Are you tired and driving to and from the gym? Wasting time and energy thinking it’s the only place to get a good workout? Does group fitness intimidate you or you just find the workouts unnecessary and ridiculous? Or are you just bored of the same old same old gym routine and fell?! Well, then it may be time to start equipping yourself for an effective at-home gym.
An at-home has a lot of great benefits and to what you may believe is actually quite affordable. In today’s blog I’m going to list some of my favorite benefits of an at home gym and give you a list of equipment to get you started. Whether you are new to fitness or a regular gym goer.
First, the benefits:
- Saves you time. No more driving back and forth to the gym or worrying about packing a gym bag.
- Saves you money. No more monthly gym fees or contracts.
- Clean and free equipment. No need to worry about other people sweating on your weights and benches, as you wait to do your set.
- Music. It’s your house you can blast whatever you want as loud as you want.
- Consistency. With so many of the excuses like “I don’t have time”, “I forgot my gym bag”, “I need someone to watch the kids” taken out of the way you’ll be able to stick to a consistent and sustainable routine.
Now let’s move one to what you need to get started. To have an effective at-home gym you need less than what you think to get started. Of course if space permits it you can really go all out with folding squat racks and even cable machine attachments, but for now let’s stick to the basics.
- Exercise Mat/ Flooring: A cheap yoga/ exercise mat or even cheap puzzle flooring for exercises that require you to lay down on the floor or even kneel.
- Dumbbells: Dumbbells are one of the versatile pieces of equipment, you can literally train every muscle with just a few pairs. I recommend starting with a light-medium pair for upper body movements and a medium to heavy pair for lower body movements. For a little extra cost you can even get an adjustable pair of dumbbells for a boarder range of available weights.
- Resistance Bands: Resistance bands are greatly underappreciated. They are inexpensive, very portable and like dumbbells can be used to train 100’s of different movements.
- A Bench: A bench is a must have. It will allow you to get into proper positions for a lot of the most common exercises, it will also give you more variety. I recommend getting a bench that does all 3 positions( Flat, Incline, Decline), but if not possible get one that does at least 2 positions( Flat & Incline).
- Stability Ball: Another inexpensive but highly recommended tool. The stability ball also known as swiss ball is great for core work, supportive work for those who lack stability and mobility, and can be used to progress some movements with more advanced lifters. Examples: Dumbbell chest press on the bench, can be progressed to dumbbell chest press on the stability ball, depending on your goal and phase of training.
- Pullup Bar: Last but not least, one of my personal favorites. A pullup bar. They come in many shapes, sizes, and mounts. The cheapest and easiest is just a simple one that hooks on the top of your frame. Pullup bars are great, not just for pullup and chin-ups but for core conditioning, and plan old hanging. Hanging is great for grip strength, shoulder strength and mobility, and for decompressing the spine. It’s a great amazing tool that can be placed anywhere throughout your home for it’s many more benefits.
There it is. A list of benefits and equipment to get you rolling. Now, when it comes to equipment there are many many more tools you can add like kettlebells, steel maces, indian clubs, mini bands, squat racks and even barbells if you have the space. But for now the list above will get you started off and last you awhile. There are literally thousands of exercises/ movements you can do with just those six affordable pieces of equipment. Even for the benefits, there are many more that people find more valuable than the ones listed above. What is your favorite benefit? How does that serve you? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Now enough of the excuses, let’s get to work!