Buying a family membership at a gym can be a costly way of keeping everyone in shape. After a couple of months, it’s inevitable that not everyone’s as enthusiastic as they were at the start and before you know it you’re locked into a year long contract paying for the gym that only you still go to. A better choice would be to take just a fraction of the money that you would have spent at the gym, and invest in some home fitness equipment that everyone can use whenever they like.
When choosing which type of machine to buy, your best bet is to head to your local sports store. Many of the large stores will stock a range of treadmills, exercise bikes, rowing machines and crosstrainers for sale, and these are the types of machines that you want to be looking at. A good ideas is to buy something that will give an all-over body workout; exercise bikes and rowing machines are great, but they only concentrate on a narrow muscle group so you might want to give these two a miss.
Crosstrainers and treadmills give a fairly similar workout – both will work muscles in your legs, torso, chest and arms, and both will give you a great cardiovascular exercise. A cardiovascular exercise is one that raises both your heart rate and oxygen intake, and doing this for a sustained period of 20-30 minutes three or more times a week, will burn calories and help you to lose weight. When choosing a machine, try and find one that comes with a range of pre-programmed workout routines. The machine will automatically vary the length and intensity of each workout, which can be a great way of stopping things from becoming monotonous.
Both crosstrainers and treadmills can be a little on the large size, so you’ll need to make sure you have enough space to set it up and for you to workout in. It is possible to get machines that fold away for storage after use, but these can be harder to find – don’t expect every store that stocks treadmills to also have folding treadmills for sale.
So with the right machine, not only can you save money over the family gym membership, but you can give everyone the chance to workout when they like. If the machine’s on hand 24 hours a day, it increases the chance that all your family will find the time to use it.