The Total Gym Home Fitness System – A Home Gym Worth Having

There’s a very good reason why Total Gym is one of the leaders in home gym fitness today. By utilizing a person’s own body weight as resistance, anyone can get a teriffic workout at home. As with most fitness equipment, there are different Total Gym models which offer different benefits to the user.

How Total Gym Works

William Tell knew it, and now fitness experts know it too – gravity is your friend. At least it is when it comes to working out and getting fit with a Total Gym, anyway! Gravity and your body weight are what provide the resistance with this type of gym system. They are designed to incline at different angles. When the equipment is set at a lower angle, less resistance will be encountered and when the equipment is set to a steeper angle, more resistance will be encountered. Simple physics, right?

When beginners first workout on the Total Gym, a lower angle is recommended, and then as you become stronger, a steeper and steeper angle is used for more resistance. What is great about this is the fact that even after you have progressed to the point that you can use the steepest angle and thus the most resistance, you can drop the angle a bit and do more repetitions. Switching back and forth between higher and lower resistance levels when you exercise is a great idea because your muscles are being required to do different amounts of work for different amounts of time instead of the same thing over and over again.

Benefits of the Total Gym System

One of the best benefits a home gym like this one offers is allowing you to strengthen muscles while performing aerobic activity at the same time. This can save you lots of time since you will not have to spend time doing cardio and muscle training separately. Many who already use this home gym system say that they can achieve a good total body workout including cardio in about 15 minutes every other day.

As noted above, Total Gym is unique in that it uses the body’s weight as natural resistance. There are no heavy plates or continuous changing of resistance poles to deal with. While researching the this system and reading Total Gym reviews, I found that this is one thing many people like about it; some of the other home gym systems can be fairly intimidating to novice exercisers.

Another benefit of Total Gym home workout systems is the fact that they take up very little space. Not many people have enough room in their home to dedicate an entire room to exercise equipment. Being able to fit the equipment they do have into the space they have available is very important.

For instance, the Total Gym XLS measures approximetely 90″x43″x19″ when fully extended for use. It essentially folds in half lengthwise for storage, so if you have a closet with at least 4 feet of vertical space and 20 inches of space hoizontally, your gym can be stored there when not in use. It does weigh 54 pounds, so you should make sure you are able to safely move that much weight and that you know how to use proper body mechanics when lifting an object of this weight before trying to lift the machine for storage.

Cost is another thing that is an important consideration for most people when choosing the fitness equipment they want for their home gym.
The Total Gym XLS sells for under $900, making it affordable for most people. Even so, this may be a bit high for those who are just beginning a fitness program. There are Total Gym systems sold for under $500 also, that may be good for beginners to try.

Total Gym systems are great for beginners. Unless you are one of the very few who are into advanced weight training, you will most likely be able to benefit from using the Total Gym. Continued exercise with it will produce very good results for most individuals. In fact, many professional physical therapists use Total Gym equipment in their rehab programs for injured patients. Most people report that these home gym systems are very easy to use and so beginners won’t be discouraged by a complicated piece of equipment.

Another great benefit to owning a Total Gym system is the fact that many different workouts and exercises can be obtained on the Total Gym website. These workouts and exercises can be printed so you can have them handy while you exercise. The workouts provided on the website were developed by fitness experts and are all proven to be effective when done properly. They have also been coordinated to work together with a minimum of fuss and re-positioning of the equipment.

The Most Popular Total Gym Home Fitness System

One of the most sophisticated and best-selling models of the Total Gym collection of home gyms is the Total Gym XLS model. It offers over 80 unique exercises. Of course, you will not use all 80 exercises in one session, but this will provide plenty of variation so that you will not become bored with your workouts, and also you will be able to make sure that your muscles do not become “used” to the exercises you are doing.

By not doing the same exercises over and over again, you will be able to make progress with your workouts and keep your muscles as fit as possible. The XLS model also has many different “add on” pieces of equipment that work seamlessly with the base model, such as Dip Bars which will target your triceps and pecs, and Press-Up Bars which will help target back muscles as well as triceps and pectorals. There is even an AbCrunch add-on that will get your abs in shape effeciently and safely.

All in all, I am sold on the Total Gym. For the price, there are very few systems that offer as many benefits as this system does. You can choose the system that fits your needs, both cost-wise and fitness-wise. If you are serious about getting fit, then I would recommend that you try one. Even if you are a beginner and are confused about how to begin a home fitness program, the Total Gym would be a great choice for you – they offer many types of exercises, they are cost effective, easy to use and thus great for beginners, and are able to be stored in small spaces. What more could you ask of a home fitness system?

As always, remember to check with your physician before you begin any workout or exercise routine, including one with a Total Gym home fitness machine.