When I get on the treadmill at the gym I don’t put in my weight because I throught it was just used to calculate the calories according to how fast you are going and I don’t care about that, besides it’s inaccurate.
Today, and for the past two days, I noticed when it started up the belt slipped a couple of times so I told the guy at the desk. Next thing I knew, the manager took me over to the treadmill and told me that, number one, they are old (8 years) and number two that they need to be calibrated according to one’s weight so I should put my weight in and the belt would (somehow) adjust accordingly. And, I guess, not slip anymore. I’ve been using this treadmill, among others, for over two years and never done this.
Is this true? I mean, this is a very basic treadmill, but even on the newer ones I had no idea it could adjust according to the walker/runners weight. Did I miss something or is this a bunch of bull?
I’d call bullshit. The reason you’re asked for your weight by the machine relates to your body mass, and the machine’s ability to determine how many calories you’d burn per minute.
I told the manager that I had noticed that even when the place is busy it seems this particular treadmill is always available; I suspect no one wants to complain so they just avoid it. I think I’m just going to wait until another machine is available because that slipping thing is really scary. I hope they have good insurance because the guy at the desk told me when I complained that they had been having trouble with it. How could they be so ready to expose themselves to liability; stupid I would say. thanks for confirming what I thought about the weight thing.
They are probably willing to take the chance as far as a lawsuit goes. IIRC, any time I joined a gym, you had to sign a release stating you wouldn’t hold the gym liable in case of injury, etc. In addition, they would probably say you simply weren’t using the machine correctly and try to say no one else was having or had complained of those problems before.