Fitness Training Equipment » Cross Training

Skeptics Guide To Work Out Equipment

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:05:23 +0000

Although there is no question that regular exercise is conducive to getting you fit, there is no similar certainty about which claims of work out equipment manufacturers can be trusted for accuracy or relied on for a buying decision. A chin up bar fastened to a doorway at home will not turn you into Hercules.

The most flagrant abuse you’ll see with work out equipment manufacturers, and not to single them out because as a group they are probably no different from any other kind of manufacturer, are claims that their equipment will provide you with a quick and easy way to shape your abs, lose weight, build huge muscles, or otherwise have a body that looks like a cover art for a fitness magazine.

There is no quick and easy way to tone muscles, lose weight, or get in shape, whether you want to achieve that result with one part of your body or reshape your entire physique. Physical training requires time, work, and effort. There are no shortcuts, and if there is a caution to be learned when evaluating the claims of workout equipment manufacturers that would be it.

What To Watch Out For

The kinds of claims that you want to be the most skeptical about are those manufacturer’s claims that say that their equipment or device can do things such as:

1. Make you burn more calories or lose weight faster than any other similar piece of workout equipment or other type of workout equipment in general.
It is a good general rule that fitness equipment that trains your entire body will probably burn calories at a faster rate than fitness equipment that claims to train only one part of your body such as your legs, your arms, your chest, or as is popular today you’re abdominal muscles. The longer you use the equipment, and the more work you put into it, the more calories you’ll burn. That is a law of physics and biology, there’s no getting around it otherwise.

If you are already in much better than average physical condition and have pretty much the physique that you would like to have, then it makes good sense to go ahead and purchase a piece of fitness equipment that will train and tone one particular muscle group or area of your body. Body sculpting is very hard work but it’s likely that the person who has already advanced that far in physical fitness as a very good idea of exactly the kind of equipment that he or she will need to finish the job. If your body fat percentage is too high then no ab machine or lat trainer is going to produce any definition.

For the person who has set realistic fitness goals for themselves, and has determined that a piece of fitness training equipment would probably help them achieve those goals, their first choice should probably be a piece of equipment that can provide them with a holistic approach to training, that is, one that will provide cardiovascular and aerobic benefits in addition to strength training. The only essential piece of work out equipment is probably a heart rate monitor.

2. Make you lose weight faster in one particular area of your body or tone only the muscles in one particular muscle group.
Your body is one complete unit and as much as we would all like to have a piece of equipment that would that would focus all the body’s energy on removing the spare tire around our middle, this is an unrealistic claim. Losing weight is a function of the number of calories that you consume versus the number of calories that you expend over any given period of time. If you want to lose weight in one particular area of your body the only way you can do that is by losing body mass across your entire body. It may seem that some people tend to pack on the pounds in one particular area or another but even if it were true they would have no different result.

3. Give you effortless results.
There is no free lunch. Muscles get bigger and stronger when trained with weight and against resistance. Body mass disappears when energy output exceeds energy input. You cannot build big muscles while you’re sleeping. You cannot lose weight eating whatever and as much as you want while ignoring the amount of calories that you expend.

Before you buy a piece of workout equipment based on manufacturers’ claims and the huge number of satisfied customer testimonials that you see on the net or in the newspaper or fitness magazines try to get a hold of the owner’s manual or any other specification sheets that the manufacturer may be providing. It may turn out that the manufacturer’s spectacular claims are based in part on the use of their equipment and also dieting or otherwise restricting the user’s caloric intake during the same period of time that the manufacturer claims you can reasonably expect results within.

You should be very skeptical of celebrity endorsements of fitness equipment unless you have information or reason to believe that a particular celebrity is an expert in physical fitness or with that particular piece of equipment that he or she may happen to be endorsing at the time. Before and after pictures from satisfied customers, and customer testimonials in general may be true. Almost certainly some are. You have no way of knowing, however, if the results of the customer providing the testimonial are typical, or if you could reasonably expect them also. The person who works out hard for four or five hours a day will achieve significantly different results with the same piece of equipment than the person who works out for a few minutes two or three days a week over the same 30-day period.

All of the above is the skeptics approach to buying workout equipment, and most other items that we buy in a consumer society. The question still remains, after you have evaluated all the advertising claims, and hopefully have separated the week from the chaff, how do you go about choosing the right fitness equipment?

