What Does Your Garage Gym Need?
Looking for a great way to improve your fitness… at home? A garage gym can be the perfect answer. Save time, gas, and awkward social moments at the gym with these pro tips on how to build your own garage gym!
Garage Gym Essentials
“I like to use a small set of stairs. You can do step-ups, one-legged lunges (or Bulgarian split squats), pushups with feet on the bottom step, etc. The possibilities are endless.
Gallons of milk or water from your fridge can be used as eight-pound weights or even kettlebells if the handle is large enough.
If you have a really sturdy railing, you can use it for barre exercises, or to attach resistance bands for rows, chest presses and other things like lawnmower pulls.”
Note: I would be cautious about making any equipment that is too intricate, if it breaks, you can get very hurt.
The Next Level Garage Gym
When it comes to practical, effective equipment, Andrea Doddato is a great go-to source! She’s a TPI Golf Fitness Expert and founder of Shape & Sport. She likes to keep it practical and straightforward:
Exercise can be done anywhere if you look hard enough!
“Do you have, or know of anyone who has, an old treadmill sitting around collecting dust? Maybe it’s broken and has become a clothing rack until someone finds the time to order that needed part. DON’T throw it away. It is a perfect sprint machine; the only power required is your legs pushing the belt as fast as they will move for you. I guarantee 30 seconds of a sprint on that will leave the runner gasping for breath on the floor. It is an excellent cardio piece between exercises.
Here is a list of pieces that you will get the most bang for your buck with:
- TRX suspension trainer: can train the whole body with this one piece of equipment.
- Stability ball: not just used for core training, can use as a bench, as a chair, use it to challenge the balance of your back leg in a lunge exercise, put it in the corner to assist inclined push-ups, etc.
- 3 different resistance looped exercise bands: can be utilized in everything a cable machine can do as well as explosive motions like lateral bounds or creating instability in squats, etc.
- 4/5 different weighted kettlebells; they do the same as a dumbbell but get all of your little muscle stabilizers to fire as well.
- Forget bothering with an expensive Olympic bar, buy different lengths of PVC pipes, end caps, PVC glue, and a bag or two of sand. You can create any weight you desire. You can also fill the PVC pipe only half full so it now becomes an unstable weight to move.
On top of those great pieces of equipment, a few can’t miss accessories were offered by expert Sarah Bright who is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, and co-owner of Bright Fitness:
- A plyo box. Buy (or build!) a sturdy box with four legs. Use it to add intensity to bodyweight exercises, change the angle of your pushup, or for plyometric intervals, like box jumps.
- A set of adjustable dumbbells. If you’re really looking to increase your options in a home gym, this is the way to go. Adjustable dumbbells (like Power Blocks) are more space-efficient than buying various weights individually and provide almost limitless exercises. They can be a little pricey, but the investment is worth it as your fitness program progresses!
She loves these pieces of equipment because they don’t take up much space, and provide a huge variety of exercises for all fitness levels and goals! We agree!
Wrap-Up
There you have it, the truth from the pros!
So maybe it’s time to together a simplistic, cheap home gym and start improving your health! What do you think?
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