A home gym can be one of the most costly of purchases of any piece of exercise equipment. Get the right one and you will have a friend for life: a faithful servant that will take any beating and grow and adapt to your fitness needs. Get it wrong and you’ll end up with an expensive, hulking mass of steel that takes up way too much room and fights you every step of the way.

Choosing a gym, whether it’s a Powertec, Tuff Stuff, Hoist, BodyCraft or Body Solid home gym, doesn’t have to be a difficult process if you following the following 5 tips.

Set your budget and stick to it

Mental well-being is more important than physical well-being. So, don’t put yourself under any financial stress. Buy what you can comfortably afford. If you can’t afford it then either wait until you can or make do with a bench and some weights until you can afford to buy your home gym. And never, never let a sales rep talk you into buying above your set limit, even if they’re offering some kind of ‘easy repayment plan’.

Be realistic and set your goals

This is important as defining your goals will define the kind of workouts and stations your gym should have, which ultimately determines what you’ll need to pay. Sure, we all want to have the best toned body in the State but be honest with yourself and determine what it is you realistically want to achieve. Do you require a gym for upper body workouts, leg strengthening, abs toning or general overall strength training? Make the list and search for the gym that best offers the features you need.

Think about your goals now but have an eye on the future

As your training regime, knowledge and experience grows over the months and years you’re using your gym you’ll almost certainly want to expand on the types of training you can perform. So, look at the add-ons or extensions that are on offer for each type of home gym you’re thinking of buying. If it comes ‘as is’ with no optional additions you want to be sure that you’re never going to need them. If the gym does come with extensions then ask about whether the optional extension (and home gym for that matter) will still be available to purchase in, say, five or ten years from now. Again, think about budget. Don’t feel pressured to buy optional extras if you can’t afford them. Do without for now and buy them when you are both physically and financial ready.

Don’t forget to ask about the warranty

It’s amazing how many buyers don’t know what the warranty is even after they’ve bought the product. Make knowing the warranty a top priority. Many good quality gyms now come with residential lifetime warranties on every part of the machine to the original owner: very impressive and reassuring though you usually do have to pay a high premium for such outstanding warranties.

And don’t forget about customer care either

Though this can be more problematic to know at time of purchase – after all, we only really get to know how good a company’s customer care service is only when there’s a problem – it’s definitely something you should try to get a feel for. So, ask the sales rep about the company’s customer care. Ask questions like, ‘what happens if the gym arrives damaged or parts are missing or something wears out during the warranty period?’ Also ask who actually deals with the customer support, the retailer or the manufacturer?

By following the five tips above you’ll make the buying process easier on yourself. If you have any doubts on any of these points then simply move on. Eventually you will find your perfect home gym, though you may not achieve that ‘perfect body’ you have in your mind’s eye.

Robert Mangan is the owner of www.fitnessLyceum.com an online retailer of fitness equipment were customer care is of paramount importance. The company retails America’s best brands at the lowest price possible.

If joining a gym has already come across your mind, then you probably already have your legit reasons to go. If you thought you’d never see yourself under a bench press or even on a treadmill, then here are 6 reasons why you should join a gym.

1. You might already be going for walks in the park, or doing body weight exercises at home. Or perhaps maybe you’ve been having a hard time chasing the kids all day and having a hard time keeping up with their energy. Or maybe you sit at a desk all day, been driving everywhere, and haven’t got any exercise or stimulation for your body at all. You’ll definitely get more tuned into shape if you join gym. Then keeping up with the kids, and even a run in the park would be a breeze.

2. You’ll start to feel better both physically and mentally if you join a gym. You’ll be more conscious of how much sleep you get, of what you eat, and your overall health in general. After a few more weeks of going to the gym, it also start to show on the outside as you make progress.

3. Joining a gym is a great way to boost your energy levels and its a great place to go if you want to boost your social life. This is entirely a good thing for people whose lives need a little bit more “shaking” up to speak. Ever since a joined a gym, it almost felt like high school all over again. Met a lot of cool people and also some life long friends along the way.

4. Thousands of people join gyms everyday to get back into shape. Whether if they’re wanting to increase their performance in sports, lose weight, bodybuilding, whatever their goals lie within. If another more out of shape person compared to you can join a gym, so can you.

5. By joining a gym and getting into exercise, you can also help improve your cholesterol levels. Exercise has the potential to increase your HDL levels (good cholesterol) and it also lowers your LDL (bad cholesterol) and also triglycerides.

6. If you are already involved in a sport such as football, swimming, rugby, basketball, then joining a gym and getting a sports trainer just might be the thing for you. Sports trainer have the ability to improves ones performance with sports specific exercises. So if you have a sport you take part in, then hiring a sports trainer just might be a good investment for you.

We know that using free weights and machines is the fastest and most efficient way there is to improve your metabolism and strength, but for many reasons these may not be convenient or readily accessible to you.

You may also have no access to a commercial gym, home gym or are on business trip, but there can be a solution, a strength-training workout without the need of expensive machines.

