Ifit Treadmill Program (i2Workout)
Scroll down to the yellow box if you are looking to download i2workout.
Okay, so I'm a little obsessed with my new toy. And I really lucked out buying a Proform Treadmill with the ifit program.
I did a little more digging about the Ifit Program. Apparently, the Ifit that my treadmill has is outdated. Here's the run-down:
http://workout.ifit.com
The workouts are a visual display showing bar graphs of your speed/incline, that have an audio beep code embedded in them. You plug you computer's audio output into the treadmill, and the treadmill interprets the beeps into incline and speed adjustments. It's a really nifty system. Too bad they aren't still making treadmills like this. Update: Dick’s Sporting Goods sells a Proform 810 TR similar to mine with the ifit.com technology.
The really cool thing about this old system, is that some guy wrote a program that lets you create your own ifit workouts. I ran across a description of this program by accident, and then I had a hard time finding a place to download the file. The guy no longer distributes or supports the program, so I'm hoping he doesn't mind that I'm putting it here on my website. Here's the links:
i2wo.zip – newer version, build 168. In case above link stops working, try this version. A nag screen will appear after 30 days telling you to register. You can’t register it tho, because they guy isn’t selling it any more. You can still use it after 30 days, but you have to wait for the nag screen to timeout. This version lets you mix music into your workouts and allows you export a mp3 or wave file. The controls are nicer too.
i2wo.exe – older version, build 58. No audio, but it works great for creating workouts and doesn’t ever give you a nag screen. If you don’t need audio and plan on connecting your treadmill directly to your computer, use this one.
You can even save the workouts for later as a text file; and it's a snap to easily create more workouts by simply copying the text file format using notepad. This is just perfect for a computer geek like me. 
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| If you don't have an ifit compatible treadmill, you could still use the i2Workout program to create your workouts. Then just use the beeps as a cue to manually adjust the speed and incline of your treadmill. Of course, your treadmill has to be near your computer! |
I used this i2Workout program to create a tempo run workout, with 5 minute warmup, 20 minutes at a pace of 8, and a 5 minute cooldown. (click on screen capture at right to enlarge) I totally sucked at this workout (meaning I could not do it without some unplanned rest), and I hated every minute of it. My philosophy, tho, is that the workouts you hate the most are probably the best for you. 
Here's more info about the Ifit:
http://www.ifit.com
Nordic Track makes a couple of treadmill models that come with Ifit memory cards. The memory card includes 8 weeks of treadmill workouts. I'm guessing that you plug the card directly into the treadmill, and the treadmill has some built in computer that runs the programs. I don't know if the workouts are customizable.
Some of the new Proform Treadmills include Ifit functionality, but they don't sound like any of the above…not sure what they are exactly. I think they are just pre-programmed workouts.
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Hi Carol,
Not sure I understand how it works – you can use the i2Workout program to create your own training and “load” into your treadmill, which will do exactly what you created? (I didn’t download the exe program).
If that’s the case, this is amazing, the biggest pain in the neck in a treadmill is to press that darn speed button a hundred times when you’re doing intervals for example.
Bruno.
Bruno…Yes, that’s exactly how it works…it’s very cool to have my computer control the treadmill! The treadmill has to be Ifit compatible, and as far as I can tell, they don’t make them like that any more.
Thank you for posting the program; I have a Nortictrack EXP 1000 treadmill (2000 vintage) with ifit; I love it for the padded deck (works for me). I had tried to develop a way to create my own workouts to no avail (other than the two learn mode custom programs, which you can only program as your doing them), so this program is real nice for me. Thank you again. And thank you for sharing your running/exercise info on the web. Regards, Joel, 47, Tucson, AZ
Joel,
You’re welcome! I’m happy to hear that you it helped you! Happy Workouts, Carol
Does anybody know if there’s a way to program the new chips for the ifit? I have a newer Norditrack that takes what I thin is an SD memory card. I was wondering if there was a program to create and store customized workouts.
There are a few of us out there looking for the same thing. I tried using i2workout and saved routine to sd card but it didn’t work on my Nordictrac. I don’t know what file type format the treadmill will operate on or if this program is compatible with the treadmill.
