Gym membership or hire treadmill?

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  • suzycreamcheese
    suzycreamcheese Posts: 1,766 Member


    Another good cardio is swimming; and is low impact on your body for joints.


    not necessarily good advice.
    I really did my knee and my hip in by swimming breast stroke for an hour the other week. Its VERY harsh on your joints unless youve been professionally instructed. Other strokes are not as bad though
  • decu68
    decu68 Posts: 78
    Suzycreamcheese, it sounds like to me you have a serious problem with your hips and your knee; something that perhaps requires a doctor to look at it or perhaps physio therapy.

    In swimming you are putting less gravitational force on your joints so for people with problems this is an idea method for exercise. However anything with much severe problems should require a medical opinion first as if problems swimming then any other form of exercise could potential be worse. And with any injuries you need to know your limitation and adapt the exercise to suite you. If it hurts STOP; no brainer. And with any exercise unless your body is familiar with it, you will see the effects of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). Always start out slow and build into the exercise; this goes for all exercising. Too many people go "balls to the walls" when they start out and they rarely last as their body pays them back.

    Swimming isn't for everybody but is a good low impact cardio exercise.
  • emily2182
    emily2182 Posts: 7 Member
    Done the gym thing and I was motivated for a good few months, then started to slack off. I paid it upfront so it was cheaper and I wasn't locked into a contract. If you're someone that is fairly lazy and finds it a chore to take a bus and go to your local gym then you're going to find it harder to motivate yourself to stick with it, even when you do pay a lot of money it wasn't enough of a motivation for me to go and the gym was actually less than 5 mins walk - that's how lazy I am...

    I looked around at treadmill hire as well and rentacentre are the cheapest that I could find. In the end, I thought that an elliptical will be better for my joints since I've got a lot to lose and would be using it for a long time...I would also get the upper arm workout too.

    I think it depends if you're an outdoorsy sort of person or do you like to keep to yourself which I think you could bear in mind in your decision making. I did like the variety at the gym, but it's not worth it if you're not going to go - you need to be in the right head space to go there otherwise you'll just be wasting your money.

    I get a good burn from my elliptical and I like the heaviness and the resistance it gives me.

    Hope the advice helps! Best of luck with it :)
  • koukla702
    koukla702 Posts: 171
    I love the gym! It's a little pricy but its so worth it - what really gets me motivated and excited for the gym are the classes!!! So many classes that keep my routine mixed up and FUN! I leave the gym everytime feeling amazing, I know I would NOT be able to work out at home.
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