Guidelines for Home Gyms
Checklist for Home Gym Equipment
Before investing in thousands of dollars
in a brand new home gym, ask yourself these questions about your fitness
plans.
What Benefits Do You Expect From Your Home
Gym?
- If your home gym is going to be your principal
form of exercise for an extended period of time, your investment in
money and space for your gym and fitness equipment needs to be significant.
Good quality exercise equipment that offers effective aerobic or strength
training performance, can't be manufactured cheaply.
- If your home gym is merely supplemental
to other fitness or sports activities, then your equipment in machines
and fitness accessories, along with required floor-space, can be smaller.
- If muscle-building is an important personal
fitness goal, the emphasis should be on buying some good quality strength-training
equipment and accessories.
- If general health, heart-health, or weight
reduction is an important fitness goal, the emphasis needs to be towards
good quality cardio-aerobic equipment.
- Whatever your personal fitness goals,
effective home gym exercise requires a balance of both cardio and resistance
equipment. For example, every home gym should include basic fitness
items for both cardio workouts and strength-training routines, along
with a mat for stretching and abdominal work, like curls, crunches and
other ab-exercise.
What Space is Available for Your Home Gym?
As a rough guide, here are the space requirements
for the following list of exercise equipment.
Basic
Home Gym - about 35-40 square feet.
Treadmill - about 30-35 square feet.
Exercise Bike - about 10-15 square feet.
Stair Climber - about 10-20 square feet.
Multi-Station Gym - about 50-200 square feet.
Rowing Machine - about 20-25 square feet.
Ski Machine - about 25-30 square feet.
Weights Rack - about 20-35 square feet.
Exercise Mat - about 30-36 square feet.
What is Your Home Gym Budget?
Depending on the quality and number of exercise
machines (like, exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical trainer, rowing machine,
weights) and other training accessories, you can spend anything between
$5,000 and $25,000 on setting up a home gym. Or, you can invest as little
as $500.00 on a basic home gym station, like BandFlex® or BowFlex®.
Home Gyms and Weight Control
Home Gyms machines improve health and fitness,
build muscle tissue, and develop a leaner body shape. They also help to
raise metabolism and may also help to develop a flat stomach. To lose
fat tissue, and reduce weight, workouts using Home Gyms machines need
to be combined with a calorie-controlled diet. Because unless you create
a calorie deficit, you can't burn fat and therefore lose weight.
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