Selecting fitness equipment for home exercise

If you want to be fit, it helps to have—and use—some equipment at home. Many people exercise to videos, but many workout videos require resistance bands, steps, or other smaller items. Many people exercise in gyms, but if you go less than six days a week, having something at home allows you to build your fitness on the off days. With the right equipment at home, well-motivated people may not need gym memberships or exercise videos at all.

A gym will have treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical trainers, rowing machines, weight machines that target each main muscle group, various benches for use with barbells or dumbbells, as well as a variety of more easily portable equipment. Surely no one needs to have all of that equipment at home, but many people choose to have one or two pieces of large fitness machines and a selection of smaller items.

At home, you will have constraints on space, the load-bearing capacity of your floors, and your budget. Too many people have a treadmill, an exercise bike, or some other large, bulky item that they never use. Perhaps they found out too late that it aggravates some physical condition they have, or they just don't like that kind of exercise. Since you must be choosy, be sure to know what benefits you can expect from each kind of machine. Pick something that best fits your fitness goals and your general physical condition. Also, pick something that you enjoy using enough to be motivated to get on it regularly!

Fitness equipment for home use is not as sturdy as the professional machines at the gym, but it doesn't need to be. On the other hand, the less expensive pieces may not last very long. You need to be able to spend enough to get high quality equipment.

The treadmill is probably the heaviest and bulkiest of the major fitness machines. It is also the equipment that requires the most electricity. You can vary the speed of the motor in order to use it for walking, jogging, or running. The variable incline allows you to simulate going up and down hills. Many home treadmills also have different built-in programs to provide variety and interest to your workouts. Many people, though, find that treadmills hurt their feet or major joints. It's best to discover things like that before buying!

Elliptical machines take less space and weigh less than treadmills. Most of them also offer upper-body workouts as well as lower body. Therefore they boost fitness more efficiently than the other machines. They are not powered by a motor, but by the user. In other words, you choose how fast or slow to go, and when you stop, the equipment stops with you. Even many of the least expensive home elliptical machines come with built-in programs. Be careful not to buy one that's too light. While you walk on it, you don't want it to walk along!

Exercise bicycles come in two basic styles. Upright bikes work much like a regular bicycle. You can vary your position. For example, you can stand on the pedals while you ride. You can sit upright or lean forward in a racing bike position. Recumbent bikes have a backrest, and your legs are in front of the rest of your body instead of over it. Upright bikes give a more strenuous workout. Recumbent bikes cause less back strain. Like elliptical machines, they take up less space in your home than a treadmill.

Barbells enable you to lift heavier weights and offer additional ways of targeting various muscles. You can get one bar and various weights to attach to each end. You will probably also need some kind of bench and some kind of adjustable rack to be able to do a variety of exercises.

You'll also want good weight lifting gloves to protect your hands from developing rough calluses. You can also get a weighted vest or ankle weights.

Resistance bands or tubes provide a different kind of resistance than dumbbells or barbells. That can be a great advantage in breaking out of plateaus. They're also ideal to take on trips. They fit nicely in luggage, and you can use them in any hotel room.

Step aerobics, of course, require steps. Not necessarily the stairs in your home. An aerobic step can be used for more than one kind of exercise. You can also use it as a weight bench. With enough risers, it can also serve as an incline or decline bench.

Medicine balls come in various sizes and weights. Like resistance bands, they make good partners with dumbbells and barbells by challenging your muscles differently. You can hold on to them and move them in different ways. They also bounce, which opens up completely different exercise possibilities.

Whether you get a big machine or not, you will need some smaller equipment at home for total fitness. Being smaller, each piece is much less expensive, although you can easily buy enough different pieces to add up to the price of the best home treadmills.

Weights include both dumbbells and barbells. Dumbbells come in sizes from three pounds to fifty or more pounds. They should be hexagonal in shape so they won't roll away, and preferably made with rubber. You will need a pair of each size you get. If you get very many, consider getting a rack for them.

Barbells enable you to lift heavier weights and offer additional ways of targeting various muscles. You can get one bar and various weights to attach to each end. You will probably also need some kind of bench and adjustable rack to be able to do a variety of exercises. You'll also want good weight lifting gloves to protect your hands from developing rough calluses. You can also get a weighted vest or ankle weights.

Resistance bands or tubes provide a different kind of resistance than dumbbells or barbells. That can be a great advantage in breaking out of plateaus. They're also ideal to take on trips. They fit nicely in luggage, and you can use them in any hotel room.

Step aerobics require steps, not necessarily the stairs in your home. An aerobic step can be used for more than one kind of exercise. With enough risers, it can also serve as a weight bench, including incline or decline bench.

Medicine balls come in various sizes and weights. Like resistance bands, they make good partners with dumbbells and barbells by challenging your muscles differently. You can hold on to them and move with them in different ways. They also bounce, which opens up completely different exercise possibilities.

Stability balls help improve balance and core strength. You can sit on them, lean on them with your arms, use them for pushups, crunches, back extensions, or lower-body exercises. Hold it between your back and a wall for a different kind of squat. You can lie on it while doing weight exercises. It can substitute for at least some of the functions of a weight bench. Or lie on the floor with your feet on the ball for a variety of other exercises. You can do almost anything with a stability ball except stand on it.

The BOSU™ makes up for that defect. It is like half a stability ball on a flat platform. You can stand on either side of it (the dome or the platform), jump on it, sit on it, lie across it in various postures, and perform quite a variety of exercises in the process, with or without weights. In fact, you can probably do entire step routines with a BOSU™ instead of steps.

Remember hula hoops? Adults can use them successfully so long as they're adult size and not child size. (The larger your waist, the larger the hoop needs to be in order to keep it spinning.)

After a strenuous workout, be sure to take time to stretch. I strongly recommend a foam roller as part of a stretching routine. It's a great way to work the kinks out of tight muscles.

Yoga, pilates, and many kinds of old-fashioned calisthenics require no special equipment, but you'll probably prefer to use a mat. A mat also makes the foam roller and certain exercises with the stability ball or BOSU™ more comfortable.

Many of the smaller home fitness products come with DVDs to instruct you in how to use them. They might even include some exercise routines. I also find the Core Performance site very helpful in suggesting different exercises and describing proper form and technique in using the equipment.

Any good gym will have all or nearly all of the fitness equipment I have mentioned and more. You don't need that much at home. Choose what meets your fitness goals and use it regularly, either as your entire exercise regimen or to supplement other workouts.