Spot Toning

The Star Tribune had an interesting story this week that has some great tips if your New Year resolution this year was to get fit and lose weight, and you were thinking about buying some fitness equipment that you saw advertised on TV. While the full article has all the details, their main points were:

• Read the fine print
• Estimate the total cost
• Don’t confuse toning with weight loss
• Consider do-it-yourself options
• Be leery of trials

Sounds like great advice to me!

You don’t need to go to the gym to exercise and work on toning yourself. There are many options available for home exercise equipment for all budgets. Here is an overview of a few of the top ones available.

Toning Exercises with a Ball
Referred to at times as a Swiss ball, gym ball, Fitball and stability ball, there are several programs on the market today that use these large balls. These programs all work well, particularly if you want to concentrate on the abdominal muscles and lower back.

Basically, you lie on the ball front wards with your hips going downwards, and stretch / roll slowly around. You can also add crunches and leg-lifts with this ball; they are noted as one of the fastest means of improvement for the entire midsection. The ball helps you use just about every muscle in the upper and lowers abs, allowing you to focus on improving your abs quickly.

(A simple home substitute if you don’t want to buy one of these balls is to use an ottoman on wheels or other similar item.)

Toning Bands
These are available in just about every color under the sun. Varying in resistance and size, some are singular and some interlock. All allow you perform a range of workout activities with these bands.

Suzanne Somers Toning System
Who can ever forget Ms. Somers’ Thighmaster?! While it can be called a fad exercise item, the system is actually designed for fast and effective muscle toning. It features portable, flexible looped and padded rods to create resistance as you work on toning 12 areas of your body including your back, arms, abs, hips, thighs and buttocks. As you would expect, the kit usually comes with an instructional video and booklet showing the various exercises.

Body Bars & Toning Bar Stand
Used for sports conditional and cross training and circuit training, these stands are just like the ones used in fitness centers. Used for strength training, they come in various weight increments. Stand hold around 30 bars and will help to keep your workout area organized.

Toner Belts
Toner belts help threefold; they improve abdominal muscle tone, strengthen abdominal muscles and help develop a firmer abdomen.

Toning Tables
New and used tables are available for a variety of functions. Among choices are Sandbag Tables, Sit-up Tables, Stretch Tables, Leg Tables, 3 in 1 tables and Circulation Tables, and some come with sandbags and pillows. Toning tables are touted as offering a quick, effective, safe means to non-exercise, if that’s a legitimate term. Supposedly after only one hour on the toning table, you will have completed: up to around a 2 mile walk, 1,000 hip rolls, 900 back kicks or 90 step-ups. In other words, they say that by using a toning table 2 times a week for around an average 50-minute treatment program, you would be getting an equivalent of about 2 hours of floor exercise every day. A recommended 10-minute maximum per use table is compared to 800-1000 reps, with high rep movement offering increasing resistance that increases blood and oxygen going to muscles. The toning tables are said to increase circulation, trim body without building bulk, enhance skin tone and improve flexibility while eliminating excess body fluids.

Here is a brief overview of some of the tables. The Sit up Table helps strengthen and tighten midriff, waist, lower back and abdomen muscles while also reducing inches in these areas, resulting in overall increased flexibility.
The Stretch Table features a single pad that moves back and forth, firming & toning upper arms, stomach and back muscles. Results are improved posture and improved flexibility, due to the stretching of muscles and tendons.
The Sandbag Table features two pads that move in a rhythmic motion, strengthening muscles while firming and lifting flab in the buttocks and thigh area.

The Leg Table boasts slenderizing the entire leg area, firming awhile toning the inner thigh area, reducing “saddle bag” outer thighs.
The 3 in 1 Table lifts and lowers your legs with a waist-twisting motion, slimming the waist, hips and stomach while strengthening muscles in your lower back.

Finally, the Circulation Table increases blood circulation to surface skin cells, eliminates excess water retention and leaves the body relaxed and energized. Overall benefits of toning tables reported by users include increased range of motion, firmer & increased toning, strengthened muscles, improved posture and flexibility, especially with arthritic stiff joints.

Technology in the 21st century has made life much easier to bear. Everything can be done with a mere touch of a button, whether the item is sitting right in front of us or some ten feet away. With such modern conveniences, is there any real time to get some real exercise done, or is mashing buttons the only exercise we get to build up finger strength?

