Exercise Begins at Home

Andy Darling says we spend £300m annually on home-exercise equipment, which he describes as a boom industry, but much of the equipment ends up unused. As a personal trainer and ex athlete I recommends items such as Swiss balls, dumbbells, dyna-bands, and boxing pads. Ab machines/accessories are white elephants, exercise bikes as likely to become ornaments and Steppers as a complete waste of money. Personal trainer David Hislop says: “A large number of people buy equipment for home use on impulse and they haven’t got either the motivation or any idea how to get the most out of it. The equipment is usually bought at supermarkets such as Lidl or Aldi. No matter what the quality, though, the bottom line is that very few of my clients have the self-motivation to follow an exercise plan away from the gym or where ever I'm training them.

The article mentions a lady who admits she lacks motivation to use her exercise equipment and man who built a gym in the roof of his house using quality equipment bought from Ebay. He says: “I bought commercial quality kit, and it’s lasted so much longer than the stuff you get in the high street.” Darling points out that Arthur Johnson & Sons, the auctioneers in Nottingham, specialise in selling off equipment from gyms that are being refurbished. Another man describes how he has a garage full of free weights. He has a membership at a local gym but finds it too busy in the evenings so does most of his training in the garage.

Pumping Iron Can Help With Weight loss

A study from the Boston Medical School has concluded that lifting weights may be as important as aerobic exercise in the fight against obesity. Scientists have proved that building muscle can help re-programme metabolism. Brooke Harrison from the University of Colorado said: “These findings indicate that interventions designed to increase skeletal muscle mass may prove to be critical weapons in the fight against obesity and obesity-related diseases including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.” The scientists created a mouse that could be bulked up with type II muscle (the type of muscle which helps in lifting heavy loads or in short bursts of speed). When the gene for type II muscle was switched off and a sugary high-calorie diet introduced the mouse grew fat but when it was turned on the mouse grew more muscles and lost weight even when it continue with a high calorie diet.