Universal Fitness Equipment

Universal fitness equipment can help busy people find ways to fit working out into their schedule. Whether it is at a gym or at home is a matter of personal preference. The most important aspect is whether you will actually use the fitness equipment. Space is a consideration as well. If you’ve ever had home exercise equipment turn into a drying rack or a place to hang winter coats, then you may well be more suited to going out to a gym. Whether you’re at a gym or at home, universal fitness equipment makes sense because it allows you to tackle numerous fitness tasks within a small amount of space.

For most people, buying universal fitness equipment without having ever tried it out is a prescription for a lot of money spent on equipment that never gets used. The best place to start with fitness equipment for most people is a good pair of fitness shoes and some free weights.

If you’ve never used universal fitness equipment before, you owe it to yourself to try out the equipment at a local gym.Call for an appointment to have someone show you how to use the most popular equipment. Sure, they’ll try to sell you a gym membership, but it’s worth listening to the sales pitch to learn the right way to use the equipment. And who knows? You might really decide you want to join a gym after all. If you are not sure whether you want to exercise at home or at a gym, many gyms offer short trial memberships that last a week or two that can give you an idea if you will want to stick with it.

Many cities and even small towns have city-owned gyms with fitness rooms, and they only charge a nominal fee per use. They will many times offer monthly or yearly memberships at the city owned facilities for a fraction of what a commercial gym membership would cost. While they may not have the extras of a commercial gym, like a juice bar or fitness shop, they’ll almost certainly have universal fitness equipment, exercise bikes, treadmills, stair climbers, and abdominal exercise equipment.

A typical piece of universal fitness equipment is a four-sided piece of equipment with each of the four sides offering a different piece of equipment. For example, one side may have a bench press, another will have a leg press, the third side will have a lat “pull down” machine, and the fourth side will have a standing press. All the weight stacks are located centrally in the frame and are adjustable to different strength and fitness levels. The seating or benches are also adjustable for people of different heights.

Not all universal fitness equipment units are like this. Other designs may incorporate different exercises on them, including leg extension/leg curl systems, “butterfly” systems for building up the pectoral muscles, abdominal exercise equipment, bicep curl machines, or any number of other machines.

If you decide you would be more likely to exercise at home, there are several things to consider before you begin. As far as aerobic exercise gear goes, the main choices are treadmills, stationary bikes, and rowing machines. Because all three of these types of machines take up a fair amount of room, it is important to choose the one you believe you’re most likely to use. Otherwise it will turn into a large, unusual sculpture that doesn’t do much except take up space.As for strength training equipment, your choices are a little more varied.

Some people use portable equipment like dumbbells, kettle bells, and other various heavy things to lift. Reebok makes a starter weight bench that is quite popular among home fitness enthusiasts. Free weight stations are also worth considering. These include benches and racks for holding barbells, dumbbells, and plates.

Another possibility is the home version of universal fitness equipment. These are machines that incorporate different strength training facilities in one. They may use stacked weights, or tension bows. The most popular versions use cable and pulley systems and stacked weights. You adjust the weight by moving a pin between weight plates, just like at a commercial gym.

To decide what type of fitness gear is best for your home gym, consider the space available to you and consider what your fitness goals are. Are you interested in developing cardio fitness, achieving great muscle definition, improving your flexibility, or possibly some combination of these three? It is important to be honest about what you think you will stick with.If you find walking on a treadmill to be incredibly boring, then you may be best off sticking with weight training equipment. And if weight training seems like too much bother, but you like cranking up your iPod and walking, then perhaps a treadmill would be the best choice. If you want to have both a treadmill and a universal fitness equipment set-up, be sure you have the room for them, as they can crowd a room pretty easily.

Universal fitness equipment for the home ranges from around US$500 on up to $4000 and beyond based on the flexibility, range of exercises available, and quality of the equipment itself. For the serious bodybuilder, home universal fitness equipment is sometimes in addition to gym training sessions. While they may not try to replicate their gym workouts entirely, they may do well with a free weight bench and/or a heavy duty multiple universal fitness machine.

When it comes to home fitness equipment, you can end up spending a couple of hundred dollars for a setup involving some dumbbells, steps, bands, fitness ball, and mats. If you opt for more professional dumbbells, or a bench, rack, and free weights, you’ll spend more, but you can still keep it under $1,000. The least expensive universal fitness equipment machines start at under $500.

A multiple station universal fitness machine can cost up to $3,000. It will also take up more space than a lower end setup.Some universal fitness equipment setups are mostly a matter of unfolding them to get them ready to use. Others may come mostly assembled, but will require some extensions bolted on. The more complex machines can be quite complicated to assemble, and are not designed to fit through a doorway once they’re put together, so be prepared to assemble them where they’ll be used.

Safety, whether at a gym or at home is a top consideration. After all, you’re not getting fit when you’re on the injured list. Dumbbells and barbells are heavy, as you already know. With barbells where extra plates can be added, it’s extremely important to know how to properly secure the plates to the bar.

If you want to consider buying used equipment, then you can probably save quite a bit of money over buying new. People in the fitness industry will tell you that between Valentine’s Day and Easter is a good p eriod of time to look for used fitness equipment, because that’s often when people give up on the idea of using it. Sad, but true.

Before buying any used equipment, check it out thoroughly to find out if it has been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission or the equivalent authority where you live. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out. A quick Google search on the phrase “recalled fitness equipment” raised 357,000 matches. If you know the exact name and model of the universal fitness equipment you’re interested in, searching that model number or name with the word “recall” should lead you to information you need to know. You can also go to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website at www.cpsc.gov and search either “fitness equipment” or on a particular make or model.

Universal fitness equipment is a staple of commercial and school gyms everywhere. These multi-station pieces of equipment a llow people to work several different muscle groups by using different sides of the same piece of equipment. They’re easy to learn to use, easy to adjust, and most importantly, they get results. It’s no wonder they have remained popular for decades.

Technorati Tags: fitness equipment, strength training equipment, universal fitness equipment