How to get the most “bang for your buck” from your home workouts
Whether you’re just starting out, have a little time, or just simply don’t enjoy the gym environment all together, we can’t always make it out of the house and all the way to your nearest gym… and that’s completely fine! While a gym setting, in my opinion, is the most optimal location for you to reach your goals due to the amount of different equipment, with just a few pieces of home workout equipment kept at your home, you can still get a very good workout.
What is a good, full body strength workout really? Ensuring to hit each muscle group with enough intensity and volume to generate an adaption from your body to cause growth between taking the necessary time in between workouts to recover properly before your next session. Sounds fairly simple, and it can be!
Say you go to the gym 3 times a week with a full body split. You made it and had a great workout on Monday but come time for your next training session on Wednesday, you get a call from the school saying that your child is sick and needs to come home from school. You were recovered, amped up and ready to go for day 2 but hey, life gets in the way sometimes. Happens to the best of us, right? Well, instead of skipping the day or moving day 2 (second of which is fine of course), why not have a few items at home so you can keep on track on those days where it’s just not feasible to head out?
Many of us don’t have the money or space for a large, expensive home gym setup, so what can we do about that? A good pair of adjustable dumbbells, a cheap but sturdy bench from Amazon, Walmart, or FB Marketplace, and you can do most of the movements needed to get a great full body workout. A TRX suspension training system is also a great choice in your home that won’t clog any space at all!
For beginners, all of these choices paired with good programming (hopefully from a coach but doesn’t need to be me ;)), can keep you moving towards your goals. For more experienced lifters, these can work well also and there are many variables you can manipulate to make the weight “feel heavier” if needed. For example, say your usual tempo on the essentric (or lowering) part of the lift is 2 seconds… You can practice raising this to a 3-4 second essentric with a 1 second pause (keeping good technique) at the bottom in the stretched position. You can raise rep count, or even train closer to failure.
Wherever you decide to exercise, try to challenge yourself appropriately and more importantly, have fun!