Training at home is becoming more and more popular.
A lot more of us work from home now, and how good it is to be able to get a 30-minute workout in at home.
Fewer distractions, less judgment, listen to your own music without headphones!
It gives you a break from your work, you don’t get stuck in traffic and you can use your own shower afterward!
But it can get a bit tricky when you’re after something a bit more than just bodyweight.
So how can we add a bit more resistance, a bit more challenge to our workouts at home?
Honestly, I think the level of difficulty in a bodyweight workout is limitless but I get the need to have a bit of equipment to use as well.
The next big problem with gym equipment for home is home much space it can take up.
As homes and living spaces get smaller the treadmill or rowing machine starts to take up too much valuable living space.
And that’s just cardio equipment.
Who has space for even one cable machine in their homes?
And we’ve all seen those total home gym sets ups.
The only space you can fit them is in your garage.
And I don’t know about you but the idea of training in the garage isn’t as appealing as in your living room or backyard.
And with the backyard, who wants a big gym set up outside?
What’s the solution then?
My favorite things, that’s what.
Resistance bands are so effective for building muscle and burning fat, they take up next to no space and they cost as little as $50 for a set!
To show you how effective bands can be, check out this full-body workout. 30 minutes is all you need and trust me you will feel this!
Equipment For Legs At Home
Training legs at home can have its limits to a certain extent.
Bodyweight squats and lunges feel like they have a bit of ceiling.
Once you get strong enough to knock out sets of 20 you start to find yourself in the endurance zone.
And don’t get me wrong, training for endurance is good as well.
But if you’re trying to build size on your legs you’re starting to do too many reps.
So how do we add more resistance to these movements?
And don’t worry we’re getting to the equipment.
If we simply slow the movements done you’re going to get a lot more out of them.
Spending more time under tension is a great way to build more strength and size in your muscles.
I apply this technique all the time with new clients that struggle with the strength to do movements like push and pull-ups.
Slowing down the descent, resisting gravity for longer is a great way to improve strength.
Ok equipment for legs that you can use at home, and we’ve already talked about bands.
So the other piece of equipment that I use at home.
And actually, never end up putting away anymore…
Kettlebells, I have 3 at home but mainly use 2 of them.
I have 8kg, 12kg, and 16kg kettlebells.
And these are perfect for training at home.
And just by changing a few dynamics, I can get all sorts of different levels of resistance.
Firstly, slowing the movement down as we spoke about before.
But unfortunately, that’s not something you can do with swinging movements.
Something you can do though is tie a band around the handle and stand inside the band to add resistance to the swing.
The next thing we can do is single arm movements.
Or holding just one kettlebell, the side of the body its on is going to get a harder workout and you’re doing to bring the stabilizing muscles in your core into the movement more.
And while we’re talking about single side movements, trying holding one kettlebell overhead in one arm at a time.
This is going to change the dynamic of the movement completely!
And so just like these two pieces of equipment, you can easily get a wide range of movements that are going to challenge your whole body.
And a pack of bands and a couple of kettlebells are not going to need much space at all.
Portable Exercise Equipment That’s Easy On The Bank
Again, resistance bands.
They are so easy to take with you everywhere.
I take mine with me anytime we go on vacation.
That and a skipping rope and I can do a crazy workout literally anywhere in the world!
To see more on this click here to get your FREE copy of my Ebook ‘Train Wherever The F*ck You Want’
I Let you know all my little secrets about training when and where you want with resistance bands
Jump rope is so good for you.
If I could only do one kind of cardio it would be jump rope.
Once you get used to the coordination you can start adding all sorts to your jump rope routine.
So not only do bands and skipping ropes not take up much space when traveling, you don’t need a very big space to train in either.
I use just a few square feet in my living room to get a workout in with my bands.
If I can lie down in a space, I can train my whole body.
Not only train, but I can also get specific.
I can do strength, hypertrophy, and cardio in next to no space and all I need is 1 resistance band!
And you don’t even need to put a band in your bag.
If you’re feeling lazy you can just hang it around your neck!
I can’t think of a more effective or portable piece of gym equipment.
Do Resistance Bands Work
Resistance bands are being used more and more to replicate what cable machines do.
You can tie them to something or stand in them and perform all the movements you can with a cable machine, with a bit of creativity anyway.
I’m so convinced by how well bands work for building strength and size in muscle as well as being a great tool for improving fitness, I wrote an EBook all about them.
So click this link and get you a FREE copy of my book Train Wherever The F*ck You Want!
The reason cable machines are seen as being so efficient in building muscle is they can keep tension on the muscle for the full movement.
If we take a standard bicep curl for example the first 20% of the movement doesn’t feel too bad.
But as soon as you are out of that easy point it gets pretty hard and stays there until you are about 80% of the way through the curl.
It then starts to feel easier again.
But with a cable machine, you have tension on the muscle right away.
And that same tension stays on through the full range of motion.
So it may not seem like much but all the extra seconds under tension add up.
The fact that you can keep tension on through the full range of motions means you are exhausting the muscles more.
And it’s as simple as slowing doing the tempo and you get a crazy good workout in.
Resistance bands come in a wide range of lengths and sizes.
Meaning the only real limit to how hard you can go with them is how many draws you have spare at home.
Whenever I find that my biggest band is not giving me enough resistance
I just double it up or add one of the smaller ones in with it.
It’s only really your own imagination that’s going to stop you from progressing.
But the best way to build muscle fast with resistance bands is by slowing the movement down.
Just like you can do with free weights, by slowing the movement down you keep tension on the muscle even longer.