Strength Training Expands Beyond Dumbbells
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Weight machines and dumbbells may become a thing of the past when it comes to strength training, as more experts say the best kind of heavy lifting may come from one's own body weight. NY1's Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report. The 15-pound dumbbells and circuit-training machines may not be the best workout tools, when compared to lifting one's own personal weight.
NY1 recently checked in with Geralyn Coopersmith, a fitness training institute director at Equinox Fitness Clubs, and she says we may be in an era that's bringing on the "death of dumbbells."
"A lot of people think they have to add weight to get a good workout. They have to use machines, they have to pick up dumbbells and the problem is, a lot of these people haven't mastered moving their own body before they pick up the dumbbells," says Coopersmith. "So we really want them to think that this is where fitness is evolving, the ability to move your body well without weight."
Coopersmith says the plus side to body-weight training is it cannot be faked. So exercisers can build strength on their own without the ability to switch to a lighter set of weights if they cannot handle the load.
For a lower body workout, Coopersmith recommends elevated split squats, taking a bow with side-lunging curtsies, planks for one's core, and push-ups for the upper body. Exercisers can even throw in suspension training like the TRX Training Pro to get the same kind of benefits.
It is a concept experts at Fitness Magazine also agree with. They list top items that can be grabbed on the go or stashed at home to supplement body weight training in their current issue.
"You'd be surprised. A push-up is a chest press in reverse," says Fitness Magazine Deputy Editor Mary Anderson. "Like, if you are chest pressing a certain weight, think of pressing your body weight and that is what you are doing with a push-up."
Experts are not advising that people completely abandon the weight section, but Coopersmith says that weights should not be everything to a fitness routine.
"There's enough things that you could put weights in your program, you can put machines in your program, and you should," says Coopersmith. "But if every single thing is locking down into a selectorize machine, sitting down in the seat, adjusting it and locking it, that's not a good, well-rounded fitness program."
So there is no time like the present to pull one's own weight.