What is the Very Best Home Gym?

The best home gym will be the one that has all of the equipment you need to reach your fitness goals. As such, there is no one exercise machine or group of machines that is ideal for everyone.

If you have made the decision to purchase exercise equipment for your home, make sure you do your research first. There is a host of information available online, from manufacturer sites to enthusiast sites to forums where consumers who have purchased and used different equipment sound off on the pros and cons.

Fortunately you can find some of the best home gym equipment online, as dozens of top manufacturers offer their wares on their own sites as well as licensed dealer sites. Often online prices will beat those offline, saving you not only the time it takes to visit a sporting goods store but also a good deal of money.

The first step in selecting the best home fitness gyms for your particular situation is to decide what your fitness goals are. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to gain muscle? Are you looking for a cardiovascular workout or do you just want to lift weights? Determining your fitness goals an important part of the home gym buying process.

Next, figure out how much space you have to dedicate to your home gym. You may have size/weight restrictions to contend with. Once you have made this determination, look for equipment that will fit the space comfortably with room to move around. More importantly, make sure it will fit through your door and into the room where it will be used, otherwise you have a problem.

Finally, before you start your search for the best home gym equipment figure out what your budget is. Although higher cost does not necessarily mean better equipment, the better quality machines will be more costly than the basic units found in bulk item stores and on infomercials. Keep in mind that it will make sense to choose a better unit, as it will last much longer and probably require less maintenance.

When you're ready to start searching, go with well known brands that have been in business for a long time. Avoid the bargain brand home gyms because they usually don't provide a full workout, and they are made of subpar materials that will likely break over time. If you are looking for a strictly cardio workout, go with a treadmill or elliptical machine. If space is tight, opt for an all-in-one home gym like a Bowflex. If you have more room, opt for dumbbells and a couple of machines, perhaps a cable crossover or pulldown machine. Make sure you are able to target all muscle groups to ensure a complete workout.

The best home fitness gym will include all of the machines you need to get the body you want. So first, figure out what you want to achieve, determine your space and budgetary restrictions, and start looking for the best home gym for you.

Michael Browne has been studying the exercise industry for a number of years. He is a contributor to many health sites, including the Best Home Gyms section of http://www.fitness-events.com, which focuses on tips for purchasing equipment for your home gym.

Powerlifting versus Bodybuilding

Powerlifting is a sport that evolved from bodybuilding, and many of the goals are somewhat the same. You can benefit from the practices of powerlifting if you are involved in bodybuilding and vice versa. The main difference comes from competition-in powerlifting your goal is to move as much weight as possible, while in bodybuilding your goal is to look as big and defined as possible.

Powerlifting competitions have three parts: the squat, the bench press, and the dead weight. You win a competition not based on how big your muscles appear to be, but rather, how much total weight you lifted. Competitors are placed into classes determined by factors such as experience and age, and are asked to lift in each of the three competitions. There's no need to tan, remove hair, or learn poses to be a successful powerlifter; instead, you should focus all your training time on building strength and stamina.

Powerlifters should stick to a healthy diet, just like bodybuilders. It is important to eat enough calories in a day to optimize muscle building, but you should eat the right foods. Stay away from bad carbohydrates, such as potatoes, and bad fats, such as fried foods. Instead, eat lots of pasta, green vegetables, and sources of protein. Depending on your body type, you may to cut back on certain foods to lose weight. Remember that powerlifting, however, is not a measure of body fat or definition, so packing on a few extra pounds won't effect how the judges view you. Losing body fat, though, will promote a healthier lifestyle altogether, and you will be able to feel better in the gym when you are weight training if you cut the junk food out of your diet.

Stick to a regular routine in the gym as well, just as you would when bodybuilding. You still need time off to rest so that your muscles recover and build between workouts. Also consider taking an entire week off every eight to twelve weeks. This method is used by many trainers and is found to be beneficial in most people because it reduces stress, allows your body to breathe, and helps you stay dedicated to your sport.

Overall, power lifting can be both beneficial to your health and rewarding in the competitive sector. Set goals for yourself with each competition and focus on winning against your own goals instead of simply beating the other lifters. By being dedicated to your diet and training and by keeping a positive attitude, you can succeed in the powerlifting world.

Tom Ambrozewicz is one of the pioneers in using breakthrough audio technology on his web sites. You can read, you can listen to professional narrator reading to you or having MP3 files download and train in gym while you listen. You can check all bodybuilding tips at Ask-How.info now.