Home exercise equipment is the next best thing for the health-conscious individual who could never seem to find time to work out in a gym. Unlike the equipment used by gyms in the city, home exercise equipment is easy to use, a little more compact, and requires little maintenance. Sometimes, newer models of home exercise equipment in the market are designed to work on multiple parts of the body to work on for that ever-impressionable fit form.

Choosing the correct home exercise equipment can be a little tricky at times, though shopping channels have been endorsing numerous designs that would seem easier to use as well as to store away. A majority of home exercise equipment buyers would prefer a treadmill, the very equipment that has stirred the home exercise equipment manufacturers since the bench press. Sometimes, a consumer would go out of his or her way just to be pummeled with a barrage of people saying that their brand is the best, or sturdiest, or even simplest to use. So where does the comparing begins once a consumer finally decides?

The best way, and usually the most assuring is to ask a local gym instructor on which home exercise equipment to choose. Sometimes, he or she would recommend the correct type depending on your current muscle tone and frame. There are times that a consumer would have to go though a budget and resort in purchasing used home exercise equipment. Make sure that the frame and structure is still in good condition with minimal to no rust forming at the welded areas and you can always repaint the scratched areas to make it look brand new. If the equipment suffered from irreparable damage, like broken gauges and loose wiring from a treadmill for instance, ask your local gym instructor and see if he can repair it for you. Sometimes, welding is often needed in sections of the home exercise equipment when the joints are unstable. This applies especially in bench press tables that accidents often occur when the support bar can not hold the barbell and would result to serious injury and almost certainty of death.

Whatever kind of home exercise equipment you choose, it is very important to know how much exercise you can get out of it to get that eye-pleasing form that you want to achieve this summer.

Charlene J. Nuble 2005. For up to date links and information about fitness equipments, please go to: http://fitness-equipments.besthealthlink.net/ or for updated links and information on all health related topics, go to: http://www.besthealthlink.net/

While proper diet, enough sleep and regular exercise is a foolproof plan to becoming a “complete, lean mean fitness machine”, if you don’t have the luxury of time to go to the gym or fitness centers, buying your own fitness equipment is the answer. Many people on the go find that having their own fitness equipment allows them to use it in the convenience and privacy of their own homes without trying to find a space in their schedule to fit in their exercise routine.

There are a huge number of different types of fitness equipment available in the market today. Despite the wide variety and selection of fitness equipment, they all basically do the same thing. Most of them are aimed at providing you with a cardiovascular workout, which is actually quite normal as far as fitness equipment is concerned. Treadmills, elliptical cycles and stationary bikes can all help you sweat it out without much hassle at all. You can even read a book or watch TV while you do your routine! This is why a lot of people decide to buy cardiovascular fitness equipment - they really are convenient and effective to use.

A drawback about buying such fitness equipment however is that while we can stay on these machines for quite some time without getting bored or completely tired, the chances of getting a complete workout is actually nil. Despite the buckets of sweat that may be produced from a half hour workout on your machine, in all likelihood you are working just one area of your body. Treadmills, elliptical cycles and stationary bikes all target the legs in their exercises. Do too much workout with these machines and you may end up having extremely muscular legs (and we wouldn’t want that do we?). So use caution and make sure you take the time to exercise your other body parts as well.

Weight lifting is another common exercise among health enthusiasts and figure-conscious people, and are a staple at fitness equipment shops as well gyms. But proper usage is needed in order for you to reap the maximum benefits. Dumbbells are actually a common purchase - they’re seemingly easy to use and are quite perfect for beginners as well as people who just want to tone their muscles. There are a lot of weight lifting exercises you can do at home, and a lot of information on weight lifting is available in books, on the internet and in magazines. Unfortunately, while the information may seem quite easy to follow, more people get these exercises wrong than they do get it right. Your best solution is to consult a professional first before handling this type of fitness equipment. It’s much to ask than to end up having torn muscles all over your body!

Choices for fitness equipment abound. There are so many available in the market today that it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the choices you have. But before deciding on a specific fitness equipment try to get opinions from people you know, compare prices, try out the fitness equipment, and get 2nd opinions with regards to the durability, practicality effectiveness of the equipment you are looking at. Don’t just rush out and buy the first one you find. Setting up a good fitness regimen in your life required you to not make hasty decisions on things that can affect that lifestyle - in this case, fitness equipment choices.

Anyone who has ever been in a gym before is familiar with the gleaming banks of shiny exercise machines. Coming in all shapes and sizes, they are usually cause for the newcomer to the gym to pause and ask, “What IS all of that stuff?”

