Home Fitness Exercise Equipment
If you have decided that home fitness exercise equipment is the way to go, be clear about your
fitness goals.
Your goals play into what type of equipment to buy and how you will use it.
Performing poorly targeted exercises on the wrong equipment will produce limited results and your new, lightly used equipment will be hidden away within a few months.
Let's assume that you have the same goals as most women who train with weights--toning up, shaping, and strengthening. Somewhere between body weight exercises and very expensive equipment, there's affordable equipment that will serve your purpose.
By the way, body weight exercises can go a long way, but there are limitations that home fitness exercise equipment can overcome.
Now, let's use the tried and true
principles of training
to look at important qualities of your equipment.
1. Taken together, does your all of your home fitness exercise equipment offer enough versatility for a general strength fitness workout? You should be able to work major muscle groups and balance muscles (e.g., with pushing and pulling exercises). See my recommendations for
priority fitness exercises.
2. Can you progressively increase your work loads? For example, you will need several different weights of dumbbells or kettlebells in order to increase resistance.
3. Can you increase the resistance in small enough percentages? Some machines only allow you to increase weight loads by 10 pounds at a time--sometimes too big of a jump for women. A 10% increase may be enough, but isn't always possible on some large, expensive machines.
4. Can you vary your weight loads and exercises so that you do not do the same thing over and over?
5. Can you fit comfortably on any seated equipment and perform each exercise through a full range of motion? Limited movement may also limit results.
With a combination of relatively inexpensive pieces of equipment, can answer "yes" to these questions. Resistance bands, medicine balls, and
free weights
can give you a very good workout to achieve your goals.
If you choose to purchase a large, multi-station piece of equipment, be sure to check Consumer Reviews and other reports thoroughly, as well as consider how well it will help you target your goals.
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Sources:
Dishman, R. K., & Dunn, A. L. (1988). Exercise adherence in children and youth: Implications for adulthood. In R. Dishman (Ed.), Exercise adherence: Its impact on public health (pp. 155-200). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Books.
Federal Trade Commission. (2003, November). Avoiding the Muscle Hustle: Tips for Buying Exercise Equipment.
Retrieved, October 14, 2008, from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/musclealrt.shtm
Thomas Reuters. (2008). Consumer Reports Gives Exercise Machines a Work Out; Amazing Infomercial Claims Put to the Test. Retrieved January 8, 2008, from http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS213006+08-Jan-2008+PRN20080108
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