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Gym memberships are a great thing, and I highly recommend joining a gym close to home. However, I realize that sometimes it’s just not convenient to leave the house to workout. Maybe you have your young kids at home, or maybe you only have 45 minutes to spare and you don’t want to waste any time driving. I get it. I’m human. I work at a gym, yet there are still some days that it’s just much easier for me to workout at home. Even without access to a lot of equipment, I still make sure to get in a fantastic workout. How do I do it? I’ll share a few of my secrets with you!
- My number one recommendation is investing in some high quality gym equipment for your house. Bowflex products are great high quality brand that I trust. They have some amazing products that really help you make use of small spaces. I especially love their SelectTech weights! I have the ones that go up to 52.5lbs each, that’s 15 sets of dumbbells in one! You can check out their entire line of products here! I use their weights to allow me to still lift heavy, without having access to barbells or a full set of dumbbells like I would in a gym. It also allows for quick transition time between exercises. (I wrote a full review of these weights on a separate blog post, here) *
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- If you are just starting out and are looking for a more affordable option, regular old adjustable dumbbells will do the trick. They come in a lot of different weight options. The only downside is that it does take some time to switch out the weights. I found this a little time consuming, especially if I was supersetting two exercises that I needed different weights for. However if you are just starting out, these will work just fine!
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- Definitely invest in a set of resistance bands. You can work every muscle group using just resistance bands. They are also a great substitute for almost any cable machine exercise. I recommend purchasing a set of bands at varying resistances, and also one that comes with a door anchor. This is what I personally use:
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- Purchase a few exercise videos to keep on hand. There are thousands of exercise DVDs out there, so try to find something that interests you. You can choose from weightlifting videos like P90x all the way to dancing videos or even walking videos. If you tend to get bored easily like I do, I recommend keeping a wide variety of DVDs on hand. This will allow you to switch things up almost everyday! I actually wrote an entire blog post dedicated to my top 12 favorite fitness DVDs, you can check it out here.*
- If you don’t have access to any equipment, but still want to get in a great workout…get creative! Plenty of exercises don’t require any equipment at all: pushups, squats, lunches, planks, crunches, dips, etc. I’ve been known to use stairs in place of boxes for box jumps, or chairs to do dips off of! You can easily create a small circuit workout uses just your own bodyweight. Try doing 2 laps around the outside of your house, and then doing 10 pushups, 10 body squats, 10 mountain climbers, and 10 lunges and repeating the entire workout 5 times. This will be sure to make you sweat!
If you’re looking for a structured workout program to follow at home, then check out my Lean Strength At Home program. It’s an 8 week workout guide that’s focused on toning up and building strength. And it only requires dumbbells and either a bench or a stability ball.
Do you have any other ways to get in a great workout at home? Comment below to share with all of us! 🙂