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home gym

Benefits of a Home Gym

May 4, 2021 by Kathryn Alexander Leave a Comment

I know I must 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 gym training. Either way, you set yourself up for success when you have everything you need available to you.

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:


My home gym, my happy place.

My home gym, my happy place.

  • 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. It’s worth it though, and easy to commit to when it’s so easy. It’s literally right there. Easy!

Saves Time

As mentioned above, you’ll save commute time, wear and tear on your vehicle. You won’t get caught in gym chit-chat (for better or worse, because sometimes those are great chit-chats). When life gets busy and you’re in a pinch, it’s a huge plus to have gym equipment close.

Saves Money *

Let go of your monthly gym fee! I actually really love gyms, so I usually end up paying a gym membership or two. BUT over time, you will recoup your investment for not having a monthly fee.

*Haha! Or, you won’t recoup it because you’ll fall in love with buying cool equipment and fun bars. Seriously, it’s more fun than buying shoes. Sorry, and you’re welcome. 🙂

No Sharing Equipment

Whether you are a germ phobe or not, there are definite benefits to having your own space and your own equipment. Like the next point:

No One Else’s Sweat

Enough said!

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!

You Are Responsible for Your Pace

This one is actually pretty crucial! Look, I appreciate the spirit of cooperation, truly. But when you have a plan and want hit it on all cylinders, 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, but not re-racking the totally unnecessary 315 pounds between. Sigh. But really – when you are dedicated enough that you are working on a specific pace to induce a specific adaptation, the inconsiderate gym hogs are just in your way!

No Gym Manager Oversight

Most gym managers and owners are pretty cool, but they do get to set the tone. If you need 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 without an audience. similarly, I like going for PR’s without an audience. I do better when I know it’s me and only me.

You Can Maintain Your Equipment

This is a big one! 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), and your bench upholstery doesn’t get torn up.

Start Your Home Gym!

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 start with a pair 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 in 2020

Happy Training!

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: home gym

Home Gym Essentials in 2020

February 2, 2021 by Kathryn Alexander Leave a Comment

The movement toward exercising at home was happening well before Covid forced gyms closed and necessitated our creativity. 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.


My bare minimum: light dumbbells, medium dumbbells, one heavy implement, a band and a hip circle.

My bare minimum: light dumbbells, medium dumbbells, one heavy implement, a band and a hip circle.

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

  • a light band

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 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!

Take 50% off your first two months of The Home Team Training with the code below:

Filed Under: Home gyms Tagged With: home gym, The Home Team

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