Exercise equipment - recommendations please

[scifinerd]

Can anyone recommend exercise equipment that is good value for money and effective? Or should I not spend my money on these things? What are your opinions. BTW I absolutely HATE exercise but must get fit, very important for my health.

A personal trainer is probably the best thing you can do for yourself. Everything else simple requires too much motivation IMO.

What about those vibration power plates. I really don't think I can afford a personal trainer.

how can you afford things like power plates if you can't afford pt??
i agree personal trainer most effective
no piece of equipment will do the work for you and if you don't want to join a gym you will need to be motivating yourself to exercise at home
a fit ball, some weights and a personal trainer once a week to get you started, then monthly once you are exercising regularly, will do much more for you than a pricey piece of equipment that doesn't get used

We actually looked at these in John Lewis recently with DD1. They are supposed to do the job but start at about £600 for anything worth having. However 20 sessions with a PT would give seriously impressive results, probably superior to this.

i actually meant some I had seen in amazon for 100 pounds. Personal Trainer cost way more than this, especially 20 sessions. Also was given a gift certificate for amazon. We are very broke so was trying to think of best thing to spend my gift c on. this is what I saw

But is it a waste of my gift. I really need to do something. But tired from sleep deprivation and as I said hate exercise. I just don't know how to get started.

Hiya, im a personal trainer & we have a vibration plate in our gym....
If its about your health, then you need to be doing Cardio vascular exercise - not using a vibration plate. They are for toning, stretching & conditioning. But even with these plates they need to be used in conjunction with a CV & Resistance workout.

To improve your health, try something like a bike or cross Trainer - Treadmill if you can fit one in your home.
Sure you can get all of these on Amazon also.

Get a pair of trainers, and just get outside and WALK. Mix walking and running if you're feeling really adventurous.

I wouldn't bother pi**ing around with expensive equipment, it will just end up gathering dust.

Pedometers (count number of steps taken) are really cheap and can give you something to aim for each day e.g. start off aiming for 5000 steps in one day.

pedometers

oh yes i see, i hadn't realised they were that cheap
i agree, get trainers, and maybe an exercise dvd? anything to get you started

Walking is fabulous, especially if you can fit it into your daily routine. I really feel the difference since DS changed school and I have to take him in the car. Go to a proper running shop for shoes if you have one near you, they really know their stuff and the right shoes make a difference. I used to like to load comedy podcasts from the BBC onto my IP3 player to listen to while I walked.

I have a personal trainer and access to a gym and tbh we don't use any of the fancy equipment, for the most part I work with hand weights. I do use the rowing machine or the cross trainer for 10 mins to warm up and get my heart going, but on school holidays when I have to train at home he gets me to use a skipping rope instead.

Also a Wii fit is good for starting you off - it's got a lot of motivational tools built in. We have had good success with ours.