It would be great to be able to customized your own workouts. Again, If there is anything out there that goes work. Please let us know.
does anyone know how the chirps work? The chirp sounds the same for every segments. So I am wondering how it differentiates the speed and incline based on the chirp. The reason I ask is because I would love to be able to record my own music on a CD or mp3 with the music AND the chirps. Beats having a computer next to your treadmill.
Update: Actually, I learned that if you combine music and the ifit chirps, you have to mute the music during the chirps, or else the treadmill will not recognize the chirps. Be sure you are using the newer ifit version if combining music, as it takes care of this mute process. Download Newer Version
Right, I’ve spoken to the tech support people and it’s bad news on the Ifit workout cards. Although they look the same they aren’t SD cards they’re DataFlash cards.
The card contains a control programme rather than audio chirps so unless someone fancies getting stuck in and reverse engineering the binaries it looks like DIY workouts are a no go.
Here’s a link to a more recent copy of i2workout – version/build 168.
The more recent version of the i2workout program creates MP3 files, with or without background music. So… no need to mess with the Hi-Q Recorder. If the link above doesn’t work, go to forums.johnstonefitness.com and search forum for topic “Hacking iFit workouts” and scroll to bottom to find zip file.
Carol, I just wanted to say thanks for posting the iFit customizable program on your blog. I’ve had my iFit compatible treadmill for awhile now, but haven’t used it much because I don’t like a lot of the pre-made programs available at workout.ifit.com. I’m an intervals gal, but m currently maxing out at 7mph, so I was very limited in what I could use on the site. I just downloaded and created my first custom workout and am so excited to get to use it. Thanks!!
Dear Carol,
Thanks for having the software available. I almost give up with my treadmill. Its running all well now.
Fantastic, I downloaded the creater, created a program, burned a CD, hooked up the boombox to the old NordicTrack EXP1000i and it works…. I usually Mountain bike, but after a week long cruise without my bike, I actually enjoyed using the treadmills on the ship (still gained 4 pounds). The ships treadmills had some pretty good programs, but I found constantly adjusting the speed to my liking to be rather tedious. I got home and did a little reasearch on the IFit system that my treadmill has, found this blog and the rest is workout history…..
Thanks Carol….
Hye, thanks so much for this! I, too, have had my treadmill for a while but never really used the iFit stuff; I just didn’t really like their programs. I read on their page they wanted to protect their software so they would not release it to the consumers so we could make our own programs. I really wanted to be in control of my own interval training set up. How fortuitous I found your blog; I downloaded the program and immediately set up a program. It worked great. Thanks again for posting this!
Hi,
I was just on the i-Fit website, ifit.com, and they’ve got quite a few programs for treadmills that are free(@96 for level 3), you just have to have internet connection and connect the pc audio to treadmill and voila the input automatically adjusts speed and incline. I tried it on my NordicTrack E3000 and it worked fine.
Thanks for having the latest version posted. It was getting kind of hard to record the other one manually and then convert to MP3. This version is great. I can now put onto my Ipod and plug into my treadmill with a lot less work. My wife loves that we can use this program to build our own workouts and she doesn’t have to think about the settings. She can just concentrate on the run.
I have a Proform 520i and just love it! I also have the i2workout and really like that I can make my Learn To Run program on it. I agree with another commenter that switching the speeds… and having to time it.. is quite tedious.
Is there anywhere I can find a list of treadmills that have old ifit technology? I’m worried my treadmill is going to kick the bucket soon and would like to know what used models to look for.
Hi
I’ve tried several times (and from different sites) to download the i2w but everytime, I get the following “LoadTypeLib failed, code 0×80029C4A” I use the vista OS, is this the cause of the problem?
John: It’s very likely that the LoadTypeLib problem is either related directly to the Vista OS or indirectly in that necessary libraries (for the i2w) are not included by default.
Hey John,
I get that message too. I hit ignore… and wouldn’t you know it, it worked!
Need some help. I would like to create some custom workouts for my wife. We have a treadmill with and ifit.com eternet jack. However many of the above comments refer to creating mp3 files. What is the role of the ethernet jack?
pete,
the modem or ethernet port is for the factory to install or test the firmware / treadmill.
this program just uses the audio jack on compatible treadmills (next to the power cord /power button on mine) took me a while to find…
thanks for the program carol
Just wanted to thank you for this posting. I just created my 1st workout and gave it a run (no pun intended) this is a great tool and refreshes my NordicTrack EXP 2000 XI to a brand new treadmill! I am totally stoked about this and cannot wait until Tri season starts in MI this spring/summer. I will make sure that my base training is intact this winter, at least the running portion. Again thanks for the tip.
