Home Gym Equipment for You

May 23, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 7

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Avoiding the gym

After talking about the “why” someone would want to purchase a home gym, I thought I’d put together of a list of the people at the commercial gym that would make anyone want to buy a home gym.

The grunter/screamer—Yes we hear you, yes we see you attempting to lift every weight in the gym (usually without success), yes you’re annoying.

The girl who wants to be seen—OK, you’re in shape.  Please put some clothes on and quit looking in the mirror the whole time you’re on the stair-stepper.

The guy in the bandana, flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off (ala Larry the cable guy), Zubaz pants from the 80s, and Timberland boots.  Enough said.

The elderly folks (God bless them for being at a gym) who are on the machines doing incredibly horrific form that at any time you just know they’re going to break in half.  I don’t need that stress.

The very overweight folks (God bless them for being at the gym) who are doing preacher curls or the abductor/adductor machines.  This will not help you lose weight!!!

The trainers who are with most of the above folks having them do the most ridiculous exercises to get them “in shape”, when they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing.  (Note:  my best friend is a great trainer, so no offense to those of you who do know what you’re doing).

So, hopefully I haven’t upset too many people.  But these people give you a very good reason to get your own home gym and do some serious training.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 20, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 6

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Want

 

Before we talk about anymore equipment essentials for your home gym, I feel we should examine a very important subject.  Why do you want a home gym?  There should be very specific goals and reasons for why you want to workout at home.  Basically, what do you want to accomplish.

If there is no answer to the “what do you want” question, don’t buy a home gym.  It will be a huge waste of time, money and space that will end up being an expensive place to hang your clothes.  Specific reasons have to be addressed before purchasing the components to your home gym.

To get healthy, to quit the gym, to work out in private whenever you want, whatever reason you have, the key is to know why.  Training at home can be a way to increase the intensity of your workout in order to reach the next level in your fitness.  Some people thrive in the solitude of working out without other eyes upon them.

There has to be a want, a reason.  My point is to save you time and money.  The last thing I would want is to have someone drop the hard earned money on something they eventually don’t want, or worse yet, regret buying.  This should be the most important purchase for your health and it should have a strong reason behind it.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 17, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 5

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Cardio Equipment:  Wrap up

As I read over the last few blogs, I see a bunch of boring stuff about cardio equipment.  My intention is not to bore you to death, but if there are some people who need an overview on some good additions to their home gyms there it is. 

To be honest, cardio training is a necessary evil for overall health.  The key word is NECESSARY.  It is probably the most important aspect to health and fitness.  I am a weightlifter at heart, strength training is my passion, but nothing is more important than cardio.

So, if you want to run and bike outside, that’s great.  The nice thing about having a couple of pieces of cardio equipment in your home gym is variety.  Inside you can watch television while doing cardio, which definitely helps the time go by for me.  Or you can read a book while doing light cardio for extra workouts (it’s kind of hard to do intense interval training while reading the latest Harry Potter).

Cardio is for everyone and the machines we’ve gone over can help the beginner to the powerlifter and the next fitness model.  We all can improve our cardio.  Not to mention that cardio will give the endurance necessary to perform intense strength training session in order to build the muscle to shape your body.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 16, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 4

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Cardio Equipment:  Stair stepper

 

This piece of equipment includes one of the vital aspects to increasing intensity for a cardiovascular workout, elevation.  The stair stepper is all about elevation.  This provides a great cardio workout and really works the lower body.

The best way to use the stair stepper is to stand erect with your hands on the rails for balance.  Don’t bend forward or use the rails to support your weight as that will decrease the effectiveness of the workout and possible injury.

While performing the exercise, the foot plates should not bang at the top of the stepping rhythm and each step to the foot plate should not sink too low.  Just keep a pace that allows a natural stepping motion without banging or sinking too low.

The advantages to this machine versus running stairs are, of course, impact to the joints.  The stair stepper keeps your feet on the foot plates and therefore eliminates any impact.  Also, there is no descent on the stair stepper.  When running stairs, much of the wear and tear on the leg muscles and joints happens on the descent which leads to increased soreness.  The stair stepper greatly reduces this, which will reduce the risk of injury and allow you to continue training and achieve results.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 15, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 3

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Cardio Equipment:  Stationary Bike

 

This piece of equipment is perfect for those of you who are unable to train the higher impact pieces of equipment, like the treadmill.  The stationary bike is perfect as there is little to no impact on the joints in the legs.  This form of exercise can increase your heart rate while being very easy on your body.

Biking is a great form of cardiovascular exercise and the stationary bike provides the same advantages that the treadmill does, as far as, weather and safety conditions of the outdoors.  An added safety feature of the stationary bike is the occurrences of falls and injuries that biking outdoors has.  The stationary bike is very safe.

Make no mistake that the stationary bike is only for those who are unable to do more strenuous forms of cardio.  This piece of equipment can make you work hard and make you sweat.  The key again is resistance.  Cycling will get you into shape.  The beauty of biking indoors is that you can get into shape while reading or watching television!!

A stationary bike is a great addition to any home gym as a primary form of cardiovascular exercise or to use when the joints of the body need a break.  A mixture of exercises is very important to your training.   This keeps your body guessing and adapting which leads to greater results.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 14, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 2

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Cardio Equipment:  Treadmill

 

Ah, the workhorse for all cardio equipment, the treadmill.  Treadmills are perfect for those who due to weather or safety issues want to train indoors.  Or for those who just prefer to train indoors and like to keep track of exactly how far they gone and how many calories, or even that you enjoy watching television while training, the treadmill is perfect.

Another great aspect of a treadmill is you have instant access to intensity control.  Obviously, you can speed up or slow down while training outside, but the treadmill allows elevation control to enhance interval training.  You have complete control.

