You know why people make excuses? Whenever the mind figures out that it needs to do something different than the routine, it is filled with doubts, fears and apprehensions, which in turn culminate into excuses. If you are excusing yourself from buying a home fitness equipment, you are not alone.

However, you need to understand that excuses won’t take you anywhere. I can give you a variety of reasons why you should buy an exercise equipment, but unless you really go and buy the equipment and do that damn workout, you are neither going to lose weight nor acquire a toned-up body as per your desire.

Here are some of the common excuses people make for not buying a home-based exercise equipment.

1. Lack of company: There are many people who quickly get bored of workouts if they have to exercise all alone, day after day. Such people prefer to hit the gym simply because there is some company for them. However, you don’t need to workout alone even if you use home fitness machine.

Convince your family regarding the importance of fitness, then buy a couple of extra fitness equipments for your other family members. This way, you won’t have to workout alone and at the same time, it would help keep your family members fit and healthy.

Another way is to let your family play their favorite sports while you workout in the background. For example, if your family members are interested in table tennis, buy them a table for playing tennis. On the other hand, if football is their passion, you can buy them a football goal instead.

2. Insufficient space: Are you worried about space for setting up the fitness equipment at home or storing it for later use? If the former is the case, then it might be a valid reason for not buying the equipment. People living in small flats barely have any space left after installing tables, beds and large couches; if that is the case with you, you either need to get rid of the couch and setup your fitness equipment in its place, or forget about buying a home-based equipment.

If however, you have enough space for setting up the fitness equipment at home but are worried about where to store it after the workout session is over, there is good news for you. Most manufactures today understand the needs and demands of the common man. They know that not everyone who buys a fitness equipment lives in a king-sized flat.

Modern exercise machines are becoming more and more portable and compact than before, so as to make it easier for you to store them after use. Most fitness machines can be folded and tucked away safely at a corner of your house after you are done with them. As such, you don’t need to worry about it.

3. Absence of professional guidance: Many people excuse themselves from buying a fitness equipment because they feel they won’t be able to make proper use of it in absence of professional guidance. While this is a true and valid objection, it is equally true that if your workout routine begins at early dawn or late night, you are not going to get a fitness trainer who would be at your beck and call.

So your best option is the internet. You may or may not be aware of it, but these days you can get custom workout and diet plans tailor-made to your needs and equipments, all for a small monthly fee. If you subscribe to any such program, you would get professional guidance not only on fitness but also diet and nutrition; let’s face it, every one knows how important dieting is in the sphere of weight loss.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

There are basically two types of exercise equipments available for home – high impact and low impact. If you are recovering from a fracture or injury, you should opt for low impact exercises as they put much less strain on your body than their high impact counterparts. In this article I will tell you how to get a low impact home exercise equipment of a decent quality at an affordable price.

For the purpose of health and fitness, it is important to workout daily, but if your workouts are boring and hard, you would find more excuses for skipping your workouts than the time for actually working out. You see, buying the best fitness equipment available out there is of no use if you are not going to use it for fitness.

Believe it or not, you are more likely to skip your high impact workouts than the low impact ones. This is why low impact machines are so popular. A decent low impact exercise equipment such as treadmill or elliptical trainer can maintain the fitness of not just you but the entire family.

With low impact workouts, you don’t run the risk of any accident or injury; at the same time, these workouts are not so hard and boring that you would be fed up of them after a point of time. Recent research has proved that people who buy low impact fitness machines are more likely to use them than those buying the high impact equipments.

Now, it is a given that low impact exercise equipments usually tend to be very expensive. Whether you buy an elliptical trainer or a treadmill, you may have to pay anything from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. That is indeed considerable money that you would be investing here so you should look to it that you get the best value for your investment.

There is no need to mortgage your home in order to buy a fitness equipment unless you need all the bells and whistles that come with it. At the same time, buying the cheapest equipment may actually prove costly in the long run if it turns out to be discomforting or unreliable. Ideally, you would want something that is decent, reliable and affordable.

Thanks to the emergence of the World Wide Web, researching a product has never been easier. Nowadays you can start and finish your product research right within the comfort of your home; all you need is a computer and an internet connection. There are many reputable sites from where you would a good idea of the quality and price tag of a given equipment. And to be honest, you would usually get stuff cheaper online than your local store. There are too many online stores to list here but Amazon.com and Buy.com are the two most popular stores you can start your research from.

