Your Gym Advice

As we approach the New Year you might be thinking about getting in shape. Right after the holiday season is the time where most people start to feel this way.

“I’m really going to get in shape this year!” Chances are you’ve said this to yourself before. How did that work out for you? I’m betting it didn’t go too well. You probably did what most people do. Start out with lots of energy and enthusiasm but then it slowly decreases because you don’t see the results you envisioned.

You’re not the only one. What gym owners will never tell you is that they are setting you up for failure right from the get go! To avoid this, there are a couple of things that you should keep in mind:

Mass Confusion

The moment after you sign up for a gym membership it’s like your being thrown into the fire! The amount of equipment in a regular gym is downright intimidating. What’s all this stuff even for?

Unfortunately, most gym’s don’t show you how to use all of this equipment or even give you a tour of everything. They happily take your money and then let YOU sort out the rest.

Make sure that you have someone from the gym show you how to use all of the machines and also give you a full tour of the facilities.

After you know what all the pieces of equipment are for and how they work, it’s time to figure out a solid plan.

It’s All About The Plan

The one thing you absolutely need is a solid workout plan.

If you’ve spent any time in a gym or fitness centre I can guarantee that you’ve seen people like this: they seem to be there all the time yet week after week, month after month, they look exactly the same. Their bodies never change for the better. They perform the strangest  and most dangerous exercises you’ve ever witnessed. They also seem to switch exercises at random.

They have no plan. No plan = no results.

Ask at the front desk of the gym if they have any workout plans they can give you. It’s a good chance that they’ll have a bunch of stuff that they can give to you. If not, you’ll be able to find a bunch of workout routines either online or at the local library that you can use for free.

Motivation is Key

The next thing you want to do is to learn how to stay motivated. Unfortunately no one ever talks about exercise motivation. If there is one thing you should get with a gym membership, it should be a guide on how to stay motivated.

That’s one of the reasons why I came up with the Easy Exercise Motivator system. It’s a step-by-step plan that you can follow to keep you motivated and seeing results. It doesn’t matter how old you are or what your fitness level is. It works for everyone. Click the link in my bio to get it now. You don’t want to miss it!

Haha www.centsports.com Sign up for good money.

So you’ve got some space set aside in your home for a gym. You’re ready to take the plunge and get some equipment so you can train without having to wait for equipment, listen to music you can’t stand or wipe other people’s sweat off machines.

But where do you start? What equipment should you get in order to maximize what you can do in the space you have available? Should you get a multi-station machine? Maybe a Bowflex? What’s all this talk about being able to do more than 50 “club quality exercises?”

Right now, put that all out of your head. The equipment you need in order to maximize your space is simple and very basic and it will allow you to do literally hundreds of exercises!

And the best part is, you can get it cheap if you know the right sources…

Essential Home Gym Equipment #1 – Adjustable Dumbells

If I could only have one single type of equipment in my home gym, it would be a good set of adjustable-weight dumbells. You can do a huge variety of exercises for every single bodypart with just a simple pair of dumbells.

Getting adjustable dumbells means you can very easily change the weight you’re working with while still not using up a whole lot of space in your home gym. If you have pre-made dumbells, you have to set aside space (or get a good dumbell rack) for rows of individual dumbells.

If you’ve GOT the space (and the money!), pre-made dumbells are certainly more convenient to use. But if you’re tight on room, lining up your dumbells may not be an option. And, of course, the pre-made dumbells are going to be a lot more expensive to get a decent range of weight for.

When it comes to adjustable dumbells, you’ve got several options. By far, the most convenient are the Powerblock style of dumbells (Bowflex and Nautilus also have products like this).

With this style, all you have to do is basically flip a switch to set your weight on the dumbell. The whole thing is interlocking – they fit into the space of just two dumbells and give you a good range of weights to work with.

The other main options are the “make it yourself” free weight dumbells. With these, you’ve basically got weight plates and posts. With a good selection of weight plates, you can make a great range of weights.

