Choosing the Right Fitness Equipment
Choosing to build a home gym is a big decision. With all the different types of equipment available, it can be hard to know where to start. Whether it’s the only piece you’ll need or for you’re putting together a more extensive home gym setup, here are some suggestions that may help you decide on the best equipment for you:
Types of Equipment
Let’s start with the basics:
Cardio Equipment
Cardio equipment is equipment that increases your heart rate and respiration to promote cardiovascular health. For cardio training, there are many models available to meet your needs:
Strength Equipment
Strength equipment is equipment that helps you strengthen your muscles and bones for an overall healthier body. For strength training, there are multiple models that incorporate many upper body, core, and lower body workouts into a single unit, including:
Cardio vs. Strength: Fit the Equipment to the Goal
What is your motivation? How do you feel about how you look right now? Are you uncomfortable working out in front of others? Do you need to loose weight? Do you feel that physically, that you don’t have the strength you used to have?
The type of equipment you choose all depends on what you’re looking to accomplish. Different pieces of home gym equipment will help you accomplish different fitness goals in a judgement-free environment.
Lose Weight
Are you looking to lose weight? Calorie for calorie, cardio has a slight advantage over strength training. However, there is a residual metabolic effect that occurs after strength training, so you’ll actually lose a bit more fat if you lift weights in addition to cardio than you will doing purely cardio workouts.
Help Your Heart & Bones
Are you looking to reduce the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, osteoporosis, and even some types of cancer? Cardio workouts:
Improve Your Mood
Cardio can help increase serotonin levels in the brain, which can improve symptoms of depression.
Repair or Avoid Injuries
Do you have injuries in the past from running? The repetitive nature of cardio means you put pressure on joints, ligaments, muscles and tendons – and if you need to strengthen them back up, strength training should be your choice.
Make Sure You Have Enough Space
One concern people have when buying fitness equipment is space. Does your home have enough space to warrant a piece of fitness equipment?
You might be surprised at how much you can do with very little space. Thanks to modern innovations in fitness equipment design, most fitness equipment can now fit into smaller spaces that they would not have been able to 50 years ago. For example, when it comes to cardio equipment, there are treadmills that can be folded for easy storage, like the TRUE M50 Treadmill. The sleek, compact design of this treadmill is one of the smallest in the industry, maximizing space in your home.
Exercise bikes also have a very small footprint, making them ideal for smaller homes and apartments. If you don’t have room for an elliptical trainer, you can get a similar workout on a lateral trainer, which will take up much less space.