Workout Guide for a Weider Home Gym

Workout Guide for a Weider Home Gym
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Weider home gyms have been offered in a wide variety of models since the 1980s by manufacturer Icon Health and Fitness, Inc. The three main styles of home gyms sold by Weider are their free weight workout benches, multi-station weight plate gyms and resistance systems. Each of these gym types can be used to accomplish a variety of workouts, athough some workouts may be better suited for certain gym types.

Function

Weider home gyms can be used for everything from bodybuilding to circuit training and weight loss lifting routines. Machines like the Weider Platinum use variable resistance controls to quickly set the resistance of an exercise to meet your needs. Additionally, the proximity of the workout stations allows you to quickly switch between exercises and keep your heart rate high throughout the workout, which is good for weight loss. Weider weight benches require you to manually change the free weights, making them more oriented toward muscle building routines.

Exercises

The type of exercises you can accomplish on your Weider home gym will likely determine the types of workout goals you can accomplish. Some machines, like the Weider Pro 4850, can achieve a total body workout with multiple exercises targeting all of your major muscle groups. These types of machines offer less freedom of motion, but are good for general conditioning workouts. Weider weight benches have a greater range of motion, but can accomplish fewer exercises. These systems are more focused on an upper body power lifting routine.

Features

If you are engaging in a weight loss routine on your Weider home gym, use eight to 10 exercises per session, three times a week. For each exercise, use a light amount of weight and perform three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. Only rest 30 to 60 seconds between sets to keep your heart rate high and your body burning calories.

If you want to focus your workout more on muscle building, reduce the number of exercises per session and the number of repetitions per set while increasing the weight closer to your maximum lifting capacity. Each set you perform should be done until you are close to muscle failure and your workouts should target only one or two muscle groups at a time.

Proper Form

The Weider workout guide included with their home gyms emphasizes the importance of using proper form for each repetition you perform. Weider home gyms with multiple stations often help you stay in proper form by the way the equipment is designed, but free weight benches make it easy to move out of position while lifting. Using improper form can lead to injury and a lack of results from your workout.

Considerations

When choosing your workout program on a Weider home gym, pay close attention to your current fitness state and the goals you want to achieve. Your workout should include an ample amount of rest days for muscle recovery. It should also include variety from workout to workout so you remain motivated to use the home gym.

References

Article reviewed by Lisa Dittrich Last updated on: Jun 14, 2011

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