Building a home gym does not need to be expensive and it does not need to take up a lot of space. In order to create a gym you can use to work out from home, you just need to be smart and you need to fulfil a number of specific requirements. Read on and we’ll look at some of the ways you can do this without breaking the bank. Ultimately, it comes down to just buying a few items, each of which is highly affordable and can be easily stored to avoid taking up too much space.
Pull Up Bar
The first item you’re going to need is a pull up bar. Before you get a pull up bar, you’ll be able to train almost every muscle group using only your own bodyweight. The only exceptions to this are muscles involved in pulling. That means things like your biceps and your lats, which require you have something to hang off of.
And that’s where the pull up bar comes in. With a pull up bar, you’ll be able to start performing not only pull ups but also chin ups, rows and even hanging sit-ups. This now means that you really can train every muscle group, even if you are still limited to using only bodyweight.
Dumbbells
This is where the dumbbells come in. With these, you can now start using weights and you will be able to train every single muscle group. Dumbbells simply allow you to add a weight to either hand, which means you’ll be able to perform not only curls but also tricep kickbacks, tricep extensions, dumbbell presses, shoulder presses, upward rows, shrugs, weighted squats, lunges and all manner of other exercises. Effectively, nearly anything you would normally be able to do with a barbell can be done with a pair of dumbbells – as well as a lot more besides.
What’s important for your long term success here is that you have enough weight that will allow you to up the challenge as you progress. The good news, is that you can buy dumbbells that have adjustable weight and this will allow you to add and remove weights plates as required in order to consistently keep increasing the challenge.
Bench
All that’s left is to add a bench, by which I mean a weights bench and preferably one that will allow you to alter the angle. This way, you can then perform not only dumbbell presses and flyes but also isolation curls (sitting with your back supported by the bench), decline and incline presses, shoulder presses and all manner of other things using much heavier weights.
With just these three items, you now effectively have everything you need to create a fully functional home gym. No matter how much you progress, this will offer enough challenge to keep you on your toes and keep you growing!
Of course where you expand from there is then up to you…
Comments