Q: I am a 36 years old man having a treadmill with rollers. Now I am planning to go for a motorised treadmill within Rs. 50,000. What are the essential features I must look for? Which are the reliable brands?

A:Unfortunately there are no manufacturing standards to abide by, when fitness equipment are sold, thus the good equipment gets mixed up with the bad and it takes a trained eye to see the difference. Here are some of the features you could look for in a good treadmill going by order of importance:

• Does it have a fixed incline or is it variable?
• Does it have an emergency stop button?
• Does it give you the speed and intensity?
• Can it give you a calorie count of the amount of exercise you have done, based on your weight (input to be made by you manually)?