Today I'd like to look at some of the features you should consider for selecting a best home gym machine for your home, or personal training studio.
First of all...and the most obvious question, is what are your needs? Are you looking for basic fundamental exercises to keep your baseline fitness level high? Are you looking for highly specialised sport conditioning training? Or if you are a trainer, what are the main interests of your clientèle?
Secondly, how much space to you ave to work with? Space is usually one of the biggest concerns, for optimising your training environment whether home or studio. You really need to make sure you are going to get multiple uses to maximize value on the space you are allotting for your fitness and exercise machines.
Thirdly, and not least important, is quality. The last thing any of us need is an injury from poorly made equipment that breaks down or puts us out of enjoying life, with an injury.
A well laid out space should be accessible, easy to use and get to the equipment you need without tripping on anything, and with enough free space to use for open movement.
Review of home gym equipment can take many focuses but I'll stick with the basic categories to start your research. For full body exercise equipment, there are the old standards of free weights and bench systems, dumbbells and now adding thinks like kettlebells. This approach to strength training and resistance exercise is effective, but can often be dangerous for many people, and not the most family friendly approach to loading up your home gym environment. Many injuries are caused by free weights, but used safely, provides the resistance exercise you need for total body fitness.
Next in line, are large cable weight based systems, which are typically very space consuming and though effective for progressive resistance exercise, can require a lot a adjustments to work your entire body. Typically these systems are in excess of $2,000.00 and take a full day to assemble and get setup.
The above two options are following the methodologies of training developed during the bodybuilding era of the fitness boom, and really focus on time consuming muscle isolation type of exercises that are primarily targeted to building muscle mass and size. The activity typically leaves out the interest in total body mobility, functional movement or agility. So what happens if you are interested more in overall fitness and a more holistic approach to fitness and lifestyle? If your concern is more balancing your overall health and wellness, lean muscle and strength development, and not spending all day in the gym to achieve it?
For a more simple approach and more aligned with today's focus on the benefits of bodyweight based exercise (the style used for conditioning us humans since the dawn of time, and favoured by the military), are a number of options available that are well worth your consideration. Using your body as the machine, and tools to support the challenge or safety of the exercises, seems to be the growing trend all around both by individuals and trainers for their exercise equipment. The amazing physical conditioning that can be achieved solely by using your own bodyweight are all around us to see, and the awesome lean muscle development of gymnasts and fitness professionals shows it's undeniable superiority to overall wellness and balanced fitness. So if the gym isn't for you, if your time is pressed and you want convenience and accessibility to your training equipment within moments, if you have a home office and the only training time you get is during your "coffee break", then some of the following options may be best for you.
Heading off this category are resistance bands, balance accessories such as BOSU, and the well entrenched stability ball. These are great accessories to use with your bodyweight training programs, but are far from being total body exercise tools. If you add a well secured pull up bar for doing chins, wide grip pullups, stretching and abs exercises, you are starting to buildup a more complete training system. There are also some straps that can be mounted to leverage your bodyweight for exercise that are becoming very popular with the military crowd. The TRX system is essentially handles at the end of straps that you need to anchor into your ceiling or on your door, to leverage your body to achieve a good variety of challenging exercises. I like using this system from time to time in addition to my main exercises. Probably the best all around home gym equipment and studio machine (they have a commercial model), is the SoloStrength SpeedFit Pro Models. This is a self standing frame and base, that very simply functions as an all in one gym that you can use all the above mentioned accessories to really have the best complete home gym system I can imagine. The user can simply and quickly adjust the bar height, to do the essential core exercises with only using the bar, and their own body. I really like how you can adjust the bar height
Another great opportunity with this solostrength machine, is that because it is securely anchored and high quality, you can use the bar as an adjustable anchor point for adding your resistance bands, or TRX system, to have virtually unlimited exercise variations that you can do with this one, simple exercise equipment. The versatility, compact space use, and simplicity make this system the top of the list for my home gym and studio training equipment recommendation. If you haven't tried it yet, find one at a gym near you or ask your friends, and give it a try...and let me know what you think. I've seen this company demonstrating at several fitness industry and health shows so you might get lucky to try one there as well. For now I believe you can only find the solostrength home gym online, but they have a free trial period so you can try it for yourself at no risk.
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