Well, according to the price that the gym paid for any one piece of that equipment, I certainly hope that it not only stimulates your muscles, but also cooks your breakfast, washes your car, and brings the kids home from soccer practice! Now the question becomes whether or not those machines were worth the price, or if you’d be better off doing a home aerobics video with a can of soup in each hand.

Personally, I would advise you to get the low-sodium version of the soup, serve it up alongside a tomato sandwich, and then go buy yourself some free weights. Yes, that is just my opinion, but it does come with some scientific reasoning behind it.

Natural movement vs. Controlled movement

One of the things that you need to remember is that when you are exercising, you are training for LIFE. You may spend an hour a day at the gym, but that still leaves 23 other hours for your muscles to function without the aid of that fancy equipment.

Whenever you do any given exercise, the movement of your body during that exercise is called the Range of Motion. The greater and more difficult the Range of Motion, the more effective the exercise is, because your body has to work harder to perform that movement.

Let’s take a classic dumbbell bicep curl for our case study. If you aren’t familiar with the movement, it is basically performed by standing up straight with your palms facing forward, and a pair of dumbbells held down at your sides. You concentrically contract your biceps (also known as flexing your elbow) to bring the dumbbells up to approximately shoulder level, and then repeat the movement for a prescribed number of repetitions.

Let’s take that same muscle movement and do it using a bicep curl machine. You sit down, brace your upper arms on a pad, grasp 2 handles that are in front of you, and do that same fancy elbow flexing movement to move the handles in an upward motion. Pretty easy stuff so far, right?

Now let’s examine the muscles that are used in this motion. Wait - I thought we were concentrically contracting the biceps? That is correct, and if you are using the bicep curl machine, that is pretty much ALL you are doing. For one, you are sitting down. You know, like you did all day at work, and then in your car on the way to the gym. Then, your upper arms are braced on a nice soft pad to keep your upper body stable while you pull the handles upwards. The machine has effectively limited the muscles used in this exercise to the biceps, as well as the muscles in your forearms and fingers as you grip the handles.

Let us now sidestep over to the weight room where the dumbbells are kept, and once again get in the start position for a standing bicep curl with the dumbbells. Notice the term “standing”. You know, like you DIDN’T do all day at work, and hopefully also did not do in your car on the way to the gym. So before we even start the exercise, we are using more muscles than we did on the machine - namely the leg muscles.

Now let’s pick up a 10 lb dumbbell in each hand. We’ve just added 20 lbs to our body weight. What is keeping us from losing our center of balance and falling clean over? The abdominal muscles and the muscles of the lower back and spine. Now we are using our legs, our abs, and our back. Flex those elbows and start to raise the dumbbells. Now our center of gravity has become a fluid state, and our legs, back, and abs all have to constantly compensate to maintain posture. Oh, and the biceps are also in on the action by this point, as are the forearms, the fingers, and the shoulder girdle.

We now have the dumbbells all the way up and it’s time to start lowering them again, via an eccentric contraction of the biceps (also know as extending the elbow). What muscle group controls the extension of the elbow? The triceps on the back of the arm…

Did you lose track yet? It’s okay if you did because you have illustrated the point:

Machine Bicep Curl: Uses the biceps, forearms, and fingers Cost: Thousands of dollars

Standing Dumbbell Bicep Curl: Uses the biceps, forearms, fingers, legs, abs, back, triceps, and shoulders. Cost: $40 for a good set of dumbbells that can be used for dozens of other exercises

In a nutshell, free weight exercises simply USE MORE MUSCLES than machines do, which make them more effective. Does that mean that the machines are a complete waste? Absolutely not! In some circumstances it is BETTER to stabilize the muscles being used in any given movement. However, those circumstances are the exception, rather than the rule.

So what do you do? Change up your routine, and incorporate free weights as well as machine exercises. However, keep the machine work to a minimum - say 20% of your total time spent working with weights. Spend the other 80% developing your stabilizer muscles, your sense of balance and coordination, and if nothing else - just standing up!

After all, you can go home and sit down on the couch to enjoy your post-workout snack. The bicep machine already brought the kids home from soccer practice, remember?

Aaron Potts is the owner and creator of Fitness Destinations. Aaron’s experience in the health and fitness industry includes one on one personal training in many different environments, maintenance of several health-related websites, and authoring of many fitness-related products for consumers and fitness professionals. http://www.fitnessdestinations.com