Get An Effective Workout In Your Own Home

Many people think that creating a home workout gym is either too intimidating or too costly. So, often they instead invest their money in a health club membership not realising that for the same amount of money (or even less) they can create a very effective gym right in their own home.

For an effective home gym, all that is required is a little bit of planning. Don’t fall into the trap of purchasing random fitness equipment because of fancy advertising for the latest gizmo or the great “sale” at your local fitness store. That type of purchasing leads to a house littered with equipment that’s only use is as a clothes hanger or dust collector. This often happens because the equipment is either useless, poorly constructed or quickly loses its value because it doesn’t progress with your fitness level.

To avoid having a basement filled with expensive dust-collecting equipment, keep these points in mind when making a purchase:

1) What are your fitness goals?

2) How often do you realistically think you will use the equipment?

3) What fitness level do you expect to be at in 3, 6, 9 months?

4) Will the equipment meet your needs as you get more fit (at the 3, 6, and 9-month marks)?

5) Does the equipment offer enough variations in use that you can change your workouts frequently to prevent your body from hitting a plateau?

6) Will you enjoy the exercises or will you quickly grow bored of them?

7) And, of course how much can you afford?

Once you have answered all of the above questions then you are ready to make some purchasing decisions. Of course, how much you can afford to spend may dictate what you can actually purchase. Don’t get discouraged. You can create a varied and effective home style workout that doesn’t need any equipment, but, for as little as £100, you can have a very effective total strength training home gym. Even for as little as £40, you can create an effective workout that will tone your entire body.

Regardless of what your fitness goals are, there are a plethora of equipment options to consider. For building muscles and/or toning-up you can choose from free weights, selectorised machines, resistance bands, benches and even no-equipment. For cardiovascular improvements (e.g. running, walking, etc), there are even more options. They range from treadmills, to elliptical trainers, to bikes and beyond.

To help make your decision easier, below are several recommendations based on costs and needs, along with benefits of the exercise equipment.

If you want to create a gym that will provide you with a total body workout (cardio, strength and flexibility) and you have a budget of at least £1000, consider the following recommendations:

• Treadmill – The best option for cardiovascular equipment because it can be used for running, walking, and even some leg strength training. Plus, workouts can continually be varied based on speed, incline, even direction. And, it easily progresses as fitness levels improve.
• Full dumbbell set with weights ranging from 5 pounds to 50+ pounds. – Great for light toning, to intermediate strength training to building muscles. Less expensive than selectorised machines and usually provides more flexibility and variety in workouts. You can buy 1 set of adjustable dumbbells which holds up to 13 sets in 1.
• 1 or 2 Kettlebells – provide an overall body workout, with strength and cardio benefits, great fun with lots of variety
• Fitness/Stability Ball – Provides exercise options for toning, strengthening and stretching.
• Resistance Band – Provides another option for strength training. Can alternate use with free weights for a great challenge that will help prevent plateaus.
• Step Bench – Can be used for both cardio workouts and strength training workouts.

If you want a home gym specifically for building muscles (or just can’t afford cardio equipment), and can afford at least £100, consider the following recommendations:

• Dumbbell set
• Kettlebell
• Fitness Ball
• Resistance Band
• Jump Rope – Offers very challenging cardiovascular fitness workouts at a very low price.

If you want a total body home gym but can only afford less than £100, consider the following recommendations:

• Three dumbbells sizes (e.g. 5, 10 and 15 pounds)
• Resistance Band
• Jump Rope

If you are limited to purchasing just one very affordable piece of equipment, consider buying a Fitness Ball. As mentioned above, it provides many different exercise options. With the ball you can get an upper body workout, a lower body workout, very challenging abdominal workout and a stretching/flexibility workout. And, you can get all of this for around £20.

Kettlebells are really affordable, and do not take up any space as you can easily store them in the wardrobe or under the bed ready for a quick morning workout! These range in price dependent on the size but can start from as little as £15.

Also, don’t underestimate what you can do with things that are already in your house, like stairs, a chair, milk jugs and others. There are a lot of exercises that require no equipment at all. For example, push-ups, tricep dips, squats, calf raises, etc. You can even create your own “weights” through milk jugs filled with water or sand or sturdy bags with cans in each.

As you can see, there are a lot of options available for creating a home gym that will meet your individual needs and will provide a lot of workout variety. Even on a shoestring budget, you can still make a wise purchase that will be invaluable in helping you get more fit and healthy. And, you’ll enjoy all the benefits of working out at home.

So, what are the benefits of working out at home? Well, here are some highlights:

• No wasted time driving to and from a fitness club
• No waiting in line to use the equipment
• Workout on your schedule, rather than just when the health club is open
• No expensive monthly membership fees or long-term contracts
• Motivation to workout as you pass by the equipment every day

Of course, you will need previous knowledge of how to use your home equipment or you will have to be willing to learn. But, it’s not difficult. Most equipment will come with basic instructions and a few sample exercises. You may want to enlist the help of a professional Personal Trainer to provide additional exercise options and guidance that will ensure that you get the most out of your fitness equipment through every fitness level stage, and with the extra money your saving from no gym memberships, you can train with a Trainer more often to really optimise results.