This style of dumbell will be a good deal cheaper than the Powerblock style but, on the downside, it does take more time to put the dumbells together and the weight posts sticking out can be a bit awkward. But overall, for the money, this style is still a very good investment, especially if you’re looking to make some heavy dumbells. Heavy Powerblock dumbells can be quite expensive (they have expansion sets that go up to 130 lbs) but even then, are still a substantial savings over the equivalent amount of pre-made dumbells.

Essential Home Gym Equipment #2 – Adjustable Incline/Flat/Decline Bench

Once you’ve got the dumbells, the next thing to get for your home gym is a solid bench. Ideally, you want a bench that is easily adjustable to incline, flat and decline settings. The more versatile it is, the more use you’ll get out of it and the more exercises you’ll be able to do with it.

And when I say solid, I mean SOLID. Don’t skimp on this piece of equipment. You don’t want a bench folding up under you when you’re in the middle of a hard set (or ever for that matter!).

The adjustable bench will open up a wide range of exercises for you to do with your dumbells.

On a side note, you might wonder why I place a bench in front of a barbell set in order of “must-have.” To be honest, it’s a toss-up. Ideally, it would be best to get all four of these pieces of equipment that I’m going to talk about in this article at the same time! You would do just fine getting the barbell set before the bench as well.

Essential Home Gym Equipment #3 – 300 lb Olympic Barbell Set

So you’ve got your dumbells and a bench. Now it’s time to get your barbell set. The nice thing with barbell sets is that at most sporting goods stores you can get a decent set for a good price brand new.

When you’re getting a barbell set, I HIGHLY recommend going for the Olympic bar set (the 7 foot long bar). The thinner bar (known as a Standard bar) has a much smaller capacity and will start to bend if you load it with more than 200 pounds or so. The thicker bar will be easier to grip as well.

Once you’ve got the basic barbell set, you can very easily get more weight plates as you need them.

One very important thing to note about free weight…if you can, always get it at a local place. If you buy it online, shipping charges will just about DOUBLE the price of your order (they charge for shipping by the pound).

Essential Home Gym Equipment #4 – The Power Rack

You’ve got resistance (the dumbells and barbell)…you’ve got apparatus (the adjustable bench)…now you need a “framework” to really maximize the number of exercises you can do.

When you have a rack, it opens up not only a much wider range of exercises, it also dramatically increases the safety and potential productiveness of your training.

Because here’s the bottom line with training at home by yourself…if you don’t have a power rack/safety cage, it is not in your best interests to do barbell bench press or heavy barbell squatting. If you get stuck under a bench press bar with no help around, you’re in big trouble!

If you have to bail out on a heavy squat with no power rack to catch the bar, you have to release the bar, let it roll down your back and try and get out of the way as it crashes to the floor. And as fun as THAT sounds, it’s no picnic (especially if your home gym isn’t on a concrete floor)!

To be honest, I even recommend people who train at commercial gyms to do their barbell bench pressing in the power rack. It’s an exercise that has the potential to injure you pretty seriously if you get stuck under it with no help around! Training it in the rack is much safer and allows you to really push yourself without fear of getting stuck under the bar, which is invaluable when you really want maximum results.

Even a VERY small home gym has space for a rack. My first home gym was in a 10 x 10 room and it worked like a charm! The barbell can be stored on the rack itself, the bench fits right inside the rack when not in use. Many racks also come with weight posts to hold your plates right on the sides of the rack itself, which saves even more space.

Here’s another great feature about some racks…the possibility of adding a weight-stack pulley to it. I got this with my rack and it was a GREAT investment. It opens up not only all the potential exercises you can do with pulleys but also exercises you can do that combine pulleys with the rack!

Honorable Mention of Essential Home Gym Equipment – The Swiss Ball

While the Swiss Ball (also known as an “exercise ball”) isn’t listed as an essential here, I also highly recommend grabbing one of these. They’re inexpensive and they allow for a great variety of exercises to be performed, especially in combination with dumbells.

