What Home Gym Equipment Do I Need
What Home Gym Equipment Do I Need
Blog Article
What Home Gym Equipment Do I Need: The Must Haves
My "bare minimum" for a home gym is a movable bench and a set of selectorized dumbbells. It's also the idea behind the Busy Woman's program.
An adjustable bench
An adjustable workout bench offers seated and lying variations and gradations which themselves offer a variety of planes and ranges of motion for exercise choices.
Adjustable dumbbells (ideally selectorized) with a minimum weight of 50 pounds.
Powerblocks and Bowflex selectorized dumbbells are fantastic. Selectorized dumbbells take up less room and allow you to adjust the weight practically instantaneously, which is really useful. The days of unclamping and clamping dumbbells to change weights between sets are over.
You need enough variation in your dumbbells to achieve progressive overload.
Sometimes individuals will write me and say, "I have 10 lbs dumbbells; is that good enough?" Unfortunately, the answer is "no." That will not be enough for most exercises. Similarly, even if you only have a pair of 35-lb dumbbells, they may provide enough resistance for a few exercises, but they will be excessive or insufficient for others.
Which Home Gym Equipment Is Best ( The Must Have)
A rack for dumbbells.
Upon establishing your home gym, I highly recommend purchasing selectorized dumbbells together with their accompanying rack stations. The racks are often offered individually, however they enhance the safety, cleanliness, and convenience of weight transitions during training.
High-quality flooring
High-quality flooring provides benefits beyond initial expectations. If installing rubber flooring is financially unfeasible, consider utilizing rubber mats instead. Concerns about floor damage can hinder a successful workout. Utilizing carpets or alternative solutions may be feasible based on your circumstances, although it is suboptimal.
When exercising on carpeted flooring, it is essential to select shoes that provide excellent lateral support and rubber traction.
Resistance Bands
For a nominal fee, you can acquire a comprehensive set of both round and flat resistance bands, with and without handles. You would be astonished by the multitude of exercises achievable with resistance bands and the efficacy of such exercises.
Resistance bands provide an extensive array of exercise alternatives and offer a distinct sensation on the muscles compared to dumbbells and free weights. They are an enjoyable supplementary instrument to possess.
However, it is advisable to invest in multiple resistance levels, analogous to my previous recommendation regarding dumbbells. The majority of these are now available in a "set," thus minimizing the concern.
Pillars and sturdy supports for the resistance bands.
Having a structure that allows for the attachment of hooks or mounts at low, medium, and high positions facilitates the employment of resistance bands at various angles, effectively simulating cable exercises typically performed in a commercial gym.
Door mounts are the most prevalent; farmapram however, it is essential to ensure that your door closes properly to prevent it from swinging open or sustaining damage due to forceful manipulation.
What Home Gym Equipment Do I Need: The Nice to Haves
If you have the above, you have everything you need, but it’s still possible to add some equipment that’ll improve your setup.
Dual-axis cable machine.
A "dual" axis cable machine allows you to modify the cable along two axes: vertically and horizontally. If you have the space and the money, a dual axis cable machine with both arms that move vertically and horizontally will allow you to mimic dozens of commercial gym machines as well as create exercises that you cannot do on a standard set machine with only one function.
An Olympic barbell and squat rack.
Finally, while I prefer dumbbells and an adjustable bench, having an Olympic barbell with a safety squat rack can be handy for exercises such as squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, and even barbell bench press with the rack's safeties. But, again, if your aims are cosmetic enhancement (i.e., you want to look beautiful), the other stuff is a higher priority!
Build Your Gym from These Basics!
Trust me once you have just a few of these basics and you have a solid program to follow, training at home will become something you look forward to. This will motivate you to keep adding to your equipment base, and build from there.