Low impact exercises keep your heart healthy, muscles and joints strong and stout, and body weight normal. The best thing about these equipments is that you get all the benefits of a gym right in the comfort of your home. But for that you need to make sure that you are channeling your money in the right direction instead of throwing it out in the drain.

Make no mistake, the market for home-based fitness equipments is pretty large. The allure of being able to get rid of fat at the comfort of home is so attractive that people are flocking in hordes in order to grab a couple of cool exercise machines. Going by the market demand, one would wonder why so few people actually manage to loss weight successfully. Well, in this article I will tell you the reason behind it.

You see, buying a fitness machine is one thing, and losing weight quite another. You may have the latest and best exercise machine at your home, but unless you really workout with it, you won’t loss weight. According to the market researchers, less than half of those frenzy buyers of exercise equipments actually use it.

More often than not, people buy a machine and then don’t use it, either out of lack of motivation or simply because the machine they purchased was not the right choice for them. At a time when the world economy is at its worst, you need to exercise caution about where to spend money and where not to. A single wrong move on your part could prove disastrous for your finances.

What I mean to say is, unless you are 100% sure that you are going to use the exercise equipment you want to buy, don’t buy it and invest your money somewhere else.

If you are a beginner in the field of fitness, or have very little experience with workouts, you are very likely not to use the exercise equipments you buy. As a matter of fact, beginners are often the ones who are very enthused about buying a home-based exercise equipment. They would show great enthusiasm, tact, intelligence and determination when researching and buying a fitness machine for home.

However when it comes to actually using the machine for exercises, most give up, either because they feel disappointed when they see no immediate results, or that they cannot bear with the intensity of the workouts. In either case, what you end up losing is your precious, hard-earned money instead of fat.

So the first step is to make sure that you are really ready, both physically and mentally, for working out using home exercise equipments, and for that, you need to prove it to yourself that you are really ready, again both physically and mentally, to lead an active lifestyle.

I would suggest that you start by adding cardios to your workout routine. You can run, walk, jog, dance, swim, etc., as part of your exercise regimen. All these exercises would help you lose weight, without you having to spend a dime on any kind of equipment, save a pair of decent shoes.

Once you feel you are comfortable with cardios, you can then go ahead to buy an exercise equipment of your choice. When you are already leading an active lifestyle, you are more likely to use a fitness equipment than otherwise.

Oh yeah, if you are one who tries to find excuses for skipping workouts, you are certainly not a fit candidate for buying a home-based exercise equipment.

Who should buy a home fitness equipment? If you are lazy and feel that you can lose weight on autopilot, please don’t waste your money on exercise equipments because you are never going to use them. A lot of exercise equipment manufacturers claim that you can lose weight fast and easily with the help of those machines, but truth to be told, this is nothing more than hype.

I don’t know about you, but I have seen several newspaper ads featuring people who are bulked up using Photoshop to show they are “fat”; their real picture is displayed at the top, and just beside it is the picture of the exercise equipment. The ad claims that you can lose weight within a couple of weeks. Nothing could be further from the truth. A woman who is really that fat would need at least a couple of months to get rid of fat, no matter how devoted she is and which workout machine she uses.

I am saying all these to make sure you get the real picture about those workout machines. The fact remains that if you are not ready to work hard and sweat, you are not going to acquire the sexy and svelte body you desire. With that said, let me tell you how to make the best use of a home-based exercise equipment.

A huge advantage of a home based fitness equipment is that it helps you get rid of fat from the comfort of your home. Nothing could be more enjoyable and fun than taking a shower and then riding on the treadmill. More than helping you acquire a toned up body, regular exercises make you a happy and confident person. A good exercise program should consist of three types of exercises: strength training, cardios and stretching.

The primary purpose of working out is to keep your heart healthy; keep in mind that if your heart is not healthy you can never be fit. Diseases like strokes and high blood pressure are the offshoots of an unhealthy heart located within an equally unhealthy body. If you want to focus on your heart, equipments such as treadmills, elliptical trainers, steppers, etc., are pretty good. Make sure that the equipment you are going to buy comes with an in-built heart-monitoring tool.

Treadmills are good for you if you are too lazy to go out and take a walk or jog. Treadmills enable you to walk or run in the comfortable surroundings of your home. Moreover, unlike the uncomfortable, hard and steep roads, treadmills make your feet comfortable with good cushioning.

