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The Fitness and Health Report
Information for a Healthy Life

March 6, 2001
Issue 20

In This Issue:

· Buying Equipment for a Home Gym
· Stretching for Flexibility and Prevention of Injury

Buying Equipment for a Home Gym
by Renee Cloe, ACE certified personal trainer

With chaotic work schedules and expensive gym memberships, working out at home can be a great value and convenience. Many people would like to set up home gyms, but the equipment choices, price differences, and space considerations can boggle the mind. ACE, The American Council on Exercise, recommends these five steps for making intelligent equipment buying decisions:

1. Identify your fitness needs:

· The equipment should suit your interests and fitness level. Your chosen activities should be enjoyable and yet challenging enough that your able to progress to higher levels. For example, you should be able to increase the resistance, incline or duration of a given piece of equipment.

· Every home gym should include basic components for both aerobic training and strength training along with a mat for stretching and abdominal work. Aerobic training - jogging, stepping, or cycling, for example - burns fat, raises your HDL (good cholesterol) and strengthens the heart and lungs. Strength training uses free weights, elastic bands, or machines that resist your movement. It builds muscle, strengthens bones, boosts your metabolism, and can lower your LDL (bad cholesterol). Stretching keeps muscles and joints flexible and helps prevent injury and soreness.

· If the goal is an aerobic workout, then the equipment's resistance should be low enough to maintain at least 20 minutes of smooth continuous motion. If the goal is muscle strengthening, then considerably more resistance is required. For this reason, it's difficult to obtain muscle strengthening benefits and aerobic benefits from the same piece of equipment. In most cases, machines that claim to do both (riders for example) are inadequate for strengthening beyond the initial level of sedentary beginners.

2. Determine your budget:

· The number one rule here is that you get what you pay for. Keep in mind that high quality equipment that works reliably after several years of heavy use can't be manufactured cheaply.

· There are options available for every budget. For example, if a pricey $1,500 electric stair climber is out of your reach, you may be better off buying a high quality step bench and a couple of great step aerobics tapes for under $150. This might be a wiser choice than spending $200 on a low-end manual stair climber that's almost guaranteed to break after a few months.

· In some cases, the price range on a particular piece of equipment can vary wildly. It's important to do your homework and find out what the going rate should be.

· If a piece of equipment is priced significantly lower than it's competitors, it could be for a variety of reasons including: manufactured overseas rather than domestically, cheaper components, less rigorous design and assembly, lower profit margin taken by the manufacturer, less overhead, or better engineering allowing for less costly assembly.

· By the same token, if a piece of equipment is priced significantly higher than comparably models, you need to ask why. Does it work demonstrably better than lower priced models? Does it offer better features? Is it likely to last longer? Is it likely to require less service? Is it easier and less costly to service?

· Keep in mind that it's possible to purchase used exercise equipment. If you go this route, you may be able to buy more equipment, or higher quality commercial equipment, and still stay within your budget. Try to buy from a reputable dealer and get a warranty in writing.

3. Determine how much space is available:

· Take into consideration the room usage, safety, traffic flow, aesthetics, desired equipment, and future expansion possibilities.

· Plan for at least as much open space as equipment space.

· Use the following guidelines to determine how much room you'll need:

Treadmills - 30 square feet

Bikes - 10 square feet

Single-Station Gym - 35 square feet

Stair Climbers - 10-20 square feet

Multi-Station Gym - 50-200 square feet

Rowing Machines - 20 square feet

Free Weights - 20-50 square feet

Ski Machines - 25 square feet

4. Examine the product: features, design, manufacture, safety, and serviceability:

· Your body should move in a manner that is correct and safe.

· The equipment should be adjustable, comfortable, easy to learn, and able to fit users of various sizes.

· Parts should be easily removed and replaced. The device should be space-efficient, and the components should be the highest quality in the price range.

· Think about the advertising claims. They should be backed up by solid research. Look for reviews by objective consumer publications.

· Moving parts should mesh well. Welds should be clean and smooth and the frame should be thick and sturdy.

· Check out the safety features. There shouldn't be any design flaws or weaknesses that increase the risk of injury. (For example skiers with skis that can move simultaneously in the same direction, or a machine with poor stability.)

· Look for features that enhance safety. For example, range-of-motion limiters on strength machines; weight-stack guards or any guards that protect moving parts; safety switches on treadmills.

5. Assess "bang for the buck" using a checklist as a side-by side comparison tool. Things to consider in your evaluation:

· Price
· Safety
· Effectiveness
· Comfort and enjoyability
· Space efficiency
· Adjustability
· Durable Design
· Quiet operation
· Reputable manufacturer
· Written warranty
· Service plan and parts availability

To learn more about fitness and exercise from top professionals visit The Fitness Jumpsite http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner.

Stretching for Flexibility and Prevention of Injury
by Greg Landry, M.S.

Okay, okay, I know this is a pretty dull subject and one that nobody likes to think about, but stretching is important. Stretching on a regular basis enables you to be more flexible and greatly decreases your chances of sustaining a muscle / joint injury or developing low-back pain. If you enjoy exercise, there's nothing worse than being sidelined with an injury.

For these reasons alone, it's worth spending a few minutes stretching on a regular basis. There are several sites online where you can find details on specific stretching exercises, so we won't get into that here (see links below). However, I would like to discuss two factors that are very important and often misunderstood.

1. NEVER stretch a cold muscle before exercise. I like to use the analogy of a rubber band that's been in the freezer. Your muscle, like that rubber band, will tend to tear if stretched when it's cold. However, when they are warm and supple, they stretch much more easily and are much less likely to tear. When you stretch cold muscles, you are much more likely to cause muscle strains and other injuries. Always do your stretching after your aerobic exercise session or after you have been exercising for at least ten minutes to give your muscles time to warm up and become more supple. NEVER stretch before you exercise. You are much more likely to injure yourself when you do.

Stretching is not a "warm-up" for your aerobic exercise. Your warm-up should be a very low intensity version of the exercise that you're doing. Then, you stretch your muscles after they are warm.

2. NEVER "bounce" while stretching. This is another way to increase your chances of developing an injury. Your stretching should be a very slow, fluid movement to gradually stretch the muscle until you're feeling a slight stretch. Then, hold it there for about fifteen seconds and just allow the muscle to gently stretch. NO bouncy, jerky movements.

If you stretch on a regular basis, you'll reverse the natural loss in flexibility that occurs over time and you'll also be much less prone to nagging, and sometimes serious injuries, including low-back injuries. Here are a few good stretching sites…

http://www.stretchingtips.com/fab.htm

http://www.stretching.com

http://www.pc.ibm.com/ww/healthycomputing/streching.html

http://www.golfix.co.uk/wellbeing/fitness/stretch.htm

Join Greg's FREE "Metabolism Challenge" and also get free weight loss and fitness articles and newsletters at his site…http://www.Landry.com

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