How To Buy The RIGHT Cardio Equipment In 2026

Cardio Equipment comes in a TON of different shapes, sizes, and budgets. And unfortunately, it often collects dust. I’ve spent the past decade (and some change) exclusively exercising from home alongside my wife and daughter. We’ve used multiple rowers, bikes, treadmills, ellipticals, sleds, and unique options for our cardio purposes and there are a few things I have learned that I think will apply to every person looking to add cardio equipment to their home.

Do I Need To Do Cardio?

Yes. As a human being, we have a few tools to help us look better, feel better, be healthier, and overall BE BETTER day in and day out. Sleep and stress management, strength training, diet and nutrition, and cardio.

Improving your cardio will improve almost every aspect of your life. And I say this as someone who would rather do almost anything instead of cardio. You’ll be in better shape for daily activities, chasing the kids around, or whatever else you want to do. Being in better shape, means you can handle more work in the gym and recover from it better. You’ll probably sleep better too! And you’ll likely look better doing all of it… also when naked. You’ll also perform better naked too!

More cardio means you can eat more, means your heart will be healthier, I tend to find my knee is less cranky with more cardio (the right cardio), and everything is just BETTER.

Raising your cardiovascular abilities, will raise your metaphorical floor for performance, no matter what your goal is. So yes, you should be doing cardio.

What Cardio Equipment NOT To Buy

First on the list is something you can’t easily use consistently. If you need to pull it out of storage, set it up, plug it in, set the mode, and you have a sweat going before you even start, it’ll probably not get used much. If you have a dedicated space where this equipment can be set up and ready, that is ideal. Also consider weather… are you going to hit up that outdoor treadmill when it is -12 degrees outside, or 112 degrees outside? If something requires some set up, make sure it is easy and doable even on your least excited days.

Second on the list, is cheap cardio equipment from less than ideal companies. I mentioned earlier that I’m someone who would typically rather do just about anything but cardio. So spending $1000 on a piece of cardio equipment I barely want to use is a tough ask. In our pursuit of cardio equipment for our home, we tested a number of budget options.

The FEIER Star 100 Folding Treadmill promised a lot at a solid price. And it had a TON of problems. Super shaky, cracked parts, it flat out didn’t work when we took it out of the box, and more.

The Yosuda EM1 Long-Stride Magnetic Elliptical Machine has a broken handle after just a couple of months of use. The monitor isn’t back lit, which makes it impossible to use in anything but perfect situations. And the resistance and overall design aren’t great.

The Balancefrom SKI MACHINE is a KILLER deal at just $300 from Wal-Mart. Within 3 months it already has a broken part on the inside and is making consistent noises in use.

I get the want for a budget piece of cardio equipment. Trust me. But these things are having problems under basic use from me and my wife (sometimes a friend or two), in less than a year, sometimes out of the box. If you land on a companies website and they sell a ton of different cardio, strength equipment, and more, under multiple brand names, with AI generated photos, often incorrect spec sheets, and less than helpful product pages, I would run (see what I did there?) in the other direction.

If you are looking for budget cardio, stick to the free type stuff. Go outside and do something. Play soccer with your kids. Take a bike ride to your local park and back. Walk the dog! Cardio can be free and easy to access year round whether you are outside enjoying the fresh air, or inside getting after it. Playing games, doing jumping jacks, skipping rope, or otherwise BEING ACTIVE for a length of time, is going to be a similar experience to cardio on a machine. Not the same. But free is a good alternative.

Start here, make cardio a regular piece to the puzzle, then grab something that tickles your fancy.

Types of Cardio Equipment

Cardio comes in a ton of different shapes and sizes. As I already mentioned, you can tackle it for free by walking, jogging, running, going up the stairs, sprinting up hills, riding your bike, you name it. Some of the best cardio workouts I’ve had in recent years have been coaching my daughters soccer/basketball teams and keeping up with them. So if you have kids, go out and play. Play tag, play a pick up game of their favorite sport, head to the park and run around, go for a swim, whatever. Cardio can be fun and exciting, and a family activity, without costing much.

