5 Types of Exercise Equipment and Their Use

Posted under Health and Fitness by matt639

In a previous post, I mentioned how gym accidents happen from improper use of gym equipment. Aside from performing precautionary steps to avoid them, proper know-how in their purpose and usage is also important. There are different types of exercise equipment. Some are used to train specific parts of the body while some are used to enhance either strength or endurance. Here are the five types of exercise equipment and their purpose.

Cardiovascular Exercise Equipment - This type of equipment focuses on improving your heart and to burn fat. Most modern cardiovascular exercise equipment have a display that would show you important details such as amount of calories burned, how far you have travelled, and walking or running speed. You can customize your workout using the menus on the displays as well. Equipment of this type include Treadmills, Stationary Bikes, and Stair Climbers. It’s a good idea to swap equipments from time to time so you don’t get used to a particular equipment and produce less results.

Free Weights - This type of equipment focuses on how to increase strength. Like the name suggests the weights are free to handle and are not tied to any other equipment (but can be used to augment them). These includes weights for dumbbells, barbells, and other weights training equipment. Of course, dumbbells, barbells, and medicine balls are also included in this category. Free weights are used for lifting and training the muscles on specific areas of the body like biceps, triceps, calves, etc…

Weight Machines - Another strength enhancing equipment but is more user friendly than free weights. Weight machines have a stack of incremental weights attached to a pulley which you can lift by pulling or pushing a certain part of the equipment. You can adjust the weight by either using a pin to set the amount of weights you would use or in some older equipments, put a specific amount of free weights on the machine.

Balance Equipment - This type of equipment is used for enhancing both strength and endurance. Inflatable exercise balls and pads are included in this category. Basically, exercises using this type of equipment involve keeping your balance - like its name suggests - while performing strength-enhancing exercises.

Resistance Equipment - Resistance equipment use elastic bands instead of weights for strength training. A lot of exercises have been devised for training specific parts of the body or muscle groups. The best thing about this type of equipment is that they can easily be carried unlike weights which take up a lot of space and are particularly heavy in comparison.

So which exercise equipment should you use? Choosing the proper equipment is crucial if you want to get results from your training. Including cardiovascular equipment is a good choice since pure strength training without improving endurance and stamina is dangerous. Continuously adding weights to your workout without improving stamina could lead to injury. It is also a good idea to mix strength training equipment to include strengthening of the whole body like the arms, torso, and lower body parts.

Additional Readings

• 5 Tips on How to Avoid Gym Accidents
• 7 things to avoid when working out
• Dumbbell Exercises You Can Perform At Home (pt 2)
• Obesity, Smoking, and Hypertension
• 5 Tips to Getting Started with Working-Out