On the other hand, if you wish to burn fat non-stop, then there is no better option than an elliptical trainer. An elliptical trainer is indeed a versatile fitness equipment, in that it has a cycle, treadmill and stepper, all rolled into one. It offers electronic adjustable resistance which is good for burning fat when you maybe busy in some other work. Another advantage of an elliptical trainer is that it offers you plenty of statistics, ranging from the amount of calories you burned, the speed at which you burned those calories, your pulse rate, etc.

Be it out of concern for health and fitness, or simply a desire to look like the celebrities glossing on the front covers of fashion magazines, people these days are getting more and more enthused about weight loss. While obesity has always been there, the craze for weight loss is certainly a recent phenomenon.

More recently, another big change has come in people’s mindset regarding fitness and weight loss: nowadays, more and more people prefer to buy a home-based fitness machine so that they can workout at home instead of having to hit the gym everyday.

If you haven’t yet joined the revolution, why not? There can be possibly three reasons why you may be hesitating to buy a fitness equipment for home. Let me clear all your doubts and hesitations once and for all through this article.

1. Convenience vs. Inconvenience: How many times have you cursed the gym owner because you had to cancel an important appointment or meeting in order to hit the gym? How many times did you have to skip your lunch or breakfast for the gym? How many times did it happen that you felt like watching a movie in the afternoon but that movie time coincided with the time you are supposed to hit the gym? How many times have you wished you could watch your favorite television soap and workout at the same time?

Well, these are only possible if you buy a home-based exercise equipment. Why beat the bad weather outside, skip your meals, or sacrifice entertainment for the purpose of working out in the gym? When you have a home-based exercise equipment, you literally have the gym right there at home. All you need to do is to get out of bed, brush your teeth, take a bath and start your workout routine. Come rain, fog or snow, you would be able to maintain your regular workout routine nonetheless.

1. Cost vs. Health: Let’s face it, just like anything else in life, exercise equipments cost money too. There are cheap and expensive equipments to choose from. Now, “cheap” doesn’t necessarily mean bad or inferior; in the same way, “expensive” is not always an indication of superiority.

You need to buy a decent equipment: neither one which is poorly built nor one that comes with a lot of bells and whistles. A decent equipment offering the bare minimum would be ideal for you, and you should expect to pay decent amount for such an equipment. Just think about it, if you are already a member of a gym you are probably paying hundreds of dollars there every month. Can you imagine how much money you would be saving by buying a home-based exercise equipment?

Or, if you are not doing any workout at all, let me ask you a question: is money worth more to you than your health? If not, then you shouldn’t hesitate in investing in a quality fitness equipment.

Revamped and refurbished treadmills are sought by many people for a variety of reasons. I used to buy refurbished treadmills simply because I wanted to get a feel of an advanced type of equipment without paying the price of a brand new model. I am not sure what reasons you have behind opting for a revamped treadmill; regardless, if you don’t want to get screwed when buying one, you need to read this article.

First of all, let me tell you that there is a BIG different between revamped and used treadmills. Used treadmills are just that, treadmills used by some other person that he wants to sell. Often people sell worn out equipments; as such, the transaction might prove costly for the buyer.

Used treadmills, unless purchased directly from a reputed company or store, are pretty much unreliable. Imagine that one day you are walking hard on the treadmill and suddenly the power goes off and the motor breaks down. That would indeed prove to be an expensive deal, won’t it?

Refurbished treadmills are way better than the used models. Refurbished treadmills come in two flavors: the first flavor of treadmills are refurbished or remanufactured by the original equipment manufacturer by replacing the old defective parts with new spare parts. Such treadmills are best deals as far as refurbished treadmills are concerned.

Then there are ordinary people who also make a living by refurbishing or revamping old treadmills. Unless you are sure that the person selling the equipment knows the ins and outs of it, you should stay away from those machines.

Price-wise too, there is a considerable difference between refurbished and second-hand treadmills; don’t make the mistake of comparing the prices of the two as almost always you are sure to discover a higher price tag for the refurbished models.

When buying a refurbished treadmill, there are certain things you need to look for, such as:

1. The manufacturer of the refurbished treadmill: As I already mentioned, the models that are refurbished by the original manufacturer are almost always reliable and durable.

2. The length of warranty: Other things being unchanged, the longer the warranty period of a fitness equipment, the better. This is especially true for refurbished treadmills. You know, refurbished treadmills are basically old or defective treadmills revamped with new spare parts; as such, they may need repairs at any time.

