Alexander Training - personal training in Austin, Texas

Personal training in Austin, Texas and customized strength programs in Austin, Texas.

home gym

Home Gym Essentials

by

What are your home gym essentials? My bare minimum recommendation is two pairs of dumbbells, a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell, and a couple bands. I’ll give you specifics below.

Equipment for Your Home Gym

Home gyms have been growing in popularity, and for great reason! Even if you continue to go to fully equipped gyms, it’s a fantastic idea to have some of your own equipment at home. Might be raining so hard, traffic might be crazy. Whatever the reason, keeping some equipment at home gives you options.

People have been building home gyms from basic, bare minimum style to fully equipped, built out garages for some time now. Most people fall somewhere in between having absolutely no equipment and having pallets delivered to their driveway.

With just a little bit of equipment, you can get good training. Read here how to get a full body push pull squat training session.

How Much Equipment Do You Need?

Take into consideration your budget, your space, and your needs. I highly recommend having a dedicated space where you can focus solely on your training regardless of how minimalist your set up is.

The Bare Minimum

At a minimum, I’d like to see you have:

  • a light pair of dumbbells
  • a medium pair of dumbbells
  • one heavy-is weight
  • a band, maybe two

With these, you can do many exercises to keep you conditioned. You’ll miss out on the benefits of heavy lifting without having a heavy weight, but this basic combination can keep you building muscle and building your health for a long time.

The designations of light, medium and heavy will be different for everybody. I recommend your light bells to be 2-5 pounds and your medium bells to be 8-15 pounds. Email me if you’d like specific recommendations. kathryn@kathrynalexander.com

The Next Level

If you’re ready to invest a little more, buy one heavy dumbbell or kettlebell, and a hip circle. These should not be prohibitively expensive and give you more options to build strength. Your heavy implement can be 30+ pounds in most cases. A kettlebell is easier to hold on to, but is usually more expensive than a dumbbell. Your choice.

Where to Buy Your Equipment

Remember that weight equipment just needs to allow you to work. It doesn’t have to match and it doesn’t have to be fancy. If you have a resale shop like Play It Again Sports in your town, make that your first stop. I have found Amazon prices are sometimes literally double what I can buy in person. Some of my clients have had luck at Target and Wal-Mart online. Now is a good time to be checking Craigslist too.

My favorite hip circle, the blue band is typically used on the lower body, can be found at Mark Bell’s web site. My favorite one is here (this is a clickable link, but not an affiliate link).

Finally, I order my bands on Amazon. The easy way out, but it lets you compare so you can be happy with your purchase. Search “resistance bands” or “exercise bands”. You can find these in stores too if you’d like to put hands on them before buying.

What Do I Do With These Weights?

If you are comfortable designing your own training, then you are now off to the races! If you would like guidance, you can do a week free of The Home Team, my training program for people who are exercising at home. This will give you a good taste of how to structure a week of training and get you started. If it works for you, you can continue from there. If you’d like to continue on your own, you’re off to a great start!

Enjoy! Tag me in pictures of your home set up (@alexanderkma on Instagram), or let me know how you’ve set up your home gym!

Happy training!

Check out this list of best fitness places in North Austin.

Top 10 Benefits of a Home Gym

by

The benefits of having a home gym are fantastic on your weight training routine and fitness goals. I know I sound like a broken record, but I have to tell you how strongly I feel about building out your own home gym. You might use it religiously, or it might be a supplement to your training in a commercial gym. Either way, you set yourself up for success when you have everything you need available to you in your own personal home gym.

I cannot overstate how building out a home gym will reinvigorate your training and bring you closer to your goals. It is SO fun and it is one of the best ways to enjoy putting a lot of time (or a little time) into your exercise routine. 

home gym benefits; squat rack of Alexander Training, personal trainer in Austin, Texas

Benefits of a Home Gym

I will cover these in greater detail below, but in a nutshell, here are some benefits of a home gym:

  • ease of use because of lowered psychological barrier 
  • saves time
  • saves money*
  • no sharing equipment
  • no one else’s sweat!
  • you get to pick the music
  • you are entirely responsible for your pace (work:rest ratios)
  • no gym manager oversight
  • you can try weird exercises!
  • you can maintain your equipment

Ease of Use

Your home gym will become easier to use because of lowered psychological barrier of time, traffic, commute, etc. Some days a quick 20 minute HIIT session is what your body needs, and it’s hard to justify the commute time to do 20 minutes. Other days you’ll want an hour or 45-minute workout, and with your home gym setup and your own schedule, you can do it as quickly as you need.

It’s worth it, and easy to commit to when you have easy access. It’s literally right there. 

When exercise is easier to do and there are fewer barriers in the way, it’s more likely you’ll stick to a regular exercise routine. If having in-home training makes you more consistent in your fitness routine, then it’s absolutely the right choice. 

home gym benefits
The benefits of a home gym!

Home Gyms Save Time

As mentioned above, a home gym will save commute time, and wear and tear on your vehicle. You won’t get caught in gym chit-chat (for better or worse, because many times those are great chit-chats).