As with any exercise, whether you are using your own body weight, machines or free weights, if the resistance doesn’t increase, your muscles won’t be worked to their maximum capacity and the stimulus these fibres need to grow will be missing.

Exercises done correctly will build the lean muscle and increase your metabolism in the same way as performing exercises at a gymnasium, but without the time constraints and associated costs.

These exercises can be easily done in a bedroom, hotel room, a park, school yard, ceiling rafters in a garage or in a doorway and all you have to do is use your imagination.  There will always be a way to add more resistance to your workouts.

Please remember: It doesn’t matter where you are working out — at home, a hotel, or a park — always warm up properly before beginning your session, and cool down and stretch when you are finished.

Leg Exercises

Squats –

They build muscle in the thighs, shape the buttocks and improve endurance.   Position your feet about 13 to 17 inches apart or at shoulder width, keeping the back straight and your head up.  If you want you can use something that will give you some support, i.e. a desk, bookcase, sink etc.

Now squat down to where the tops of the thighs are parallel to the floor, hold for a second and then stand up, but don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement, use a nice fluid motion. Always exhale your breath as you stand up.

Lunges –

Stand straight in correct posture; now stand with one leg forward and one leg back.  Keeping your abdominal muscles tight and chest up, lower your upper body down, bending your leg (don’t step out too far).

You should have about one to two feet between your feet at this stage, the further forward you step, and the more your gluteus and hamstring muscles will have to work.

Do not allow your knee to go forward beyond your toes as you come down and stop where your feel comfortable (try not to let your back come forward) then push directly back up. Do all your reps on one leg then switch legs and do all your reps on the other leg.

Back Exercises

Chin-ups –

Chin-ups are a great upper body workout, particularly targeting your biceps, deltoid and lat muscles. Use a doorway chin-up bar, ceiling rafters in a garage or grab the moulding of your door frame, position your hands with an under hand grip and hang down stretching the lats, slowly raise your body until your chin reaches the bar level.

Pause a moment before slowly lowering yourself back to the starting position. Don’t swing or use momentum to get your body to the top, just use the target muscles. Doorway chinning bars remove from the doorway when you are not using them and can be put up and taken down in seconds.

Bent Over Row –

Take up a position with your right hand and right knee braced on a sturdy bed or some other flat surface that will provide a good support. Now pick up a dumbbell or something heavy that you can hold onto with your left hand.

Visualize your arms as hooks and slowly bring the dumbbell or object up to the side of your chest, keeping your back straight, then lower the weight back down to arms length, no lower, on extremes, safe form only please. Concentrate on your back muscles. Reverse the whole procedure and do the exercise now with your right arm.

Chest Exercises

Push-Up –

The push up is used for building chest, shoulders and arms.  Lie face down on the floor with your hands about shoulder width apart and keeping your palms turned slightly inward.  Now push-up until your arms are straight, lower and repeat for repetitions.

To make it more difficult elevate your feet.  Try placing the toes of your feet on a stable, elevated surface such as a bench, chair or a stair. Straightening your body, position your hands on the floor at shoulder width, lower your body until your chest touches the floor at the bottom, and then return to the starting position in a nice fluid motion.

Dips –

This exercise can be done between two sturdy chairs or other surfaces that provide stability. The dip is another great upper body exercise. It’s a compound movement as well and involves working all the muscles that the push up works.

Keep your head up and body as vertical as possible.  For the beginning of the movement, start at the top (arms fully extended) and lower yourself until your upper arms are parallel to the seat of the chairs, hold and then push up to the top of the movement until your arms are fully extended again. Keep looking straight ahead and don’t bounce at the bottom of the movement.

Adding Weight

Although the simple weight of your own body is enough resistance to provide an effective workout we need progressive overload (added resistance) to become stronger.

So all we need to do is add some weight wherever we can find some.  Because there are no metal plates and fancy machines to use it doesn’t matter because the body doesn’t care where it is as long as it’s receiving resistance of some kind.

You can use heavy books clasped in your hands. You can buy some cheap weighted dumbbells or ankle weights.  A weighted vest will also allow you to add resistance for both chin-ups and push-ups.  Try to buy one that will let you remove and add weight as you see fit. Also a backpack filled with books can be perfect for most of the exercises and is a cheap alternative.

How about a couple of buckets and fill them with a certain level of water? As you get stronger fill them with more water. This is perfect because depending on the exercise, all you need to do is to increase or decrease the amount of water in the buckets for the required amount of resistance.

To wrap things up…

We know that using free weights and machines are the fastest and most efficient way there is to gain lean muscle and strength, but by performing the exercises in this article you’ll find that they will provide you with the same benefits as going to a gymnasium but without the ongoing costs and time constraints.

Gary is the author of several ebooks, including “Maximum Weight Loss in Ten Weeks” – the complete ebook and time-saving solution for burning away unwanted fat, and “Maximum Weight Gain in Ten Weeks” – easy-to-use and follow techniques that serve as a guide to muscle growth without having to “live in the gym”.

Visit Gary’s website at http://www.maximumfitness.com/