Weight Lifting Equipment Tips for Your Home Gym

With a wide range of expensive weight lifting equipment at your disposal, joining a private gym may provide the discipline required for some in their weight lifting programs. But the long term cost can be prohibitive, also there may not even be a gym nearby. If this is the case for you then consider buying your own weight lifting kit like dumbells, kettlebells or even a home gym.

A home weight lifting program using your own dumbells, kettlebells, or home gym requires discipline. There are plenty of distractions at home such as kids, pets, phone calls, visitors, etc. You must be able to regularly commit to a dedicated weight lifting timeslot to make the most of your weight lifting equipment.

With the hectic schedule that most people maintain, buying your own weight lifting equipment makes sense. Not only can you save money on expensive gym membership, but you no longer waste time going back and forth to the gym.

Basic Weight Lifting Equipment

You don’t need to spend a fortune on weight lifting equipment to get started. Start with the simpler things and move on to bigger more expensive pieces of weight lifting equipment if you wish.

But it’s amazing how many weight lifting exercises you can do with a couple of dumbbells or kettlebells, and a barbell, a few plates and a training bench.

Experienced weight lifters tend to prefer free weight lifting equipment like barbells, kettlebells, and dumbbells. Lifting free weights means all the stabilizer muscles in the muscle group are worked as well as the main muscle, in order to maintain proper form and balance when lifting.

Gym weight machines isolate the main muscle in one plane of action, and don’t require work from these stabilizer muscles to maintain balance and form. That’s why it feels easier to use weight machines at the gym than free weights.

Working safely with a barbell may require you to have another person act as spotter to take the weight when it becomes too much to lift. Generally speaking dumbbells and kettlebells are safer weight lifting equipment to use on your own than a barbell.

Dumbbell Exercises

There are some muscle groups that are hard to work with free weights. Legs can be tricky because of the greater amount of weight required. And we can’t think of any free weight exercise that duplicates a lat pulldown on a machine, besides risking your neck hanging upside down!

That said, free weights are probably the cheapest weight lifting equipment to start with. But when you have to buy more plates, a versatile weight lifting bench and an adjustable rack, the difference in cost between a free weights gym and a multi-station home gym may not be much.

Dumbbells are the weight lifting equipment of choice for beginners and experienced trainers because of the advantage over the isolinear exercises of gym machines, of working all the stabilizer muscles as well as the main muscles.

Russian Kettlebells

For more advanced free weight training, Russian kettlebells would be the ideal weight lifting equipment to choose. The benefits of kettlebell training and kettlebell workouts are performing hundreds of different hybrid kettlebell exercises. Trying to use a dumbbell with the movements of a typical Russian kettlebell exercise is nowhere near as smooth or easy to perform because of the dumbbell shape.

Weider Home Gym Equipment

When used correctly, home gyms like the weider home gym range can be safer to use alone than free weights. Home gym weight lifting equipment can offer some exercises that are difficult or not possible with free weights.

For example, good weider home gyms have high pulleys and pull down bars, and various attachments to work your leg muscles. The main disadvantage is that, unlike free weights, movement for each exercise is restricted to one plane by the machine, and the stabilizer muscles do not get worked properly.

The big advantage with weider home gyms are their convenience and ease of use. Most home gyms have a weight stack; a column of weights used for all the weight lifting exercises which can be easily adjusted by inserting a locking pin to adjust the resistance. So you don’t have to heave plates around in between exercises.

How To Choose Home Gym Weight Lifting Equipment

If you’re going to buy a home gym weight lifting equipment, make sure you consider the following factors;

• Look for home gym weight lifting equipment with good, strong build quality. The home gym should be constructed with a stable, heavy steel tubular frame, smoothly moving parts, nylon coated steel cables, nylon reinforced fiberglass pulleys, and sufficient padding.
• For convenience look for a home gym with a weight stack rather than a home gym which requires you to add free weights or plates. It’s easier to adjust the resistance for each exercise by moving the locking pin up and down the weight stack than lugging large plates into place between weight lifting exercises.
• Make sure you get a home gym with a wide range of weight lifting exercises that work all the muscle groups. Also ensure that the weight stack offers the resistance you need for your weight lifting exercises. For most weight lifters 200 pounds or more is recommended.
• Your home gym weight lifting equipment must be easy to use. You should be able to move easily from one station to another and from one exercise to another, making adjustments quickly and easily.
• Make sure you’ve got plenty of space for your home gym weight lifting equipment.