Help Workout Moms!

Don't get a treadmill - - too many accidents with babies. If they crawl up behind you, their fingers can get caught on the tread and "sucked" down and around into the back slot and mangled. Also, one little 6-year-old friend of a friend's daughter here in NE Texas was on it, fell, got pushed to the back of it, the wall stopped her, and the tread just kept spinning and took OFF all the skin from her forehead!! She's going to require plastic surgery. It was so bad!

I'd recommend a re-bounder, a mini-tramp. Cheap from Walmart. Less shock to the knee joints - - which is a good thing. The pull on the body at the bottom of each bounce strengthens internal organs like the bladder and kidneys. (maybe as good as Kegels?). Just jog-bounce lightly to start. Add scissors, knee-ups, and other fancy footwork later. MOMMY WARNING: Keep the mini-tramp standing up in a closet and away from the kids. One badly-timed, 2-kid double-bounce can send the littlest one flying off head-first into a brick fireplace or glass coffee-table. Or, you could PAD an entire room and put the mini-tramp in there! Eh - - kids will figure out a way to get hurt anyway.

Try the Wii... you can work out with it, it is fun, it makes you sweat, you can each have your own profile/BMI stats/progress stats/weight profile.
It is FUN!
Get a balance board for it too.
Much funner than a treadmill.
You can use it for working out.. the kids/family/husband can play games on it and you can even watch instant streaming movies on it via Netflix.

We had a treadmill. It turned into a hanging rack for junk.

all the best,
Susan

where do you live? I have an older one I think I'm going to get rid of - it's loud, but it works and good price - $25! That way you can see if you are open to doing it before you spend some big bucks on a nicer one. That was my plan (I bought this one used and replaced the belt). FTR - I'm not getting a new one LOL. Email me if you are in interested - I live in Austin. ____@____.com

You may think I'm crazy but how about a jump rope. My PT uses one with me all the time. It's really difficult too and gets your heart rate up there real fast. Get a heart rate monitor and time yourself, record your heartrate and see how much longer you can jump at one time and how much lower you can decrease your heart rate overtime. Also, squats with a weight bar is a great exercise for women for burning fat and building muscle tone.

Craigslist is a good place to find used items for a good deal. And use whatever you do get :)

I agree with mamatoto there are alot of accidents with treadmills, but if your kids are older (like 8 or older) or you have a seperate room to put it in (all my workout equitment is in the garage) then I would recomend the golds gym tredmill they sell at walmart it is around$400 and walmart will put it together for you for free if you ask.