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There are people who spread false conceptions about weight loss, and there are people who believe them by heart. This is the reason why it takes so long for truth to resurface. But truth is truth and no amount of lies can bury it for long. There are several ways to lose weight. You can lose weight quickly and healthily and in a way that you can keep weight off in future as well.

Or you can use some instant, quick-fix weight loss solution that makes you believe as if you have lost 15 pounds in one instant, and then, once you start eating normally, you gain back all the weight as fast as you had lost it.

There are companies who sell hi-fi gadgets and top weight loss solutions that promise to make your love handles disappear instantly! They will tell you that if you want to lose your belly fat, just wear that cool gadget and you won’t even have to diet and exercise. If only it were that easy, but the fact remains that it is impossible to spot reduce fat. Read the rest of this entry »

I have written quite a bit over the last week about what you need as far as home fitness equipment goes but thought I would just round out this week with an overview of what you should have for equipment. So here is what I think that you should try to accumulate over the next while.

Mats - The most basic piece of fitness equipment is an exercise mat. You need an exercise mat for doing stretching as well as for doing abs and an exercise mat is always good for lying on when you are tired from a tough set or some cardio

Dumbells - Dumbells are those short bars with the weights on them. Who cares about them all matching but you want to probably have pairs of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 pounds and sometimes even a pair of 3 pound weights are good to carry while you are running or doing other cardio. These all come in handy for lots of your weight exercises

Barbell - This is just a big long bar. The barbell bar weighs I believe 20 pounds although ones at the gym will weight 45 pounds. Then of course you need weights to put on this bar. Remember that anytime that you are using a barbell you are lifting more weight and in the case of bench presses or even military presses you can get yourself into real trouble if you do not have a spotter. Read the rest of this entry »

Stair climbers have long been a mainstay piece of equipment in many home fitness centers. They are considered to be the third most popular choice in home exercise equipment that is available today.

Stair steppers are simple to use since they simulate the beneficial action of climbing up stairs. Of course, with real stairs you are done when you reach the top, but with this fitness equipment you can continue climbing as long as your legs endure.

Why are stair climbers good
One of the reasons that stair climbers are so popular is that they are very effective at strengthening and building the muscles in your legs, thighs and buttocks. These large muscles are responsible for a great deal of overall body strength and are also responsible for a large percentage of the calories that you burn each day. Once you build up this group of large muscles, the effects on your metabolism will be significant because a faster metabolic rate equals more calories burned.

Read the rest of this entry »

Those big blue balls are gaining prominence everywhere these days. I have seen a few in my office and of course almost everyone working in a gym is using one as their primary chair. These balls have been around for a few years but I have to think that many people are only using them as a chair and not as a piece of fitness equipment.

I thought just in case someone reading this post is thinking of what they could do to use their fitness ball better that I can point people in some kind of healthy direction.

Exercises on the ball - Has nine great exercises with pictures that will help you get a full body workout on the fitness ball

Bally Fitness has another nine exercises with a picture of the beginning and of the end of each fitness ball based exercise

And my personal favorite. The Mayo Clinic has a nice slide show with exercises for the fitness ball that also shows muscles used and a little write up of what the exercise does. 11 slides of fitness ball exercises in total.

Fitness Equipment is an important part of a weight loss schedule for many people. During the summer we always get a chance to get out and exercise but in the winter we really have to rely on our home or gym fitness equipment. I have dealt with joining fitness clubs extensively in the past so now I will just assume that you are interested in doing weights and cardio at home with your own fitness equipment.

Cardio Equipment
I thought I would start with Cardio equipment as that is the most common equipment that someone thinks twice about before trying. The first piece of fitness equipment that I bought years ago was a stair machine, actually it was a stepper. When the fad in the late 80’s for stair machine started that is exactly what I got and to be perfectly frank the think sucked. A good quality stair machine should be smooth to use and this stepper was not very good, it was clunky and uncomfortable. After a few weeks out stepper turned into a clothes hangar and just collected dust.

About five years ago my wife and I bought a good quality stair machine and treadmill as our first pieces of fitness equipment! We found a great place that sold new and used fitness equipment and we bought the first two pieces of one year old cardio equipment for about 1600 dollars! (I know this is a bit much for most people) and then each year for the next two years we traded one in and bought a different piece of fitness equipment we would lose about 100 dollars a year on the equipment this way. We now have a good 3 year old stationary bike and a good three year old elliptical trainer. To us this has been the best way to buy fitness equipment that we would actually use. No matter what your budget it is a real treat to have tow pieces of fitness equipment in the house that changes every year.

Weight equipment
Weights and weight equipment is a pretty easy purchase. You need the following:

Weight Bench
Weights
Barbell
Dumbbells

My weight bench inclines so that I can have it flat to do my flat bench exercises and then I can angle the back up to do incline bench presses and incline flyes. My bench is pretty stable which is important because the weight exercises are hard enough that you do not want to worry about your fitness equipment falling over while you are using it.

The way that I have done this is that I have two short bars with screw ends to put the weights on and a old barbell that has slip collars that screw in (the generic ones you see everywhere). I bought weights that I could add at any time to either the dumbbells or barbells and in addition to this I have a few rubber dumbbells of 15, 20, 25 and 30 pounds. With these rubber dumbbells I have most of the common weights that I need so that I am not constantly having to set up the bars.

OK, the buying part of the weights is where you can really save money on fitness equipment. Look in your local buy and sell or bargain finder or newspaper and also try garage sales. Remember the last thing that people want to move when the move are weights that they never use. New weights cost almost a dollar a pound so never buy weight new but instead buy them used.