Question...

[telophase]

Does anyone here have any recommendations for compact, small cardio exercise equipment? Something that takes up space in use, but which easily folds away, like those treadmills that can fold up, is also an option. (No non-recumbent bikes, plz, those things hurt me!)

I'm just looking at things that take significantly less floorspace than the recumbent bikes. My current bike needs about 6' x 3.5' of space.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

You can get ridiculously small mini-steppers. Also pedal exercisers, which you can plunk in front of a chair for a recumbent bike effect. I suspect they're pretty flimsy, but they're very cheap and take up minimal space.

There are rowing machines that can be folded and stood on one end when you're not using them.

If you have more money and wish to splash out, a Versaclimber has a pretty small footprint.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

None that actually work. :/

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Going through the Amazon reviews for Stamina brand compact/foldable machines seems to show it's a crapshoot - my bike is a Stamina and the only problems I had were (1) it was missing one screw when it came so I had to go to the hardware store to get it, and (2) the electronic display crapped out after a couple of months, but I don't much care about that.

But the reviews alternate between mostly people thinking they're pretty good for the price, and people who got bad machines out of the box. Hm.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I heard somewhere that most people don't actually use their machines (of whatever kind), so many times they're only built for like five uses. That's always made me wonder. My own recumbent bike's electronic display died early on and it just doesn't work properly. I decided not to move it, because I'm going to switch to swimming instead.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

That might explain it. XD At any rate, we actually use our bikes! We might just have to go to a used equipment store and see if they have anything that is compact or fold away that we can try out.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

My step-father got excellent mileage out of a sturdy coffee-table-- step up on it and down and up and down. Cheap and compact and you can find the equivalent wherever you travel.

Dunno about its precise muscle-and-joint benefits, but he definitely got his heart-rate going.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Definitely an option - they have aerobic steps you can buy. I'd be extremely leery of any coffee table at my current weight! and the idea is to have the exercise equipment in the bedroom, hence the need to downsize.

Although what I'm considering at the moment is just getting rid of one of the bikes completely - if we want to work out together, there's the Wii and the Kinect (and, now that you've brought it up, a step of some ilk).

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

There's some good joint benefits to stepping up and down--but only in moderation. It can be hard on the knees and ankles if done for too long (for cardio, basically, as opposed as for weight/resistance training), according to my ortho guy. I have a small step that I use sometimes--it's rated for various people weights and has some give to protect the joints. I bought mine at Target.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm envisioning switching off between the remaining bike and the step - and the step is useful in some weights-related workouts also.

[weirdquark]

How compact do you want it?

Our elliptical trainer folds up, not that we usually bother because we have enough space to keep it out all the time. It probably takes up about the same amount of space as your bike when it's in use; and maybe half that folded?

[weirdquark]

Step plus bike is probably your best option -- it looks like you could fit a folded up elliptical machine in a corner with a bike, but it would make it very cluttered and would be a pain to drag the bike or elliptical out of the corner so you could use both.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm getting more and more convinced of this as the best option.

(And BTW to anyone else reading this - I screened the comment above as it contained a link to an address we are considering, which I realized afterwards was now posted in public. Whee! :D)

[kintail.livejournal.com]

An anti-recommendation - I got a mini stair-climber machine once that was just the foot part, no handles or display or anything, so it was about 8" high when the "stairs" were at the same height (easy to hide under a chair or side table) and took up about 1' x 1.5' of floor space. It was pneumatic (I think?), so the telescoping pipe thingy between the two foot pads would extend as you stepped down with one foot, and contract as you stepped down with the other foot. However, if you used it for more than about 5 minutes (ie, trying it out in the store), the friction generated heat that made for much less resistance in one direction than the other, so I ended up having to step on the "hard" step with both feet to get it to go down very slowly, and then I could step off it and the other step would come down slowly on its own, or come down very fast (thump!) if I put my weight on it. It became useless very quickly.

I got it on sale, but the original price for it was about $80 about 8-10 years ago, so it wasn't cheap for such a simple machine, either!

Watch out for that kind of mechanism for resistance if you try a similar machine, and try it out for a long time in the store to make sure the resistance continues to affect both sides equally.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I got one similar to that years ago, but it used a cable and pulleys to generate the resistance. I ended up not using it much as it didn't have much of a range of motion, which drove me nuts.

Not sure if I ever managed to use it for longer than 5-10 minutes at a time, so I have no idea how long it lasts. XD

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

...something to think about as you seek a new home, for sure.

Rowing machine have any appeal to you at all? There are some compact ones.

The setup you propose---bike + WII/step---sounds excellent. You can switch off, even, do 20 minutes on each.

As a source for equipment, Craig's List can be quite good. I got my Lifecycle that way.

[awamiba.livejournal.com]

I was going to say a step, but got beat to it. My second suggestion: a jump rope. Not exactly Low Impact, but I've been doing it a few weeks now and it's not hurting my knees or ankles like I thought it would.

[arcly.livejournal.com]

Swiss ball? Cheap and deflatable and quite fun. Mine came with several cardio workouts (of different lengths and difficulties) on dvd, but google 'swiss ball' and 'cardio' and you get hundreds more. Also, if you're having a migrainey day and can't do much, just sitting on it is good for abs and balance.

[arcly.livejournal.com]

Also: hula hoops. (Why yes, I am 11.)

[tempest-strife.livejournal.com]

DDR mat? Those things got my heart rate up more than anything else I've tried...