Health & Fitness
This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive
The Best Exercise Equipment You're Not Using
At the gym, we're often creatures of habit. We walk through the doors and directly to our treadmill -- as if it has our name on it -- without giving another thought to what exercise equipment we're overlooking. But while treadmills and elliptical fitness machines are great, experts say, some of the best exercise equipment and machines in the gym may be some you've never tried.
And as much as it's comfortable to hop on the same familiar piece of fitness equipment every time we enter the gym, our bodies benefit from variety. Here are 12 of the best unsung exercise machines and equipment at the gym, according to fitness instructors, personal trainers, and exercise physiologists who spoke to WebMD.
As anyone who's ever watched a New Year's Day infomercial can tell you, this is the time of year when new workout trends take center stage. And this year, experts say, exploring those new workout trends may be easier than ever. "Many of the most popular new workout trends going forward in 2008 are centered on addressing not only our real-life needs, but also our limitations, including time and money," says certified personal trainer Sue Fleming, creator of the Buff series of fitness DVDs and...
Read the A New Year, a New Workout article > >
Strength Training Fitness Equipment
The Smith Machine. Invented by fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne in the 1950s, the Smith machine is a weight-training machine with a sliding barbell that moves up and down on steel runners.
"This may look daunting," but it's really a great tool, even for a beginner, says exercise physiologist Jim Stoppani, PhD, senior science editor at Muscle & Fitness Magazine. "Because of all the safety latches, you can rack it anywhere, and it provides balance because the bar is on a fixed path of movement," he says.
The benefits? It allows you to perform multi-joint, multi-muscle movements. Squatting with the Smith machine works the quads, hamstrings, and glutes, while the weighted bar works the muscles of the shoulders, upper back, and core.
"When you utilize more muscle groups, you burn more calories and you're training several muscle groups at a time," says Stoppani.
Cable-based resistance machines. You can get some multi-muscle strength work done in as little as five minutes, if you use one of the cable resistance machines like the FreeMotion Cable Cross, says Patricia Moreno, a fitness instructor at Equinox Fitness Clubs in New York.
"You can train every muscle group," says Stoppani, and "you get the benefit of the continuous tension the cable provides."
A cable machine has two long arms with adjustments that allow you to work in any range, from above, the sides, below, or anywhere in between. You can work different muscle groups simply by moving a lever or turning around, Stoppani explains.
Get creative, suggests Stoppani: "It's really limitless the exercises you can do using a cable machine -- shoulder presses, biceps, triceps, step-ups, lateral raises, even ab crunches."
Low back extension machine. Strengthening the muscles of the back is critical, says Wayne Westcott, PhD, CSCS, fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy, Mass.
"Eighty percent of Americans have back pain at some point in their lives," he says. Though the muscles of the lower back may not be "showy" muscles like the biceps or the pectorals, he says, they are critical for trunk stability and for absorbing the stress the back often absorbs.
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