Alexander Training

Personal training and strength programs in Austin, Texas.

home training

Benefits of a Home Gym

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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!

7 Squat Variations to Make Home Sessions More Challenging

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Exercising with less equipment can be liberating. You can train almost anywhere and you don’t have to spend time on all the details of the session. Lift, move, go! Push, pull, squat!

The challenge is continuing to progress with fewer options. You’ll eventually reach a point where you feel like you are doing the same 5 exercises over and over. That’s ok because 1) the basics work and 2) it only takes a little bit of adjustment to break out of that. 

I focus on squats on this article because you’ll find yourself doing squats often. They are bang-for-your-bucks, and universally applicable. Below are some ways you can make your squats more challenging when you’ve run out of home weights.


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Do More Reps

The easiest and perhaps most common way to challenge yourself more is to do more reps. This isn’t always the answer, especially if you have the option to go heavier on the next set. If you have used your heaviest weights though, you can add more reps per set. You can also add more sets if your sets are becoming excessively long.

Shorten Rest Interval

Like adding more reps, you can shorten your rest interval to increase the challenge. This decrease in recovery calls on your body to do more work in a fatigued state. Doing the same amount of work in a shorter amount of time shows progress. 

Use Different Implements

This advice typically refers to using dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, and barbells. At home, this takes on a whole new meaning. Need more weight? Have a willing kid hanging around? Pick ‘em up and squat! Hold them in your arms like a baby or piggyback. No children or willing partners? Load up a backpack and squat. Wear it backwards for a front squat.

Tempo Squats

A tempo squat uses a familiar set and rep scheme, the same form, and even the same implement. However, you will vary your pace by going slower at certain parts of the lift. Tempo is commonly written as 4 digits, such as 1010. This means a one second descent, no pause at the bottom, one second up, and no pause before performing the next rep. I commonly use a 5010 tempo, which means a sloowww 5 second descent, no pause at the bottom, then a regular fast ascent. This will quickly spice up a squat set!

Pause Squats

Adding a pause at the bottom of a squat is also a great way to increase the challenge without increasing weight. To properly execute a pause squat, you will do a normal squat and dead stop at the bottom. Keep generating pressure so you aren’t wobbling, dipping or rising. Once you have held your pause as long as you need, drive up from that dead stop position. It is important here to NOT dip then drive. 

Using the terminology of the last example, a 5 second pause squat would be a tempo of 1510.

Suitcase Deadlift and Offset Loads

A suitcase deadlift is performed by picking up something that is parked on one side of you, like a suitcase. It is an offset load, so the demand on your trunk is to resist the imbalanced pull while. This can be performed like a deadlift or a squat. You can do a suitcase deadlift with one weight, or with two weights that do not weigh the same. Because of the offset load, your trunk works asymmetrically, which is much more of a real life situation than a crunch type movement.

How to Apply These in Your Training

Identify in your sessions where you feel under worked. You can add in one of these exercises and see how it changes your workload. You can also add one of these techniques to the last set of your training. For example, if your goblet squats have been easy, add in a pause squat on the last set. If it’s a good challenge, you can call it a day or repeat that paused set. 

Let me know if you have more questions! Get creative and challenge yourself on those home sessions! 

Home Gym Essentials in 2020

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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:

Shoulder Circuit with the Bala Power Ring (or a Dumbbell)

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I bought my mom a Bala Power Ring sometime during 2020. I could blame Covid, where weights were hard to come by, but really I thought it was too cute. It is 10 pounds, so you can actually do some work with it.

On my last visit home, I used it for a shoulder circuit and really enjoyed it. You can do the following circuit with a Bala ring, a dumbbell, a light kettlebell. Really anything that is light enough to manage and heavy enough to provide sufficient resistance.

Try this circuit below and let me know how it goes!

Shoulder Circuit

This circuit is 5 exercises:

  1. overhead press

  2. lateral raise

  3. front raise

  4. halo

  5. rear delt row

Try 3 rounds of 10 – 15 reps. Re-assess how you feel. If you have been regularly doing similar lifts and that was only moderately challenging, you can add more rounds. If those were new movements for you, stop there. See how you feel in a day or so, and repeat. On the next session, you can push for another round.

Flexibility with Implements

I used the Bala ring, but you can clearly see dumbbells behind me. I could have used those too. If the weights were a better fit for this session and these lifts, I would have. Don’t get hung up on using the exact same thing you see other people do. When in doubt, start light, do some exercises and adjust from there. Let me know if you have questions! Email me at kathryn@kathrynalexander.com or comment below!

The Home Team FAQ and General Info

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Welcome to The Home Team on Train Heroic! Once you begin your training sessions, you might have questions. Read here for some general knowledge of the program before you begin.

(Not signed up yet? Click here for your first week free!)

Notes:

Each exercise has a video demonstration and text description. Please watch the video and read these. If you have further questions, feel free to email me! kathryn@kathrynalexander.com


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The warm-up is just a suggestion.

The general rule is to do a dynamic warm-up first, and stretch after your training session. You can add in some easy movement such as walking or jogging, and light stretching, if that feels good to you. 

The weights I suggest are also approximate.

Start light, assess how the set went, and adjust accordingly. Don’t be afraid to start light. If anything, you can chalk it up to a warm up set and increase on the next. As you go, you’ll become more familiar with your weight abilities for each exercise.

Questions: 

What do I need for the homework outs?

Short answer: a pair of light dumbbells, a pair of medium dumbbells, a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell, and bands. You can get more if you want more, but this is a solid start. 

I want more. What should I get? 

A hip circle. 

Do I have to do the training sessions on the days they are posted? 

No. I will publish them by Sunday. Do them in order, but on the days that you can. 

Where do I start?

Click here for your first week free! After that, it’s $27 a month, for as long as you are happy. No contracts, no hassle.

Anything else? Email me! kathryn@kathrynalexander.com

I am so excited to help you on your strength and conditioning journey!

Home Training Program now available!

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Big news!


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The Home Team, my new home training program, just went live!

The Home Team is a training program designed to be done at home with a few dumbbells and resistance bands. It is a 4 day a week program with the option of a bonus day. It is delivered through the Train Heroic app, which I’ve been using with my clients for several years.


An example of a training day on the Train Heroic app. Click the image to visit The Home Team’s page.

An example of a training day on the Train Heroic app. Click the image to visit The Home Team’s page.

By joining The Home Team, you get your own Train Heroic account. Your daily training session will include instructional videos and text, and it tracks your weights, sets, reps and progress. It is your own data center.

The Home Team is $27 a month and you can jump in or out any time.

There is a real need for effective home training programs these days. Whether you are staying in to avoid covid, a commute, or shared equipment, The Home Team will show you the way.

If you’ve ever wanted to follow my plan, now is the time! Email me or leave a comment if you have questions.

If you are ready to start your first week free, click here!