Your gym at home? Home exercise equipment can be fun at first, but what does it take to keep you happy, hooked--and healthy?(REPORT: Home fitness equipment)

Publication: Choice (Chippendale, Australia)

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COPYRIGHT 2005 Australian Consumers' Association

Working out on fitness machines might look like good exercise, and you may even have confirmed this in the gym. But what if you buy one to use--often--at home? What makes some models better than others? Can a wise purchase choice make a difference to its enjoyability (OK, tolerability--this is exercise, after all!) and your persistence with it? Or will it inevitably become an expensive and ugly clothes rack?

We asked readers who own exercise bikes, treadmills and elliptical trainers about their experiences with equipment designed for domestic use, including what makes for a good or bad purchase decision. With your help plus information from our overseas counterparts who've tested this equipment, we've put together some tips on what to consider when buying home fitness equipment.

WHY BUY FITNESS EQUIPMENT?

Many readers pointed out you can exercise free--ride a bike, walk in the park, swim at the beach--and saw little point in buying exercise equipment. Or you could go to a gym where there's more variety and better equipment, as well as company.

But this doesn't suit everyone, and people gave us many good reasons for using home exercise equipment. For example, parents with small children said they found it difficult to get out to do cardiovascular exercise, but could do it at home when the kids were in bed. Other reasons included finding it difficult to fit in a visit to the gym (or there was no gym nearby); being able to exercise in private; and living in a neighbourhood where it's unsafe to go out to exercise after dark, or where there are no proper footpaths.

Many just appreciated the convenience: getting straight out of bed, onto the treadmill and into the shower before breakfast; combining exercise with watching TV or reading time; and being able to exercise any time in any weather. Some used the machine to supplement other exercise (outdoors or in a gym), while others relied on it exclusively.

THE DOWNSIDE

The main complaints or reasons for giving up using exercise equipment were: boredom; loss of motivation; not being able to watch TV as planned, because the machine was too noisy (for the user and/or other household members); taking up too much space; and niggling faults with the machine, or breakdowns. Some were disappointed that home machines weren't as good as those you find at the gym.

In our survey, people who'd bought exercise equipment in the previous 12 months were typically using it three to four times a week. However, usage tended to drop off over the years, and by five years about half of our respondents who'd bought treadmills and three-quarters who'd bought exercise bikes were no longer using them.

Most people were satisfied...

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