When life gets busy and your schedule is in a pinch, it’s a huge plus to have gym equipment close. This allows you to have complete control over your workout routine. Slash the travel time and see how much time you are able to devote to your strength training when your equipment is in the comfort of your own home. 

Saves Money *

I really love gyms, so I usually end up paying a monthly gym membership or two. BUT over time, you can potentially see some cost savings from not having membership fees. Of course, your home gym equipment will be available to your family members too. Maintaining memberships for the whole family is one thing that quickly drives up the cost of gym memberships. You might* save money if you let go of your monthly gym fee.

*The caveat here is that if you fall in love with building out your dream gym, it miiiight not save you money in the long run. You can always make a small dedicated space in a spare room in your house and begin with some free weights, a yoga mat, and resistance bands. Here is what I consider a minimal viable investment in fitness equipment for a home gym. 

Pretty soon though, you might get the itch to get your own squat rack, plates, and specialty bars. I can’t even discourage you. It’s the most fun way to spend a lot of money; even more fun than buying shoes! It’s also one of the best investments you’ll make in prioritizing your physical fitness and healthy lifestyle.

No Sharing Equipment

Whether you are a germ phobe or not, there are definite benefits to having your own space and your own equipment. A traditional gym will have a ton of equipment, yes, but I feel like I can get anything that I need done with my power rack and a couple barbells.

Since I don’t have to share, a small space is plenty sufficient. I can put my gym bag anywhere, I can use as much chalk as I want, and I know no matter what I’ll get a good workout. 

No One Else’s Sweat

One of my favorite things about a public gym is that it’s a great way to meet people. They usually have a fun assortment of personal trainers and regulars, all of whom you can learn from. There are the water cooler talks in the locker room and by the bench press, and a community of fitness enthusiasts is a pretty fun addition to your daily life.

A public gym is still public, and that means other people’s sweat. Ew. Home gym owners can at least sweat in the comfort of their own home lol

You Get to Pick the Music

What you enjoy listening to is probably not what the training staff has to guess is palatable enough for everybody. It took me time to recover from hearing it a trillion times, but I’ll always have a soft spot for Rihanna’s Please Don’t Stop the Music (holla, Gold’s Gym 2007 staff & friends!). When it’s your gym and your rules, play what fires you up at whatever volume you want! This is actually a pretty fantastic home gym benefit.

You Are Responsible for Your Pace

I appreciate the spirit of cooperation, and it often works out beautifully that people with specific needs on a specific exercise program share equipment in the gym. However, when you have a plan, it’s not fun to have to wait for someone who is doing one set per 15 minutes on the one functioning piece of equipment you need, not re-racking weights between, and generally taking a ton of time between work sets. When you are dedicated enough that you are working on a specific pace to induce a specific adaptation, the inconsiderate gym hogs can really slow you down.

With your home workouts in your own workout space, you can work on your specific goals at your own pace. Morning person, night owl, fast trainer or slow enjoyer – setting your own pace is one of the best parts of having your own gym.

No Gym Manager Oversight

Most gym managers and owners are pretty cool, but they do get to set the tone. The ones that do it right can make a local gym the most fun, supportive environment in the world.  If they are off a little bit in a way that changes your mojo, that can really affect your training. If you are ready to call all the shots, you need your own place.

You Can Try Weird Exercises!

If you are always learning and always trying new things, it’s nice to have your own space to do so. Nothing’s wrong with going off the beaten path, but sometimes it’s more enjoyable to explore your training style without an audience. Doing a weird type of exercise or type of workout is just something I prefer to do at home. Similarly, I like going for PR’s without an audience. I do better when I know it’s me and only me. Having a lot of people around distracts me. I know I need to work on this, but having my own training environment is the perfect solution for me.

You Can Maintain Your Equipment

This might be the best part of having your own home gym. It hurts my heart every time I see someone abusing or mistreating gym equipment. You can bet that doesn’t happen at my home. You get to make sure your bars are straight, your plates face the right way (you know what I mean), shoes and feet are kept off your equipment, and your bench upholstery doesn’t get torn up. I can keep my equipment on a schedule of regular maintenance and cleaning. Respecting exercise equipment is a very important aspect of learning gym etiquette, and I love knowing that my own gym equipment is taken care of. 

Start Your Home Gym!

Whether you continue your fitness journey with bodyweight workouts in your spare bedroom, or you take it next level and full up your garage with home gym machines, I encourage you to start your own home gym. It is one of the best long term investments you can make in reaching your health and fitness goals. 

If I can help you get start with your own home gym, let me know! Remember it doesn’t have to be fully stocked to start. You don’t have to have anything fancy like a smart gym, expensive bumper plates or adjustable dumbbells. You can start with a pair or two of dumbbells or a band. If you need help decided what to start with, check out my suggestions for home gym essentials here:

Home Gym Essentials

Related: IF a home gym is not for you, or you just can’t pick… check out the best gyms in Austin. 🙂

Happy Training!

Try the first week of The Home Team training, free. You can do this whole workout program at your home gym!