Ahh the holidays - time for family, good cheer and of course, those not-so-good, pesky extra pounds. Naturally exercise equipment becomes a hot item as the year draws to a close, and many will give it as a gift for Christmas, anticipating the recipient’s need for it in the New Year. Although it’s highly recommended to use a little tact when presenting fitness equipment as a Christmas gift to your spouse or significant other, this article provides other essential information that will help you in choosing quality products that will save you money while sparing your ego.

Tips for buying home treadmills

Treadmills are perennial favorites when it comes to cardio equipment. The benefits they offer include improved cardiovascular fitness, movement and function. The disadvantages may be that they can be difficult to get used to initially and can be high impact for grossly overweight individuals or those with joint or bone pain.

• Go with a brand name you have heard of like Smooth, Keys, Nordic Track, Reebok or similar.

• Quite often with cardio equipment you “get what you pay for” so be willing to spend about $1000.00 + dollars for a lifelong fitness investment.

• Check the warrantee – most quality manufacturers should offer a lifetime warrantee on the frame, (up to) 10 years on the motor, 1 year on the parts and 90 days on the labor.

• Check the motor, aim for at least a continuous duty 1.5 HP or higher motor – a continuous duty motor ensures that regardless of pace, the output remains the same.

• Consider the space you have available – most treadmills intended for home use fold up but some do not, check before you buy.

• Consider the running surface area you will need too: if you are tall or some of the intended users are tall, then their stride length will be longer and you will need a longer belt (56 “).

• Check the options you want like pre-programmed workouts like interval training, hills, fat burn etc. and for heart rate monitor compatibility if you plan on using one.

Tips for buying elliptical trainers

Elliptical trainers have become very popular lately and for good reason. Ellipticals offer a zero impact, full body cardio workout and are very user friendly too.

• As for treadmills, aim for a well-known brand with a good warrantee (lifetime frame, 2-3 years parts and 1 year labor).

• Be prepared to spend about the same for a good elliptical as you would for a comparable quality treadmill.

• Test it out if possible, an elliptical needs to feel “right” – does it suit your stride length, is the movement smooth and not jerky, is it easy to mount and dismount and will it fit in your allotted space?

• Take into consideration that handles requiring you to push and pull will greatly increase caloric expenditure – so if you plan to use the elliptical machine to lose weight or get fit faster, this an important option.

• Consider other options like: adjustable incline, pre-programmed workouts and heart rate monitoring.

Tips for buying home strength training equipment

While in the past it may have been standard advice when purchasing home strength training equipment to buy a multi-station gym, the latest concept in the fitness industry however is functional training and functional training equipment.

Functional training is a method of exercising that when it is performed results in increased human function. For example, performing squats with a pair of dumbbells in each hand will transfer and benefit functional activities and make activities such as getting out of a chair or car and lifting objects easier.

Functional training equipment is hot stuff and includes items like adjustable cable columns, exercise/stability balls, medicine balls, adjustable dumbbells, rubber tubing and balance training products. All these products are extremely versatile and fun to use, making them an even greater value for money.

• A stability ball is possibly one of the best and least expensive fitness gifts to give this season since they’re so versatile (use them as an exercise bench or chair) and also help to strengthen your core muscles, which are essential for improving posture and stabilizing your low back to prevent and permanently treat pain.

• Adjustable dumbbells have become very popular too; their use for home strength training is limited only by your imagination; plus depending on your choice of model, allow you to select a weight anywhere from 5 to 50 pounds with the turn of a dial or a flip of a switch.

• Balance training products are forecast to be the best sellers of all functional training equipment – items like foam balance pads, beams and rollers, wobble boards, inflatable discs and BOSU balls are fun to use and allow you to train your sense of balance and core muscles in functional positions like standing and lunging.

• Medicine balls are a great value too – like dumbbells their use for strength and core training is limited only by your imagination but are also ideal for increasing sports specific power for the golfer or young athlete in the family. Some medicine balls bounce like a basketball while others have molded handles and even ropes attached to them making them even more fun and challenging.

• Rubber bands and tubing are excellent for the budget-minded gift giver, since they are a portable source of resistance, incredibly versatile and simultaneously train core and limb strength.

• Adjustable cable columns are a little expensive ($ 1 100 +) but are well worth the investment. The compact design and adjustable pulley allow for limitless sport-specific and functional exercises using “real weight” (not “bending rods”) that normally would be impossible with traditional home exercise equipment.

If after reading this article you still feel more comfortable purchasing a multi-gym type piece of equipment, then keep in mind the following tips:

• Aim for a quality brand name and check the warrantee – remember, “You get what you pay for”.

• Test it out first if possible for user friendliness and movement feel – a quality piece of weight stack/cable equipment will feel comfortable and have a smooth and consistent resistance throughout - not jerky or stiff.

• Consider purchasing a multi-gym piece that has a high and a low cable pulley, as this will allow for more exercise variety and enable some functional standing exercises like those available on the cable column.

• Consider purchasing exercise equipment that uses your own body weight moving on a slide (e.g. Total Gym).

Be leery of the “As Seen on TV” products

While some products promoted in infomercials are effective and a good value (e.g. Total Gym), be cautious of purchasing products that seem “too good to be true”, make exercise “a breeze” or that you only have to do 2 minutes a day to experience “huge” results.

A classic example is abdominal exercise equipment. Everyone wants the sleek, sexy six-pack abs for the summer but don’t want to work for it - so savvy marketers (most who haven’t the vaguest idea about exercise anyway) think up clever ways for you to part with your hard-earned money to buy an essentially “useless” product.

No ab roller, electric muscle stimulator, ab lounger chair or rubber band crunch board will ever provide the abdominals you desire - in fact using them exclusively may make any posture and back problems even worse. Nothing works more effectively to strengthen the abdominals than a sit-up or crunch performed with good technique. It may be that you already have a defined six pack concealed under several pounds of fat. The key is to lose the fat covering your six-pack to ‘reveal” your abdominals.

No matter how many ab rolls/lounges and board crunches you do or how many electrical stimulations you use, you will never be able to “spot reduce” fat only off your stomach and hips. The myth of spot reduction is amazingly alive and well and marketed to the full extent when it is in fact, a physical impossibility.

The best advice when leaning towards TV advertised fitness products is to use some common sense and do some homework. There is no magic pill or exercise machine available that will provide results without some work and sacrifice. Also know that if these products were all they were cracked up to be the whole population would be beautiful and slender and not predominantly overweight.