Here are 3 Fitness Equipment You Need to Use as a Beginner

You’ve gotten into the field of maintaining your fitness and exercising.

You’ve done all the exercises that you can do at home without machines- curl-ups, push-ups, lunges, yoga, etc.

But you’ve thought “Are there any other ways to maintain my well-being?” And the answer is clear- your local gym.

And as you walk in, you find out… that you have no idea where to start or what to do.

Novice Gym Goers

Being a beginner at a gym is a somewhat confusing experience.

You don’t know anyone there, most of the people there are experienced in exercising, and there’s a sea of exercise machines.

So a beginner’s first question would be “What should I start with and why?” Luckily, it’s not that hard of a question to answer. 

Here are some of the best fitness equipment beginners should use at a gym.

Treadmills

One of the most obvious and go-to choices for many, MANY people at a gym when they first enter is to go straight to a treadmill.

And it’s not because everyone feels like running- it’s because treadmills are that good.

Let’s say your gym had treadmills like the Precor TRM 223 Energy Series, all lined up against a large wall of mirrors or windows.

Treadmills are great for raising your heart rate, which is obvious since they’re cardio machines. This means that running on a treadmill for a bit could get your body prepared for some upper body workouts.

They’re also good for cooling down after doing a high-intensity workout.

But, you shouldn’t sprint on a treadmill- consider them a pre- and after-snack for your time at a gym. If you want a high-intensity running experience, use runners and sprint on those.

One of the best runners is the Octane Zero Runner ZR8, so keep that in mind if you have many options.

Cable Machines

Next up is something you may remember from P.E. at high school, the cable machine.

These are all around great machines, as they usually have very versatile options for how you want to work out. With certain cable machines, you can be able to get in a full-body workout with the one cable machine.

You can usually find these machines towards the end of a gym since they’re quite bulky and hard to move around.

And if someone is already using one that you had your eye on, don’t worry about it. Most cable machines in gyms have pulleys on both sides, so you can use it at the same time that someone else is.

You may be wondering, what exactly are these cable machines helpful for?

To put it shortly, everything. Depending on how much freedom you get in customizing the gym’s cable machines, you could work out every general area of your body. 

Along with this, there are usually bars hanging off of the top of the machines, so you could do exercises like pull-ups.

Related: Choosing the Right Weights for Beginners

Smith Machines

Another great pick is something often overlooked by beginners, a Smith machine.

They’re usually overlooked because of how odd they look. It’s easy to guess that they’re fitness equipment used by professionals due to how it looks. 

It resembles a large frame with an adjustable bar between.

Many people would be confused about what to do with the equipment, but it’s actually not all that confusing. Smith machines are good for doing exercises like bench presses and squats or at least familiarizing yourself with them.

You can usually find Smith machines around the free-weight area or somewhere near it.

Leg Raisers

Another important fitness machine that you should be able to find at your local gym is a leg/calf raise machine. While many people might joke about or say that exercising with your legs isn’t all that important, that’s not the case at all.

Exercising your legs is as, if not more important than exercising your upper body.

Leg/calf press machines are good because they can ease you into doing more intense lower body workouts, like heavy deadlifts or squats. 

You should be able to find the leg and quad press machines with the rest of the leg machines- most of them are usually bundled up in one area.

These machines are good for, as the name implies, working out your legs and quads, which are more important than you might think. 

You have some pretty big and important muscles on your legs, so don’t skip leg day!

From Beginner and Beyond

Going on a fitness journey takes a lot of work. It takes dedication and commitment, and no amount of exercise machine is gonna top that.