CHOOSING THE BEST HOME GYM FOR YOU
In a perfect world, everybody
would be fit enough to be walking around the streets everyday with shredded
torsos and toned arms hiding under their business wear or their casual shirts.
For the people who can't find time to stay fit, it would be hard to deny the
fact that what we live in is a fast-paced life where we spend 8 hours or more
in the office, at least 6 to 8 hours in bed, probably an hour total travelling
to different destinations, and a few more to eat, drink, and spend time with
family and friends.
The rest of the day, we can
dedicate a couple of hours to ourselves. Regardless of what our priorities in
life are, your health should and are invariably on top of your list. The cliché
"Health is Wealth" has been overused, only because those three words
tell it as it is.
Reasons we miss out on Workouts
Most of us have different excuses
on how we could miss out on a workout session, or why our body is digesting
junk food instead of something organic. We blame it on a few factors: time,
budget, motivation, location, and even safety.
Fitness junkies can attest to
most of us that, all but one of those mentioned should not be a factor, or a
reason to skip a day's worth of exercise. Though we do agree that motivation is
the most difficult aspect to overcome, the other issues such as time, budget,
location, or even safety shouldn't be an excuse. In this article, we will be
assisting you on coping with these factors.
We understand how difficult the
daily grind is, especially to the employees who work 9 to 5 to sufficiently
feed their families. Since they worked hard, they have to party hard, as their
mindset has always been Rest & Recreation after office hours before heading
off to bed. Keep in mind though, that exercise is a form of recreation. And
workouts are actually as mental as it is physical. Exercising regularly can
relieve you of stress after work, and can be an effective way to enhance mental
toughness that would definitely help you fights stress in the first place, and
keep you alert the whole day.
Solution: Home Gyms
If you don't have the time or
budget, or issues with location from either your house or your office, the best
way to stay fit is to purchase a Home Gym. Home Gyms are the best fitness
equipment for people on the go. It utilizes only a small space in your house,
it provides versatility in exercise execution, and assures safety for people
who have no time to drag their gym partner to their home, or if the spotter is
not available.
A lot of people are skeptical
about using home gyms, especially for most of which prefer using free weights.
Here is where we help you and narrow down your choices to the best home gyms
available in the market today that is a very good replacement to free weights.
People who own a home gym saves money in three ways: no membership fees, it
reduces the purchase of additional equipment, and no transportation expenses
are needed to travel to the gym. And as the last item has mentioned, you don't
need to travel around the city, which means more time for yourself, and
location is no longer a problem.
What
type of Home Gym?
There are different types of Home
Gyms, depending on the resistance technology it uses. The most common home gym
types use pin stacks, while there are home gyms that use plate loading
resistance. There are also Home Gyms that use resistance bands or power rod
resistance technologies.
We will break down the upside and
downside of each type, and we will give you a brief summary for each
technology, and our recommendation on what the best Home gym is for you. We
will be basing each type of Home Gym on different brands and models of the
world's top makers of fitness equipment so we can determine the pros and cons
of each type of Home Gym.
Pin Stacks
Pin stack is the most common
resistance technology for Home Gyms. The term is coined because there is a
stack of weight connected to the cable pulley, and you can adjust the weight by
placing the pin on the preferred weight. To get a closer look on pin stacks, we
choose one of the best pin stack Home Gyms right now, the BodySolid Powerline
PHG1000X.
Pros:
-
Weight Adjustment: Adjusting the weight is easy to manage, by
simply moving the pin to the desired weight.
-
Versatility: Use of cables offers various angles of exercises.
-
Floor Space: Since pin stacks are structured vertically,
horizontal space used is minimal.
-
Safety: The aid of cables can assure you of safety, since your
body is nowhere near the stack.
Cons:
-
Limited Maximum Weight: The difference between free weights and
pin stacks is that you cannot add excess fat in it. If the stack limit is 150
lbs, you will be unable to add more resistance to the workouts that you perform
on a pin stack Home Gym.
-
Resistance Accuracy: Pin stack Home Gyms use cables and pulleys,
and simple machine rules demonstrate that the wheel and axle provides less
exertion of effort, therefore lessening the accuracy of the weight being
lifted.
-
Durability: Although the equipment can be considered safe for
users, cables pulling heavy weight over time, albeit minimal friction, may
contribute to the equipment breaking down if used frequently.
Plate Loading
Plate Loading is another form of
Home Gym. It is called such because you load plates to the device to provide
the resistance that you need for each workout. Powertec are the leading makers
of Plate Loading Home Gyms, and one of their more popular models is the
Powertec Workbench LeverGym.
Pros:
-
Weight Maximization: Unlike pin stacks, you can add more weight
to Plate Loading Home Gyms. While most home gyms can stack up to 200 lbs., the
maximum weight utilization for Lever Gyms is up to 500 lbs.
-
Resistance Accuracy: With the use of lever instead of cables and
pulleys, the amount of weight resistance being utilized is similar to free
weights.
-
Modularization: Powertec's signature is the workbench feature,
where you can expand and customize your own home gym architecture, depending on
your own preferences.
-
Safety: With the use of levers, you do not need a spotter to
assist you in lifting a heavy bench press and worry about your safety.
-
Versatility: The objective of home gyms is to be able to
simulate all possible exercises in a limited space and equipment, and plate
loading home gyms can do just that.
-
Floor Space: The LeverGym is compact, making room for more
equipment in your room.
-
Durability: Unlikecables, levers do not encounter friction
concerns; therefore maintenance of this kind of Home Gym would be minimal.
Cons:
-
Lesser Angles of Execution with Levers: Unlike cables and
pulleys, using levers will give you a lesser angle of motions, like using a
barbell instead of a dumbbell.
Resistance Bands/Power Rods
Resistance Band/Power Rods
resistance is another form of a Home Gym system. You place the bands /rods
instead of weights to provide the amount of resistance that you prefer.
Production of resistance bands for Home Gyms has decreased due to the
durability of the resistance band as opposed to its users. Nowadays, Home Gym
makers have replaced resistance bands with Power Rods to withstand a higher
frequency of usage. Bowflex uses Power Rod resistance, and the Bowflex Xtreme 2
SE.
Pros:
-
Resistance Adjustment: Like the pin stacks, adjust the resistance
level by selecting the rods.
-
Versatility: Use of cables offer various angles of exercises, up
to 60 exercises.
Cons:
-
Limited Weight Maximization: The Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE may hold up
to 300 lbs of resistance, but hardcore lifters would have no other way to
increase resistance, unlike in Plate Loading, where you can have an option to
add more weight.
-
Durability: The continuous bending of the rods may take its toll
in the long run.
-
Resistance Accuracy: As mentioned above, the continuous bending
of power rods may affect the resistance level if used frequently, therefore
decreasing its accuracy and consistency.
-
Floor Space: The base of Bowflex Home Gyms is normally wide. The
area it occupies is greater compared to other Home Gyms.
Among the different types of Home
Gyms, the Plate Loading system is the closest thing that you can get to a free
weight set. The Pin Stacks may give you more options in placing your Home Gym
in a small 1 fourth, but the weight resistance may become inconsistent and the
limited weight options make it improbable for you to progress on improving your
strength gains. The Resistance Band or Power Rod resistance is far off compared
to the other home gyms in terms of resistance accuracy and long-term
consistency. The Plate Loading Home Gym's levers provide a lesser angle of
motion compared to cables; it works similar to executing a Bench Press without
worrying about getting dropped on by a 300 pound barbell, or hurting your back
while performing a heavy load of Shrugs. Levers are also more durable compared
to cables that may break, or power rods that may snap.
And now I have my own Home Gym, a
Plate Loaded Home Gym. And as a person who works 9 to 5, even if I spend
several hours eating dinner outside, I know that once I get home, I have all
the time in my hands to work out and not worry about anything else. I can wake
up the next morning and do a few sets without being tardy at work. And during
the weekends, my kids can learn the art of exercise with me, instead of getting
fat in front of the television the whole day.
No comments:
Post a Comment