The Core Workout Equipment you should know about.
The gym can be a terrifying place for some.
The first time you enter one, you feel overwhelmed by the equipment you have no idea how to use. The situation is all the more scary if you don’t have a personal trainer, or at least an experienced workout buddy to show you a basics workout. Some pieces of gym equipment, however, tend to pale in significance in comparison to others.
Gym Workout
This is the reason we made a rundown of crucial workout equipment in the gym. Keep in mind that everything that you’ll read about here truly is important and that you should familiarize yourself with every item mentioned before you decide which ones to incorporate in your daily training.
If you are planning on making your own home gym, the list below can be a handy tool to for you so you need to know what to buy.
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Here are the 7 Core Workout Equipment in order:
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Dumbells
Free weights – This piece of equipment is, without a doubt, the most important one. Lifting up something without the support of a rail or a cable works for more than just the muscle areas that the gadget targets, but also the secondary muscles – those most often neglected.
Furthermore, by simply lifting heavy weight, you are improving your stance and stability and helping your body adjust to lifting weights. When we’re talking about free weights, we primarily mean barbell and dumbbells.
However, a curl bar can come in very handy for bicep and triceps workouts. Somewhat shorter than the barbell, this bar provides more grip and helps you target primary muscles. On that note, the tricep bar (oval shaped, with two parallel hand placements) offers even more grip and is specifically designed for tricep exercise – a muscle commonly in the shadow of the famous bicep.
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Treadmill
Treadmill – Now, if you’re not one for outdoor jogging, the treadmill is an equally good exercise – perhaps even a better one! This machine can tell you what your heart rate is, offers plenty exercise options, allows you to set incline and speed variations and combinations.
Furthermore, concrete can bring serious damage upon your knees while this fascinating device benefits from a soft rubber surface. We recommend spending at least 15 minutes a gym day on the treadmill as a regular cardio workout.
Check out my list over the 9 best treadmills for home use. – I’m sure you find a treadmill that fit your needs.
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Rowing Machine
The rowing machine – This piece of equipment has multiple benefits.
On top of the fact that it does wonders in strengthening your back and providing a perfect warm-up exercise for pull-ups and chin-ups, the ergometer (i. e. the rowing machine) helps you achieve agility, composition in your workout and, more importantly, improves your rhythm feel (don’t be fooled, this sense is of utmost importance in almost any exercise routine).
Furthermore, the rowing machine can burn up to 1,000 calories per hour and improve your metabolism, heart-rate and blood flow.
Check out our list of the 10 best rowing machines for your home gym.
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Cable Machine
Cable machine – While, admittedly, this machine isn’t perfect for improving your strength, when it comes to toning up, you can rest assured that no piece of gym equipment does a better job.
The array of activity that the cable machine has in store is so wide, that you can even come up with your own exercises! Push downs for triceps, pull downs for your lats, side extensions for your shoulders, cable curls for your biceps, cable flies for your chest, the list goes on and on.
Although free weights, mentioned above, are a far more important piece of gym equipment, making progress often means making changes to your routine, and this is where the cable machine comes more than handy.
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Hyper extension bench example
Hyper extension bench – This gym item is mostly designed for targeting core muscles, such as abs, lower back muscles, and glutes. There is a reason why no gym lacks this basic piece of equipment – it is highly adaptive to different routines, easy to use, and proves for a fantastic fat-burning, muscle-toning experience.
The number of exercise variations here often coincide with that of the cable machine – all we can tell you is that it is huge. Whether you want to work upper, lower, lateral abs, or your back muscles and glutes, there is no escape from this torture machine (in a good way, of course).
Renegade Gym Equipment is a popular choice of equipment, providing a plethora of quality machines and items. Their Flat Weight Bench, for example, is designed with stability, comfort and versatility in mind.
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Stability Ball
Stability ball – Also known as an exercise ball, this gym equipment piece is often a subject of oversight. But what most of those inflated, muscular guys refuse to admit is the fact that stability and agility aren’t only boxing and athletics-related.
Whether your ambition is to pull trucks or not, maintaining an equal muscle strength and coordination is something every gym rat out there should be aiming for.
Sit on it, roll on it, stretch out backwards over it, think of your own exercise and let it be your playground – either way you’re working your entire body while having fun and, admittedly, probably ending up looking downright ridiculous.
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Medicine Ball
Medicine ball – Now here’s an interesting alternative to free weights. Well, technically speaking, the medicine ball is a member of the free weight family, but way more difficult to use. Why? Well, you have no grip! Essentially (and literally) it’s a ball, and a heavy one at that, so you’ll be holding it with both hands for the majority of the time.
Be warned, though, that you should approach these with caution, for you might quickly lose your balance and end up hurting yourself, or others – something you definitely do not want to take place in a gym.