Perhaps the best way to approach the task of purchasing fitness equipment is to start from the physical fitness goal that you want to achieve and then work backwards toward a particular piece of equipment, or perhaps several, that will best help you achieve that goal. It does not have to be electrical or sophisticated. It could be neoprene hand weights, or a balance ball, or a dumbbell.

Everybody says they want to be physically fit and although we all have a general idea of what that means you do not see the term defined very often. Physical fitness will mean something different to each person, so here is a good general definition that seems to cover most people.

Physical fitness is the ability to function effectively throughout your day, whatever physical activity your day may involve for you, and still have enough energy left over to handle unexpected stresses and emergencies so that you can finish the day tired but not so exhausted that one night’s rest cannot recharge you completely for tomorrow.

There Are Five Components to Physical Fitness:

Muscular strength – this is the greatest amount of force that a muscle, or a muscle group can exert in a single effort.

Muscular endurance – the ability of a muscle group performed repeated movements have less than maximum force for extended periods of time

Cardio respiratory endurance – the efficiency in which the body delivers oxygen and nutrients needed for muscular activity and transport waste products from the cells.

Flexibility - the ability to move a joint or any group of joints through an entire normal range of motion.

Body composition – the percentage of body fat that the person has in comparison to his or her total body mass.

Improving the first three components of fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and cardiorespiratory endurance will have a positive impact on body composition and result in less body fat. Weight loss is always a big deal when it comes to physical fitness, and probably cannot be separated from it because excessive body fat detracts from all the other fitness components and reduces performance. In addition, excessive body fat detracts from appearance and generally has a negative effect on overall health.

Athletic ability is not the same thing as physical fitness. A person is considered to be athletic when they have better than average ability for speed, muscle power, agility, eye-hand coordination, or for soccer players, eye-foot coordination. If you want to excel in a sport then you have to train all five components before specializing in any: flexibility for golfing, muscle strength and endurance for boxing.

Physical fitness is holistic. Very specific training can improve any one of the individual components of physical fitness within the limits of a person’s ability, but a true physical fitness program seeks to improve or maintain all five components. If all this is terribly complicated then maybe you would benefit from membership in a commercial gym where a personal trainer could work with you on form, count, cardio and core strength. A gym will have a line of bikes, ellipticals, treadmills and dumbbells that you could try.

Choosing The Right Work Out Equipment

The right work out equipment for you is probably a combination of things to help you achieve each of the five components of physical fitness. Different people will have different goals that may emphasize one or two individual components of physical fitness over the others. Will the equipment help you achieve your goal – whether it’s to build strength by lifting weights, improving your cardio endurance, increasing your flexibility, or getting to a marathon runner’s body fat percentage?

Will you use the equipment? How many expensive elliptical machines, treadmills, and exercise bikes do you think are sitting unused and gathering dust in basements, patios and garages? It’s your money and you can spend it any way that you want but why not spend $10 for a fancy jump rope to see if you are that committed to improving your cardiorespiratory endurance and flexibility before spending $1000 for an elliptical trainer? How about a yoga mat? You only need the floor to do push ups.

Benefits of exercise for the treatment of depression.

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:02:16 +0000

Department of Psychiatry, Central Hospital of Sogn og Fjordane, Førde, Norway.

In general, depressed patients are physically sedentary. They have reduced physical work capacity but normal pulmonary function compared with the general population. This indicates that the reduced fitness level is caused by physical inactivity and is a strong argument for integrating physical fitness training into comprehensive treatment programmes for depression.

Exercise is associated with an antidepressive effect in patients with mild to moderate forms of nonbipolar depressive disorders. An increase in aerobic fitness does not seem to be essential for the antidepressive effect, because similar results are obtained with nonaerobic forms of exercise. More than half of the patients continue with regular exercise 1 year after termination of the training programmes.

Patients who continue to exercise tend to have lower depression scores than the sedentary ones. Patients appreciate physical exercise, and rank exercise to be the most important element in comprehensive treatment programmes.

