How to Properly Store and Not Care About Your Exercise Equipment

By now I'm sure you've all decided on which piece of workout equipment you're going to buy and store in your garage. You know, the one you buy every year in January when the infomercials for getting in shape are more plentiful than unopened fruitcakes

I'm not much of a health club person, so my husband and I bought some cross country skis about 10 years ago - right around the time global warming started to kick in. So far this winter we've dragged the skis to northern Wisconsin and Lake Tahoe searching for something to glide on. They have yet to make it out of their carrying case.

To stay in shape during the snowless gaps, I lift heavy stationary exercise equipment and move it from my livingroom into my garage.

My success with workout machines hasn't exactly been the same as model and fitness guru Christy Brinkly's. Over the past five years I've bought and stored a cross country ski machine, a stair stepper, a stationary bicycle, a treadmill, and a Body By Jake Cardio Cruiser.

My first piece of equipment, the cross country ski machine, I came across quite by accident. It had been placed at the curb at the end of my street and I walked past it several times while walking the dog. The fourth time I passed it I decided maybe this was God's subtle way of telling me my butt was getting too big, so I grabbed hold of it and dragged it back home. It broke a couple of months later so I used the "ski poles" as a coat rack for the rest of the year.

The following January I ordered a plastic stair-stepping contraption from an infomercial that regularly froze up during my workouts. Because it only had a 90-day warranty it would have cost three million dollars to send back. It now makes a good, albeit heavy, step-stool.

During the green months I like to bicycle so I was sure that buying a stationary bike would be the end of my equipment collection. But because the dog likes to lay out on the front step in the morning after his walk, and because my house is small, the only place I could put the bike was in the diningroom from where I did not have a view of the dog incase he started barking. And I soon found that the only way I could stand the monotony of riding in place was to watch T.V., but the T.V. was located in the livingroom and I would have to turn the volume way up in order to hear over the noise of the bike, and when I did that I couldn't hear if the dog started barking, which I know he did frequently because every few minutes I would get off the bike and look out the front door and he would be at the end of his leash clawing at the ground terrorizing passers-by. The bike now makes a great doggy towel drying rack - in the garage.

The next January we were at a mall and I passed by a treadmill store and went in and bought a top-of-the-line NordicTrack. Several months later I packed it up because every time I used it the dog would come into the room and drop his toys onto the moving belt and stare at me. I think he was trying to kill me because the machine was located in my bedroom with the back of it snug up against a wall - one misstep and I would slammed into the wall rendering me unconscious.

Hello garage.

Enter the Body by Jake Cardio Cruiser. To vary my exercise routine I immediately put the machine in the garage as soon as it was delivered last spring and dragged it into the house a week ago and dusted off the cobwebs. It's portable enough that I can position it so that I can see and hear the dog. It's quiet, it's safe, and, try as I might, I can't get the thing to break or lock up on me. And it's way too heavy to send back.

Hmm, this could be a very sad day for Christy Brinkly.