The AquaFit 19 Dual Temperature Spa looks like the ultimate home gym, especially if you’ve had injuries that make low-impact water workouts a good idea. This is essentially a large hot tub that lets you swim in place (a current pushes against you, so it’s like a treadmill for swimmers), resistance train at exercise stations, or just relax with your sore muscles against the jets. Some of the exercises you can do are stationary swimming, underwater running, and underwater rowing.
The Aquafit 19 features two climate controlled areas, so you can keep the water warmer in the warm-down/relaxation part of the tub and cooler for the swimming and exercising area. Just plop this bad boy down on your deck (which may need to be reinforced to hold the weight of all that water!), and you’ll never need to go to the gym for exercise again.
Granted this ultimate hydrotherapy experience is a bit costly ($40,000), but you’ve got some extra cash in the couch cushions, right?
Find out more at Aquatic Fitness Systems
If you’re trying to get the edge in a sport that requires fast reflexes and good balance, you might consider practicing on a Bongo Board.
Reminiscent of a skateboard but with just one rolling wheel, this gadget is continually in motion. As you stand on it, you’re forced to make constant adjustments to your body in order to keep from falling off. Exercising on a bongo board is supposed to help with any sports that require good reflexes and superior balance. Whether you’re a basketball, football, or tennis star (or wannabe), balance is a must, so if the board truly does help, it might make a useful training aid. You can start off on carpets (with something nearby to grab onto), and then move onto hard surfaces and maneuver your way about the room.
Reviews on Amazon are fairly positive, and you can pick one up there for about $90:
If you enjoy cruising along the bike trails, but you find bicycles and inline skates a little ho-hum, perhaps you’ll be interested in a new way of getting fresh air and exercise:
Instead of peddling, or pushing off the ground with one foot, you use a stepping motion to propel this scooter forward. It’s like those stepper exercise machines, except a little more fun, because you’re actually going places.
“The scooter uses an innovative pedal recovery and drive system to transfer the force from each pedal downstroke into rear axle rotation. Two parallel offset crank shafts engage a pair of gears to produce the reciprocal pedal recovery, providing riders with smooth, comfortable downward strokes. A brake lever controls the front wheel’s disc brake for confident stops. The three pneumatic tires provide grip on concrete, asphalt, or other hard surfaces.”
$300 lets you be the coolest one (or maybe the oddest one) on the bike trail this summer:
A week or two back, we looked at the Smooth Folding Treadmill (because it comes with a snazzy sound system), but what if you’re looking for a home treadmill that doesn’t cost $2,500? You don’t want to go bargain basement (not if you want a machine that will let you run on it more than three times before it falls apart), especially if you’ll be jogging on the treadmill, but you don’t necessarily need to pay thousands of dollars for a decent model.
Here are some more affordable folding treadmills you might consider:
LifeSpan Fitness TR200 Fold-N-Stor Compact Treadmill
The $800 Lifespan folding treadmill can fit under a bed or in a closet when not in use, and it has all the usual features you’d expect: adjustable speed and incline; a monitor that tracks time, calories, distance, steps, speed, and incline; and built-in training programs that can help you meet your exercise goals. It has contact heart-rate grips, and for music lovers there are built-in speakers and a headphone port.
BodyCraft 1120 Folding Treadmill
The Bodycraft treadmill is a little more expensive, coming in just under $1,000. It has an 52-by-18-inch running surface with 8 kinetic energy dampers; an LED display that tracks speed, time, distance, calories, etc.; 8 pre-set workout programs; and a 1.75-horsepower, continuous-duty motor.
The Bowflex folding treadmill retails at $2,000, so you might not put it in the “affordable” department, but as I write this, it’s $700 off at Amazon, so I thought it was worth mentioning. I’ve had a Bowflex before and was always pleased with the quality of their products.
This treadmill features all the usuals as well as large 20 by 60 inch walking/running surface area (bigger than you usually see with the home folding treadmills), a 3-speed fan to keep you cool, and a 15-year warranty on the frame (10 on motor, 2 on parts). If you do a lot of running, it may be worth investing in a higher quality treadmill (with a good warranty) such as this one.
Browse more folding treadmills
You doubtlessly bounded on someone’s backyard trampoline as a kid, but did you ever think of using a trampoline as a means of exercise? It’s an amazingly great way to get a cardiovascular workout, and it’s pretty fun too. You don’t need to get a huge model that costs a fortune and takes up the whole backyard either (some even fold up so you can put them away when not in use).
You can get a simple exercise trampoline for about $50 (one small enough to use inside, if your ceilings are high enough), though you may want to spend more if you’re actually planning to use it as part of a regular fitness program and you want quality construction. For example, the Needak Mini-Trampoline Rebounder costs about $250 and has solid reviews over at Amazon.
If you think just jumping up and down would get boring after a while, you can pick up a couple trampoline exercise videos to keep things interesting. If nothing else, it always helps to have a coach telling you what to do!
When it comes to jogging, I’m content with my iPod earbuds for music, but if you like to pump up the jams, and you’re looking for a home treadmill, you could do worse than the Smooth 6.45M Folding Treadmill.
As the name suggests, the unit can be “folded” against the wall to save space when you’re done with your workout–a good option to have in a home gym treadmill. This model also has some other bells and whistles:
- Deluxe sound system — “Attach your iPod/MP3 player, CD player or other audio device to the auxiliary input jack and be energized as your own soundtrack blazes out of the console.”
- Hand-grip heart rate monitor
- “Whisper Weave” tread-belt, which is supposed to make running on the treadmill quieter than on other models (another nice perk for a home gym type machine)
- Wheels and “gas shock-assist lift” folding feature for easy storage
More information at Smooth Fitness:
I’ve often thought a jumprope would be a handy (and cheap) piece of cardio equipment to keep at home for those rainy days when you don’t want to run outside and it’s too much of a hassle to go to the gym. Alas, I’m not blessed with high ceilings, so I always figured a jumprope would be impractical–I’d have to go outside to use it. But little did I know there was such thing as a “ropeless jumprope.”
The JumpSnap Ropeless Jump Rope lets you get a workout without worrying about hitting ceilings, winging lamps, or maiming passing pets. It comes with DVD workouts and hand weights to make the jumping a little more fun, and perhaps the best feature is the digital calorie counter built into the handles. That way if you eat 180 calories worth of Oreos you’ll know exactly when you’ve jumped them off.
The gadget also comes with a travel bag, so you can take it along on the road. I’m sure it’s a lot easier to fold up and tuck into a suitcase than a treadmill!
Available in pink or blue, the JumpSnap is less than $50 at Amazon:
