These days, people are rediscovering the benefits of weight training with free weights, as opposed to machines. Weight machines are expensive, and you will need a gym membership to use them. They are too big and too bulky (not to mention too expensive) to have at home. Not only that, but they can be ineffective. They focus on isolation exercises, which may actually limit sports performance and increase injury risk.
Just about any personal trainer or coach will design training programs that include exercises made to resemble both sports specific and real life activities that use a wide range of motion and a variety of movements. This type of training, typically called functional fitness, is based on a variety of compound exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that involve multi joint movements, which work several muscles or muscle groups at a time. These exercises involve body weight and free weight rather than machines.
If you don’t happen to be an athlete, but simply want to feel better when you go about your daily business, machines can only take you so far. Most daily tasks don’t have much to do with the fixed movements of machines. If you think about it, most of our daily tasks involve various kinds of free weights. Picking up groceries, mowing the lawn, moving furniture, carrying books around, are all basically free weight exercises. Fixed weights, like on weight lifting machines, only move in a certain direction after you get set up and position yourself properly on the machine. In real life you don’t have guides, rails or levers.
It is very simple to master the basics of free weight training. You can increase the demands you place on yourself to the level of Olympic sport lifts, like the clean and jerk and the snatch, if you want. You don’t need to get too worried about which exercises you choose. You will need to be careful about your technique otherwise you risk needless injury. Proper technique is vital when lifting weights. By using the correct technique, you will get most benefit and do the least harm to your body. Take it easy when you begin your weight training and use common sense. As with exercise program, you don’t want to overdo it at first.
If you are beginning a weight-training program, you first need to decide your goals. If you want to increase your endurance, you will have to do high reps with relatively low weight. If you are interested in going for bulk you will need to do heavier weights, but you will prefer a lower number of reps. Once you have figured out what your personal goals are, you can think of your available space in light of these goals. The next thing you need to figure out what your budget will be. Then you can decide how to set up your home gym and what equipment you can buy, and where you will put it.
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