That said, I do find that dedicated cardio pieces help for a number of reasons. Sometimes the weather sucks, and having something available no matter what is a solid way to not skip your cardio. Trying to get 15 minutes of consistent cardio work at a certain heart rate is pretty difficult with anything but a machine that you can lock in and get to work. Trying to run intervals can be difficult as well, as you need a clear timer for your work and rest sessions. And sometimes you have to get after it at odd hours, or maybe while your kiddo is sleeping (so you can’t leave the house), or any other number of valid reasons.

If the difference between getting in the cardio, and skipping it, is buying a piece of cardio equipment, then I say buy away!

Treadmills

I never liked treadmills. Until I started trying to make cardio a regular part of my routine. They are so simple to use, often have settings like incline functions, and some fold up and out of the way. The problem with them is that they are heavy, and the lighter ones can rock around all over the place. Choosing a good treadmill is going to come down to determining what kind of treadmill works best for you. If you are a larger athlete, you’ll need more stability. If you are planning to sprint, you’ll need more stability. If you are my daughter walking around, just about anything will work.

You’ll also want to consider the Horse Power or even going with a manual treadmill. My friend Ashton at Freedom Fitness would tell you to get a used commercial treadmill, the only downside there is that you often need special power outlets, which means it might require an electrician.

Key items I would consider for a treadmill are the basic functions of the monitor. I want it to count my time, and manage the adjustments of the speed/resistance easily. I want a treadmill that doesn’t require special installation or electrical. I want it to ideally not take up too much space, or if it does, it needs to check a LOT of boxes. Taking up an entire corner of my gym for the ability to walk is a no go. I either want a heavy incline (10% or more) or the ability to get after some sprints/resisted options. And it needs to not feel like I’m walking on a balance board.

Our time spent with treadmills makes me want one again, and my eyes are currently on the REP Strive Series Curved Treadmill. You get a manual, curved treadmill for sprints and general athletic style cardio. You get manual resistance for a little more natural walking treadmill experience, and you can crank that resistance to turn it into a sled style activity. This is a heck of a cardio equipment purchase.

I also really like the concept of the Bells of Steel Blitz Mountain Climber Treadmill. This blends a stepper (below) with a treadmill, because of the HEAVY incline options. I haven’t used it, but it is one that has caught my eye a number of times.

If you buy a more traditional treadmill, go for SOLE or someone in that realm. A company that makes almost exclusively cardio equipment, that has been used and abused at every level, and they have a proven track record of getting the job done.

Steppers

The bodybuilder in me loves the concept of a stepper. If you’ve ever seen Phil Heath, Jay Cutler, or a number of other top tier bodybuilders over the years, they all went after the stepper for their cardio of choice. Not because it was enjoyable, but because it was effective. If you have ever walked up a hill or went up a couple flights of stairs, you know how quickly it can humble you.

The cardio impact is tough, but the fact that you are also doing a STEP UP means you are working the quads, hips and glutes with every step. So you have an almost combination of cardio and strength training in one. There are a ton of options on the market. I’ve had ALMOST nothing but bad reports about the customer service from STEPR. Which is unfortunate, because their product seems to be legit.

I’ve heard mixed feedback about some of the cheaper options on Amazon. Some people get a great product at a great price, while others are stuck with a no name company and no support. GMWD is a fairly reputable company in the home gym space, and they offer one that isn’t too far off an appropriate price. This would probably be my go-to.

Keep in mind again, the power requirements, pay attention to the number of stairs available, and some come in manual. In my experience, I wouldn’t want a manual stepper. I want that motor to force me to keep up the pace.

Rowers

Rowers are fun because you can adjust the damper settings to make it harder or easier, allowing you to perform high intensity shorter sessions as well as lower intensity longer sessions. They also are a (almost) full body workout, incorporating your lower body for pushing as well as the upper body for pulling. A good session on a rower is going to have your upper back, quads, hips, and lungs burning.

Rowers are also suitable for all athletes. My 8 year old daughter used ours, alongside me at 6ft 250lbs. They break apart and store away easily, as well as store completely vertical. They are one of the smallest storage footprint cardio pieces available. They do require some floor space for use, since they are fairly long.

