Gym, Home Gym, or No Gym?

(There was a picture of my barbell here but it squashed all the text together).

Running out of room in my home gym!

One of the limitations of a home gym is usually the amount of space you have, or the amount of kit you have - or both!

Above is my poor 5ft standard barbell nearly out of space for nearly all the weights i own. It is loaded up to 184kg's, which was my new deadlift pr on Sunday.

The point here is, whether you are a personal training client, come along to classes or bootcamps, or none of the above, it really helps to have some home training options.

First what do you need? Answer - nothing!

You need the correct technique and application of basic exercises first and foremost without needing to resort to any machines or gadgets.

The world already has far too many useless or unused pieces of exercise equipment in it for you to start adding to that pile!

Now consider what you want to be able to do? What type or types of training are going to be most useful and enjoyable for you to do at home. This will guide your choice of if or what you decide to invest in.

As a teenager looking to enhance my strength and add some muscle mass - it made great sense investing in some free weights. However, if i'd had a bit more money at the time, i would have made the more stupid choice of one of those horrible multi-gym things from Argos!

They do seem to stock some better quality kit these days though.

Other times i have decided to shun training with weights in favour of all the bodyweight resistance exercises i used to do in martial arts classes (luckily did not get rid of my trusty weights though).

A few years ago, i decided i got plenty of aerobic training in all of my classes, so any time and energy training at home would be geared towards more strength training. Therefore i again sought to add to my weights, plus some sandbags and kettlebells etc.

So, choose what you want to do. Then decide if any equipment or kit can help you achieve this.
The more weird and wonderful and 'too good to be true' claims that are made for something - the less likely i would be to trust it. Especially if it's available in your local supermarket!!

When it comes to your fitness training programmes, and any equipment you buy, saving pennies initially can cost you pounds later on (in both senses of the word).

Your time, energy and money are worth far too much to be thrown away on ineffective solutions.

Your health and fitness truly are worth investing in. Buy quality training that will help to set you up for a long healthy active life. Buy quality equipment (if you decide you need any), that will be far more enjoyable and safe to use. It will also have a better value should you decide to re-sell it if it's not for you after all.

Sometimes the right bits of kit can help to keep you fired up and enthused for your fitness training, with just enough variety to keep it interesting.

This is one of the best reasons to invest in kit, as if you don't enjoy using something, it's never really going to get you the results you want.

I've had some of those weights for over 15 years now. They have enabled me to get some great, time efficient and energy packed home training sessions. Definitely a good investment!

I'll post a little more on this soon.

Steve Cork
http://www.everydayathletes.co.uk/
http://www.sussexbootcamps.co.uk/