Weight Training Equipment

Good weight training equipment will help you gain more muscle, get stronger and avoid injury.  Plus, it makes you look and feel better.

By equipment, I don't mean the bars, plates, racks, dumbbells and machines. 

I mean the extra items you acquire that you keep nicely organized in your gym bag and use during your workout to help you lift a little more (maybe a lot more) and protect against injury. 

These items help motivate you and improve your performance. 

You've spent some money.  You know how cool you look wearing some of this stuff.  You know how good it feels to get strapped up or belted up tight when you are working out hard.

Weight training does not have to be an all encompassing lifestyle.  Most of us do not have the time to do so.  Most of us have full time jobs and other commitments that take up enormous amounts of time.  You will not be able to focus on the weight training enough to truly get in the shape you consider ideal.

So you need some weight training equipment to ensure what workouts you do have are maximized and try to avoid injury.

From Starting Strength

Weight Training Accessories

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You can greatly increase your strength without the use of props. However, some are basic and essential for doing so safely, namely shoes and a belt. Beyond that, the use of extra equipment will be dictated by injuries, personal preference, and training goals.

How to Develop a Masculine Male Body - A Few Details

Here are some other articles that get into the exercises and routines I use and why I need to use weight training equipment.

Weight training is something have to start and make progress.  The only way to make progress is to keep doing it, increasing weights or reps or sets and avoid injury.  The weight training equipment will help with this.

Weight Training Equipment to Buy to Help You Develop Your Masculine Male Body

Here is all my weight training equipment

When training your masculine male body you will be using a lot of weight and working at peak intensity.  When the weight climbs, and it should, it is critical that you have some good weight training equipment to help you lift a few more pounds and stay injury free.

Wrist Wraps

When my wrists are sore, I wrap them for most sets. 

Right now they feel good, so I just wrap them on my last warmup set and work sets on overhead presses and bench presses.

I have been just jumping into a few heavy dumbbell bench press sets with no warmups after benching so I wrap my writs.  I would strongly encourage you to use wrist wraps with dumbbells because of the instabily involved.

I also wrap them on chest flys.  The dumbbells are not heavy for this movement but I am getting tired and this movement is unstable, so I like to wrap to be safe.

Wrist wraps give you some stability on your work sets and heavier warm-up sets.  A nice benefit from the wrist wraps is they take some time to put on and this gives you a little more time between sets for rest.

These wrist wraps are the kind I use.  They are not very expensive. 

Wrist Straps

You have to use wrist straps for most of your heavy back training. 

Certainly you should do your warmups without straps and do other grip and forearm work to build your grip.  But your grip will never be as strong as your back.

I use straps for bent rows, 1 arm dumbbell rows, shrugs and rack pulls.

So far, I have not used them for deadlifts, but I may need to in the future when my deadlift weight climbs past my grip strength.

I would recommend you use them for chins, pulldowns and cable rows.

Weight Lifting Shoes

I have a pair of weight lifting shoes that I just wear for lifting.  They have the stiff soles that provide a strong foundation.  They are made of durable material that fully supports your foot.  They have a Velcro strap that further tightens up the shoe.

After feeling how much more stable and powerful I feel in wearing them, I would not go back to wearing regular shoes while weight training.

The soft shoes that most people wear now while training are way too unstable.  I think your knees will cave in when squatting or leg pressing heavy weights.

Weight Lifting Belt

I wear a lifting belt on my work set or sets of overhead presses, squats, deadlifts, rack pulls and shrugs.  Usually I wear one on my last warm-up set too as it is usually almost as heavy as my work set. 

The belt helps to protect your back and gives you some extra core stability.

The 4 inch thick belt that is narrower in the front is the handiest size to get.

The thicker power lifting belts are probably fine.  But then you need a thinner belt to deadlift.  Unless you are a competitive power lifter, it is an expense you probably don't need.

Plus, belts are bulky in your gym bag and heavy.  Carrying the bag into the gym is not hard.  But carrying out a heavy gym bag after an intense workout is difficult.  I don't want 2 belts to carry around.

This is the belt that's similar to the belt I have been using for years.  Belts are great because they do last a long time, maybe years.   Although you may need to change if you get smaller in the waist (hopefully for me) or as you get bigger and stronger.

Workout Duffel Bag

Here is all my equipment nicely packed into my workout duffel bag

I have a big leather duffel bag with multiple pockets for holding all my weight training equipment.  I want to just grab this bag and go, not repack it every time I go to the gym.

Here is how I load it:

  • The big main compartments holds my belt, my shoes, a towel, my training log and my water bottle with plenty of room left over.  I could fit a dry t-shirt or other gear as necessary.
  • One of the end pockets holds my elbow sleeve, pulling straps and wrist wraps.
  • The other end pocket holds my heavy duty straps that I do not use that much and a zip-loc bag with chalk.
  • One of the small pockets I keep open to put my keys in at the gym.
  • Another small pocket is where I keep my tanning booth eye protection glasses.
  • Another small pocket is for my gym reading glasses, pen and headphones.

I like to put the stuff back consistently so I know exactly where everything is and I don't have to rummage through it to find something.  You should too.  I hate to waste time looking for something.  I prefer to be doing what I want like weight training or getting home to eat, relax and recover.

This bag is really handy, very durable and looks good.

Back Hair Trimmer

Trimming your back hair will probably not increase your strength.  But it will make your back look better and more muscular when your shirt is off.  A muscular look is always better than a non-muscular look.

You will need a good back hair trimmer to deal with your excessive back hair.  Unless you always want to be bothering someone else to "trim" your back hair.

A big, muscular masculine male back does not look very good if covered with hair.

So get some sun on your back and trim the hair.

Body Hair Trimmer

Most men have a ridiculous amount of excess body hair.  Some hair is fine.  But too much covers up the body you are working so hard for.  Plus it's too hot in summer and looks kind of greasy.

I don't go overboard with shaving my body all the time.  But I do like how I look with my body hair trimmed.  It just feels better all the time and I like how my arms look in the gym mirror when grinding out some extra reps of curls or pressdowns.

I like a body hair trimmer like this one.  It's easy to hold and does the job without being too fancy.  A smaller one like this is good for the details around the front of your body especially your pubic area. 

Final Thoughts on Weight Training Equipment

Focus on weight training.  While training stay tight, using good form and concentrate on what you are doing.

Be careful and listen to your body.  Your wrists, elbows, shoulders and lower back are all susceptible to injury when hoisting heavy weights around.

Don't go overboard on the number of sets or get too high on the reps.  Excessive sets take a lot out of you.  Too many reps and you form gets sloppy and the potential for injury skyrockets.

Older men need to watch out for getting injured.  It takes much longer to heal.  Sometimes you just will not heal. 

The volume will tax your recovery and you will likely get sick.  So workout hard, but carefully.

When you are a big, muscular guy you will have that muscle guy, or power guy look.  Your posture will improve.  You will look and feel better with strong, flexible injury free body ready for anything.

Plus people will not mess with you.

So start acquiring some good weight training equipment and start developing your impressive masculine male body.

› › Weight Training Equipment

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