It’s probably no surprise to you at all, since exercise equipment such as elliptical machines, treadmills and the like, are pretty high ticket items, with the economy the way it is now, that the amount of larger exercise equipment pieces that are being sold as gifts has been on the wane, not only last year, but so far this year too.

It used to be a much more popular gift, and even one of those gifts that you can give to your loved one that you live with, and you can enjoy the fruits of it as well! Ok, so maybe it’s a bit of a cheat to buy this sort of thing for your partner when you know you’re the one who really wanted it, but more and more couples these days are going in on one single gift to sort of “give to eachother” when it comes to bigger items.

I know several couples who do this type of thing. For example, if you’ve had your eye on some huge flat screen TV or maybe a nice new desktop computer, you can maybe make it a group gift to eachother instead of spending money on one another separately. It’s a great way to build a household of items that you really need and want, or both, without busting the bank in addition to buying gifts for the various holiday for eachother.

When you consider that large cardio exercise machines can range anywhere from $400 to over $1,000, it’s no wonder that these items have fallen slightly out of favor as gifts. It doesn’t mean that people don’t still want them, it just means that, as with a large amount of other consumer goods, we Americans have rearranged our priorities, and where once exercise machines may have been a priority, now more primitive things like food and shelter have become our focus since those things we have taken for granted are lost to so many now.

Also, one word on charity. It was awesome to see the place where I work come up with a goal-breaking number of coats in the Coats for Kids drive this year. I know that people aren’t making a lot of money this year, but for charities like that to still be raking in donations, I think, really speaks to the resilience and generous nature of Americans.

You can even find some steals on elliptical machines, and you can get them shipped right to your house for free many times. I’ve found some great deals on some of my favorite machines around this time in years past, and I’m so glad that I really held out to shop during the Christmas season, because I ended up really making out.
You can get Shwinn recumbent bikes for as little as around $250, and they work really well, and you can get things like boxing gloves and upright boxing punch bags for something like 30 bucks.

That’s something I’ve still been eyeballing and just haven’t had the time or the funds to pursue yet with other priorities floating about that should come before that (like boring bills to pay, yada yada). Even at Best Buy, I saw some exercise DVD’s on sale, and also noticed that the new Jillian Michaels Wii fitness game was on sale.

I want to try that since we have the Wii gaming system, but I know thus far how we’ve been with the other fitness games we have, and we barely use it. I supposed I’m still just a straight DVD or home gym exerciser, and I’m not really used to these “new fangled” forms of exercise yet. Call me old fashioned (just don’t call me old). If you’re looking for yoga mats, or even pedometers, now’s the time to buy those too, or sometimes things like this go on sale at reduced prices after Christmas, since a lot of people get early starts on their inevitable New year’s resolutions to A.) lose weight and B.) get in shape.

Resistance bands, weights, and other accessories also go on sale at deeply reduced prices, so if you’ve been biding your time, waiting for the right opportunity to present itself to buy any of these normally fairly high ticket items, then now’s the time to get off the pot and buy!

Not only do you have a better resting metabolism when you lift weights and build lean muscle mass, but you also will get a lot more comments on looking great because of the fact that lifting weights makes you look cut and buff. Just doing a lot of cardio will keep you thin, but it’s the weightlifting that will actually shape and sculpt your body, and get you noticed.

One trick to burning calories is that you can up the repetitions and keep the weight the same, and then bump up your weight in pounds, and bump up your reps again when that one actually gets too easy. This is a good way to get a good calorie burn in with your weight lifting repertoire. Not to mention, you can get ripped and sculpted doing it this way!

I love using lighter weights and lots of reps because I actually feel like I am doing some sort of lighter cardio, and I feel like I’m burning off some sort of stress – maybe it’s therapeutic, but it feels like I’m doing something that gets the anxiety out!

Just browsing in our local Dick’s sports store in a nearby strip mall, I saw tons of deals on not only fitness equipment but also novelty games like shuffleboard sets, basement basketball hoop sets, air hocky tables and pool tables, to name a few. I saw kids playing with a lot of these sets, hoping for one from Santa, and witnessed at least one beaming parent who couldn’t believe the cheap prices that were set on these usually more expensive novelty items.

That’s the good news, the prices. However, the bad news is that there’s of course an underlying reason as to why these prices are so low, and that is that stores know that many people are hanging onto their money for dear life and aren’t spending as readily, perhaps because there was already a job loss in the family, or also because there may be some fear about oncoming job losses as well.

Some of the things you may be able to find at reduced prices, that are usually high ticket items, and of course will probably be marked down to their lowest in the days following Christmas since retailers want to get rid of excess inventory, are ellitpical machines, treadmills, recumbent bikes, weight sets and nautilus-type workout sets, rowing machines, stairmasters, weight benches and fitness accessories, and even the very clothes and shoes that you need to work out in.

Heck, I even found a good pair of Adidas cross trainer shoes a few weeks back before all the deep discounts hit the stores, and I ended up paying about thirty dollars for them because my boyfriend also bought a pair, and it was buy one get one half off, and the prices on the shoes were already significantly marked down from suggested retail. This was of course at an outlet style store, but still, that’s quite a nice deal for name brand tennis shoes!

So, if you have the disposable income and are lucky enough to not be sweating about bills right now, it’s a great chance to get fitness equipment at deep discounts.

I purchased mine off Amazon (go figure, I’m addicted to their great buys), and it happened that the person who was selling it lived right down the road from me practically, so she dropped it off in like two days, so on top of getting a good deal, I also didn’t have to pay for shipping which made me really happy!

It’s a very cool little contraption, and it’s small so you can grab it and pull it out if you’re feeling guilty about vegging in front of the tv all day and want to get a little physical activity in as well. It’s easy to do right in front of the tv actually. When you first step on the machine, it feels a bit awkward, and you do have to balance from side to side in order to get a good rhythm going. This is part of the exercise though, since forcing your body to balance requires specific muscle groups to do work, and this helps them to contract and sculpt themselves.

At first I thought it was fairly easy, but I was out of breath after about five minutes of doing it straight through. Now, I know I’ll build a better tolerance after doing it a few times, but I think it targeted different muscles than I’m used to and that contributed to my early fatigue. One note is that is it tough on carpet, so you definitely do want to get a workout mat to place it on.

Unlike other models of this machine, this one does not slip like many other people complained about with other stepper machines, it pretty much stayed put the whole time I was using it instead of scooching all the way across the mat the whole time. A good mat of course helped as well since it helped grip the metal bottoms in place. All in all, I like the machine, as far as results, I think I will definitely see results after I start using it consistently, judging from how it worked my butt and thighs those first few times.

Well, other than telling you I ordere it, there’s not much else to say about this machine, other than the fact that it is an easy machine that is supposed to target the butt and the thighs, which are two of my biggest genetic weaknesses and something that I’ve always struggled with whittling down throughout the years.

I’m hoping this rocker will be a simple yet effective machine to add to my workout regimen, which seems to be a getting a big stale at the moment. I will have a full review of this thigh rocker for you hopefully in just about a week. I want to make sure I have time to really try it out and figure out all the pros and cons of this little machine before I review it.