Exercise seems to be a promising new approach in the treatment of nonbipolar depressive disorders of mild to moderate severity.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

Merit Fitness 725e Elliptical Trainer

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:19:43 +0000

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Merit Fitness

5 Reviews
Merit Fitness 725e
Model: 725e
$499.99
Compact elliptical trainer for working both legs and upper body.

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The 725E boasts a 9.9-pound flywheel and 10 levels of computer-programmed resistance, along with an easy-to-operate computer console that shows your workout time, resistance level, calories burned, and distance. The trainer also makes it easy to check your heart rate, with EKG handgrips located comfortably under the console. Finally, the trainer includes eight preset workout programs for getting in shape: manual, intervals, rolling hills, weight loss, fat blast, cardio burn, tempo, and random.

Recumbent Exercise Equipment

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:58:12 +0000

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Yukon
Recumbent Exercise Equipment
Model: B000PX214A
$399.99
Magnetic transmission. 14lb disc flywheel.

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This product generally ships within 2 business day(s) from Palentine, Illinois, and weighs 95 pound(s). Burn off those unhealthy calories with a Motion Fitness Easy Recumbent Bike. Used as stand-alone exercise equipment or as part as a cardio regimen, this exercise bike is the perfect means to get in shape and stay there.

Exercise Bike Equipment

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:49:19 +0000

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DiamondBack

17 Reviews
Exercise Bike Equipment
Model: 08-00-0966
$549.99
Recumbent exercise bike with eddy current brake resistance system.

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The 900Sr–which includes many of the most sought-after features on the market–is equipped with an efficient eddy current brake system that provides up to 16 levels of resistance. As a result, it’s easy to find the perfect resistance level for your needs, whether you want to warm up before hitting the weights or challenge yourself with a serious cardio burn.

Cybex Exercise Equipment

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:45:00 +0000

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Cybex

1 Review
Cybex Exercise Equipment
Model: 360A
$3,320.00
Home fitness machine that combines best elements of skier, elliptical trainer, and climber.

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Research shows that the Cybex Arc Trainer burns more calories than any other cross trainer or elliptical cross trainer on the market. The machine accomplishes this through its Reverse Arc motion technology, which engages the muscles–the quads and glutes–that demand the most energy from the body when they’re called upon to work.

Schwinn Exercise Equipment

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:19:56 +0000

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Schwinn

40 Reviews
Schwinn Exercise Equipment
Model: 100145
$999.00
Schwinn Advantage workout system tracks results and programming for up to two users.

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Featuring a high-tech design, the Schwinn 460 includes 11 workout profiles built by the Nautilus Institute with instructional messages on utilizing stride lengths and foot/leg motions for maximized results. You’ll get heart rate feedback via the HR grips on the static handlebars, and heart rate telemetry using the included chest strap.

Proform Exercise Equipment

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:14:27 +0000

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ProForm

7 Reviews
Proform Exercise Equipment
Model: PFEX44177
$299.95
Upright exercise bike with GameFit interactive video game system.

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The 450 UR upright exercise bike comes equipped with a GameFit interactive video game system. GameFit video games not only keep you entertained throughout your workout, but they also get easier based on how hard you exercise, helping you get the most of your workout time. The interactive games include such favorites as Blackjack, Texas Hold’Em, Dropping Pounds, and Calorie Destroyer.

Cross Trainer Equipment

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:48:37 +0000

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Stamina

130 Reviews
Cross Trainer Equipment
Model: 55-1610
$97.39
Compact, lightweight elliptical trainer for the home or office.

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Unlike full-size ellipticals, this trainer doesn’t have arms or a front console. Instead, the trainer is essentially foot pedals only, with a chassis that’s small enough to store under a desk or in a closet. Despite the small size, the trainer still packs a workout wallop, letting you burn a similar number of calories as jogging but without the risk of injury to the back, knees, hips, or ankles.

Boot Camp Weight Loss

admin — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 11:44:25 +0000

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BARRY
Boot Camp Weight Loss
Model: BBCCDRD
$9.95
The Hollywood Workout and Diet of the Stars!

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Need to look great by next week? Code Red is the Workout and Diet the stars count on to get Red Carpet Ripped in just 6 DAYS! Co-hosted by Pamela Anderson’s co-star on TV’s V.I.P., Natalie Raitano, Code Red is a Fun, Challenging, DVD workout and eating plan that will get you the results and burn off the calories – FAST! This Workout Requires the Bootcamp Transformer and Patented Power Handles.