Resistance Equipment

Adding resistance equipment to your home is a fantastic way of keeping fit and maintaining your strength and muscle tone. By setting up a mini home gym, you cleverly bypass the extortionate monthly payments charged by some fitness chains and ensure that you don't bail out of a work-out session again. How many times have you been 'too busy' or had 'too little time' to make room for that gym appointment? Resistance equipment in the home eliminates those washy excuses, always on hand to keep your exercise regime on track.

The most basic of resistance equipment, dumbbells are a great step for anyone starting to introduce weight training to their home. Fantastic in price and versatility no home gym is complete without an accomplished set of free weights.

The great advantage of purchasing dumbbells is that with one simple piece of equipment you can rotate exercises and manipulate a host of upper body muscles. These can be so much more than the stereotypical tool for pumping out bicep curls. With a small amount of research and exploration you can use these small bars to target every area of your torso. Lateral raises, dumbbell flyes and bent over rows are just a sample of the many you may want to try out. The purchase of free weights is also an ideal way to start building your home gym. With basic sets starting at £30, they are a perfect testing kit to see if you are ready to expand your collection.

The disadvantage of owning purely dumbbells however is, as versatile as they can be, they are not generally designed for resistance work on the lower body. Although this can easily be sought elsewhere, the majority if us like to minimise our weight training to one session, purely for time purposes. This can cause the overtraining of the upper body in comparison to the lower body, which can be very damaging. Problems with the lower back and posture mean that the balance must be evened out to avoid complications.

Another typical form of home resistance training is the bench press. This requires the user to obtain a flat bench and standing bar on which to put weights on. The ultimate in masculinity and weight training the advantages of this exercise are increased strength and power. Acquiring a bench can also be a great tool if you already have other resistance equipment, as it can act as a support for a number of key exercises for the chest and back.

As with all resistance equipment, there is a huge amount of choice when it comes to buying. The simplest, flat, immovable bench (minus a stand) starts at around £50, with adjustable incline benches moving towards the three figure mark.

The disadvantage with free weights and weight benches however, is that as well as taking a wealth of time and money to build up, they leave the environment they are residing in with an awful lot of clutter. Even the tidiest of users are still going to have difficulty managing the storage of a handful of bars and dozens of weights. The answer to avoiding all this grief is the multi-gym. This is the all-purpose machine that usually occupies around four square feet and contains an array of equipment for you to fulfil all your routine exercises.

Multi-gyms are fascinating creations that are becoming increasingly popular with those starting up a home-gym. Like all gym equipment in retail, there is a stark contrast to what you can get for your money, but most come with a few exercises as standard. An upright structure of around seven feet tall normally, they are equipped with a lateral pulldown bar and a lower pulley. These two basic functions alone can serve a host of exercises for the upper body. However, if there is one specific chest or back work out that you wish to pursue, then will always be a model that can fulfil your needs.

Often the hefty price tag, that accompanies this form of resistance equipment, can put customers off from committing to a purchase. True, you are unlikely to find a multi-gym for under the £300 mark, but when you compare this to the mounting costs of gym membership or collecting free weights, then this becomes a very affordable proposition.

A great way to ensure that you don't let your fitness become a victim of a hectic schedule, resistance equipment is the inexpensive, convenient way to keep up with those regular trips to the gym.