Many people think that fancy gym machines make exercising easier and more effective. The fact of the matter is that squats, chin-ups, push-ups and jumping jacks have been around for hundreds of years for one reason-they work for fitness enhancement. Even back in the ancient Roman days, many of these exercises were performed in some form. You may be doing some of them in your normal routine, every day. For example, every time you squat down to pick something up off the floor, you are working the same muscle groups as doing a leg press on a machine.
The reason these exercises work for fitness enhancement is that they use gravity for weight resistance training. If you think about a push up, you are lifting your upper body weight up and down each time you do one. The same is true of leg squats or lunges. Each time you move up and down, you are working against gravity to lift the weight of your upper body. Since this is usually at least half of your body’s weight, you are lifting the amount of weight that would be natural, without straining or causing unnatural stress on your muscles.
For strength training, this can be important. Most people have no idea where to draw the line on pushing muscle groups to the limit. Sometimes, the best fitness enhancement routines should involve natural exercises, but adding more repetitions or variety to the exercise routines, instead of adding heavy weights or using different gym machines. In fact, you can actually hurt some muscle groups by using gym machines, especially if you are over-doing it.
For example, if you are lying in a reclined position doing leg presses, you could hurt back muscles in the process. With leg squats, the weight is distributed to the leg muscles and not on the lower back muscles. Sometimes, a healthier and more effective exercise routine may be one that doesn’t involve expensive gym machines. Even if you use exercise resistance bands, you can intensify your workout for under $50 and get all of the benefits of a good fitness enhancement routine, without the risk of injury.
Of course, you should know the proper form for the exercises you do in order for them to be as effective. Most of the basic exercises are fairly easy, because your body naturally goes to form. Most start with legs slightly wider than shoulder width for squats, as an example, and push-ups or chin-ups are easily accomplished at shoulder width, as well. There are certain natural exercises that are hard to do the wrong way, unlike fancy gym machines that can actually hurt you if you don’t know what you are doing.
For the best fitness enhancement, a home exercise routine using effective strength training and cardio training exercises are every bit as effective as fancy gym machines. Try to add different activities to your routine and increase the number of repetitions for optimal fitness enhancement.