Fitness
You can put together a cheap home gym that gets the job done if you buy the essentials. As long as you stick with the proven equipment list -and stay away from the latest ab-flexor- you can’t go wrong.
The following are my 8 home gym must-haves:
1) Dumbbells
Dumbbells are essential for the home fitness gym, necessary for presses, arm exercises and even a few core exercises. There are many kinds of dumbbells out there, from the cheap to the boutique. All of which fall into one of two types: fixed weight or handles only.
Handles are plate loaded. This requires you to slide the weight plate on yourself and then fasten the weight with collars. Most handles are either standard or Olympic. Standard are smaller in diameter than the Olympic version. You’ll want to coordinate any plate loaded barbells you purchase with your dumbbells. That way the plates are compatible. Standard handles start at around $8. Olympic handles are pricier and longer. This added length actually takes getting used to on a few exercises.
2) Barbells
You need a good barbell, and, like dumbbells, they come in standard and Olympic. Again, definitely be sure that they’re compatible with your dumbbells. Although, an Olympic bar won’t fit on a standard bench, a 7-foot standard bar will work on an Olympic bench.
A standard barbell set includes a 20 pound bar, 2 dumbbell handles (with collars) and 85 pounds of plates. A unit like this will run about $100. This isn’t a lot of weight, so you’ll probably want to buy more before too long.
3) Bench
In a truly cheap home gym, you can use any old bench for presses and one-arm rows. Make sure that it’s 2 to 3 feet wide and solid. A piano bench could work if it’s heavy enough. Otherwise, a picnic bench also works well. Get creative: you can put something under the front or rear to have an incline or a decline bench.
4) Chin Up Bar
A chin up bar can be constructed out of any material that will support your weight. You can find a chin up bar for $10 to $40.
5) Swiss Ball
Although I think that these are somewhat overused, they can add a little variety to your home fitness gym workouts. In addition to making you look more sophisticated by simply having it around the house, they also increase balance and tend to strengthen the core muscles. You can find one for $20.
6) Jump Rope
Jump rope for cardio: $5. Simple.
7) Stairs
If you have a few stairs in your house, you can add a couple outstanding exercises. These include the lunge and the step-up. Since they elevate heart rate, both are good if you’re performing circuit training. And, if you live in an apartment building with several flights of stairs, your cheap home gym includes a free stairclimber.
Yard
If you have a backyard, you can always do basketball style conditioning drills, such as sprints and short intervals. Make sure to build up your joints and tendons first with slower, more deliberate strength training to avoid injury. And if you have solid walls, you could bounce a medicine ball. This move is good for ab development and keeping a high heart rate.
Now that you’ve built it, don’t forget to use it.
Maybe you want to build up your muscles for your health, or maybe you just want to look good – there’s nothing wrong with that. Whatever your reason, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it. The truth is, any kind of mass building program is beneficial to your heart as well as to your muscles. But if you’re trying to build up your muscles, there are particular muscle building workouts that are designed specifically to help you.
In order to increase the size of muscle, the muscle must be stimulated. One way of providing the stimulation your muscles need is to exercise so your muscles will grow in size.A muscle building tip that has helped many to attain their goal is to begin training with free weights. Strength and resistance exercise will also help by motivating your muscles to develop.
A workout routine of lifting weights combined with strength training exercises will begin to gradually bulk up your muscles. Muscle building workouts done on a regular basis will not only develop muscle mass but will add to your overall health. If you are a beginner, you will want to start out with lighter free weights and slowly increase the amount of weight you lift and the number of repetitions you perform.
Free weight training along with strength and resistance training will gradually help your body develop muscle. You can use this muscle building tip to your advantage if you remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your muscles won’t be built in a day either. Building muscle is a slow process, but perseverance is the keyword to success. Anyone who has gone through the process of building up their muscles will confirm that they have been discouraged by the apparent lack of progress, but eventually they reached and maintained their goal.
Mass building workouts along with strength training will further enhance your chances of success in building muscle. Bench presses, pull-ups, push-ups, squats, and/or other exercises that target specific muscles are very effective in building muscle. It is important that you rest in between muscle building workouts to allow your muscles time to recover.
Whether you are a beginner or a pro, one common occurrence while doing muscle building routines is the possibility of muscle spasms. A muscle spasm occurs when a voluntary muscle (those you can control)bunches up and tightens. Muscle spasms can occur for several reasons or no reason at all, with the result being a painful muscle contraction, or muscle spasm. Muscle spasms can sometimes be relieved by resting the muscle, massaging it or by moving around. The best way to avoid these painful spasms is to do proper warm-up exercises, and let your muscles rest in between workouts.
If you want to be successful in your efforts to build muscle mass, it is important to follow these and other muscle building tips when you begin your muscle building routine.