Strength Equipment

I constantly receive questions about strength equipment and why it’s so important for our well being and my feedback is several: I like to believe that for almost forty years utilizing strength equipment has made me naturally a stronger, confident, and overall a healthier human being.

The body requires regular maintenance for optimal health. It’s especially important to build and maintain strong muscles, as one’s risk of bone loss and fractures increases with age. On the other hand, aerobic exercise strengthens the heart and lungs. Strength exercises aids with stamina and protects the bones and joints from injury; below we will elaborate further.

Strength training or muscle building is an essential component of any fitness routine and can help enhance muscle tone, improve balance, reduce the risk of injury, and improve overall health; routine muscle exercises consist of several advantages that you may not have thought of such as mental health benefits like reduced symptoms of anxiety, stress, depression, and so on.

What is Strength Training? 

I define weight exercising as a method of gaining strength to enable the physique to perform routine tasks, prevent injury and improve overall health. Strength training is one of several different methods of exercise including flexibility, endurance and balance, and of course, push-ups, pull-ups, and lifting weights. I only specialize in strength or weight training as the others are more warm up exercises. Weight exercises for strength includes many styles, in addition to machine-system training, free weights, and functional training.

Benefits of Strength Training

Muscle training has several attributes such as enhancing mental and physical health capabilities and here are some of the most popular benefits of strength training:

Strength training can help increase muscle size and strength; I’ve experienced this benefit for almost 4 decades; it also helps increase power through a combination of speed and strength, and can also aid you in performing better in sports or other physical activities; whether you work in construction carrying sand bags or at home moving around lumber or bags of grass, for example, the power you posses wielding all sorts of heavy matter will be apparent over time. Last, but not the least and my most significant benefit I acquired over the decades with strength training is muscle growth or something called hypertrophy when combined with the appropriate diet and sufficient recovery through rest.

Increase Bone Density

In high school and through the tutelage of my colleagues in my younger years in the 90s, I learned that strength training can increase bone density and decrease overall bone loss by helping to stimulate bone growth and increase the strength of existing bones. My high school body building coach and several science teachers also mentioned that for the best results as it pertains to bone health, strength training at least twice each week helps curb the possibilities of bone fractures and alleviate pain of Arthritis. I suffer from a form of Arthritis called Gout; Gout is known as calcifications, uric acid, or even Chrystal-like stone build up in the joints, especially in the big toe; the build up causes extremely painful swelling; my first Gout-Attack, as it’s known for, occurred in 2003, and my specialist whom is a rheumatologist spent a great deal of time educating me about arthritis and other forms of bone disorders, and that is where I learned the significance of bone density. Bone density, which refers to the amount of minerals in the bones, is important for preventing fractures and other bone-related diseases like osteoporosis. My wife, who’s a two-time cancer survivor, went through chemo therapy and radiation; she often visited physicians for regular visits, especially during remission and I accompanied her on the vast majority of these appointments; so I took the opportunity to ask questions about how concerning should we be about bone density; the doctor and other specialists in her field stated that folks at higher risk of bone-related diseases, such as post-menopausal women or people who smoke tobacco products, should consider adding strength training to their exercise routine.  

Stabilize and Protect Joints

Joint health is essential for maintaining an active, healthy well being. Knees, hips, and shoulders are all vulnerable to injury and disease, such as osteoarthritis, especially as we age. Strength training can help increase the stability and strength of the joints as well as delay any degenerative or debilitative diseases that comes as we age. Strength exercises can also prevent injuries and improve overall function; I have met on numerous occasions with my rheumatologist about my Gout condition and he says strength training can also help improve posture and balance as the joints become stronger.

Improve Sleep Quality

The recovery model within the three pronged approach discusses the benefits and importance of sleep, but in this blog on strength we can not leave out a critical benefit known as sleep; strength training can actually aid with improving sleep quality, too, which is essential for physical and mental well-being and may help reduce fatigue and increase energy levels throughout the day.