Be sure to look for a ball that is good quality – burst resistant is a feature you definitely want. If a ball gets punctured (especially while you’re on it!), you don’t want it exploding underneath you and you falling to the ground. This is not good when it’s just you on the ball…much more so if you’re using weight while you’re on the ball! If the ball gets punctured, it should just slowly let out the air, giving you time to get off the ball.

Where To Get This Training Equipment:

When it comes to free weight, such as barbells and dumbells, your best is to stay local. As I mentioned above, shipping prices will kill you if you order free weight online or by mail order. You can scout out garage sales for people getting rid of their stuff, or head directly to the sporting goods store.

Sports Authority (if you’re in the U.S.) generally has good prices on barbells, weight plates and dumbells.

If you’re interested in getting a set of PowerBlock dumbells, you can order them online as well as find them in stores.

When it comes to the bench and power racks, there are a lot of different options in terms of brands. Personally, my bench and rack are Body Solid, which I’m quite happy with. They’re good quality and were very reasonably priced. Other good brands include Yukon, Nautilus, BodyCraft, and Ivanko.

As far as where to get racks and benches, online is generally your best bet, whether it be retail or getting them used through fitness classified ads. EBay is another excellent option. Be sure to shop around.

Bottom line…search around and compare prices. Feel free to find a good price and shop it around to other places to see if they’ll beat it!

CONCLUSION:

If you have the space for it, setting up a home gym is totally worth doing IF you’re the type of person who can self-motivate. Some people don’t have the space or simply need the atmosphere of a gym to really make progress – nothing wrong with that!

Your home gym doesn’t need to be (and shouldn’t be!) complicated. Just a few basic pieces of equipment are all you need to do a tremendous variety of exercises and get great results.

The best bodies aren’t built with fancy machines or with “club quality exercises.” The best bodies are built with hard work and gold-standard exercises like squats, bench press, deadlifts, barbell rows, etc., all of which can be done with the four pieces of “must-have” equipment that I’ve mentioned here: dumbells, barbells, benches and racks!

The decision of where you will go to work out is a very important factor in your workout. A lot of different factors will go into this choice, and each and every one should be well looked over before you start working out. After you have made the choice of where you are going for your workout, you can then move on and find out your plan.

If you exercise regularly you most likely know, exercising out of your home has many advantages. The finance dept is one of the best things to look at. With the gas prices being what they are today, it is quite obvious that you’ll save money on fuel as well as wear and tear on your vehicle by choosing to work out at home.

Memberships to a gym can be and often are very expensive and may include other things that you don’t really need such as day care and maintenance of the pool. You also will not need to worry about the exercise gear because you will always be working out at your home.

Keep in mind that working out at home does require financial obligation. Even though you plan to run, it is very important that you have running shoes. This statement goes to any type of equipment that you may purchase to use at home. If you go out and buy cheap equipment, you will probably get frustrated or the equipment might break leaving you ripped off.

Along with the financial plus, exercising at home may also help the people that don’t like to work out in public. If you are worried about how you appear in gym clothes, it is very good to know that the only person who has to be with you when you exercise at home is you. Another thing is when your at home you don’t have to worry about time.

Those of you who get pumped when you work out with a buddy, a gym may be a better idea than working out at home. At the gym, you’ll also more of a selection of equipment as well, far more than you’ll have at home.

If you need other services than just weights and equipment, the gym may have just what you need. If you plan to swim a triathlon, you’ll find the swimming pool at the gym to be just what you need to prepare yourself. Swimming is another great way to exercise, as it will work muscles in your body that you probably never even knew you had.

Gyms will also offer you to take classes that you might find to be very helpful. If you attend a class every day, you may be into it enough to say that you have been there at class working out and getting into shape. You can also meet new and more people in class or just help others out if you wish.

All in all, making the choice of working out at home or in the gym is up to you but make the right choice. The most important choice you will need to make is what kind of place you want to be in while you’re working out do you want to be at home or in the gym.

If you are looking to get into better shape or just change your fitness routine, you may be wondering what to look for in joining a gym. Many people who have done one thing for a while may not be quite familiar in what to look for in joining a gym.

