Fitness Training | Home Gym Equipment for You

May 20, 2010

Home gym equipment essentials—Part 6

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

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May 7, 2010

Home Gym Equipment Tips to Transform Your Life—Part 25

Filed under: Home gym equipment — Tags: benefits of physical fitness, cardiovascular fitness, components of physical fitness, fitness training, fitness workouts, Home gym equipment, importance of physical fitness, lifetime fitness — info @ 12:30 pm

Strength Training: Deload 2

There are many different ways to deload in order to give your body a break from all the hard work you’ve been doing. Please do not make the mistake of ignoring this vital aspect of your training. A deload week will only be effective if you actually give your body a break. This is not the time to take a break from strength training and kill yourself on the treadmill.

One way is to cut all strength training to 50% of your last regular training week. That means 50% of the weight that you are lifting and at least 50% of the sets your doing (this pertains more for accessory lifts as you should only be doing one or two sets of your compound movements). Also, back off 50% on the cardio training for that week.

Another great way to deload is to do only body weight exercises on your normal lifting days (push ups, chin ups, sit ups, bodyweight lungs, deep knee bends) and walk three miles in an hour on cardio days for a full week.

A final way to deload is to take all the stress out of your joints and hit the pool. Basically, get in the pool and move all of your joints through different ranges of motion and let the water be the resistance. Many gym pools have water weights that will add to the resistance. Your cardio for the week can be swimming laps. This is a great break for your muscles and joints.

A final plea—please take care of your body and incorporate a deload week!!!

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

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April 26, 2010

Home Gym Equipment Tips to Transform Your Life—Part 14

Filed under: Home gym equipment — Tags: components of physical fitness, exercise and fitness, fitness training, fitness workouts, health fitness, Home gym equipment, importance of physical fitness, lifetime fitness — info @ 12:30 pm

Standing shoulder press:

Standing shoulder press will train chest, shoulders and triceps. Use a squat rack for this exercise. If you perform the shoulder press while sitting, it will unnecessarily load the spine and can lead to injury. Also, you have more control of your balance when performing this exercise standing.

Start by unracking the weight in front of your body. The bar will rest on the uppermost part of your chest. Place your elbows at approximately 45 degrees to your sides. As with the bench press, you want every part of your body tight. If your elbows are at 90 degrees to your sides, it will leave your shoulder joints loose and prone to injury. Press the bar above your head to full lockout, pause, and return the bar to below your chin. Always maintain control of the bar at the top position and the bottom position to ensure stability and avoid injury.

There are a few things that should never occur with this exercise. Do not press from behind your neck. You will injure your shoulders. Do not press with your elbows at 90 degrees to your body. As I’ve already mentioned, this can loosen your shoulder joints. Do not lower the bar to anywhere above your chin. This usually means you are using too much weight and can’t maintain proper form. Finally, do not use your legs in this exercise to push the weight up. This is cheating and also means you’re using too much weight.

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

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April 16, 2010

Home Gym Equipment Tips to Transform Your Life—Part 4

Filed under: Home gym equipment — Tags: benefits of physical fitness, cardiovascular fitness, components of fitness, components of physical fitness, fitness training, fitness women, good physical fitness, Home gym equipment — info @ 12:30 pm

Cardio, Part 2:

I recommend doing as much of your cardiovascular training outside as possible. Fresh air and sunlight (NEVER SUNBURN) are very healthy and make training more enjoyable.

Of course, weather (hot or cold) or personal preference makes it necessary to have indoor options with your home gym equipment to keep your training consistent. So what’s the best way to get into shape?

Here are the top five examples of what I would consider the best ways to increase your cardiovascular endurance in decreasing order. Please note, check with your doctor to make sure you are healthy enough perform these exercises.

1. Running hills outside can’t be beat for pure cardio. I like this exercise as it involves being outdoors and is a very rigorous way to exercise. This one is simple. Find a hill and run up it, many times.

2. Next is running outdoors. The reason it’s number two is once again the outdoor factor.

3. If you can’t get outdoors, the next best thing is running hills on a treadmill. This is nice as you can control the incline of your hills and keep track of how fast you are running.

4. The stepmill is a great piece of equipment that incorporates elevation to get your heart pumping. This is also good if your knees can’t handle running

5. Finally, running on the treadmill with little elevation. (Note: Due to the belt moving under your feet, a 2.5 degree incline will equate to running on the ground)

Obviously, running is involved in four out of the top five cardiovascular exercises. It is one of the best ways to get into shape. The next entry will include alternatives for those of you who can’t run due to physical limitations, or just simply don’t like to run.

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

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