What To Look For
Exercise is good for you, no matter your age; from tweendom to your twilight years, weight-bearing exercises will keep you fit and healthy. The type of exercise equipment you use depends on your individual fitness goals. Free weights mimic real-life movements and facilitate body balance and stabilization. Weight machines provide extra support but must be adjusted to your body's specific dimensions. Free weights are good to use if you are working out with a buddy or feeling strong enough to handle the weights without support, while maintaining good form. Weight machines are good to use when you're feeling like you need extra support as long as you adjust the machine to fit your body and can exercise with a free range of motion throughout your repetitions.
Look for free weights that are easy to hold with protective sheaths to prevent callouses. Look for weight machines that you can easily adjust to your dimensions. Some newer machines will provide you with digital displays to assess your range of motion for each repetition.
Common Pitfalls
Concentrating on weight-bearing exercise without aerobic exercise, or vice versa, is a common obstacle to achieving optimum health and fitness. Some cardiovascular equipment may cause you to exert too much force on your joints, causing knee and back pain. A good option to avoid this is to try adaptive motion trainers that facilitate your particular type of range of motion, with minimum pressure on joints. Some adaptive motion trainers include Precor's Adaptive Motion Trainer or the Technogym's Vario. Weight-bearing exercise will strengthen the muscles around joints to provide additional support but should be combined with aerobic exercise for optimum health.
Where To Buy
You can buy free weights, weight machines and cardiovascular trainers at sporting goods stores as well as Target and Walmart. Amazon is one online venue for exercise equipment. Specialized home product retailers that also produce gym-quality equipment, such as Precor, are available online or from exercise equipment stores. Exercise equipment stores sell more expensive equipment, but will provide more knowledgeable technical consultants so you get equipment tailored to your specific needs.
Cost
As of Fall 2010, prices for neoprene free weights from Amazon are $17, but you will have to pay for shipping. The same product from the Sports Authority is $15.98. Sports Authority also sells elliptical trainers for about $400, and Smith Machines cost about $1,200. Precor's basic elliptical trainer sells for about $3,000 from Sports Authority's website, where you can also purchase a compact strength training system for about $1,530.
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