Unless your equipment comes with a long warranty period, such repairs can cost you a considerable amount of money. The machines that come with short warranty periods of 2-3 months might be decently built but should be purchased only as a last resort. And of course, you should stay miles away from the models that come with no warranty at all; investing in such equipments is basically throwing your hard earned cash down the drain.

3. The age of the equipment is something you need to consider as well. The younger the equipment is, the more reliable it would be.

In my opinion, the refurbished treadmills sold under the brand name of Precor are generally pretty decently manufactured and priced.

Now that you know how important it is to workout regularly, you would want to buy a treadmill to get started immediately. However, buying a treadmill is not an easy task for three reasons:

a) There are way too many treadmill manufacturers out there, each offering different options and styles of treadmills to choose from, which makes the situation extremely difficult for a novice customer.

b) The type of treadmill you would buy depends on several factors, one of which is the amount of cash you are willing to spend on it. Keep in mind that there are cheap, affordable and expensive treadmills. If you are just starting out, you don’t necessary need the expensive model because most probably you won’t be using all the bells and whistles that come with it. At the same time, you won’t want to end up with a cheap model that doesn’t last even a month. In my opinion, the models that are decently prices are pretty reliable and durable.

A lot also depends on what you plan to do with the treadmill: do you want to use it for running, walking or jogging?

Having said that, an article which offers an honest overview of some of the most popular treadmill manufactures is a good place to start your research from, and this is one such article.

I am sure you have heard of the company called Icon Health and Fitness. This is by far the most popular manufacturer of exercise equipments. The treadmills that come with the brands of Weslo, Image and Reebok are all produced by this company. Let me give you an overview of each of these treadmill brands.

1. Weslo: If you are on a tight budget, Weslo treadmills maybe what you are looking for. They are probably the cheapest brand of treadmill you would ever find, irrespective of the manufacturer. If you are just starting out and don’t have too much money to spend on fitness equipments nor are interested in the advanced level of training, the Weslo 400 CS treadmill is the perfect fit for you. Priced at a modest 400 bucks, it is reckoned to be one of the best budget treadmills available out there.

While Weslo treadmills are cheap and beginner-friendly, they have their limitations. For one, you cannot expect the advanced features you would get with treadmills that are priced a bit higher; for another, its warranty period of 3 months is too short in my opinion. If you have an extra $100, I would recommend you try to find Weslo EX 18. It is a rare model, but worth the search. If you can find it, I am sure you would get addicted to it in no time.

2. Reebok: You might have seen those Reebok machines in your local gym, and now you want one for your home. Be careful about buying home equipments of this brand because the manufacturer of the commercial models is different than that of the home-based machines. More often than not, you would get a lot of bells and whistles with Reebok, but it is known to be very unreliable and far less durable than the other popular treadmill brands. The only good thing about Reebok models is that you are covered with a long warranty period.

3. Image: If you want the best bang for your buck, then you should try the Image treadmills. They however, cost more than twice than the Weslo treadmills. You won’t get a treadmill of Image brand for anywhere below $1000.

But most health and fitness experts opine that it is the best value for money. Whether you are a beginner or an advanced-level trainee, you would rock with the Image treadmill. On the minus side, you are covered with a short warranty period of just 90 days. One thing I like about this treadmill is that you can easily adjust the incline to any range, from 0-100%.

Just like brand new treadmills, there is a big market for revamped or refurbished treadmills as well. Don’t think that only those who don’t have enough money to spend on fitness equipments buy revamped treadmills. Revamped treadmills are suitable if:

1. You are a beginner or inexperienced trainee: Do you know that more than half of the people who buy treadmills never use it? There are many reasons behind it, but usually they are either too lazy or happen to find some other interesting workout machine. Of the few who actually use treadmills, most quit after working out a couple of weeks, usually out of boredom. Now here is something to analyze.

People usually get bored if they are made to do things that their mind or body is uncomfortable with. With regards to treadmills, you are bound to get bored if your body or mind doesn’t adapt to it (and the fact remains that treadmills are not suitable for every person). Now just imagine, you happen to invest one thousand bucks on a brand new model of treadmill, only to realize that you prefer some other equipment over it.

