Personal Training Equipment

While personal trainers could give anyone from a new mom to a professional athlete an incredible workout without any equipment at all, there are some training products that make for an effective and fun exercise session.

Personal trainers may use a variety of cardiovascular equipment in your routine, however most of the cardiovascular exercise is done independently before or after your personal training session or on an alternate day.

Cardiovascular Equipment

Cardiovascular equipment includes any equipment that can be used to get your heart rate up continuously or in intervals. Examples of traditional cardiovascular equipment include bikes, treadmills, rowers, steppers, climbers and elliptical trainers. Below you can see some of the advantages and disadvantages of several types of cardiovascular equipment.

Treadmills:

Pros - These are still the most popular, by far. Walking is a relatively easy activity that you're already used to doing, so there isn't much of a learning curve. Walking is a lower impact activity, so it’s gentler to the body. Treadmills help you keep pace and most have a variety of programs that can keep you challenged. You can monitor your progress and see improvements in time, distance and speed. Treadmills also allow for progressing to running and jogging and are great when the weather condition prohibit outdoor exercise. They also help you to keep pace, monitor your heart rate, see the distance traveled and depending on the model provide a flexible surface.

Cons – Walking can cause shin splints if done excessively, and it's not the best calorie burner. Many people find indoor walking boring. Running is a great calorie burner, but at a higher cost to your joints. If you do progress to running, take several months to safely evolve to it. To compensate for the belt propelling your stride, add a 2 percent incline to the treadmill which more closely simulates outdoor walking. To make this challenging, try different pre-set programs which vary your speed and incline, then strive to beat your own record.

Stationary Bikes:

Pros - There are both upright and recumbent bikes to choose from, as well as bikes with upper body levers. Bikes are less stressful on the joints and once you get accustomed to spending time in the saddle, they are relatively comfortable. Recumbent bikes are a good place to start for beginners and those with back pain. They can help to build up leg endurance. They are safe on the joints and non-weight bearing.

Cons - It’s more challenging to get your heart rate up on a bike since the weight of your legs helps to propel the pedals, therefore needing less effort. To make this challenging, deliberately focus on keeping your cadence up or add resistance. Otherwise this can be a low calorie burner. People tend to get distracted on bikes by reading or watching TV. Both of those activities bring down the heart rate.

Stair Climbers:

Pros - It's a great calorie burner when done properly. Even though you may be accustomed to going up and down stairs, this machine takes stair stepping and your body to a whole new level. You are completely supporting your body weight on the pedals; therefore, it takes a lot of energy (calories) to sustain this exercise. This is a wonderful way to build up your endurance and burn fat.

Cons - It's easy to cheat by locking your arms out on the equipment. Stair climbers may not be comfortable for anyone with knee pain. It takes some time to build up the endurance to sustain this exercise for 20 minutes or more. To make this more challenging, focus on posture. You can ultimately do this exercise without holding on and by pumping your arms.

Elliptical Trainers:

Pros - This family of equipment is relatively low impact and therefore is less stressful to the joints. They are excellent for rehabilitating injuries or for beginners. Arm work will help to elevate the heart rate and increase the work (calories burned). More advanced exercises can add resistance or choose more challenging programs as well as pump equally with arms and legs.

Cons - Unless you are choosing a high level of intensity, it’s just easy to stride along without breaking a sweat. To make this more challenging, attempt to increase your levels, pump your arms and change programs often.

Step Mills:

Pros - You will recognize this one as being the tallest piece of equipment on the gym floor. It most closely represents stair climbing, which is something Americans seek to avoid. This is a very challenging exercise, because you have to support your body weight. This exercise will elevate your heart rate and fatigue your legs pretty quickly, however you can build up to higher intensities and durations with practice.

Cons – It takes a while to build up speed. The tendency is to want to look down because you feel as if you're going to trip. You feel like you're moving slowly, but your heart rate is really racing. It’s also easy to cheat on this one by leaning on the hand rails. To make this more challenging, lightly place your hands on the rails and eventually try to swing your arms by your side naturally as you climb.

Rowers:

Pros - It's a great total body cardio exercise. It helps to improve the endurance of the postural muscles (abs and upper and lower back). This exercise is low impact and is easy to get into your target heart rate due to the arm and leg involvement.

Cons - It may not be comfortable for anyone with knee, back or hip problems. If you don’t keep good form, you can encourage poor posture and overstretch the muscles of the upper back and shoulders. To make this more challenging, focus on your posture and perfecting your stroke. Try to beat your personal score of strokes per minute or meters traveled over time.

Tips for Using Cardiovascular Equipment

When it comes to cardio, several factors go into answering which machine is best for you. There are pros and cons to any exercise you may choose. Whatever choice you make, choose something you enjoy and will do consistently, correctly and intensely.

Consistent Use:

Consistency is your key. When you find a piece of equipment that you enjoy strive for three sessions a week to improve your health and up to five times a week to improve your fitness, optimize calorie burn and improve your cardiovascular efficiency.

Proper Form:

Never sacrifice form for speed or performance. If exercise is to be a lifetime commitment, you want to keep your body healthy, injury free and feeling as good as possible at all times. Think about keeping your entire body relaxed when you do cardio and you will find that you can become more efficient on whichever equipment you choose.

Maintaining Your Heart Rate:

Your heart rate is usually a good indicator of your intensity. Healthy adults should strive for 60–90 percent of their maximal heart rate. If you aren't working hard enough, you aren't going to see the benefits. If you're working too hard, you're setting yourself up for injury, fatigue and over training symptoms.

The bottom line is to choose something that you will do often, is convenient and feels good. Ideally use a variety of equipment. Some burn more calories, some are more physically challenging and some feel better than others. Your body may need different things on different days. If you had a tough workout the prior session, you may want to do an easy walk or bike ride. If you are rested and feeling energized, you may want to tackle the Stairmaster. What’s important is that you “just do it” as Nike says and that the benefits are priceless.

Some effective tools and equipment personal trainers use are:

Heart Rate Monitors:

Heart rate monitors allow your trainer a window into your physiology. Heart rate is a good indicator of intensity and how your body responds to activity.

Balance Equipment:

This is an ever growing category of equipment that personal trainers who focus on what is called “functional training” use to help their clients achieve greater results in the area’s of strength, balance, coordination, agility, speed and in so on. Functional training means different things for different populations. Functional training for a football player is going to be different then functional training for a senior who might want to be prepared for lifting heavy objects from the ground or a high shelf or walking on ice in the winter.

Functional Training Equipment:

Functional training equipment can range from no equipment at all (simply using your body weight) to cones, balance boards, slides, kettelbells, cones, jump ropes, bands, foam rollers, rebounders, tubing and more. Each of those categories of equipment may also have many variations within it which has a different application. For example, bands can be used for strengthening specific body parts, stretching, or endurance. They come in many sizes, shapes, configurations, lengths strengths and so on.

Stop Watches:

Personal trainers will also use stop watches to time exercises versus counting repetitions. Using a stop watch allows them to focus on you, educate, communicate and give you feedback. It’s more effective for them to be able to glance at the time you are performing an exercise as they monitor you, rather than try to count repetitions.

Overall those who do train with coaches and personal trainers are among the worlds best conditioned individuals even compared to a decade ago. Advances in training continue to emerge as new techniques arise in training, eating and recovery. Athletes across all sports are breaking world records each year as we learn more about how to become our physical best. Personal Trainers are among the leaders in getting into the best shape and can help clients achieve significant levels of physical improvements with little to no equipment.