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Useful Things for Your Exercise Program Over 50
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items After consulting books or professional expertise, your chosen program may involve “props” for specific exercises. You will find helpful recommendations here. A wide range of exertion is covered. There are things for you if you are a frail beginner or in great condition - perhaps already experienced. The items fall naturally into three sections, hand-props, weights, and machines. For much more information about home gym development and use, visit my website, https://oklookgood.com where you will also enjoy related articles published on Medium
Sections
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Hand-props. Things to pick up and move around easily.
Helpful Articles You May Require For Senior Weight Training.
Gym Equipment With Moving Parts, Commonly Referred to as "Machines"
Gym clothing for bodybuilders
Hand-props. Things to pick up and move around easily.
Your program can be a life-long endeavor and pleasure. I see mine as the best part of every day. Whether later with weights or machines, or at the beginning without, you get energy and resilience from core and cardio exercises. You will find plenty of great ones using your mat or up on your feet, perhaps with the aid of these props.
Mats add a layer of softness for you and protect your floor. “Small” is sufficient unless you work out with a friend.
Exercise Mats for Fitness & Workouts
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Because they do not reveal the resistance to your pull at their maximum, their resistance increases as you strengthen and pull harder. I find that to be a fabulous feature. Note how one end can be secured by a closed door. Recommend strap work highly. An enormous list of straps and exercises for straps exists. You can find something for every muscle.
TRX® Suspension Training | Suspension Weight Training
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An extremely versatile tool for core and cardio moves. A ball that suits your size can be selected from what is available at a public gym. If you buy one, the seller can help you choose the right size and workout options. There must be a dozen uses. It requires a fair bit of space if you keep it inflated but almost nothing if you let the air out. Your ball provides alternative ways of doing familiar exercises. In this way, you can avoid being "stuck in a rut."
Amazon.com: Inflate Exercise Ball
Knees can get tricky with age and surgery. Get your perfect stepping adjustment with these increments. They are easy to store standing on end.
Step Platforms for Exercise & Fitness
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Balancing is more difficult as you get older and becomes an essential part of your exercise - to keep you safe from falling. What you see here are exercises on equipment that must be approached with caution and a suitably advanced balance level to derive the benefit from the work. Do not neglect your balance. There is always room for improvement. A high percentage of senior injuries come from falls.
10 of the Best Equipment Options to Improve Your Balance - The …
You have seen pictures of boxers training with jump-ropes. They do it to achieve deftness on their feet. That would be excellent for your balance and confidence at any age. The proper equipment helps you work correctly. The benefit, remember, is in the effort - not the level of ease you can create for yourself.
Jump ropes Exercise & Fitness Accessories - Walmart.com
This is a good way to work lightly when you need a light workout and get a bit of variety in a weight-lifting routine.
Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands
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Helpful Articles You May Require For Senior Weight Training.
A very advanced 70-year body builder explained, “Your muscles don't know how old you are. They will strengthen and grow with training at any age.” This is where you tire your muscles and give them suitable rest to recover with a bit of extra strength. You can probably go farther than you imagine if you proceed slowly and carefully. Doctor and trainer advice first if there are medical issues. That is my main recommendation in this section. However, certain tools suit each exercise, and they are all here.
This type of Dumbbell makes changing the weight easy and stores more easily that the other two types. Terrific but expensive. If your routine includes lots of dumbbell work, easy weight adjusting becomes important and well worth the cost. If Dumbbell exercises are only part of a program using varied equipment, the better price may well justify the bit of plate changing you do.
5 Best Adjustable Dumbbells, According to Personal Trainers
Many of the core or cardio exercises that are done standing or on a mat can be done better on a bench. This is especially true when it comes to your dumbbell work. Look at the adjustment being made in the second picture. The man is making an inclined or declined surface for something. Without a bench to provide such an adjustment, such exercises are not available for you. The range of adjustment in exercise benches is huge, and lots of options is a very good thing.
The Best Weight Benches of 2025, Tested by Certified …
The standard gym barbell, at 45 pounds, meant to hold 100s of pounds, is more than you need for your home gym or your lifting arrangement. If you are that advanced, you belong in a professional gym. A light barbell that you can load with small plates to start and up to 50 lbs on each end (eventually) should be fine. Be sure to get and use the clamps that are sold for barbell use because, if you accidently tip a loaded barbell away from horizontal, the plates on the lower end slide. The bar tips further and the plates slide faster. You cannot catch it once it starts. The sliding plates slip off and suddenly your bar jumps in your hands. This is where you tear your rotator cuff and lose all the progress you have made for a few months. Use the clamps
Weight Bars, Barbells | Amazon.com
Every sort of barbell work can be arranged with a rack like this. You can use it with your adjustable bench for your bench press, flat, inclined, or declined, Without the bench use it for curls, squats, and chinning. Adaptations may also be attached to it for pulldowns and dips. The price range is wide depending on how fancy you want it to be. This is a very useful component for any home gym.
