Simplify Your Fitness - Your First Home Gym
"The more you know about exercise, the less complicated the equipment you need." - Vince Gironda
Leafing through the latest fitness magazines on offer you'd be forgiven for thinking the honourable goal of getting into and staying in shape (whatever in shape means for you) has to be complicated, time consuming and expensive!
Train each muscle group from 26 different angles!
Train 5 times a week for an hour a time!
Take this shiny new supplement promising the earth otherwise you'll be wasting your time and efforts!
Etc, etc.
Forget it!
Simplify your fitness to fit your life. Being a full time career person doesn't mean you can't be a part time athlete. But you need to maximise your time investment. I've written about minimalist fitness options previously on my site but below are some equipment minimums for you to start to build up your own home gym so you can work out whenever you can to fit in with your schedule.
Your First Home Gym (on a Budget)
1) Door Frame Chin Up Bar
I have a weakness for chin ups! They are my favourite exercise. However with an in- door frame chinning bar you can also do a host of other very useful exercises (leg raises, inverted rows if you have straps etc). All for an initial outlay of just £15-£20.
What if you are not strong enough to do a single chin up yet? You can work into these by also purchasing some bands to support some of your weight until you are strong enough to pull your own weight unassisted.
With a bar and your body weight alone you can achieve much and already have a fundamental home gym!
2) Dumbbells/Kettlebell
A gym in your hand is how Pavel Tsatsouline describes the kettlebell. The modern revolution he started with these many years ago just keeps growing with more and more people trying out these cannonballs with handles for themselves. One or two at home and you can be set for a long time and for many demanding workouts. The same goes for a set of adjustable dumbbells.
3) Skipping Rope and/or Hill
Okay, so technically this no longer fits under the home gym in terms of under your roof but these two alone can take care of your conditioning/cardio needs without the need for any gym fees.
Find a hill close by, warm up and then run up it, walk back down and then run back up a few times. Simple yes but also effective enough for elite athletes to swear by the benefits of hill sprints. Work into these slowly and then feel the benefits and start noticing the difference in how you feel and look!
Skipping has remained a constant in boxers routines for a very, very long time for good reason. Jumping rope improves your conditioning, agility and dare I say it, athleticism!
A few well selected exercises using the above list can work your whole body hard with minimal time investment and all while avoiding those pesky gym queues!
Further Reading:
Minimalist Fitness Benefits here.
Carl Phillips is a part time writer/blogger with an interest and passion for (amongst other things) Simplicity, Lifestyle Design, Self-Improvement and generally getting more out of life.
To read more of his work see: http://frictionlessliving.net.
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