Weight Training Equipment

Getting started in weightlifting means that you will probably need some weight lifting equipment. Hopefully you have been looking around for this but I will try to give you a good idea of the equipment that you will need.

First of all there are two kinds of equipment for weight training. There are weights and bars and there is equipment that will help you to use those weights and bars.
Weight training equipment - Weights and Bars

In looking for weights and bars it is a good idea to have weights that will work on short bars (like for one armed curls) as well as on longer bars (for two armed curls or bench press). I have always tried to have a variety of weights from 2.5 pounds to 10 pounds and I have bought metal weights instead of those crappy plastic ones as they take a lot less space.

To figure out how much weights that you need just look at how much you want to squat or bench press in the next month or so and remember that you can buy more weights after that time. I imagine that you are the same as me and can bench press more than you can curl or do one armed rows with so 150 pounds total is more than enough since you also have the weight of the bar to worry about.

There are two kinds of bars to worry about, you need a long bar for curls and bench and squats and two short bars for curls and flyes and all the arm exercises that you can think of. The bars that I bought have a type of screw on end that allows you to just spin the collars on and off to make sure that the weights stay in place.
Weight training equipment - Support equipment

As far as equipment needed for weight lifting I always thing that there is only one really needed and that is a bench. any bench is going to help you with your weight lifting but I opted for an incline bench so that I would be able to do incline bench presses. Other than this the bench is good for lots of stuff like:

* Concentration curls

* One armed rows

* Tricep kickbacks

* Flyes

* Crunches

* And tons more exercises

I think you get the idea here though. A bench is necessary and is unavoidable if you really want to get a good workout in.

The other big piece of weight training equipment is the squat rack. A squat rack will help you to stay safe by giving you something to rack your weights before your set as well as a guard at the bottom in case you go too far and can't get the weight back up. A squat rack can be very expensive so this is not something I would worry about early at home instead just do not go too havy in your squats.
Weight training equipment - All in one

One last option is something like Bowflex. I have known a few people that have gotten Bowflex machines although I have not tried one myself for more than a couple of reps and the great thing about Bowflex is that is will allow you to do dozens of different exercises. The downside though is that these things can be pretty pricey.

To get your weight lifting equipment I have always thought that second hand is best. People go and get equipment and then a year or tow later after it has picked up a lot of dust they decide to sell. Sadly there are always more people looking to get rid of weight lifting equipment than are trying to buy it so you should be able to get a pretty good deal instead of buying the weight lifting equipment new.

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