The Concept 2 Rower is the go-to option if this is going to be something you do regularly. They have been abused by CrossFit athletes for years, and even their original offerings from multiple decades back are still running and fully serviceable with replacement parts.

Other budget offerings, like the Merach NovaRow R50 are almost identical in a LOT of ways. But what you are forgoing is the company that stands behind its product. Concept 2 is the right choice for anyone who wants to go at rowing today and tomorrow and 10 years from now. But the budget offerings will get ya most of the way there for half the price. You just have to hope you don’t need any support.

Ski-Ergs

Take a rower, and make it usable for a cross country skier, and you have a Ski-Erg. All the same adjustments, monitor settings, damper modes, and more are applicable for the Ski-Erg. And it is again a full upper and lower body workout. You’ll feel it more in the abs as you CRUNCH down, more in the triceps as you pull down, and more in the legs as you push into the floor. But the general concept is the same.

Once again, the Concept 2 SkiErg is gold standard. We bought the budget offering from Wal-Mart that costs less than half of the C2 offering, but we had problems right out the gate. It shipped with extra pieces, had terrible assembly instructions, and flash forward to a couple months out and we are already having problems with the machine. Something is definitely broken inside and would require a full breakdown. The problem? There is no warranty, and when you contact the company, you get no response at all.

If you want to tackle a Ski-Erg, go Concept 2.

Ellipticals

I’ve used a number of ellipticals over the years from commercial gyms to home use, to this bad boy above. I find them awkward, restrictive in movement, and not as enjoyable of a cardio solution as basically anything else I’ve used. I will say that my wife tends to enjoy them. So maybe this is just a big guy problem?

The locked in movement path CAN be beneficial for some athletes, if it happens to match your stride and movement. If it doesn’t, like me, it hurts my knee. Unless if you can get first hand use with an elliptical, I would skip it as a cardio solution. They are often expensive, large, and have very little ability to change it up. You don’t often get any incline options, speed adjustments, you name it.

Air Bikes

Also named the Devil’s Bicycle, Air Bikes are a fun cardio selection (HA! fun!). You can casually ride them and get a little more resistance than a normal bike. Or you can go HARD and the air resistance from the fan is brutal. I’ve owned half a dozen of these, and they always end up getting sold. The big reason? If I’m going to ride a bike, I’m just going to ride my bike. Go outside, fresh air, see the neighborhood. If that isn’t your jam or isn’t doable in your area, then an Air Bike can be a solid addition.

The new REP Strive Air Bike has some unique features for a more high end offering including adjustable fan blades to control the resistance. If you are snagging a bike on a budget, check marketplace. Every single one I’ve owned has come from the used market. And typically for a STEAL.

Sleds

This has been our go-to gym cardio solution for years. We’ve gone from a tire sled to a high end sled with wheels, rotating back tires, and full monitor. And they’ve all been awesome.

Sleds can be used like a weighted vest, loaded light and dragged around for some lower intensity and longer lasting cardio. Or loaded heavy, with the magnetic resistance cranked, for some lung burning and leg frying goodness. We use the sled with our kiddos on Sunday workouts, it is a REGULAR inclusion in my wife’s workouts, and I use it during my powerlifting prep as a way to keep my cardio and conditioning up without beating up the body and focusing on my heavy squats.

Our current favorite is the Xebex XT-4, but it has some glaring issues that need to be addressed before we call it the final boss of sleds.

Other

We have used our Sanddune Steppers for cardio for years, inside, outside, you name it. We have used battle ropes, they make rack attached rope pulls, you can wear a weighted vest, jump rope, and a TON of different options for cardio. You can even do cardio with a barbell if you keep it rolling for higher reps and lower weights.

Wrap Up

My goal with the article today wasn’t to give you a Top Ten list of items to purchase. But instead share some insights into our experiences with cardio equipment over the years, what we have liked (and haven’t) and give you some general thoughts to think about so you can make the right decision for YOUR own needs.