I just tried loading this on my home computer (Sony Vaio) and everytime it open the program, it tries to run my TurboTax 2006. After I cancel out of all of those, the program runs without any issues. It happens everytime I try and run this program though. It did not do this to my work laptop? Any suggestions?
thanks
Thanks for this tool. I’ve got a Reebok treadmill setup in the garage and was getting tired of the built in programs. Works great!
Thanks for pointing me to this post, Carol. Quick question, though. If I’m connecting my PC audio out to my treadmill audio in, won’t this prevent me from hearing the music?
Collin:
The audio will play though the small speaker on your treadmill, however if you want to play audio through another speaker system you can pick up an audio splitter at any good electronics store. (This will enable you to plug in both your treadmill and audio system to your computer one audio out jack)
No speaker on my treadmill, unfortunately.
I did find the cord that connects my PC to the treadmill, and tested the I2Workout program. Works great. I’ll just get my music through a CD player or through my iPod with headphones. No need to complicate matters.
Thanks for these postings! At the beginning of last year, I decided to get off my … and do something. Almost a year of treadmill (that had been sitting there for years), some weight lifting, and watching what I eat, I’m 40 lbs lighter and my cholesterol is in great shape. I decided this morning to check out what that iFit.com button means and found this post. I’ve already created a workout to use with my mp3 player, but in reading the posts, I’m not sure which is the latest version. Is Build 168 the latest? It appears in Carol’s intro, then there’s a ‘latest version’, then Terry has a newer version that’s Build 168. Thanks for any insight you can give me!
Rowland (over 50 and ready for another 50!)
Build 168 is probably the latest. I looked pretty thoroughly before, and saw evidence that the creator was moving on to other things.
Hi
Great site – some really inspirational stuff here.
I’m looking for some advice on the i2workout program. I’ve downloaded the newest version. Just bought a secondhand Nordic Track C2000 tradmill with the ‘ífit’facility. Connected up the laptop after producing a training program on i2workout (it’s actually week 1 of couch to 5k)
The program triggers the treadmill for the first segment (5 min brisk walk) but fails to trigger segment 2 of the workout. I’ve tried all the options within the program to no avail. Anyone had similar issues and managed to correct it. The previous owner of the treadmill never used the ifit facility so could offer no input.
Thanks in advance for any advice
Steve
Are you also playing music on your laptop while the program is going? I think music can interfere with the chirps transmitted to the treadmill, so try it without the music. If that fixes it, then maybe you can find another way to get music!
Hi
No, not playing any music. Just the chirps. I even removed the audio voice cues. I thought the ifit was not working but it’s strange that it works on the first segment. I’ve also tried changes in volume and al the solutions the author provided in the troubleshooting section of the help guide. Any ideas??
Steve – I thought my treadmill would work – set up a short test workout. It caught the second change and that was it. And that only happened once – couldn’t get it to do all of them. Tried playing with the volume (half and full) and tried electronically altering the volume in case my mp3 player wasn’t playing it loud enough. I too had nothing else in the file but the chirps. No luck. Sorry!
Thanks for the advice. It’s not the end of the world, as mentioned on the blog, one could still play the programme with the audio cues and change the treadmill manually. I just like the idea of it doing it for you
Still really pleased to have a treadmill. It’s great and a good way to get started running. My wife likes it too, which is great. Thanks for the input
Hi i have Nordic 2350 with Ifit, i did load the program but don’t know what to do or how to load on sd card or cd can some one help please
Jay,
The program you can download off my site is for the really old ifit units. It won’t work with the SD card. There are a couple guys working on what you need (you can subcribe to the comments on that blog posting, and you’ll be able to follow their progress.)