Regular strength training can also help the body adjust to a regular sleeping pattern and improve stiffness and aches that can cause sleep disturbances; weight training can be quite exhausting, especially the more intense workouts. Over decades of training, I seldom experienced horrible sleep sessions, and I believe that there is a direct correlation to being worn-out. In other words, if you carefully deplete yourself during the training sessions, you’re basically ready for recovery. Take for example those of us that lead a sedentary life; many of my clients whom once complained about not getting enough sleep or had issues in recovery lead quite an inactive life and slept less than 6 hours per 24 hours. However, as they began a strength program, they begin to not only sleep better, but complained less about aches. One other important observation is that your workout sessions should not be conducted about two hours prior bedtime as intense workouts may make it harder for some to fall asleep because you’re still at an energetic state of mind; our metabolism is at it’s lowest point during the evening hours, and if that is not enough to encourage you to training in the earlier part of the day, consumption after a training session is a must to repair cells and encourage muscle growth. So if you skip a meal, all that effort to build muscle will go to waste. If you happen to consume after that session, you still need to find a way to burn some of the fat after consumption. Otherwise, much of the meal consumed will turn to fat.

Should You Buy Fitness Equipment or Join a Gym?

Well... that is a matter of what suites you best.  In other words, explore both options. It can’t hurt to find your best wellness progress atmosphere. If you find it complex to reach a gym, intimidated by others in a club setting, or for any other reasons, building a home gym might be a great alternative!

Home Gyms and Functional Trainers

Home gym machines, also known as multi-stations or all-in-one workout units, serve as either elaborate or compact versions of gym setups we see in commercial settings like within home owner’s association facilities hotels, and gym clubs. However, the same conclusion can be made with functional trainers; both systems give clients the ability to perform multiple exercises on a single piece of equipment; in other words, in other words, these machines can be quite versatile. Functional trainers are more for those of us that wish to perform more muscle building exercises whereas home gyms are more for toning utilizing resistance systems consisting of weight stacks, resistance bands, or even chains; although chain-based units are a thing of the past, you still may be able to find some on the internet.

Stack Machines vs Free Weight and which is better?

Independent barbells benches, plates, dumbbells, and so on requires a great deal of muscle strength depending on the goal or scenario whereas for most machine work, you either sit on an attached unit or lie down on a weight stack system. Training with a barbell weight on your back, for example, or having in your hands independent dumbbells makes you accountable for either not falling over or tripping over something; thus is the reasoning behind training isolation and balance exercises. Moreover, if you’re goal is to be efficient with time and train for muscle mass, squats, deadlift, barbell arm curl, bench press, and anything of similar pays the most dividends. All other motions are secondary or do not provide the most benefit for mass . Machines can provide an effective strength or mass results as well, but you are limited because stacks can only provide so much; you must turn to free weights for higher results with no amount of weight to limit you. Machines are used for isolation movements, and rarely meant to train the body with mass or strength being the ultimate goal. Almost all machines do not allow you to lift heavy. Free weights can be dangerous if you are beginning, and can be intimidating let alone heavy. Stack machines are simpler and lesson the possibilities of injuries. I recommend those of us that are just beginning to start with stacks and then, graduate, sort of speak, to free weights, but with guidance from an experienced colleague or trainer.

When you walk into most gyms, hotels, recreational centers, and association club gyms you see a ton of machines and free weight equipment. However, how you go about deciding which route to go depends on your mission, preferences, allotted time you have for the workout session, your level of experience, and tolerance level, not to mention your confidence level if you want to take a risk on a cool looking machine that you’ve never used, especially if it’s free weights. Consider what day it is, leg day, shoulders and arms, or chest and back; So can you can see, there are a lot of variables to consider prior determining what to use. Personally, I use a combination of machines and free weights to hit the muscles from different angels and encourage both strength and muscle mass.