When many fitness novices first enter a gym and witness seasoned bodybuilders sweating it out, they too are eager to try, but unsure where to start. In fact, even many regular gym-goers may not be able to name the equipment they use frequently. Of course, knowing the names is not the most important thing, but having a better understanding of the equipment is certainly not a bad thing. So today, let’s learn about the names and usage of common gym equipment.
We can categorize gym equipment into two major types: aerobic fitness equipment and strength fitness equipment (anaerobic fitness equipment). In reality, many pieces of equipment can serve different training effects depending on your exercise movements, and there is no absolute boundary. Common Aerobic Fitness Equipment: 01 Common aerobic equipment in gyms includes: treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical machines, spin bikes, rowing machines, and so on. 1. Treadmill: Treadmill running exercise. Running can strengthen lung capacity, exercise the quadriceps, calf triceps, knee joints, foot joints, and ligaments as well as small muscle groups. Stand with your legs front and back on the running belt, hold or release the handrails. Treadmills do not require overcoming the wind resistance from the air, and the running belt moves automatically backward, which is where the treadmill truly saves effort. Start running exercise, jog for about 15 to 30 minutes each day, which can burn about 300 calories, and exercise 3 to 4 times a week to achieve fitness and weight loss goals. 2. Exercise Bike: Exercise bikes are typical aerobic fitness equipment that simulate outdoor activities. They primarily promote cardiovascular motion, accelerate metabolism, and enhance heart and lung function through prolonged, moderate-intensity exercise, thereby improving physical fitness. Exercise bikes can display time, speed, distance, calories, heart rate on the display panel, and also offer various built-in riding programs. For example, weight loss programs, fitness programs, mountain programs; different programs can achieve different fitness effects. 3. Elliptical Machine: Elliptical machines are quite common in gyms as a cardiovascular fitness training tool, widely loved by users. Elliptical machines are also primarily aerobic equipment. Unlike treadmills, elliptical machines can effectively combine arm and leg movements. The ramp design, resistance adjustment function, well-arranged exercise modes, and the ability to specifically exercise lower body muscles and tissues are more scientifically advanced than treadmills. Elliptical machines can exercise and stimulate the regulation of the sciatic nerve, enhance the endurance and strength of waist muscles, and target the hips, thighs, sides of the waist, and lower abdomen to achieve a slimming effect.4. Spinning Bike
The spinning bike is a common exercise equipment in fitness rooms. Similar to a bicycle, it is an apparatus with handles, pedals, and a saddle but without tires. Exercisers can control their heart rate by adjusting the pedaling speed and resistance to achieve the effects of improving cardiopulmonary function and losing weight and reducing fat. Try to ride a spinning bike 2 to 3 times a week, each time for about half an hour to forty-five minutes. Coupled with the use of some muscle gain powder, the effect will be more obvious. If you want to build muscle through fitness, the spinning bike is a good option. It is not as boring as other training programs. Exercising together will make the workout more interesting. 5. Rowing Machine The rowing machine, also known as an indoor rower, is a machine used for training purposes to simulate water rowing. The rowing machine has a good effect on strengthening the muscles of the legs, waist, upper limbs, chest, and back. With each stroke, the upper limbs, lower limbs, waist, abdomen, and back complete a full contraction and extension in the process, achieving a full-body muscle exercise effect. It simulates the natural movements of rowing and is suitable for use in gyms and home exercise. It exercises the muscle tissues of the hands, legs, waist, and other parts. Effectively exercises the extensor muscle groups, and is particularly effective in exercising the back muscles and can relieve back pain symptoms. At the same time, it greatly increases the physiological activity of the back pain muscle groups. The rowing machine is suitable for people who do not usually engage in much activity. If used properly, the rowing machine can actually achieve some of the core strengthening effects of anaerobic training. Anaerobic fitness equipment 02 In fact, all the equipment in the gym can be used for anaerobic exercise. Common anaerobic fitness equipment in gyms includes: barbells, dumbbells, cable machines, bench presses, chest presses, pec decks, Smith machines, multi-gyms, seated rowing machines, and so on. 1. Barbell The barbell has a wide range of uses. Whether it is for the muscles of the shoulders, back, arms, chest, etc., through barbells and iron plates of different weights, using special training techniques for muscle strength with multiple repetitions, muscle endurance training is carried out for the whole body muscle groups to burn fat and convert it into beautiful lines. Strengthen muscle strength, enhance the body’s core ability, and improve the muscles that are still loose after a long time of exercise. In addition, it can also delay muscle aging, increase bone density, prevent osteoporosis and other effects, improve endocrine, and improve body coordination. It is one of the sports that men and women who want to keep fit can engage in. 2. Dumbbell The dumbbell is an auxiliary equipment for weightlifting and fitness exercises and is used for strengthening muscle strength training. Persistent practice with dumbbells for a long time can refine muscle lines and increase muscle endurance. Regularly doing dumbbell exercises with a relatively large weight can make muscles firm, strengthen muscle fibers, and increase muscle strength.Work out upper limb muscles and waist, abdominal muscles. For instance, when performing sit-ups with dumbbells tightly gripped behind the neck, it increases the load on abdominal exercises; holding dumbbells for side bends or twisting exercises can train the internal and external oblique muscles; straight-arm front raises and lateral raises with dumbbells can train shoulder and chest muscles. It is recommended to perform 15-25 repetitions or more per set, with a rest interval of 1-2 minutes between sets.