Gym Racks & Cages - Power Racks, Squat Stands
Kettlebells are most useful for different types of swinging exercises. The grip allows the weight to hang from your grasp. The shape allows for the arc to avoid bumping into other parts of you as you perform the motion. Swinging exercises get the muscles to engage with other muscles, especially your arms with your back - a strong motif in Pilates' theory. You could use a dumbbell but kettlebells work better for some activities. It is interesting to consider how many exercises done with a kettlebell resemble the movements of particular tasks. If you have to place something heavy on a high shelf or help another person step over something dangerous or dirty, your back and arms reach out strongly.
Kettlebells & Kettlebell Sets | Free Curbside Pickup at DICK'S
The first picture shows the traditional type of adjustable dumbbell. To changing the weight, you unscrew the threaded collar, switch the plates and screw the collar back on. This only becomes onerous if your entire program is done with dumbbells. Changing once or twice is not a problem. If an easy adjusting Dumbbell is wanted, the second picture shows an extremely quick and easy workout tool. The third type you see here is what you find in public gyms where extensive storage is accommodated. Less suitable for your home gym. although you can go from one to another with no adjusting at all.
Exercise & Fitness Dumbbells / Strength Training
Gym Equipment With Moving Parts, Commonly Referred to as "Machines"
Any machine will use some of the space in your home gym. If your space permits it, you may find one or more of these things desirable. They only exist because they do some workout task better than can be done without it. However, it must be pointed out that many enthusiasts, with limited space or budget, are completely satisfied with what they are able to do without the help of a machine. That said, no discussion of gym equipment would be complete without describing each and what it can do for you.
If you do not want to do your cardio work on your feet, a stationary bicycle may be your best bet. It takes little space and is easy on the knees, an important consideration for some former athletes (or dancers, I can testify). You can control speed, resistance and timing and adjust the thing to fit your own size and shape. Amazon can offer you a ...
Amazon Exercise Bikes for Cardio Training
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Rowing is excellent cardio activity as your whole body is moving, not just your legs. There are several different types to suit your space and budget
Rowing Machines - Cardio Equipment
A third option for your cardio workout is a treadmill. You can control the angle (walk or run uphill) and control the speed. A good one will take more space than any other cardio option you might consider. It has balance issues if you do, but makes a great substitute for outdoors.
Treadmills | Amazon.com
This machine is one of the few that performs what you cannot do and will be extremely useful for a person with hip surgery or damage. It works the muscles on the inside and the outside of the hip with adjustment for resistance and for your leg length.
Hip Abduction Machine: Muscles Worked, Benefits
One advantage of pulley systems is that resistance is steady over the movement, using the muscle in a different manner than offered by weightlifting. Systems are made to accommodate many exercises. If you have room for a large device, you can get a lot of benefit from a pulley system, also referred to as “Cables.”
The 10 Best Home Gym Pulley Systems - Home Gym Strength
Use the Pecdeck machine for careful control of exercise for your chest muscles, or reversed, for your back with the “Fly” exercise. If you do not have this machine, you will use dumbbells for your chest and back, but this is better.
Free Peck Deck Machine Photos - Pexels
Ordinarily, those who do heavy squats are not seniors. They are advanced bodybuilders. Somone who needs to build leg strength will start with less weight. The technical control gained with this machine is a good idea for you if need help with lower weights, and especially balance.
Inclined Leg Press to Prepare Squats
These contraptions are too big to include in most home gyms. However, they offer so much to an exercise program that nothing else may be required. The three that you see here are a small part of the many designs available in gym equipment. Cost will be a major consideration for most people, but you get a lot for your money. I will give any one of these a big plus.
All In One Gym
Gym clothing for bodybuilders
One thing everyone cares about in athletic wear is comfort in movement. No one wants to feel restriction as they exercise. If you are doing something that calls for endurance or extra effort, the last thing you want is a nagging discomfort from your clothing. If working out at home, appearance will be of second importance. You may feel differently in a public gym. The makers of athletic clothing rightly assume their clientele are mostly athletes and design more gym apparel for them than they do for us - we older fellas. I try to pay attention to that fact in my recommendations below.
For a program with active legwork, squats for example, a short inseam is desirable as it allows a greater freedom of movement. These from Lululemon, should give you that and are quite handsome.
Men's Shorts | lululemon
Loose fitting shirts will fit different body shapes better than tight ones, but tight shirts are good if you have muscles to show.
Senior Men's Gym shirts
As mentioned regarding shorts, a short inseam is desirable. You get better freedom of movement if the crotch of your pants is high. You might get a better appearance with a long inseam though. Have a look here and see what you think. These are from Adidas.
Men's Training Pants | adidas US
Overweight from fat or muscle, something like this might work for you.
Men's Plus Size Gym Wear | BadRhino
A flat sole is best unless you are a runner. You get a bit of extra balance for stand-up exercise and handling weights as well as a firm placement of your feet where they need to be if you are using a machine.
Mens Training & Gym Shoes. Nike.com
Here are some things you can move in with just a touch of style
Dolce & Gabbana Activewear for Women - Shop on FARFETCH
Close fitting comfort
Women's DSG Exercise & Fitness Apparel
Front closure and adjustable straps
Bras For Elderly
lovely vests for your gym wear
Women Running Jackets & Vests | Craft Sports US