Commercial fitness sales manager Perry Allison can’t tell you how often he’s heard of a customer who did not research how to move heavy exercise equipment before relocating.

“The pieces got damaged because they couldn’t secure it a certain way, or the piece was heavy and they couldn’t carry it down a certain way,” he said. “On my end, there’s a lot of frustration orchestrating this.”

Exercising at home offers perks compared to paying for a gym membership, including if you own the fancy equipment used to tone those love handles. But what do you do when it comes time to relocate to your new home?

For the handy person who uses owner’s manuals, doing this all yourself is possible. However, most times this type of move won’t make sense if you don’t work with a professional.

If you’re a fitness guru and plan to take your bulky fitness machine with you, read on for helpful tips on getting it to your new home safe and secure!

How to Move a Treadmill and Similar Equipment

Consider making this more general with just another sentence or two. Otherwise, this is a story about treadmills with a headline about general gym equipment. There’s a variety of gym equipment types, and the treadmill remains a mainstay in most households. Advice that applies here will work for similar gear. A lot of your success is going to depend on common sense.

“It’s a luxury item and it’s a specialized piece of equipment that needs care in a particular way,” said Allison, regional account manager at Premier Fitness Service in Southern California.

Before taking any gym equipment apart, make sure you test it first so all its pieces connect and its electronic components run smoothly. Also, be sure to unplug the machine from its electrical outlet and have the owner’s manual handy.

For example, a standard size treadmill does not fit through a standard door entryway. It is too wide. Disconnect the frame and console from the base portion, which is also the flat walking surface. Next, carry those pieces out of the room separately.

The base is heaviest, requiring multiple people to lift especially if it’s going down a flight of stairs.

“It’s not only heavy but also awkward to balance due to the motor’s location,” Allison said.

With that in mind, you want least two able-bodied people to handle moving the treadmill base to negotiate tight corners and doorways. Some treadmills have wheels in front, which helps for a ground-level move. Allison likes to have floor dollies available just in case.

Once in the moving truck, make sure to anchor the equipment securely and cover it with padding for protection.

Consider Using a Gym Equipment Moving Company

There are specialized gym equipment companies that, along with other services, can help get your workout equipment from one place to the other. They also offer to reconnect your equipment, too. Using them helps prevent injury, to you and your equipment.

One way to save some money is if you supply the manual labor, and the gym equipment moving company sends out one technician to help at the end.

G&G Fitness Equipment in upstate New York, for example, is one such full-service home and commercial gym equipment supplier and mover.

“The customer spent a decent penny on getting a quality product, so they generally want to keep it,” said Adam Buckholtz, lead sales for G&G. “They are either downsizing or upsizing.”

Typically, they do multiple-piece delivery and go as far as creating computer-assisted drawings of your space.

“For a lot of people, you go into an empty house or space, you don’t really get the idea until it’s in the house,” he said. “It helps on the logistics side.”

Companies like Buckholtz’s have professional installers certified by the manufacturer and dealer, so your equipment keeps its warranty protection.

Gym Equipment Storage Tips

Sometimes you need to store equipment between moves. Be careful about where you put it.

“Electronics do not do well with the fluctuation of temperature change,” Buckholtz said. “Some wheels and bearings do not do well with huge climate disparity.”

Temperate areas of the country like Southern California may not present this issue for your gym equipment, but in Buckholtz’s northeast region, it can be a major issue. Anywhere that experiences all four seasons requires climate-controlled storage for gym equipment.

“I’ve gone to a site and the customer says ‘I don’t know why it’s not working,’ ” he said. “It was kept in the back of the house in a giant barn. It wasn’t heated.”

We’ve also got some handy tips on how to deal with moving anxiety. We also have great advice on how gym organization ideas to save space.