If you need help planning out and researching or purchasing your home gym equipment, why not consider speaking to a Personal Trainer who has prior knowledge and experience in this area like absolute fitness – we are more than happy to help you make the right choices.

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absolute fitness Tip#12

Strength Training Secrets #2

Most women exercise with the avoidance of moving anywhere near the resistance section in the gym, and the thought of free weights training instills fear of massive gains in strength and size. If you're a woman, it's important to not be afraid of strength training. This form of exercise has many health benefits associated with it, including improved health, muscular endurance, improved tone, stronger joints and bones, increased metabolism to name just a few. You won't bulk up (unless you are really trying to). And, resistance training is easy to start. With professional guidance and direction, you can quickly learn how to train properly without the risk of injury, and optimising your valued training time effectively.

Be sure you are training with the proper resistance size and repetition range. Ideally, you should choose a size that fatigues you after 10-12 reps. Remember, strength gains and muscle size are more achieved by volume of training in comparison to worrying too much about completing the correct sets and reps.

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absolute fitness Tip#11

Spice Up Your Workouts With Interval Training

There’s been a lot of buzz about Interval Training. So, you may be wondering what it really is and, more importantly, why you should incorporate it in your fitness workouts. Well, if you want a workout that can help propel you to the next fitness level, burn more calories, increase your speed, improve your power and more, then it’s time to learn more about this effective training technique.

A simple definition of Interval Training is: short, high-intensity exercise periods alternated with periods of rest. These higher and lower intensity periods are repeated several times to form a complete workout . Here’s a basic example: walk for 5 minutes at 3.5mph, walk for 1 minute at 4.2mph and then repeat this sequence several times.

Most people spend their workout time only performing continuous training exercises. These are exercises where the intensity level is basically constant throughout. An example of this is walking at 3.5mph, at 0% incline for 30 minutes.

Continuous training is very effective and should not be eliminated from your weekly workouts. However, it’s recommended that you include both Interval Training and continuous training sessions as part of your fitness regime.

Why should you include Interval Training? As previously mentioned, there are many benefits to this type of training and execution is relatively simple. Interval Training can help you improve cardiovascular fitness, increase speed, improve overall aerobic power, burn more calories, break-through a plateau, increase workout duration, reach new exercise levels, expand your workout options and increase your workout threshold – just to name a few.

Plus, this training method has useful applications for beginners, intermediate exercisers and even conditioned athletes. There are two basic types of Interval Training. For the majority of exercisers (novices and intermediate) Fitness Interval Training methods are recommended. Athletes can choose a more advanced technique known as Performance Interval Training.

The Fitness training method utilizes periodic increases in intensity. Typically the higher-intensity levels range from 2-5 minutes in duration and are followed by lower-intensity periods that also range from 2-5 minutes. And, a critical element in Fitness Interval Training is determining the appropriate level for the higher-intensity periods. This level should not exceed the anaerobic threshold (which is usually reached below 85% heart rate reserve).

On the flip side, the Performance training technique involves periods of near maximal or even maximal intensity (e.g. >85% heart rate reserve – even reaching 100%). The higher-intensity levels can range from 2-15 minutes in duration and are followed by lower-intensity periods that also can range from 2-15 minutes in duration.

Don’t let the two types of training and their ranges confuse you. Incorporating Interval Training methods into your exercise routine is actually quite easy. Since the majority of exercisers fall into either the beginner or intermediate category, we’ll focus on getting started with those techniques.

To begin, choose the type of exercise: walking, jogging, x-training, swimming, biking, etc. Next determine your lower-intensity level. This is usually somewhere between 50-65% target heart rate. This will be your baseline, lower-level intensity. Then simply increase the intensity-level up to where you feel like you are working hard to very hard, but avoid reaching a level over 85% target heart rate. If monitoring your heart is not feasible, instead use the RPE scale where 1 is basically at rest and 10 is working extremely hard. For example, if you find that when you are exercising at a comfortable level you rank a 5, then bump up to a 7 for the higher-intensity intervals.

You may choose to systematically raise and lower your intensity (e.g. 2 minutes lower intensity followed by 1 minute higher intensity and repeat) or you can alternate more randomly by raising and lowering the level at your discretion. To increase your intensity, you may choose to change the speed, incline, or some other variable.

Interval Training can be especially helpful in situations where you are trying a new form of exercise. For example, this can be very beneficial when first learning to jog. If you attempt to jog continuously without building up to it, you will probably fatigue quickly and even give up. However, if you begin with intervals of walking interspersed with jogging periods, the workout will be much more enjoyable and effective. Also, you will be more likely to stick with the program and achieve the end result – continuous jogging.

Now that you know the benefits of Interval Training and the basic techniques for it, why not give it a try for yourself. Not only will it provide health benefits and improved fitness levels but it is also a great way to avoid workout boredom. Plus, with Interval Training workouts often are more enjoyable, go by quicker, and improvement results come faster. So why not try spicing up a stale, run-of-the-mill workout with Interval options? You may even find yourself excelling in an activity you were sceptical of even trying.

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