If you are a complete beginner and if you ask me - what is the one piece of equipment you can buy to get started - I would say you don’t need any equipment to get started. You can do tons of body weight workouts and once you gain strength and are consistent - you can start adding to your home gym starting with the lowest investment which I will talk about below.
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I’ve mentioned this earlier in this channel - I love working out and I’m truly missing the gym. But I’m not sure when I will be comfortable to go back to the gym considering COVID and hence I have started building out my home gym in the last year.
Quick disclaimer - this video is for setting up a simple home gym for regular fitness. Not for equipment required to bulk up - you will need much more than these if that’s your goal.
When I started putting together my equipment - there were a few things I had in mind -
I did not want it to occupy an entire room like most home gyms that you see - as I don’t have that kind of space
It should be easy to access - as out of sight is out of mind
It should be easy to store and not be visually unappealing - hampering the aesthetic of the house.
With that in mind - there are a number of equipment I invested in - using which you can do TONS of workouts. There are some I am considering - I will list that out as well but I don’t have that, yet.
Skipping rope - skipping is an all round exercise and not just for women. If you think I’m kidding - look at this profile by jumpropedudes on the transformation men have achieved by just skipping. Doing ½ hour of skipping can be considered a great workout - giving a steady state of cardio. Often - when I’m too lazy to workout, I just pick up the skipping rope and do about 5000 jumps. It also serves as a great warmup. The skipping rope I use is from my childhood - but I’m planning to purchase a speed jump rope soon - as I want to gain some expertise in double unders soon.
Resistance bands - if you can invest in just one thing at a budget, I recommend investing in a combination of resistance bands. This was the first thing I purchased for extending my body weight workouts in 2020. You get resistance bands with different resistances and you also get ones at different lengths. You can create 100s of workouts using just resistance bands including resistance squats, lunges, bicycle crunches, chest workouts and so on. Again many fitness coaches have resistance band workouts online - you only need the motivation :) These are easy to store, easy to carry when travelling too. I just love them.
Adjustable dumbbells - repeat after me - women won’t become muscular by using dumbbells. It takes a lot of effort, loss of body fat, and consistent workout to get to that mode. Using a 2-5-10 kg dumbbell will not make you there. If it were that easy, I would be muscular by now. I lift 10-12.5 kgs on a very regular basis. Used to lift higher in the gym. You will find a lot of adjustable dumbbells in the market. Most of the cheap ones are low quality and can snap/break during workout - which can be risky. I highly recommend purchasing one that has a good quality. I use the durafit brand which has metal plates and is very sturdy. It has two variants, each dumbbell of upto 12.5 kgs - which is what I have, and another one where each dumbbell is upto 25 kgs - which can be used by more advanced users. These days you get a much better variant of adjustable dumbbells - the cube being one of them. I’ve linked to this in the description. Each dumbbell is upto 24 kgs and made of Carbonated hard plastic - which is more apartment friendly - as it makes less noise when placed on the floor or the rack. These are easy to store - like you can see, I’ve hidden it under my side table. As opposed to purchasing different dumbbells at different weights, this works really well.
Pull up bar - this is a slightly more advanced equipment but again another one that can give you a full body workout - specially focusing on the arms, back and shoulder muscles. You can also do a variety of core workouts as well with this. It can be attached to any door or wall (upto 95 cms) and does not need you to drill any holes on the wall. It can hold upto a weight of 100 kgs. I still havent’ been able to get to a set of pullups myself, but I will always keep trying. A great equipment even if you have kids at home - they can just hang and play around with it like my nieces and nephews do all the time.
With just these three equipments - you can create 100s of workouts that can make you not get bored of working out on a regular basis. I primarily use these - I workout 5-6 days a week and have not repeated a workout in 1.5 years. In case you need a few more additions - here are some that I am considering but have not yet invested in - hoping that I may go back to the gym soon.
Foldable Treadmill - Like I mentioned earlier - I would not want any equipment to block out too much space in my house. It needs to be something that can be kept away after the ½ hour or 1 hour that we use it. These foldable treadmills are ideal for that. https://amzn.to/3t16gea . you can just use it while you need - my goal is to use it when I’m watching tv or instead of taking a walk in the morning. When not in use - it can be sent under the sofa or any other furniture. Be sure to check the maximum speed and maximum weight that such treadmills support before purchasing. The one I have linked supports upto 15 km/hour and upto a weight of 120kgs.
Adjustable kettlebell - A kettlebell is an outstanding workout for improviing stability, core strength, balance, flexibility, and coordination. Because it’s center of gravity is not centered around your grip but about 6-8 inches from the grip, it is harder to control and hence a great workout. Again like many of these - the variety of workouts you can do with a kettlebell is really high. Now again different workouts need different weights but a home gym does not have that much space. So I recommend an adjustable kettlebell which you can adjust based on the specific workout you are doing.
If you are looking for inspiration, I recommend you to find some easy workouts in the channel fitness blender - they have it sorted by level and type - so you can pick a workout that suits you.
Hit the like button if this was useful so it can reach many users. Thank you for watching and see you in the next video.
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