A lean and minimalist collection to keep you on track on those off days.
I bet if you’re reading this now you fall into one of two camps:
1) Looking for holiday gift ideas (in which case, you’re probably going to slap yourself if you like my list because there were some good deals out there for Black Friday AAAAAAANNND time is running short.)
2) You’re seriously looking to beef up your at-home exercise capabilities because winter is approaching.
Let me just qualify real fast: I’m a gym guy and I prefer to work out with more and better equipment than less. (I mean, duh, I own PCF and by far it’s my favorite place to workout. I have all my tools organized just the way I like them and in a studio like ours, equipment is really ever crowded. Benefits of small-group training, but I digress).
BUT! Sometimes you just need to get the job done at home. Whether it’s a blizzard or a last second schedule change, or you need to throw down your 50% rule card, on any given day you might need to tap into a few vital pieces of equipment.
Final qualifier: I don’t do maximalist garage gyms. That’s what regular gyms are for. If I have to miss a barbell day because of any of the above, then it’s going to be a complimentary day anyways. So take advantage of the change up and do something a little different. Therefore my home set-up all revolves around a few pieces of strategic equipment.
Here are my top 5:
1. A pullup bar. Nearly everyone can benefit from some sort of hanging. It reshapes your shoulders and decompresses your spine and lends you vital grip strength. You don’t ever need to even do a pullup to benefit from a bar at home. Oh, and you can’t do pullups without one. There are several ways to construct one or you could get a model that fits in a doorway. These are usually pretty safe as long as you follow some common sense.
2. A suspension trainer. Something like gymnastics rings or a TRX suspension trainer, or any variety in between. It’s difficult to replicate most pulling movements like rows, face pulls, and various back flyes without a ton of heavy footprint weights or cables. But a suspension trainer gives you so much variety and you can also build up some serious pulling strength. Just be careful to anchor it correctly in the doorway.
3. A few good…kettlebells! Kettlebells (KBs) can do almost anything that dumbbells (DBs) can do and then some. Just plan on doing single arm variations. A basic setup of 3 bells for most women would be 12kg/16kg/20kg and most men would benefit from 16kg/20kg/24kg. Seven bells gets you even 4kg intervals from 8kg – 32kg.
4. Some bands or exercise tubing. Remember the goal: the occasional change-up workout at home means that you don’t have to worry about making perfect progress. Sometimes just doing a few burnout sets of bicep curls with the bands is all you need. But bands can get so much done for you. Just be mindful of where you anchor them and train for a burn (high rep) not strength where you’ll be more likely to break something. Bands and tubing are EXCELLENT at rehab/prehab exercises which you probably need to be doing at home anyways….
5. A foam roller: we all need to do more recovery work anyways, right? A single, high quality foam roller is a very good supplement to stretching. Regardless of where you stand on mobility training vs stretching vs rolling vs pilates vs yoga, foam rolling can help you feel better, looser, and calmer. Sounds like an at home win for me.
So what do you think of this list? What did I miss? I know this was very exercise and workout specific, but do you have any sporty skills that you like to practice at home? Maybe you’ve built a backyard skate park or you like to practice your golf swing by hitting whiffle balls into the house (like I do!).
Let me know below…..
Yours in Strength,
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