the best piece of exercise equipment?

I love using the elliptical for my cardio, I have had 3 knee surgeries so they are low inpact on the joints. I can burn thru 500 calories in a 30 minute workout session.

I second the elliptical. I hurt my feet running and it's low impact and you can burn a lot of calories. It's also very easy on your knees. You can try craiglist for a used one probably

If you are on a budget, why not get a bike trainer, if you already own a bike. If you don't own a bike, most bike shops will be putting good quality bikes on sale soon, so you could get a bike and trainer. The best thing is the ability to use the bike outside during nice weather for a change of venue. I love my bike trainer, and you can burn a ton of calories.

a good workout program with dumbells, like power 90, or without anything like turbo jam/turbo fire

At a risk of sounding stupid...what is a bike trainer? And a Kettlebells?
I like the thought of an eliptical. A stair climber might be a bit rough on the tendon at this point.

kettlebells


bike trainer

jumping rope is an amazing exercise. ten minutes can be the equivalent of doing a 6 minute mile. other machines can be bulky and expensive, but if you want one, you can't go wrong with an elliptical or rowing machine. however with the rowing machine, please make sure to find the proper form and technique.

Thanks

The problem with jumping rope is the impact-I have an achilles tendon issue and am currently subjected to cortisone shots and have to be a bit careful with it.

I don't mind a machine, I have room for one. Truth be told I would prefer to swim but I am horrifically self conscious and they don't have aquafit in the dark at any of the pools I know of!

do you really think you are going to be the only out of shape person at your local pool trying to get a work out in?? put on a suit, some googles and a cap, and go for it. i put on my jammers and my gut hangs over them. i get my *kitten* to the pool anyway.

if I was going to buy something I would get a few more handweights/dumbells (some 5lbs and some 10lbs, I own a pair of 8s --but if you are new to strength trainig you should probably get 3s, 5s, 8s) and a pull up bar and some resistance bands (for the pullup bar).

You don't need ANYTHING extra to step up your workout.

Planks, squats, pushups, various ab exercises -- tons of body weight stuff you can do without paying a penny. go here http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/ and click on any body part then go through the menu on the left and select ALL the body groups and 'types' of exercises, but under "equipment" de-select everything except for "none" or "bodyweight"

there are a ton of variations on things like squats and crunches that you can do. Also a lot of ladies seem to love the 30 day shred or Ripped in 30 videos and they are much much cheaper than the things like P90x (you can usually find em for 5-10 bucks) so try something like that first to see if you even enjoy working out to DVD before you spend 150 bucks on one of the team beachbody products.

The best piece of exercise equipment is the one you use!

I have a stationary bike and I love it. I use it on my off-running days so I'm doing something non-impact. If you're serious about buying a piece of equipment, look around for used. People are always getting rid of equipment they don't use any longer at yard sales, on Craig's List, etc. You should be able to pick up something cheaply that probably didn't get used more than 10 times then sat in someone's bedroom and doubled as a clothes rack.

Swimming would be great, too. My sister recently started swimming as a non-impact sport and she seems to be loving it. My mom reminded us that my sister was a terrible swimmer when she was younger and always looked like she was drowning. She was honestly shocked that my sister had started using it to train because of that but she's gotten really good at it.

So, for a fun aqua story. My friend and I decided to go to the Y one day and workout (we were about 18 years old). After maybe an hour or two of using every piece of equipment we decided to go swimming. 30 minutes later they started an aqua aerobics class and asked us to join. The 70 plus year old ladies were putting us to shame! Granted we were exhausted at this point but the class was a lot harder than we thought it would be. I was slightly embarrassed but the ladies were nice and we all had a good laugh. I guess the moral is don't be embarrassed, no one is judging you. Everyone is there to have a good time and better themselves. It's expected you'll be at different levels.


Oh, and if you have problems with joints or tendons I would suggest away from the 30DS. There is a lot of jumping and that's one of the major complaints. An elliptical would probably be a safe bet.