Using the equipment available at the gym is a great way to make our workouts more efficient. And there’s plenty to choose from. Whatever our goal or preference, the gym is full of equipment designed to help us develop our fitness in all the right ways.
Cardio equipment like the treadmill, cross trainer, and bike are easy ways to get our blood flowing and our heart rate up. Then there are more weights machines than we can imagine to support our strength training. Especially for beginners, these gym machines are perfect for practising specific exercises with the correct form and support.
But lots of choices can make it difficult to know what to invest our time on. So, if we only had an hour at the gym, here are our 5 favourite pieces of gym equipment we’d go for.
The rowing machine
Love it or loathe it, the rowing machine is an all-rounder. It recruits over 80% of the body’s muscles to do the movement, and as well as getting your heart rate up for some serious energy burn, you’re testing your muscular endurance too.
The ability to increase and decrease the resistance on it means that you can change up the pace as and when you want. Testing those lungs with light resistance and fast speed, or working your muscles with a slower tempo and higher resistance style row.
The cable Crossover
The cables are so versatile. With a range of handles, heights, and weights to choose from, the exercises you can do here are not limited.
Allowing you to do a well-rounded pull workout that engages the upper body and the lower body too. Tricep extension, chest fly, pull throughs, lateral raises, overhead presses. The list goes on.