Running on a mini-trampoline

@janism

You are right about the weather. Luckily I now live in Florida but, hailing from Long Island NY….yup….we use to walk in all kinds of cold weather, even snow. There is no excuse use for not getting outside in Florida except when the heat and humidity soars. Mall walking is a big thing here and the malls are open before the stores open just for the walkers. Where you live dictates what you can do.

I recently bought a small portable stepper that has a ton of resistance . It comes with bands but I use a chair to hold on.
There’s a lot of these on Amazon for around $50….The trick is to find one with
the best resistance. I also had a small manual step up with risers like the ones gyms have. These can be put away when not in use. You can’t read but you could put captions on the tv and mute the sound if you need to be quiet when using any of these things.

Good for you for looking for a way to stay active and healthy…looking after a 4 year old helps lol.

FLMary

@janism, If you are looking for something that has a small footprint for home use, the StandDune Stepper is great. Basically it's made of high density foam with a cover and you walk in place on it with your bare feet or just socks on. It mimics walking on the beach in sand. I've had mine for 5+ years and used it quite a bit when I first got it but set it away and forgot about it until recently. I don't have great balance so I now use a set of trekking poles while I'm standing on it. There YouTube channel has a lot of videos showing how it can help strengthen the body - https://www.youtube.com/@sanddunestepper2382/videos. Here's their website with a better explanation - https://www.sanddunestepper.com/what-is-the-sanddune-stepper/.

Lately I try to use the stepper for 10 to 15 minutes a day along with my other exercises. What's nice about it is that it's really lightweight at about 12.5 lbs and it's small - 22″ x 26″ x 6″ so I can pick it up and set it out of the way.

@imallears I would imagine it would be difficult to read on a trampoline …?

My vision isn't great any more, so I use a giant Kindle Scribe to read. I enlarge the print to a really large size and I can put it on a book stand and read while I jog. It actually works for me. The reading time is my incentive--I don't get much time to read whatever I want, so it is my carrot for exercise.

I never heard of a stepper, but the sand dune one is way out of my price range. Steppers (as opposed to steps, which I don't have in the apartment) also seem to be low impact, and I thought I was looking for high impact? Wasn't that the problem with my silly trampoline? So confused.

Probably just time to try to get a referral to a PT for advice. It is just hard finding a time for it--again, dragging the 4 year old along. I'm a grandparent single-parenting with grandkids and working full time, so time is at a premium! Not a complaint, but just a statement of fact. It does mean that I often waste my free time fruitlessly looking for shortcuts... sometimes there just aren't any.

Thanks to all of you giving great advice!

@rashida

I couldn’t read on a trampoline…seems to be counterintuitive….I would be using my arms for balance …..reading on a treadmill you can….headphones are a good distraction.

FL Mary

@rashida
"kettle balls - quite affordable at Winners or Marshall.."
I might get some one day:
however - as of now, I use Tide liquid detergent when they're full,
or fill them with water when empty:
and
those large milk plastic containers: fill with water.
I use these for farmer walk.
Don't forget stairs: for cardio and bone density.
Most people have some stairs ..in, around their homes.
Frozen North - does keep you mostly indoors.
Our winter seems to be over in Vancouver - that was a
short week or 10 days. But it isn't Florida.

@bevlevvancouverbc hope the earthquake this evening did not do much damage in your home! Just watched it in the news!

to
@rashida
re vancouver bc earthquake:
We will rebuild
hope you can see pix.