it is not possible to go for a run out in the real world. I much prefer to do street runs but it is not always possible due to weather or because of my busy lifestyle. I shopped around and finally decided to buy a York treadmill retailing at about $1100 or so. I figured that, sure it is not the best treadmill out there, but it is certainly in my budget and for what I was using it for (as a cardio backup), I did not need to spend $2000+ for a beast of a treadmill. This York treadmill seemed to fit the bill nicely.

More fool me for ever thinking that York would build something of quality!

As I said, I mostly run on the street so during those 6 months I probably only used the thing about 50 times, max! To my dismay the thing can’t take the pounding of someone jogging on it and the footpad (the board under the conveyor belt) just gave way and split. Pretty much my foot just went right through the damn thing.

I pulled apart the thing and found that the footpad is made of shitty old mdf. Absolutely no strength in it at all. What would posses a company to make the part of their treadmill that takes the most pounding out of such a weak material? Why on earth wouldn’t you use marine ply like most other treadmill have in them?

It astounds me that a specialist piece of equipment, purpose built for a specific use, is too flimsy to be used for what it was intended. I only weigh about 80kg and have only used this thing less than 50 times for chrissake. Too bad if I was a 120kg women who bought this fool of a machine intending to loose weight or something. God forbid that it ever be used for such a purpose!

So, after much deliberating, I have decided to buy the wood and repair the thing myself. Sure, I could send it back under warranty but I know they would just fix it with just another shitty piece of mdf. At least if I fix it myself, then I know it will be done right and will be built to last! So there goes my weekend.

So please, if you are reading this, heed my warning and stay clear of low quality equipment like that of York. Only buy from companies that have a high build quality and use quality components. If you buy York equipment and find that they are great, then good for you, but I am just saying that from my experience the stuff that they sell is second rate and shonky!

Shame on you York for foisting this sort of crap onto the public.

well, my stint with my training buddy went better than expected but was by no means pefect. He only let me down twice but he let me down nevertheless.

The first was on the day we were to start training together (a Friday). He rocked up at our designated training time only to tell me he would not be ready to start training till monday. Great start! The second was about half way through the month when he just did not show up for legs. I trained by myself and when I got back home there was a message waiting for me from about 1 hour after he was supposed to show up. Luckily for him, on the message, he apologized profusely and repeatedly about him not turning up and not letting me know earlier.

So, we persevered, and I found that as a training partner he is not too bad. I always maintain that it is better to train with someone who is slightly stronger than you, but, although he is far weaker than me in most exercises, he always worked really hard and gave a full effort. So, even though our 4 weeks was cut a few days short by me injuring myself, all in all it went quite well. He made some big improvements and learned a lot about training. I enjoyed the novelty of having a training partner for a while but I am sure glad to be back training by myself.

The biggest thing I can say is that I have now put him on the right track with his training but it is just up to him to continue to work hard and train right for him to continue to improve. Only time will tell, so we will see the next time I run into him…