Also those who have never had a regular fitness regime may wonder this as well. In the following article we will look a little closer on the things you will need to look at before joining the local gym.

Some main factors to consider when beginning and what to look for in joining a gym include the availability of the gym as well as its prices. These can be the two deciding factors when it comes to choosing one right for you. You will want to make sure that the gym is open during hours that will work with your schedule, in order to meet your fitness needs. Twenty-four hour gyms seem to be the best bet for those who have trouble finding ones that work in this aspect.

The price is very important as well; you will want a very full understanding of any fees and monthly charges you will be expected to pay. Some gyms offer great discounts to new members or for having a friend join. This can be a great way to get started at a gym, but can you afford it beyond this initial phase? Make sure you choose one that you can stick with, especially with the money that you can afford.

Beyond this you will also want to consider what kind of classes they may offer. Classes can offer variety to your routine and help make it easier to stick to. This is especially true for those that get bored easily with the same old routine. Look at the schedules offered and make sure to know if there are any extra fees expected of you to take the class. You will also want to know if they offer any trainers to assist you or help you with any questions you may have. This can be very invaluable, especially if you are brand new at using a gym.

Another thing to consider when you are wondering what to look for in joining a gym is how far the gym is from your home. This can be a huge deciding factor. This is because of the tendency to give up on going if it’s too much of an effort to get there. This also should include making sure there is no limit to how many times you can come to the gym in a week. It seems odd, but some places limit how many times a week you can show up to work out. Please also be sure to check out any limits as to how long you can stay one piece of equipment.

A few last things to consider when looking at what to look for in joining a gym includes current and past member’s testimonials as well as how many members are currently joined. These can be invaluable in forming an opinion of the place. Make sure these are neutral opinions, not from the gym themselves. Also consider a trial period, if the gym offers one. This trial period is great for using the gym and actually testing it out to see if it will work for you and your fitness goals. Those with children will also want to check out and see if daycare is provided. You will also want to know if there is any cost to this daycare or not. This can make the difference between choosing a gym or not.

With all this information on what to look for in joining a gym, you should be pretty much set. Once you have all this information you can take advantage of it and make a thoroughly informed decision. That way you are sure you are getting the best deal for you and your needs.

If you decided that you are going to be working out on a regular basis, you may have thought about buying a home gym. When it comes to home gyms, tips for purchasing home gyms is a good idea to take advantage of.

Taking heed of some of the following tips for purchasing home gyms can really help you find the best one for you and your needs. Not only that but you will be better able to find one that is good for your personal fitness goals.

One of the first tips for purchasing home gyms is to get permission from your doctor first. That way they can guide you to the best one for you personally. Not only that, but they will be better able to guide you towards equipment that is easy to use. The easier to use that the equipment is, the less likely that you are going to hurt yourself while working out. One thing to remember with the ease of the equipment is to pick one that will also grow with you, as you become more honed and able to use the equipment. This will help you avoid having to buy even more in the future and spending more money than you need to.

Another one of the tips for purchasing home gyms is to do your research. Because there are so many options out there, your best bet is to take the time to really look around. This will include trying out the different equipment to see how it works with your body. This can also encompass finding products that are in your budget. This can narrow the field down quite a bit. From there, trials should be done. This can then narrow it down to even fewer, maybe even just one. Some people choose just to stick with a treadmill or exercise bike to start with. This can be a great idea for many people, since these are the simplest and can be adjusted, as you get better at using the equipment and into better shape.

A few more tips for purchasing home gyms includes looking at garage sales and yard sales. Sometimes you can find a great deal in one of these areas, as well as in the classifieds in the local paper. This can save you a lot of money in the long run. As well as saving money, you will want to choose a home gym that works with your lifestyle. This means you want one that is easily accessible if you have a hectic lifestyle. One that will allow you to get a good workout, even in a short amount of time is what you want.

If you are looking for a home gym, following these tips for purchasing home gyms will help you get the best deal. Not only can following these tips help you get the best deal, but you will feel that you are getting a better workout in the end as well.