Six Unforgivable Bodybuilding Sins Part 1

If you are a hardgainer or natural bodybuilder, you already know how difficult it is to get sleeve-busting muscles. Learn how to avoid these common unforgivable bodybuilding sins that not even the Pope will excuse!

Unforgivable Bodybuilding Sin #1: Training through the motions instead of training for results

How many times have you gone to the gym and casually lift the same weights; same exercises; same workout order; and same lack of progress? This is called insanity; doing the same thing but expecting a different result. It is also known as training through the motions. Your body is present but your mind is absent. Training through the motions is fine if you are simply interested in stress release and improving your energy levels, but if you are trying to build a body you can be proud of, this won't cut it.

Only results matter, if you expect to see progress.

Consider the analogy of starting your own business. Starting your own business may earn you praise for being a hard worker, disciplined, skillfulness and many other nice compliments but if your business does not make money, the latter perks don't really matter. Whether you agree or not, money is a measurement of whether your hard work, discipline and skillfulness are paying off or not. Lifting more weight, squeezing out more reps in a workout, and completing more work in less time are all signs of measurement.

How to make this sin forgivable?

Stop training through the motions and you will no longer have the illusion that you are improving. Focus on measuring your results and out doing yourself from workout to workout and there will be no doubt that you are moving forward.

Unforgivable Bodybuilding Sin #2: Not keeping a training journal

Not keeping a training journal piggy backs on the last sin. Imagine trying to run your brand new business without keeping records. You have no idea what's coming in or what's going out. You have no idea why you had a bad month. You have no idea why you had a good month. Training is no different.

History has a tendency to repeat itself

If something worked in the past, why would it not work for the future? If something did not work in the past, than most likely it won't work in the future! If you are not tracking what works and what fails, than your training progress is doomed.

Instead of just recording what you did at each workout, start recording the details. If you had a great workout, let's determine why?

Is it from the amount of sleep you got the night before?

Was it a new workout drink you used?

Was it a different time of the day?

Did you warm up or stretch longer?

Did you take an extra day off?

Were you in a better mood?

How to make this sin forgivable?

The more you know, the more control you have of experiencing the same feeling the next workout. On the flip side, if you had a terrible workout, consider all the same factors to prevent it from happening in the future.

Human nature always want to out do itself.

Your natural instincts will strive for improvement. If you know what the numbers were last workout, you will want to out do yourself. You will want to complete your workout in 47 minutes instead of 50 minutes. You will complete all ten reps instead of eight. You will increase your weights 2.5 lbs instead of stay the same.

The numbers don't lie.

A training journal will keep your progress honest and not deceive you. You might feel incredible after a workout and consider that a sign of improvement but than be disappointed when you realize that you were actually weaker meaning no sign of improvement. Treat your training like a business and it will catapult your muscle progress forward.

Unforgivable Bodybuilding Sin #3: Broken focus

Here is how I see many people live life. First you want to open up a restaurant. Next week you want to become a police officer. The week after that you want to go to Vegas to become a professional poker player! You will most likely fail at everything you do because of your broken focus and lack of discipline to finish what you start.

How to make this sin forgivable?

A lack of focus equals a lack of results. Start treating your training the same way you would treat your career. If you change your career, every few weeks, you will inevitably become a jack of all trades, master of none. It will not become a question of if, but a question of when. Your training, to build a jaw dropping physique, is no different.

Pick one training program and stick with it

There are a lot of options and it can be difficult to choose just one. However, look at this has a positive, and make your life simple by choosing just one and stick to it for it's entire program length. Don't start a 12 week strength program and than go back to a bodybuilding style program after three weeks because it wasn't working.

You must trust the author of the program and take responsibility for your decision. Do not consult others about a program someone else has written, they are not the author of the program and will only confuse you. Go straight to the source and consult the author of the program if you require clarification, otherwise execute every single detail as prescribed. Stay completely focused and committed to the program you have chosen and squeezing out every ounce of muscle that it promises.

How to pick the right program

Don't start a high-volume training program if you are not prepared to get extra sleep, spend some extra money on supplements and find extra time in the day to eat more food. Don't start a fat loss program if you don't have the time to do double day workouts as sometimes necessary. Don't pick a bulking program if summer is coming up and you want to be ripped for summer. Bottom line, make sure you know exactly what your program entails and that you will be prepared to invest whatever is involved with the desired outcome.

Vince DelMonte is the author of No Nonsense Muscle Building: Skinny Guy Secrets To Insane Muscle Gain found at http://www.VinceDelMonteFitness.com/

He specializes in teaching skinny guys how to build muscle and gain weight quickly without drugs, supplements and training