Best Equipment for Home Workout
Best equipment for home based training.
When it comes to working out, most people think first, gym, running. First thoughts are one of those two, but you can do a lot if you work out at home, but you’ll need some equipment.
This article is all about how and why to use some of the equipment. I’ve tried a lot of things when I was starting my fitness journey. First year was at home, no gym but I had equipment that I have used for my workout sessions.
Dumbbells
Dumbbells are great way to start working out. They don’t need to be the heaviest dumbbell you see at shop. It’s important that you have adjustable dumbbells or variety of weights.
There are no muscle group that you can’t work out with dumbbells, you can use a chair in a combination with a dumbbells.
If you live in a apartment, or you are just low in space for training, dumbbells are excellent choice for you. You can work out with dumbbells without using too much space, no matter if you are standing, lying or sitting in your workout session.
And for some more advanced workouts, it’s easier to do a drop set, without losing too much time. Personally, I love drop and super sets, so dumbbells are great!
Elliptical machine
With a very good reason, in every gym, and in most homes, elliptical machine is always there.
First things you see when you enter the gym are a treadmill, stationary bikes and a elliptical machine.
Great for warm-up, if you are planning to work out a little harder, get on your elliptical machine and warm up for 10 minutes, it will kick start your heart rate, rise your body temperature and prepare you for your workout.
Aerobic Capacity, elliptical machine will help you to increase your aerobic capacity, this means that you will be able to work out a little longer, run a little further and increase your time of being on elliptical machine without feeling tired and sleepy.
Elliptical machine will help you to work your whole body, not only legs like most of cardio machines. Elliptical machine uses your arms, chest, shoulders and core, and of course your legs. It helps you to work on your stabilization, for an example if you are using “hands-free-mode”, you can really feel it in your abs.
Resistance band
Resistance band is a really small piece of equipment, and comes in variety of resistances, and depends on your fitness level or exercise, you can use heavy or light resistance band.
Variety of exercises, and if will effect your muscles in a different way, which is great, and there is really no muscle group that you cannot work out with resistance bands.
They are great for your core and your stabilization, because the resistance pulls you and you will have to hold that resistance which means that you core will be more involved.
Resistance bands are great in combination with other equipment, you can do a biceps curl, and combine resistance bands and dumbbells.
They are small, traveling friendly, fun to see but awesome for working out.
TRX
TRX is a different type of training as others I’ve mentioned before, it’s suspension training, that means that you always need to engage your muscles the whole time.
All fitness levels can use TRX, it will give you a very special kind of training, for me TRX gives me an army style training, cause after I feel so strong, not so much pump, but like I can lift a tank.
It is light, less than 2 pounds, it can fit in a bag, and in 10 seconds is ready to use, and you can put it anywhere, there are plenty of ways to set it up, depends on where you are, hotel room, porch, terrace or somewhere else.
It is suitable for different types of training, cardio, strength, balance and so on. You can use it in your “HIIT” workout, great for active rest and to engage your whole body, combine squats and TRX pushups, for an example.
Yoga mat
I’ve used yoga mat mainly for my abs workouts, but after some time and when I started to do training sessions for other people, I’ve learned that people don’t like to lie on ground or press their elbows and backs on any type of floor, it wasn’t yoga training, it was “HIIT” training, and I’ve incorporated yoga mats in my training sessions, and the results were awesome. It was way more better, and easier for people, some people have used it when we were doing pushups. Yoga mats can be used for anything, pushups, crunches, plank, and of course yoga.
Your body, arms, or legs will sink a little in your mat, that means that it will give you a improved balance. And your body won’t slip over, it gives you a much better grip that any surface.
Warmth, lying on a cold floor, or wet grass isn’t fun, but your yoga mat is warm, and you won’t have excuse that you can’t work out because you floor is cold.
They are easy to use, just roll them over and that’s it, they are small and easy to transport
Pull up bar
Pull up bar it’s easy to use and there are plenty of ways to use it. If you want to strength, you have pull ups, chin ups, shrugs, for abs, leg raises, windscreen wipers, mountain climbers…
Some types of pull up bars can be used on floor, for pushups for an example.
It will remind you to exercise, friend of mine has one installed at home, and every time he passes by, he do a series of pull ups, for fun, couple of pull ups just to activate muscles a little bit. And if you have forgot on your workout, you will look up remind yourself.
If you are a more advanced “workoutr”, pull up bar is must have for you, pull ups are one of the greatest body-weight exercises of all time, upper body strength, balance, and back workout.
Maybe you’ll be able to do only 1 pull up, but it’s a fun to progress, from 1 to 2, from 2 to 3 and you will enjoy the progress that you are making and will add a little more motivation for you to workout, cause it’s a challenge, and the more challenges you do, the more progress and result you have.
You can use it on every room, because rooms have doors, and pull up bars are set on doors, so if you are at home, on a vacation, visiting someone or in a hotel room, you can use it.
Notable mentions
Jumping rope
Great cardio exercise, warmup exercise, and in the morning is just awesome, just do a session of 10 minutes of jump rope and you will kicks start your heart rate, metabolism and your whole day. It is simple to use, simple to transport and you can work out with it anywhere, in your room, somewhere outside or even in a gym.
Medicine ball
Pushups, crunches, even handball. I remember when I’ve trained handball in my high school, from time to time, we changed our regular balls for a
medicine ball, and after when we take our regular balls, We were throwing a lot stronger and faster balls. You can have a really great abs workout with medicine ball, my favorite exercise with medicine ball is Russian twist, it gives you an incredible obliques strength.
Push up stand
Add a more fun touch to your pushups, work a little bit more your shoulders with a push up stand. Add a few more different grips to your regular
pushups. They fit in every bag and one of the most simplest pair of equipment.
That would be it, all exercise equipment information is here. If you have any questions about how to workout with any piece of equipment please feel free to contact us.
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