home exercise equipment for women

Exercise became important to me when it became impossible to ignore the effect of not exercising,

As I got older (I’m in my 40s), I lost my tone, couldn’t do as much because I was short of breath, and didn’t feel good about myself.

These are all reasons that I do exercise 4-5 or more days a week.

When I first started back into the exercise regime, I didn’t have a lot of extra money, had small kids at home, worked and went to school.

Basically, I didn’t have much time--or the right hours available to get it all done outside of the home.

I started by using exercise videos and a manual stepper in my living room, along with hand-weights.

I significantly improved my tone and typically exercised before going to work each day—before the kids were awake, which typically gave me 30 minutes, five days a week.

A few years later, my lifestyle changed and I was able to afford going to the local YMCA.

I enjoyed using their treadmills, ellipticals, hand-weights and machines three days a week, and sometimes even attending a step or aerobics class for an hour at time.

This helped considerably, and also gave me the opportunity to associate outside of work and outside of the home with other people.

Unfortunately, the YMCA didn’t open early enough for me to workout in the morning, so I typically went there in the evening after work.

This became a problem when I started losing my motivation—I made excuses that I was too tired—or forgot my exercise clothes at home and didn’t want to go out again.

It was also a conflict because I was responsible for making dinner, doing household chores, helping the kids with school work, and attending social functions (church-related or Girl Scout meetings, cheerleading, school functions, etc.)

When they decided to raise their rates, I decided I would buy home equipment instead, which led me to the next phase.

I decided to first buy myself an elliptical that I could use at home.

This gave me the schedule flexibility I needed and eliminated the monthly fee, and eliminated a lot of the excuses that I made for not going to the YMCA.

I told myself that if I used the elliptical four or five days a week for a year and a half, it would be like me paying for the YMCA membership, but getting all the convenience and a piece of equipment in the end.

I used it for about 30 minutes five days a week and had very good results, except for the lower belly pouch.

So, after the year and a half, I purchased a used recumbent stationary bike and added 30 more minutes to my routine before going to work each day.

I enjoy doing both (most of the time) and can watch TV without fighting other patrons for the remote or trying to block out the music they play too loud.

Admittedly, I’ve gotten a little lazy with it, because I’ve dropped down to 40 minutes a day, typically four or five days a week.

Part of that change was due to my job requiring me to go into work 30 minutes earlier every day.

I’ve noticed a change in my body—which is partially due to me being older, but my kids are grown now, so most of the obstacles (other than my work schedule) are pretty much gone.