Carol
I downloaded and thanks so much. We have an older treadmill that is like new and really never used the ifit web site much. This makes it so easy, just create a few workouts with our favorite music and set our laptop that sits nicely in the book holder on the treadmill, plug in speaker splitter to laptop with one cable to the treadmill and other to some good external speakers and it all worked flawlessly. Thanks Again
For those of you having trouble, I used the build 168 that supports music and just used a mono cord I found, don’t know what happend to the one that came with treadmill. Just make sure your getting a good connection from the jack to the treadmill. I have made about 5 different workouts and have played them through the laptop to the treadmill with music and each time it changes to next level, all has worked flawlessly. I also created a cd that the software will let you so and played it in a portable cd player and plugged the treadmill to it and it also worked flawlessly. You all may be just be having some good connection issues for those that can’t get it to work properly.
I have a new Nordic Track treadmill and can’t get the machine to recognise the ifit programmes via my iPod. Does anyone know of a way to programme your own ifit workouts for these type of machines.
I spent the last couple days building a .NET app for my iPAQ and laptop to control my ProForm XP542e treadmill. I ported the i2workout Visual Basic chirp code over to C# and learned how it all works in the process.
I have two iPAQs, and I had a heck of a time getting my newer one to control the treadmill reliably. My 7 year old iPAQ and laptop worked fine, though. When listening to the chirps in headphones on my newer iPAQ, I noticed there was a prominent click before the chirp would play. I think that click was confusing the treadmill.
If you’re having trouble getting i2workout to control your treadmill, I suggest you play with your volume settings and try a different computer, if possible.
Does anyone want to take over ownership of this post and approve comments and such? If so, shoot me an email: ncskibum@gmail.com
Thanks Carol.. this blog just renewed my flagging morale to covert from couch potato to potential marathoner (I’m taking baby steps…) My Nordictrack C2200 is my “newly customized” buddy again!
Carol,
I don’t know i you have recently checked the website of the i2Workout program. The app is now being offered for free (version 167) and comes with a free registration file.
http://www.i2workout.com
If anyone feels inclined to donate the author has posted his email address so you can contact him.
Steve, I ended up building my own app to control my iFit-compatible treadmill because I wanted finer control over it. I learned a few things in the process that might help you.
If your treadmill is the older style that uses an audio input like mine (as opposed to the newer ones that use an SD card), try adjusting the volume settings on the device you’re using to control the treadmill. If it’s too loud, the distortion might cause the chirps to be undecipherable by the treadmill.
Also, try using another computer or device to play the chirps. I found that my newer iPAQ had a “click” at the beginning of each chirp, most likely due to poor audio components, and wouldn’t reliably control the treadmill. However, my laptop and older iPAQ work great.
Good luck!
Jared – any chance you could send me the C# program? Also – do I interpret that it WON’T work with teh newer SD machines? or do the newer SD machines work too?
Thanks.
Suresh – PM me at jaredljensen(at)hotmail(dot)com, and I’ll send you the C# app. The new machines that use SD cards do not use chirp technology, so my app wouldn’t work with those. In other words, the new machines read a program from a SD card, whereas my treadmill interprets audio chirps it receives via the 1/8″ minijack audio input.
Hello all…
Well, my old Ifit treadmill kicked the bucket. Have any of you ever changed your treadmill motor by yourselves? Is it hard to do?
Thanks for your help!
Well I’ll be! Thanks for sharing this program. I have an old iFit treadmill that still works great. With this program, I can custom tailor my workout in junction with my heart rate monitor, without hitting them damn buttons.
Thanks!
-Harry
Here’s a follow up to my experience with this software…I’ve been able to make CDs and try it out on my treadmill. It hasn’t been working. I did some troubleshooting and discovered a bad mini-jack connection where the cord plugs in. I removed the jack and found a bad metal contact, which I easily repaired and put back into service. I hooked everything back up and tried it again. It’s all now working. Cool beans. -Harry
Linnea – replacing a treadmill motor isn’t that hard if you are somewhat mechanically inclined. Replacing a motor is easier then replacing a walking belt by far. Treadmilldoctor.com has provided me excellent service in the past for parts. Look there first for that motor.
Does this program work with the new iFit Live treadmills? Just purchased a Proform Power 690 and it does not have an SD card slot, only an mp3 connection. Tried to copy workout from i2Workout onto cd and then using portable player to attach to treadmill but it didn’t work. Does anyone know if iFit Live works with chirp technology?
hey-just bought proform 770EKG. do you guys know which version of the ifit workouts i should download? don’t know how old the treadmill is.