Well, there you have it, a general rundown of the most important pieces of equipment for beginners, as well as intermediate and advanced gym enthusiasts.
Share this with a friend that has just started going to the gym – I know he or she will appreciate it.
Keep your workouts regular and always remember – looking borderline ridiculous beats not being able to look at your potbelly in the mirror further down the line!
If you have any questions after reading this list of core workout equipment, I encourage you to post them below. Maybe you have a fun story from the gym?
Author Bio
This article is written by Norah Martin, Editor at HighStyleLife. Follow her, and them, on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.
My husband and I had a work out room at one time. We had an Ab Lounger, Recumbent Bike, Eliptical and Treadmill. We also had free weights. Back then, we actually used them too. Unfortunately, they started getting used less and less. We sold everything besides the Recumbent Bike. My husband swears that it helps his back. I think I would rather have a Rowing Machine. I’ve never used one, but have considered getting one.
~ Melinda
Appreciate your comment, Melinda. Seems like you have a lot of experience with workout equipment! I hear lots of stories about home gym equipment that collect dust after a while. People are more motivated in the beginning. It’s clever to sell equipment you don’t use to get a bit of funding for other types of machines for instance. I think you should try the Rowing Machine. It may just be the thing for you to get you going again. 🙂
I have been working from home a lot more recently and having a gym at my house would definitely help with my motivation to exercise. I find that doing simple exercises like push-ups and sit-ups help me a lot. I should add in some more weight training. Thanks for your wonderful review.
Thanks for your comment Bryan. I agree with you that Sit-ups and push-ups are excellent exercises. 🙂
Hey there. Great article for people starting out in the gym. I remember when I first went three years ago, I felt intimidated by the weights section as I was so thin and everyone else seemed like the Mountain from Game of Thrones, grunting away. Well now, I feel right at home there and have gotten to know some of the ‘mountains’. What I feel strongly that people should remember is that everybody in the gym, no matter how experienced, will appreciate the fact that anyone in there is there to improve themselves. This is obviously an admirable quality, regardless of your strength level.
Have you given kettle bells a try? My gym recently got some and they’re great for swinging shoulder exercises.
Hi, Nick! Very inspirational speech you gave there. I completely agree with you: people should not feel intimidated by going to the gym even if they don’t have the experience. And people that are more regulars in gyms should be even more open and help out beginners perhaps.
Yes, I have tried kettlebells a couple of time and really enjoyed it. The one thing I found a bit difficult was that I had to remove my wristworn activity tracker since the kettlebell almost smashed it in certain positions.
Andreas
Hi Andreas,
I agree with you on the use of the treadmill for its softer impact for your knees (which is important to me because I have weak knees from two ACL operations) than on concrete. But I was surprised you haven’t included a Cross Trainer in your equipment.
Do you think the treadmill is as ok to use for lower impact as a cross trainer?
I’ve seen the Hyper extension bench at the gym but I didn’t know what it was for. I might have to start using that to strengthen my lower back!
Cheers, Tony.
Thanks for the great overview of the various pieces of equipment found in the gym. I know that sometimes the gym can be an intimidating environment at first, but I believe this article will help ease those fears.
One other thing I would include on this list are kettlebells. They are becoming very popular these days. More and more gyms have them and many people haven’t heard of them before.
Kettlebells are a great suggestion! I love them too. They are small enough to fit every home gym too.
You’ve put together a detailed post here that has got me rethinking about what I use to think about what made up the core workout pieces of equipment.
The bulk of what you had mentioned I was very familiar with except I never thought about the stability ball as a core piece. When you reflect on how it’s used and what it can do for you, it does make sense.
Like the post, it got me thinking.
Hi, Travis and thanks for the comment.
Great article! I do admit the gym that can be a scary place if you don’t know what you’re doing but you quickly see that literally everyone is doing their own thing and no eyes are on you. I absolutely love that about the gym everyone is focused and minding their business. When it comes to exercise if you plan to stick to it, it’s best to do what you feel is fun. How do you keep your sanity while doing cardio ? lol
Glad i came across this site and enjoyed reading your content. I was thinking of getting back into exercise and want to start to build up some muscles. Think I would have to start out with the dumbells! As that women in the picture – well i don’t think i am up to lifting any of them weights!
Would love the treadmill and was thinking of getting one of these as i enjoy jogging and running.
Great comment. Haha, I suppose that the woman in the picture represent a professional weightlifter and not a typical person training in a home gym.
If you are in the process of buying a treadmill, remember to check out my recommendation of the best treadmills here.
Andreas
Hey Andreas,
I definetly agree that you should have all this equipment because it is really helpful.
I have some weight and a bench and they are effective to get a workout in at home.
I really like the cable fly machine, but I do not have one at home. With this it will be helpful to hit my chest.
Thanks for the comment, Emmanuel.