How to Buy Excercise Equipment

What kinds of exercise equipment are there?

There are hundreds of types of exercise equipment out there, but they can all be divided into two major categories:

• Cardiovascular Training: This is anything that is designed to increase your heart rate and breathing. Everything in this category relies on moving large muscle groups repeatedly. Equipment in this group includes treadmills, stationary bikes, stair step machines, rowing machines, and arm bikes.

• Strength Training: Moving things that don’t like to be moved makes you stronger. While strength training immediately brings to mind weights, there are also resistance devices which the user bends or stretches an object, creating the same effort as lifting weights. This group includes barbells, strength training machines, medicine balls, and even sandbags. Some devices, like balancing balls, increase the difficulty of exercises to increase training intensity.

No matter what your goals are, fitness requires a combination cardiovascular training, strength training, and a healthy diet.

What should I look for when buying equipment?

Does it fit you?

Weight benches may be too small or too large for you to lift properly, while most treadmills have a weight limit of 250lbs (114kg), which is too little for most obese men. Always try out equipment and look over the specifications carefully before buying.

Is it something you want to do?

Exercise equipment won’t do you any good if you don’t use it, and you won’t use it unless you enjoy it. Even if you find jogging or bicycling boring, it may be an excuse to catch up on your reading if you’re able to hold a book while exercising.

What equipment should I avoid?

There is no magic, effort-free way to lose weight and get in shape. When looking a piece of equipment there are three things you should keep in mind:

• Most people lose water weight when they first begin an exercise program. Claims of massive losses in the first week or first month are often due to this more than fat loss.

• It is unhealthy to lose more than one to two pounds (1kg) per week. Doctors advise going past this limit only when a patient’s obesity is so great that it is a serious threat to their health, and then only under close supervision.

• Body tone is mainly a matter of low body fat, not strengthening exercises. This includes abs, for which there seems to be a limitless number for exercise devices.

If the claims of a product contradict one of these three things, its probably not worth buying.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Fitness Equipment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.