Getting to the gym can be tough. But just because you're stuck at home doesn't mean you can't exercise. And you don't need to have a lot of fancy, expensive equipment to do it.
It's also not necessary to have a single room in your house that is devoted to exercise, but it can be helpful to have a central place for all your fitness gear. Before deciding on a space, consider the following:
- Is there carpet? Carpet can be easily stained with oil from exercise machines and can quickly become quite odorous if you're regularly sweating. If possible, try choosing a room with a hard floor, or get a yoga or exercise mat you can use for sweaty workouts.
Now that you've chosen your home gym room, you're ready to put together a home gym. If you're a big spender, you could simply go to your local sporting goods store and invest $500 to $2,000 in a multi-gym apparatus, which is typically a large piece of equipment with various seats, cables, handles, and weight stacks. If you decide to take this shortcut, then measure your room beforehand to ensure that the equipment will fit, and try to choose a sporting goods store that will deliver and assemble the device, which removes a ton of headache. Or you can try any of these multi-gym options that are smaller and easier to assemble.
While a multi-gym is certainly convenient, there are easier and cheaper ways to create an exercise environment at home. Here are the essential tools I recommend, all of which could easily be purchased for under $300:
- Elastic tubing: Although one piece of elastic tubing with handles on either end is fine, a few different tubes with varying levels of resistance can offer you more variety for exercises from pulling to pushing to twisting. One version of elastic tubing that I recommend is called a Gymstick, which is basically two elastic tubes connected to a flexible aluminum bar.
Of course, there are plenty of other exercise tools you can use to keep variety in your workout program. After all, doing push-ups on a mat can get boring after a few years. From Bosu balls to kettlebells, I'd recommend you add a new piece of exercise equipment every few months to keep your routine fresh, exciting and effective.
Finally, I get asked quite a bit about what kind of workouts you could do with equipment similar to what I've described above. I personally like to "mix and match" several different pieces of home gym exercise equipment into a circuit-style workout.
Here's a sample workout. Do it three to four times through, with 12 to 15 repetitions for each exercise, and minimal rest:
- Jumping jacks
- Gymstick Overhead Press
- Elastic band rows
- Dumbbell chest press on a stability ball
- Dumbbell curls
- Body weight squats
- Stability ball knee-ups
- Two-minute cardio burst on treadmill, bike, elliptical or other home cardio device.
So what are you waiting for? Why wait until you can get to the gym or afford a gym membership to exercise? Get started now with your own home gym.
For more by Ben Greenfield, click here.
For more on fitness and exercise, click here.
Ben Greenfield is a fitness and triathlon expert and host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast on the Quick and Dirty Tips network. His book, "Get-Fit Guy's Guide to Achieving Your Ideal Body -- A Workout Plan for Your Unique Shape," will be published by St. Martin's Press in May 2012.
