Want your kid on a treadmill?

I’m not a big reader of junk mail catalogues but I did notice that Kmart is having “The Fitness Sale” this week. On page 7 of their catalogue, along with some ridiculously cheap boxed bikes, I found this:

Yep, for fifty bucks (“that’s half price”!) you can put your ankle-biter on an exercise bike or a treadmill.

What an extraordinary waste of money and a fundamentally stupid idea. If there are two pieces of gym equipment likely to make kids not enjoy exercising it’s the treadmill and the stationary bike.

For much less than $50 you could buy your kid a football or a basketball and send them outside to run around. And you know what? They’d probably be more likely to enjoy their exercise and keep it up into adulthood.

More on related topics

• What precisely is wrong with playing on the road?
• Pedal-powered Pong?
• Fat-arsed schoolkids
• No play please, we’re American
• The hazards of “dooring” cyclists