Facts About Exercise Equipment

Using exercise equipment can help ensure that you get a full-body workout while preventing boredom. Whether you choose to work out at a gym or purchase your own for in-home use, knowing how to use exercise equipment properly is vital to ensuring you get the maximum benefits and prevent injury. Talk to your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

Types

Aerobic exercise equipment, such as treadmills, stationary bikes, stair climbers and ellipticals, are designed for cardio exercise. Strength-training equipment includes dumbbells, free weights and weight machines designed either for a single exercise, such as chest fly machines, or for many different exercises, such as "all-in-one" home gyms that allow you to change which muscles you target by making slight adjustments to various parts of the machine. Stability balls, pedometers, heart rate monitors and exercise mats are designed for personal use to help you customize and track your workouts.

Function

Aerobic exercise machines are designed to give you a full body workout to burn calories and strengthen your heart. This type of equipment allows you to mimic the actions of daily activities, such as walking, jogging or riding a bicycle, without leaving the comfort of your home or gym. Weights and strength-training machines allow you to target individual muscles or muscle groups to build more lean muscle tissue. Stability balls allow you to perform variations of standard exercises, such as crunches, to further engage your core muscles. Basic pedometers track how many steps you take to help you reach a healthy activity goal. Heart rate monitors calculate how many times your heart beats in one minute to help you reach your target heart rate zone while exercising.

Features

Aerobic exercise machines often include several features that you should evaluate carefully before deciding on which to purchase. Many treadmills, stationary bicycles and ellipticals include computers that can track your distance, time, heart rate and approximate calories burned. Machines that incorporate movable handles encourage more muscle movement, which results in more calories burned per session. Strength-training machines typically include built-in weights that you can adjust by moving pins or bands. Pedometers and heart rate monitors are often combined into one device, and they often include other features such as programmable goals or stopwatches.

Benefits

Home exercise equipment can help keep you motivated and save you money. If you purchase a reasonably priced aerobic exercise machine and care for it properly, it can end up being far less expensive than many years' worth of gym memberships. Working out at the gym is a good option for people whose exercise plans include many different machines. However, purchasing equipment comparable to what is available at a gym is very costly and requires considerable physical space. Using devices that help you track your results, such as pedometers and heart rate monitors, can help keep you motivated to continue with your exercise plan and prevent you from working yourself too little or too much.

Considerations

Remain skeptical when evaluating exercise equipment sold on infomercials. Many of these machines promise quick results with very little effort and promise to help you lose fat in a particular area of your body. These claims are false. Only aerobic exercise and burning calories can help you shed fat, and it will not come from any one particular area. Consider your physical limitations. If you are an exercise beginner or have joint or back problems, riding a stationary bicycle is one of the best ways to start engaging in aerobic exercise without straining your joints, according to "Consumer Reports." Evaluate the features of different exercise machines carefully before you make a purchase. Decide what is important to you to help you stay within your price range. Look for machines with several points of adjustment, including seats, pedals and handlebars, to ensure that you will be able to use the machine comfortably. Before purchasing a large or expensive piece of equipment, try it out at a gym if possible.