Archive for Fitness
Cross trainers or elliptical machines are great for people seeking a full body workout that’s low in impact and protective of sensitive joints. Popular in gyms, these exercise devices work the upper and lower body by mimicking people’s natural walking rhythm and working a variety of muscle groups.
Cross trainers offer what is called ‘weight bearing exercise’, during which the body’s muscles and tendons apply tension to bones, stimulating them to make bone tissue. During exercise on elliptical trainers, the body’s weight can create this tension. Similar exercises are weight lifting and jogging. Not only does weight bearing exercise improve bone density, but it strengthens muscles and burns calories as well.
Cross trainers also work the arms and legs, thus conditioning the body. When working the quads, hamstrings, glutes and chest, triceps and biceps on elliptical machines, people can expend energy without feeling exhausted. In other words, they can burn calories effectively without heavily straining the body. This makes it a good exercise machine for injured, older or cautious sportspeople, but it can also be used as a warm-up or supplemental exercise for dancers, tennis players and gymnasts.
Similar to treadmills, cross trainers have built-in exercise programs, including hill climbing, interval training and fat burning sequences. Many have wireless heart rate control, meaning that exercisers can let their heart rate control the level of resistance. A benefit of using an elliptical trainer is it has fewer moving parts (no belts, rollers or motors) and is less likely to break down or require regular servicing. It’s one of those machines that can be purchased, set up and used from day one without much hassle.
Elliptical machines are great for home exercising. Providing good cardiovascular exercise, cross trainers are a good addition to a person’s daily routine – whether the aim is losing weight, supplementing a sport or toning the body.
Fitness equipment leasing has long been a common practice among health clubs and fitness centers. Due to the large inventory of equipment they must have in order to run their business effectively, it is often difficult for fitness companies to have the cash to buy all of the equipment that they need. Another benefit of commercial fitness equipment leasing is that companies in the business of fitness want to be at the forefront of the fitness industry, so as new equipment, machines and models become available, it is easier to replace older equipment with new equipment when it is being leased as compared to if the company owns the equipment.
So is a fitness equipment lease a good idea for the individual consumer? That depends. Some people purchase fitness equipment only to find a short time later that it is not the type of equipment they want to use or there is already another piece of equipment that they would prefer. Since many types of fitness equipment are expensive to buy, you cannot easily decide to replace your current equipment with new equipment each time the mood strikes. If you are the type that likes to stay at the forefront of the latest and greatest in fitness equipment, then leasing may be a better option than buying.
Another reason that fitness equipment leasing may be a good idea is for those individuals that are athletes and are interested in multiple machines or in cross training. If you require a good deal of equipment to train for your sport and would rather do your work out and training at home instead of heading to the gym, then you may want to consider a fitness equipment lease. This is a more economical option if you are looking to own multiple pieces of equipment at once, since you don’t have to lay out such a large lump sum of money upfront to own all of the equipment.
In addition to those that need to always own the latest and greatest fitness equipment or those that need multiple pieces of equipment in order to train for their sport, there is another type of person that can also benefit from fitness equipment leasing. That is the person that keeps saying “if only I had a treadmill, I would walk on it every day”, only to be followed by the fact that that after laying out a good deal of money, the treadmill becomes a clothes dryer and a dust collector. For those people that typically have good intentions, but aren’t sure they’ll actually use the equipment that they buy, leasing the equipment may be a better alternative than buying the equipment because if it’s not used, it can just be returned at the end of the lease and the financial outlay is not as great. It is also a good idea for those that have joined a gym or health club in the past and laid out a good deal of money for the club membership program, only to let it quickly go to waste since they cannot motivate themselves to keep going.
While fitness equipment leasing can be a good idea for some, not all fitness equipment leasing companies will lease their equipment to individual consumers or the leases may not be cost effective. In some cases, you can only lease through these companies if you are a business, are leasing a minimum number of pieces of equipment, or are leasing for a minimum term. Fitness equipment leases will also typically be more expensive for individuals than for businesses because an individual does not lease the volume of equipment that a business will.
But, despite the fact that not all fitness equipment leasing companies may lease to you as an individual or even if they do the lease may be more expensive than you would like, you should be able to find a company that will lease equipment to you as an individual and then you can weigh the cost-benefit options. Then you can determine whether or not you think that fitness equipment leasing is a better option for you than purchasing the equipment outright.