Review of basic gym exercises and equipment

Most people hate them yet squats are the king of all exercises, as you must have often heard. These two statements are probably linked - if squats are so effective, they must exact a heavy toll on the body and that must be why people try to avoid them! Nevertheless, if you want results in your gym routine, even for completely different muscle groups like the pectorals, you'd better include squats.

Although all you really need for the squat is a barbell and weight discs, when you start lifting heavy, and you should, you will need more equipment to help you. First you need stands on which to rest the bar. As the quadriceps and other legs muscles are very powerful, people can usually push heavy weights in the squat. For this reason, the stands must be strong enough to withstand a few hundred kilos in the limit. The last thing you want is the bar falling on you when you are not ready. The stands must of course be adjustable and of shoulder heights approximately.

Stands do just that - they allow the weight to rest on them. When doing the exercise, the stands won't help you at all in the event where you cannot push up again. This is where the power rack comes in. The power rack is essentially a cage within which you perform your exercise. In the event where you cannot lift up a bar, you can rest it on the low side bars of the structure. Using the power rack, you are able to perform the exercise in free motion whilst still having a means to put down the barbell safely. You also don't need stands because it comes with stops to rest the bar at various heights.

Probably named after its inventor Mr Smith, the Smith machine is simply a bar that can move vertically up and down along 2 parallel stands and can be hooked onto stops at various points in its vertical displacement. You use the bar as you would use it in any other exercise where you would move it up and down, except that in the case of the Smith Machine, the bar can only travel up and down strictly. The movement therefore does not feel very natural. In the squat for example, as you lean forward to keep you balance, the bar also undergoes some horizontal displacement. This is of course not possible with the Smith Machine. However, the purpose of the Smith Machine is to make your exercise safe without the need for a spotter and if you get stuck with the bar at any time, you simply hook it back onto the closest stop. It is safer than the power rack as you cannot lose your balance and fall with the bar.

To handle heavy weights, an Olympic bar might be needed. This is a bar weighing 20 kg and is much stronger and thicker than the usual 1inch diameter barbell. The Olympic bar can hold much heavier weights.

A mirror might not contribute directly to the exercise but it helps a lot with the proper form of the exercise and for motivation. We are talking about large wall to wall mirrors here that allow you to see yourself entirely.

Some people might find that a heavy bar on their shoulders is putting too much pressure and feels uncomfortable or even painful. A quick solution is to wrap the bar in a towel. A more professional-looking solution is to place a sponge padding make specially to fit the bar.

Make sure you wear strong stable shoes when squatting.

You might want to incorporate swiss balls and HOBO balls into your workout. These are discussed later. You can use the HOBO ball when performing lunges. Some people even use the Swiss ball to perform squats. Watch the YouTube video below. This is not something to recommend as it iss very risky, even with low weights. Nevertheless, it is certainly an extreme workout!

The squat is not the only compound exercise for the legs but it is certainly there among the best. If you have been squatting for a while now and would like to inject some variety in your workout, consider these other exercises.

The Smith machine cannot be discussed without mentioning the back squat done using it. It is a unique exercise that leverages the features of the Smith Machine - the bar that can travel only up or down without having to balance it. The closest exercise to it would be the hack squat but this requires its own bulky machine.

The leg press in a way is like an upside down squat with the added bonus that you do not have to balance the bar and you do not have to worry about being stuck in the bottom position. Well, for some, these can be construed as the disadvantages of the leg press. Nevertheless, it allows you to go as heavy as you can.

In order to perform any leg press, you need a leg press machines. These are very bulky and have to be extremely strong in order to withstand weights in excess of 1000kg that the pros push. The last thing you want is to see that much weight come crashing on you. Some machine now instead of using weight discs use a stack of weights on the side and cables. The cables are the weakest link, making the maximum weight limited. But if you are not a power lifter or a bodybuilder, this should be adequate for your purposes.

Most people might hate squats but these same people probably rate the bench press as one of their favourite exercise. And with reason - it is an excellent mass builder for the pectorals and most men want a manly chest.

After a barbell, the other essential equipment is a flat bench. If you are going to be performing incline and declined bench presses and you should, it is a must to get a bench that can be raised and lowered appropriately. A flat bench is limited in scope.

A bench by itself is not very useful. Stands are required to keep the bar within comnfortable reach. You have two options for this. Either you use the same stands for the squats, meaning you have to position them carefully near the the benchpress bench, or you get a bench that has stands integrated to it as a whole. These benches are specifically designed to perform the bench press.
Make sure as well that the bench is properly padded for comfort especially if you are going to be pressing in excess of 100 kg. Stands, whether stand-alones or integrated to the bench, should be adjustable or have more than one position to rest the bar. After struggling with your last rep, the last thing you want is not to be able to reach for the stand.

During the benchpress the bar is above your face and over your neck. In the event you are not able to push up the weight, the bar can become stuck on your throat and impair your breathing. This is a potentially fatal position and you need to avoid that. You can stop 1 rep before muscle failure but you miss out the best part of a workout. You can use a spotter but one might not be around. You can place the bench within a power rack if it will fit and work there. Or you could use a Smith machine bar instead of a barbell. The bar will be travelling in s straight direction instead of a more natural inverted J path but the difference and feel is small and you will be able to push yourself beyond your normal limits knowing that you can hook the bar back into position at any time.

The Olympic bar is also occasionally used for the benchpress, mostly in cases where very heavy weight will be pressed, thus reserved for elite athletes. But if you are using an Olympic bar, you will need special weight plates that can fit it along with the right size of collars.

Dumbbell presses are a great alternative that allow you to work each side individually. No stands are necessary to execute the dumbbell press, just a bench that can be inclined and declined. No other equipment is necessary. However, a spotter might be very helpful to pass you that second heavy dumbbell still on the floor. Dumbell flyes are also easily done with just a pair of dumbbells and the right bench.

Cable exercises are a good addition to benchpresses or dumbbell presses, not an alternative. It is possible to even do pressing movements with the cable in addition to cable flyes, the usual chest exercise done using cables. For any cable exercise, you will need a cable station and if working two sides simultaneously, a pair of cable stations will be required. In addition, it would be very useful to have cables at adjustable heights so that a wider range of exercises could be performed with cables. Finally, you will need a set of cable handles. For chest exercises, an individual hand cable will be sufficient but if you are going to use it for triceps, back and biceps exercises, other types of bars will be necessary. A cable station is a very versatile machine that imposes constant stress on the muscles.

The pec deck exercise works the pecs in a smilar way to flyes yet at the same time the motion feels different. They are useful to add some variety to your workout. A pec deck machine will be necessary.

The machine version of the benchpress is also possible. There are various models where you either lie down and grasp handles to push up in a motion that feels natural or you can be sitting and pushing forward. The best machines are Hammer Strength machines that work each side individually