One thing to keep in mind when using a treadmill as a tool for training is that the angle of elevation to equate to outdoor training is 2.5 degrees.  This is to make up of the conveyor belt moving underneath you.  This way if you do choose to train outside, you won’t be surprised that it is a little harder than on your treadmill.

A final advantage to training on a treadmill is ease of impact on the joints.  Treadmills have a little “give” on them that absorbs shock and is easier on ankle, knee, and hip joints, as well as the lower back, compared to the ground.  So, the treadmill is a great choice for your training in order to build a stronger, healthier body.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 13, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 1

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Home gym equipment essentials—Part 1

 

Cardio Equipment:  Elliptical Trainer

 

The elliptical trainer is one of my favorite machines for cardiovascular training because it simulates walking or running without the excessive pressure on the joints.  This low impact workout can vary from light to high intensity with the added feature of resistance.  Resistance is the key to getting the best cardiovascular workout from this piece of equipment.  It is a must for people who have injuries that prevent them from running.

Another aspect of this machine is that the upper body is involved also with the hand grips.  This creates a whole body workout that will burn more calories more efficiently.  Any time there is use of more muscles in the body a more efficient use of workout time is involved. 

Elliptical trainers are also relatively quiet for home use.  This is a nice feature for those who are bothered by the noise of most cardio equipment.

Make no mistake that all of this talk of low impact and ease on the joints means that you can’t get a great workout with this machine.  The resistance control is your friend and can really increase your cardiovascular endurance if you want to push yourself.  If used correctly, this machine will get you in great shape. 

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 12, 2010

Home Gym Equipment Tips to Transform Your Life—Part 30

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Nutrition 5:  The worst of the worst

Trans-fats:

Trans-fats are vegetable oils chemically altered so that these cheaper oils will resemble products like butter (solid) and to increase shelf life.  They are therefore toxic.  These dangerous chemicals lurk in many cookies, crackers, and margarine.  Read your labels, if it says partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, stay away from it.

Artificial sweeteners:

And, finally, if there is one thing you take from this entire blog to improve your health, please stop ingesting any artificial sweeteners.  There are a few things that the human body is just not meant to have.  This goes back to the fact that Mother Nature is not stupid and if you try to outsmart her, you will lose.

At the top of this list are artificial sweeteners, all artificial sweeteners.  These things are pure chemicals.  Your body has no idea what to do with these synthetic chemicals. Therefore, your body treats all chemicals like the toxins they are.

This damages your health in two ways.  Chemical toxicity due to synthetic sweeteners will attack every tissue in your body leading to disease.  Secondly, and most surprisingly, the chemicals of an artificial sweetener with no calories will be sealed off from the body to protect it from damage and disease.  The body seals off toxins by surrounding them with fat and water and storing them in fat deposits.  Yes, artificial sweeteners with no calories will lead to you getting fatter and unhealthy.

So, for your health’s sake, stay away from trans-fats and artificial sweeteners.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 11, 2010

Home Gym Equipment Tips to Transform Your Life—Part 29

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Nutrition 4:

Another strategy to provide the body with nutrients and to help detoxify is to eat only fruit until noon.  This will help cleanse the body and provide nutrients and fiber the body desperately needs.

Juicing first thing in the morning and then eating fruit until noon is ideal, but choosing either is a very good second option.  Eating fruit until noon will increase energy levels and not bog down the digestive system with heavy meals early in the day.  This does wonders for workouts and overall well being during the day.

What not to eat:

Dairy:

This may be a surprise to some.  Removing all or, at least most, of the dairy in your diet is a good idea.  The big misconception is that dairy is a great source of calcium.  It does have calcium.  But when dairy is ingested, a lot of mucous is produced in your body and the calcium is not absorbed. 

Also, magnesium is required for proper absorption of calcium.  So how do you get your calcium for strong bones?  Eat more organic vegetables (especially green leafy veggies) that are high in calcium and magnesium.

Sugar:

Refined sugar is not the fuel of choice for the human body.  Refined sugar will sharply raise the amount of insulin produced in your body and lead to a myriad of health issues.  Many of your “low fat” products on the market are loaded with sugar.  This is much more dangerous than the regular product.  “Fat free” products loaded with sugar can make you gain more weight and are usually more unhealthy than the original product.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

May 10, 2010

Home Gym Equipment Tips to Transform Your Life—Part 28

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Nutrition 3: Organic Foods 2

After meat, produce is the next most important product that should be organic.  Pesticides are the main culprit here.  Anything sprayed on produce is absorbed by the produce itself and passed on to you when you ingest it.

Think about this.  Pesticides are used to detract insects from eating the produce.  Therefore, the produce that is sprayed looks picture perfect, no insect bites.  Organic products will look uglier because insects will eat it.  Mother Nature is not stupid.  If wildlife won’t eat the produce, do you really want to eat it?  The chemicals will be stored in your tissues.

Fish:  Unfortunately, most of our ocean waters are contaminated with mercury.  So, when buying fish, make sure it is from Alaska or Norway.  These are the cleanest waters and have the least probability of mercury contamination.  Never buy farmed fish.

Golden tip on nutrition:  The best way to start off the day is drink 32 ounces of juice from organic fruits and vegetables.  Not from the store, but buying a juicer and drinking it fresh.  After 20 minutes, the juice will start to oxidize and will not be as potent and healthy as if you drink it right away.  So, no juices from the store and don’t save any of juice that you make.  Drink it right away.  This will provide your body with many nutrients that you can’t get anywhere else.

-Dr. Mark Mylan
Creating fit and healthy bodies with home gym equipment
www.healthyhomegym.com

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