There’s lots of ways that people exercise as part of a normal daily life, and it doesn’t necessarily require you to spend a lot of money on expensive equipment like the products recommended on treadmill guides or cross trainer review sites. That’s not to say it would be a bad idea, just that it’s not wholly necessary.

Today we want to talk a little more about home based exercise. It surprises a lot of our members that we’re often recommending getting fit outside of our gyms, as they assume it would be bad for business for us, with people choosing to cancel their memberships and instead get fit at home (or at least intend to!). In reality, the opposite is true. Yes, some people cancel as soon as their minimum membership is up (or even before), that’s a fact of life and they will do that regardless. We’re interested in our motivated members, people who really care about their fitness and are in it for the long run. Hopefully that helps show why our great members come back – they’re with us for our expertise as much as our equipment.

So, at home there’s an often overlooked piece of equipment that rivals our most popular vertical climber, and gives a similar workout to our stair steppers (see the stair stepper reviews for more info about that), and that’s the humble stair case. It’s actually quite an obvious reason that it’s so good for exercise, and that’s that you’re lifting your whole weight up vertically against gravity, so it’s actually more effort than walking or gentle jogging. As always, a varied workout works best, but if you’re just getting started and haven’t got a bike or other fitness machine at home, it’s a great starting point.

Generally speaking, our expert fitness instructors are looking to get you moving quickly, and the main criteria we need to see is a raised heart rate, as it shows that your body is working at burning energy effectively as you exercise. The amount that your heart rate rises will likely to be greater while you’re starting out, and slowly adapt as you get fitter. That’s a great thing, because it means that you’ll naturally feel able to achieve more and more as time goes on, and you turn that downward spiral into an upward one.