As a piece of fitness equipment, the pull-up frame is a very famous device that helps people exercise their bodies, and it is also indispensable in many sports. The best way to exercise the chest with a pull-up frame is the cable fly exercise. Most of the time, the pull-up frame is used to help people exercise their back muscles. When training the chest, adopting the cable fly exercise with the pull-up frame is an excellent method. Additionally, there are standing cable pull-downs and single cable rowing for training the latissimus dorsi muscles. To use the pull-up frame for fitness, it is essential to have a deep understanding of it, so that it can be fully utilized in subsequent exercise and fitness. One of the large pieces of equipment often seen in the gym is the bench press bed, which is generally used in conjunction with a barbell. Its characteristic is that it can withstand heavy gravity. It can be used for flat bench press, incline bench press, decline bench press, barbell squats, and even seated leg extensions. The first principle of the chest press machine is to find the appropriate angle and height for oneself. After sitting on the chest press machine seat, the head, upper back, and buttocks should be close to the backrest of the seat. Then, the waist is tightened forward, preparing for training. Keep your chest out, stomach in, and look straight ahead, paying attention to breathing. Hold the handle tightly with both hands, try to use chest strength to push forward, and exhale and inhale to reach the top point, while paying attention to not fully extending the elbow joints. After reaching the top point, pause for about one second, then return to the original position and repeat the exercise. Training with the chest press mainly targets the pectoral major muscle, and it can also train the deltoid and biceps muscles, which are the muscles of the arms and back. If trained well, the contour line will also be very perfect. The butterfly machine is the most suitable equipment in the gym for chest muscle training. The key points of the butterfly exercise are: (1) Place an incline bench between two pulleys, adjust the appropriate weight, and set the pulleys at the bottom. Lie on the incline bench, holding one handle in each hand. Extend both arms straight and close together in front of the chest. This is the starting position of the movement. (2) With slightly bent elbows, lower both arms in an arc trajectory to both sides of the body while inhaling until the chest is fully stretched.(3) Then return the arm to the starting position while exhaling. After a short pause at the top, proceed to the next movement.
The above is a complete movement. Repeat the recommended number of times. Variation: The subtle parts of upper chest training can be changed by adjusting the angle of the inclined bench. Doing the large fly machine is not the more sets the better. Instead, it should be arranged according to one’s own physical fitness. In the early stage, one can test one’s own limit several times and take a relatively average number of sets, and then gradually increase with exercise. 7. Smith Machine The characteristic of the Smith machine is that it limits the sliding trajectory of the barbell. Whether doing squats or presses, trainers don’t have to worry about the sudden forward and backward swings of the barbell. The Smith machine has many functions. The most common ones are squats and bench presses in different postures (inclined, flat, declined). In addition, the Smith machine can also be used for prone rowing, bicep curls, heel raises, and so on. It can be said that the Smith machine is a comprehensive fitness equipment. 8. Comprehensive Training Equipment Comprehensive training equipment is also called multi-functional training equipment (commonly used in gyms), and is also often called comprehensive multi-functional training equipment. Comprehensive training equipment includes a main underframe. The two ends of the main underframe are respectively connected with a front underfoot and a rear underfoot. The upper surface of the main underframe is connected with an adjusting column, including an inclined part and an elbow part. Forward push, high pull (front), high pull (rear), low pull, butterfly chest clip, kicking, vertical rear kick, vertical pull-up, bent-arm pull-up, bent-arm, abdominal exercise, parallel bars, lateral leg extension, etc.; it can comprehensively train muscles such as abdomen, arms, back, chest, legs, buttocks, etc., shape the body and enhance human coordination. Equipped with an abdominal exercise board and parallel bars, there are more interesting exercise choices; it can do more than ten anaerobic strength movements such as butterfly arms, forward push, high pull, hand muscles, leg muscles, etc. 9. Seated Rowing Machine Mainly for the practice of latissimus dorsi, teres major, posterior deltoid, biceps brachii, trapezius, etc., increase the muscle mass of the latissimus dorsi and highlight the beautiful curve of the muscles. For people who want to lose weight, it can increase the basal metabolism of the body, so as to lose weight better, healthier and faster; for people who want to build muscle, it can increase the muscle of the latissimus dorsi and also make the muscle lines more beautiful, so that dressing is more beautiful in daily life. In addition to the equipment introduced above, some gyms also have various comprehensive training equipment. Here we will not introduce them one by one. But no matter what the equipment is, as long as you master the skills of various fitness movements, you can draw inferences from one instance. Entering the gym is no longer being a layman.