The Safety Aspect for Fitness Equipment

Safety is an important aspect of both the purchaser of home fitness equipment as well as the facility purchaser. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that in 1990, 25,269 Americans sustained injuries from fitness equipment requiring admission to an emergency room. Of these, more than 50 percent were kids below the age of 15. These statistics clearly underscore the need to observe safety when using this equipment. Young ones ought to have close supervision when using the same.

As regards to safety, you should seek satisfactory answers to the following critical questions. How stable is your fitness equipment? You do not want a scenario where a client or your spouse falls to the floor while working out on the machine. The second question that you should think about is whether the equipment can accommodate all users regardless of age and size. Does the machine have safety encasements for moving parts? Moving parts can be quite dangerous especially if the users are young children. Does the fitness equipment have any pinch points? A good way of determining this is to use the equipment and get a first hand feel of all kinds of possible scenarios.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) offers vital consumer information regarding fitness equipment such as recall and safety alert history. For instance, the commission issued a safety alert on exercise bicycles that do not have safety encasements for chains. The primary target group of the commission’s safety alert was parents with small children. If you intend on buying free weights or weight machines for a fitness club, you have to consider a raft of safety measures. For instance, clients performing maximum lifts ought to have the support of spotters for safe lifting. Small gyms that may not have the resources to hire more staff may find this difficult to achieve.

The best weight machines in the market are those that have provisions for proper lifter position. Body alignment is a critical safety aspect and any machine that does not offer this is not good. In addition, lifters will be able to train alone safely. This will reduce the need to have extra staff on standby. Safety of fitness equipment also heavily depends on the available space. It is imperative that the training area have adequate space for equipment access as well as space for the actual usage of the equipment. Measure the floor space as well as the doors if you are not sure.