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The frenzy for exercise equipment is every increasing. Media channels are flooded with one spectacular exercise machine after another, each designed to target a new appendage or muscle that has yet to be reached. Some would lead even me to believe exercising is fun; others confirm one’s belief that it’s pure torture. Whatever you may think it is everybody’s doing it!

It seems to me it would behoove the men especially to heed a word of caution: with all those additional Abs and increased muscles being hyped, where are you going to put ‘em? You’ve only got so much arm, leg or stomach, what then? As for you ladies, will you really slim down or bulge up? Where do the muscles hide? Please be careful.

Not only the commercialism on TV but there are gyms all over the place that are packed with exercise machines and rows and rows of treadmills with sweaty bodies striving and agonizing to get through their 45 minute exercise program. In fact that is why all these people are agonizing at the gym-they have a plethora of machines..wall to wall exercise machines.

With all the shtick and flippancy of some of my remarks, we must now assume a more serious posture and focus on whether or not these gyms and their exercise equipment are the way to go for those of us determined to get and keep in shape. Are we really just being duped; do we really need them, and can they really do the job?

Actually, my answer might surprise you. We are not necessarily being duped; no, we don’t really need all the exercise machines; but because studies show that most of us won’t exercise without the machines, it makes sense to use them to get and keep in shape. Picture this, if you will: you have decided you don’t need machines, so you are taking your five-mile run but after that first mile the TV gets mighty heavy and you still have to turn around and carry it home. You see, if you stayed home, you could be on your treadmill and watch your favorite TV program as well.

I have heard some people put a negative slant on home machines because they think it isolates you from social interaction. My answer to this is that when I work out I want to concentrate on my workout and not socializing. If I want to socialize I will go to church or join a country club-but when I am ready to have an intense workout I don’t want any distractions.

From one who has at least five different home machines, each targeting a specific body area, his answer is: to each his own. He prefers exercising at home, because going to the gym takes extra time and he doesn’t need the social time. Even though his exercise equipment, the treadmill, elliptical, Ab machine and such is expensive, it’s effective and very much worth it and he enjoys the comforts of home. A gym enthusiast might say: I don’t have the room at home; machines are too expensive and I’m not a mechanic to assemble them; furthermore I need and enjoy the company. So indeed, to each his own.

Whichever you prefer, the home or the gym, professional trainers encourage you to consult a professional to plan your program, or to research and map out your own plan for the safest and most effective results. Usually the instructions with your exercise equipment have a suggested plan of action. So all you “hefty, hearty and happies” start pumpin’, stretchin’, pedalin’, and crunchin’ and join ranks with the trim, fit and slim.

Tags: Health

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