When anyone starts to think about getting fit there are usually so many obstacles in their way – lack of money, lack of time, lack of motivation or lack of child free time. For me, it was the latter. Hubby and I work shifts around each other and on the occasions where we are both working Hubby’s lovely parents look after the kids. There isn’t much time where Hubby and I are both at home where I can get out and go for a run – although I have tried to run consistently since I started nearly two years ago and have got out of the house as much as I can.
In reality though I wasn’t able to get out more than twice a week and I knew that to make a difference I really needed to regularly exercise three times a week. As running was something I really enjoyed I wanted to carry on but couldn’t afford the cost of a treadmill. But then I found Hire Fitness, who offer fitness equipment rental so you can exercise from home without the huge outlay of gym equipment.
Hire Fitness offered us the chance to review their service and I chose a treadmill to use. The treadmill could be set up anywhere we like and as we don’t have much spare space in the house we decided to put it in our huge shed – somewhere I can still hear the baby monitors if I’m running in the evening and somewhere I wouldn’t get distracted by housework, the blog or social media.
The treadmill was delivered and set up at an agreed time and you pay just one delivery fee and then a weekly or monthly rental price – depending on how long you have the equipment for. The man who delivered our treadmill showed me how to use it, made sure it was working and left all the information I needed too.
From then on I had four weeks to use the treadmill as much as I liked. I wasted no time and used it for the first time straight away – only lasting a few minutes but feeling much better for having had some exercise.
Over the next few weeks I realised that running in a shed is pretty boring, even with music on. So I downloaded some TV shows onto my iPad and watched them whilst running. This helped me exercise for longer and I would run for half an hour with breaks of power walking. This is about the amount of time I spend running when I manage to get out of the house but I know that with the treadmill I am working harder than I would running on my own speed. The treadmill forced me to put more effort in.
Before using the Hire Fitness treadmill I had only run on one once before – at my Mummymoon at the Holiday Inn. Running on a treadmill isn’t like running outside and I think the differing surfaces outside and natural incline of the ground makes for a harder run but the treadmill had an incline option too and I could easily change the speed too. I would run at 8-9kmph and would do a brisk walk at 5-6kmph but this was nowhere near the maximum speeds of the machine although I did see my speeds and duration increasing over the time I used the treadmill.
Having the Hire Fitness treadmill in my house – or shed – for a month has really improved my level of fitness purely because I have had access to my preferred form of exercise at any time of the day or night – something I haven’t had before. I could run whenever I wanted too without the confines of childcare – as I just waited until the children were safely in bed and then went for a run, something I couldn’t do previously.
Hire Fitness is a great option for anyone that wants exercise to be convenient. They have a great range of fitness equipment that can all be set up in your own home to use exactly how and when you want. If you’d love to exercise but don’t like the gym or don’t have a gym near you then this would be a great option too and many of the fitness machines don’t take up much room, even folding for storage. I’ve loved using Hire Fitness and would definitely hire fitness equipment in the future.
I have teamed up with Hire Fitness to give readers a special discount – just use code redhead at checkout to get 20% off the first 4 weeks hire price – valid on hires of 12 weeks or more.
Disclosure: I was loaned the above product for the purpose of this review however all opinions are my own.
This is such a great idea. I really want a treadmill and I think my husband would use it too. It would definitely get over the problem of not having childcare to allow me to exercise. I’ll have to look into hiring maybe it could work of us.
Oh, that is a clever idea! Could really get people started on the road to fitness and better than committing to a purchase.
That’s a fantastic idea! I love that you put it in the shed 🙂 x
What an amazing idea! I also love that you put it in the shed!!
x
I like the idea of hiring fitness equipment, I think so many people realise that training at home isn’t for them after they’ve bought equipment. We’ve got a turbo trainer in my office and it’s really useful.
Nat.x
This is such a great idea hiring equipment. I can imagine it would be great to hire before you buy an expensive piece of gym kit. Sounds good service too installing it and showing you how it works x