This is where refurbished treadmills can help you. Since they are priced very low, you can test out the treadmills without spending a bucketful of money on them. Once you are sure that you like the equipment and that your body has adapted itself to it, you can buy a brand new model. In other words, if you are a beginner and have little experience with workout machines, then you should buy refurbished fitness equipments (this goes not just for treadmills but any other fitness equipment out there).

2. You want to cut down on costs: Of course, money is an important factor to consider as well. With the world being hit by a certain economic slump, money is tight for most people. Revamped treadmills help them stay fit and healthy without having to make an intimidating investment.

3. You want to test out an advanced-level of equipment without spending an arm and a leg: If you are given a choice between buying a brand new model of the cheapest quality of treadmill out there, and a refurbished model of an advanced treadmill, which one would you go for? I would definitely select the latter option. It is no use buying brand new models of cheap treadmills; cheap treadmills are not only cheap in quality and options, but also come with a very short warranty period.

Moreover, the cheapest treadmills don’t always have the features you expect in a decent equipment. For someone who wishes to try out advanced fitness equipments without burning a deep hole in his pocket, refurbished treadmills are the way to go.

It doesn’t matter how much you know about treadmills or how much time you have spent on researching the top available models, as you are still not immune from falling a victim to raw deals. You see, I have noticed even very knowledgeable experts fall prey to stylish treadmill models priced in a very low range. Before you waste your hard earned money on a bogus treadmill, read the two treadmill buying tips I am going to share with you in this article, and most importantly, HEED.

1. Look beyond the brand: An easy way to fall prey to bad deals is by getting floored by the brand name. It is no secret that some of the most popular treadmill brands offer equipments that hardly last more than a year.

However, if you are like me, you would want to invest in something you can use for a lifetime, with little or no additional headache. As such, when buying a treadmill, you need to look at the length of the warranty period offered and most importantly, whether the warranty covers the whole equipment or just the motor power.

If you are given a chance between buying a cheap treadmill with a very high HP, a decently priced treadmill with a slightly lower HP, and an expensive model with a higher HP than the second model but lower than the first, which one would you go for? I would definitely go for the third choice, provided that I have the necessary cash to invest; while it is true that its HP is slightly lower than that of the cheapest model, it has been made with the highest quality of apparatus, and that fact reflects in its price. Worse, the warranty offered by the cheapest model covers just the motor, that too for only 3 months.

If I am short on money, then I would definitely go for the second choice, for it offers a very lengthy warranty period of 15 years covering the whole treadmill, including motor. That the company has dared to offer such a long warranty is in itself a certificate of the quality of the equipment; the manufacturer knows only too well that the quality of the treadmill is such that it would last for more than 15 years.

2. Look beyond the price: If you are too parsimonious about the money you invest in fitness equipments, you are sure to get mediocre deals. Yes, price should certainly influence your buying decision but not to such an extent that you become blind to the whole picture.

Often, price is an indicator of the length of warranty period offered with the exercise machine. I have found that models that are priced in between $400-700 don’t generally come with an extended warranty period; on an average, you are not likely to get a warranty period of more than 2-6 months.

Moreover, the warranty would often cover just one spare part of the treadmill, in which case you would need to pay for the parts not covered by the warranty in case they are damaged. On the other hand, if the warranty covers only spare parts replacement, you would need to pay for labor charges. As you can see, you get what you pay for.

Bottom line, if you are serious about getting fit, don’t be too stingy on cash or get carried away by brand popularity. Instead, consider the length of the warranty period offered, the parts covered and not covered by the warranty, the features and power you are getting with the treadmill, etc., before making a purchase. A decent treadmill can be an asset of a lifetime, while with a cheap one you would only lose your cash instead of fat.

Guess which is the best instrument for monitoring your heart rate. The treadmill, of course. If you don’t believe me, ask the doctors. Usually, when you visit a doctor for heart check-up, he would advise you to walk on a treadmill. As you walk, the incline of the treadmill would be gradually increased so that you would feel like you are walking up a sloppy hill.

You would also be asked to breathe into a specially-made tube on a regular basis through the workout session. Doctors call it “stress test” or “treadmill” test. As you finish the exercise, you would be asked to sit down at a nearby place so that your heart rate could be checked.

Okay, now don’t try to emulate your doctor as soon you return home, for a home-based treadmill often functions in a different way that the ones used by medical professionals. To give you an idea, treadmills used by hospitals generally have long handle bars that extend up to the end of the treadmills. The patient can, if he wants, hold on to those handle bars while walking on the treadmill. Read the rest of this entry »