Weight training equipment is something that many home users need to know about when trying to start some kind of fitness routine. I will try to analyze what kinds of equipment you need based on your body muscle groups.
First of all, there are two kinds of training equipment that you will need to know about. The first training equipment you need is weights and the second is the actual apparatus which would be benches and stuff.
Weight Training Equipment – Apparatus
I think that most people will start training with some kind of a bench. At the very simplest a bench will be a flat bench that will allow you to do flyes, sit to do dumb bell military press, a place to put your legs on to do crunches, and a stable piece of equipment to do your tricep pushups.
Once you decide that you want to get a bit more advanced you can get a bench that will have a movable back so that you can do incline bench, this addition is the only advantage though to getting an incline bench so do not drool over the incline instead of having a nice stable bench.
As you can see in the picture above in this post you can really get elaborate and the bench can become your most important piece of training equipment with leg extension and curl attachments
Weight Training Equipment – Squat Rack
Another great piece of equipment is a squat rack. One of the real problems with working out at home is that you do not have access to any equipment to do leg work and doing squats will make a big difference to getting bigger and stronger and revving up your metabolism.
A squat rack just like a bench is most importantly function over form and you will want this piece of equipment that sits holding a lot of to be strong and stable.
Weight lifting bars are next, these are going to go hand in hand with your weights so make sure that you have one long bar to do curls, squats, pull-ups and anything else where you need a balanced bar held with your shoulders or both hands.
Weight Training Equipment – Weights
Now that you have all of your training equipment you will need to put on these bars as well as some dumbells.
At home I have about 100 pounds of various weights 10, 5, 2.5 plates but I also have another very important type of short bars and that is two short bars where I can just put the weights on and then screw on the ends so that the does not roll off, this is very important to make sure that I can change the on the bar very quickly.
Another new way to get weights is the dumbells with the dial. To use these new weights you just push a button and turn a dial at the end to get your adjusted to anywhere from 10 to 50 pounds and then simply pick up the bar with the correct weights on it.
Finally, I also have four pairs of dumbells that are covered in rubber. The weights are 10, 15, 20, and 25 pound pairs of dumbells and are nice and easy to just pick up for all of those exercises that you need to do and do not want to be changing out on the barbells.
Generally, for most exercises I will start running up through the dumbells until I become to strong for them and then setup the other dumbells. This works very well although I could probably use a pair of 30 and 40-pound dumbells to quicken things up.
Getting started in lifting means that you will probably need some lifting equipment. Hopefully, you have been looking around for this but I will try to give you a good idea of the equipment that you will need.
First of all there are two kinds of equipment for training. There are weights and bars and there is equipment that will help you to use those weights and bars.
Weight Training Equipment – Weights and Bars
In looking for weights and bars it is a good idea to have weights that will work on short bars (like for one armed curls) as well as on longer bars (for two armed curls or bench press). I have always tried to have a variety of weights from 2.5 pounds to 10 pounds and I have bought metal weights instead of those crappy plastic ones as they take a lot less space.
To figure out how much weights that you need just look at how much you want to squat or bench press in the next month or so and remember that you can buy more weights after that time. I imagine that you are the same as me and can bench press more than you can curl or do one armed rows with so 150 pounds total is more than enough since you also have the of the bar to worry about.
There are two kinds of bars to worry about, you need a long bar for curls and bench and squats and two short bars for curls and flyes and all the arm exercises that you can think of.
The bars that I bought have a type of screw on end that allows you to just spin the collars on and off to make sure that the weights stay in place.
Weight Training Equipment – Support Equipment
As far as equipment needed for lifting I always think that there is only one really needed and that is a bench. any bench is going to help you with your lifting but I opted for an incline bench so that I would be able to do incline bench presses. Other than this the bench is good for lots of stuff like:
- Concentration curls
- One armed rows
- Tricep kickbacks
- Flyes
- Crunches
- And tons more exercises
I think you get the idea here, though. A bench is necessary and is unavoidable if you really want to get a good workout in.
The other big piece of training equipment is the squat rack. A squat rack will help you to stay safe by giving you something to rack your weights before your set as well as a guard at the bottom in case you go too far and can’t get the backup.
A squat rack can be very expensive so this is not something I would worry about early at home instead just do not go too heavy in your squats.
Weight Training Equipment – All in one
One last option is something like Bowflex. I have known a few people that have gotten Bowflex machines although I have not tried one myself for more than a couple of reps and the great thing about Bowflex is that is will allow you to do dozens of different exercises.
The downside though is that these things can be pretty pricey.
To get your lifting equipment I have always thought that second hand is best. People go and get equipment and then a year or tow later after it has picked up a lot of dust they decide to sell.
Sadly there are always more people looking to get rid of lifting equipment than are trying to buy it so you should be able to get a pretty good deal instead of buying the lifting equipment new.
Weight Training Equipment – Simplifying
I am pretty happy with my current training equipment although having a gym at work has made my home equipment gather dust lately. I thin that if you are setting up a home gym for yourself you have two choices.
You can get some kind of Bowflex or Universal all in one system or go old school like I have and just get lots of weights and the equipment such as squat racks and bench and anything else that you need.
One of the big arguments between buying equipment and joining a gym is the cost. If you ship around for training equipment you will find that you can get it used fairly cheap and if you are able to keep your motivation at home with some good goals then it will be the fastest and easiest workouts that you can have.
Motivation is the key though and many people will not be able to keep up a schedule at home and will instead need to work out at a gym around other people.
Weight training equipment for home is not only a necessary expense but also something that can help vary your workout routines
The training system is designed to perk up sense of balance and power to build lean muscle mass and also for cardiovascular workouts to burn calories and fat. BOSU can obviously be better equipment for workouts