I keep seeing walking pads everywhere - the smaller, more agile version of a treadmill that is designed for walking rather than running, and getting your steps in rather than completing a marathon. Naturally with the start of a new year and resolutions being made and broken, it makes sense for a lot of conversation to centre on health and fitness but I really am seeing these small machines everywhere, they are having a moment!

I feel like the concept is such a good idea, and I’m sorely tempted to invest, but can’t help going over and over the pros and cons without coming to a final decision.

Pros

• Obviously the first pro is that you can go for a walk in any weather. You’re not beholden to the conditions outside, and if you’re like me and find the cold, wet, winter weather rather off-putting, having an indoor option takes away that excuse. It means there are no muddy paths to deal with, it’s always dry conditions underfoot.

• Likewise, particularly for women, you can walk anytime, day or night, when you might otherwise be in two minds about going outside in the dark.

• It’s a controlled environment, if you’re trying to get a good walk in and measure steps or pace accurately, you don’t have to keep worrying about stopping to cross roads or waiting for pedestrian crossings. There are no other people to hold you up on narrow pavements, and now decisions to make about which way to go.

• You can watch/listen/read as you’re going along. I tend to listen to audiobooks when I’m walking anyway, but have seen people on these walking pads playing on their phones and/or ploughing through plenty of television & films. It’s probably not entirely a positive pro, but if it gets you stepping where you otherwise would have been watching from the couch, that sounds like a good thing.

• It’s going to be perfect for future underground bunkers.

Cons

• There’s only really one big con as far as I can see, but it’s a really big one. It stops you going outside. Even if you’re not getting lost and absorbed in nature, which is always a recommended pursuit, you’re not getting any fresh air or daylight or just that feeling of getting out of the house. There are so many positive benefits from stepping beyond the front door, that if the walking pad becomes the de facto choice rather than a backup option when the weather has failed you, I think that’s a pretty big downside.

So I remain undecided, and for now I remain an outdoor walking kind of person. When I have the time and the weather is right and the audiobooks are flowing. We’ll see how long my self-control will last!