What’s On Fitness Fighters?

On Fitness Fighters you will find all the information and products you need to stay fit and to be able to fight. Need Boxing Gloves or MMA gloves, look here. Want fitness tips? Look here. We have it all, and all the equipment you need to get fit strong and if you are a fighter, good at fighting.

We have advice on specific fitness training for fighters. To check it out. look here

What’s The Best Way To Get Fit

This is such a difficult question to answer. It depends so mucn your your current physical health, your training options and your will to put the effort in.

Training with weights is a good way to become stronger. These days you can do this safely with any number of training devices. There are a lot of them available on this site. Look here for multi-gyms. We have lots of free weights available too. You might need to make sure you get some training advice on technique for using weights. Do the wrong thing and you might injure yourself. Look here for free weights.

You could try running. Its an excellent cardio-vascular exercise and helps with weight loss as well as overall fitness. You can find information about running here

Cardiovascular exercise gives benefit in so many areas of physical health. It can help you lose weight and burn calories up to keep the weight off. This type of exercise uses lots of muscles. For instance running doesn’t just use your legs, your arms and back are involved and of course your core muscles too. Cardio based exercise helps prevent all-cause mortality so is important for a long healthy life.

You will get the maximum benefit from cardio training if you exercise three or more times a week. It is best if you train for at least half an hour. So what sort of exercise is good to achieve these benefits. You have a wide range of options. Running is great, riding a bike – outside or a stationary bike inside, or rowing are great forms of exercise. For these forms of exercise you can use a treadmill, a climber or stepper, rowing machines, elliptical cross trainers or exercise bikes.

So let’s have a look at some of these training accessories.

Treadmills

There are a lot of advantages to getting a treadmill. For one thing you can train regardless of the weather outside! Treadmills are easy to use and can be a great way to get fit, burn up those calories and lose some weight -and keep it off. Running either outside or on a treadmill will improve your whole cardio-vascular system.

What to think about when buying a treadmill? Well, first up, what are your fitness objectives? Do you just want to lose weight, are you aiming for general health and fitness, getting better from an injury or improving your athleticism.

But you also need to think about cost, size, treadmill functions. Do want one which will fold away or that you can keep set up in the spare room? Have a look at our reviews here for all you need to know about treadmills.

Next on our list; Cross Trainers

If you want an exercise method that doesn’t stress your body too much the one you are looking for is the cross trainer. Your legs go forward and backward and up and down, but your hips, knees and ankles don’t leave the trainer surface so suffer no local joint stress.

Often the cross trainer comes with a heart rate monitor and other devices which do things like measure your maximum heart rate and how many calories you are using when you exercise.

For a general overview of cross trainers look here; Cross Trainers

And for the best elliptical cross trainer under $200 look here; Cross Trainers

Exercise bikes.

Its useful to consider how active you will be with an exercise bike and decide what you want to achieve by using it. Once you have tried an exercise bike for exercise you will have a better idea of what you can do on one and can then choose one which will suit your training targets best. There are a lot of different types of indoor exercise bikes and we can help you with our guide to decide what is the best exercise bike for you.

There are four basic types of exercise bikes.

One of the most common is the ‘studio’ indoor cycling bikes. The pedals are connected to a weighted flywheel via something close in design to the gears of a real bike. Resistance is altered by a lever or a handle and makes you feel like you are changing gears on a real bike. With this bike you can also stand up to pedal like going up a hill in real life. This uses a lot more muscles – I can really feel my back muscles working hard, and my quads when I stand to pedal one of these. It’s a way more intensive workout than just sitting on the bike pedalling and I feel smashed when I get off.

These bikes are similar in feel to being outside. With the levels of resistance they make you feel like you are outside and the work better and the feeling is very natural compared to the upright bikes.

Speaking of upright bikes, these are a great way to dump calories and shed weight. They will help you to get fit and to stay fit. Like mine, they come with a display console, usually a LCD screen, the usual heart rate monitor and because the upright bike is so good for exercise they will have pre-programmed rides you can choose from to get the most out of your exercise.

These are very comfortable bikes to ride. In a sense they are not like being on a bike out on the road, but the chances of injury are reduced because you are in an ergonomically good position to exercise, being fairly upright.

They are a good choice for someone who hasn’t done much exercise in the past and just want to find out what cycling for exercise is like. Like the cross trainers they are good because the impact in your joints is minimised so you don’t have trauma to your ankle hip or knee joints. In fact it’s the reverse, the joints are lubricated by the activity and become healthier. They also improve muscle tone in your legs and increase blood flow.

A less common form of exercise bike is the recumbent bike. Out on the road the recumbent bikes are very efficient because of their low wind resistance and comfortable riding position.

The comfort aspect applies to the indoor recumbent bikes too. You are reclining to some degree and so your back is fully supported and you sit more in a chair-like seat than a saddle. This distinction is what would make you choose a recumbent bike. There are also some different muscles involved, you tend to use your lower abdominals and your big powerful gluts. For people with injuries, for instance knee or back pain, this type of bike may will be the best way to go. I have a friend with chronic low back pain which makes a normal upright bike a nightmare to ride, but he finds the recumbent bike comfortable and a great form of exercise.

The last indoor exercise bike we will look at is distinctive because of the type or resistance it employs. Rather than a flywheel it has a large resistance fan, which had a big black belt connecting it to the pedals, with some pulleys in between. Basically the blades of the fan provide resistance and that resistance increases as you pedal faster, so it gets harder the harder you try. You have to make up your own workout on this one as there are no pre-set programmes. Again this is low impact and the exercise difficulty is determined by your own effort.

Climbers/Steppers

Live in a flat and haven’t got room for a treadmill? Well here is your answer. The Steppers take up very little space . Sometimes they are called stair climbers because using one is just like going up lots of stairs.

What is a Stepper good for? Well they are great for cardio-vascular fitness but are also fabulous for working on the gluts, hamstrings, quads and calves.

Check out Steppers out here.

Finally;

Rowing Machines;

There are several different sorts of rowing machines and we will go through them. But why would you use a rowing machine? Well, they are good for developing your arms and shoulders and the major muscles of your back and legs. Like a cross trainer they are low or even no impact. You will benefit from improved strength, muscle tone and flexibility.

So what sort of rowing machines are there?

First up are the foldable rowing machines. They take up the least space of nearly all fitness equipment. This makes them great for you if you are living in a room in a shared house or a small unit with not much room. Row while you are watching TV!

What about water rowing machines? These machines are like rowing on water, the resistance increasing in when you row faster. So the resistance increases the harder you try. There is also a simulation of the way a boat moves in water.

You can adjust the resistance by putting more or less water in the tank which will change the pressure and resistance. I’ve tried one and they are great. They are a bit heavier and take up more space than the other types of rowing machines, but are really fun with the water simulation.

The magnetic rowing machines give adjustable degrees of resistance through the strong electro-magnets. They have a smooth action and can make you feel like you are actually on the water.

These rowers are quiet and you pre-adjust the resistance. Unlike a water rower the resistance doesn’t increase with the more effort you put in. Nevertheless you can have a good hard workout which will get your heart rate up and make you stronger!

There are Air Rowers next on the list. The mechanism can be combined with magnetic resistance. They give a great feeling of rowing on actual water. These machines work by the resistance of moving a fan against air. Generally the intensity is increased either by adjusting a damper or just by rowing faster and harder which will increase the intensity.

So there you have it. A great range of equipment that you can choose from to increase your cardiovascular fitness levels, get fit, stronger and lose weight.