Four Items That Complete Your Home Gym

It has been over a year since COVID devastated local gyms. A lot of your favorite gyms have declared bankruptcy and have been forced to close their doors for good. As a result, people have been buying up gym equipment and building their perfect home gyms throughout the pandemic.

It begs the question, what is going to happen when the world re-opens? Will people head right back to the gyms or continue to use the equipment they’ve accumulated throughout the pandemic?

I don’t know about you, but I can’t see myself going back to a public gym anytime soon. And with fitness equipment finally being restocked after a year of explosive demand, I can finally finish out my home gym.

I’ve had the most important part, the weights. Although there are a few more accessories that I like to use as a trainer and as an individual that I didn’t initially invest in. These items are a godsend, and no gym is complete without them.

Booty bands: bands for your lower body

These little torture circles are the perfect warm-up to any leg day. They are ideal for waking up your glutes before squatting or lifting anything heavy with your lower body.

Your glutes are some of the biggest muscles in your body, and activating them is crucial for successfully lifting heavy. I start every heavy leg day with a few rounds of banded side shuffles, monster walks, and banded squats before lifting any weight.

For some reason, the fabric version of these bands is only advertised to women, but they are my preferred version of this band.

Buff Bands: bands for your upper body

These bands are also great for warm-ups. They help you get the external rotators of your shoulders activated before pressing.

They also allow you to change the difficulty of several common exercises. Are push-ups too easy? Add a band.

Pull-ups too hard? Use a band to help you up. There are many uses for these types of bands, including stretching, some plyometric exercises, and as resistance.

No matter what upper body exercise I am doing, I start every workout with some pull-aparts, around-the-worlds, and some external rotation of the shoulder with these bands.

A Pad

People often purchase an exercise mat and call it a day when it comes to padding for exercise. The mat isn’t enough. Having a thick pad for your home gym is incredibly useful.

You can use it for your knees, when doing half-kneeling shoulder presses, you can use it as a target for split squats, you can use it to separate your body from the bar with hip thrusts. A pad is another item that expands what is possible with your current home gym setup.

A lot of my zoom personal training clients workout in their basements and can’t do many traditional lifts because of the height of their ceilings. So I am constantly doing half-kneeling variations for any overhead lifts.

Foam Roller

Contrary to popular belief, a foam roller is good for a lot more than just recovery. I use the foam roller with a lot of clients as a tool to increase the difficulty of many workouts. I love to use the foam roller to increase the difficulty of ab exercises, like doing a plank with your forearms on the roller.

Or work on shoulder stability by doing push-ups on the foam roller. It can also be used in several different ways to work on balance and strength for your lower body. My favorite is probably a split squat with your back foot elevated on the foam roller.

Although the thing I use the foam roller for the most is stretching my chest while watching TV. Sometimes referred to as Christ pose, it is my favorite chest stretch because it is passive and relaxing. Lay on the foam roller longways with your feet on the ground and let your arms fall to the side like making a big T-shape with your upper body. Stay here as long as you’d like:

There are many more items that can level up your home gym, but these are a few that really increase the value of your current equipment.

Always remember, you don’t need money to get strong. Equipment isn’t that important to your success with body composition. Consistency is. Training consistently with no equipment will yield greater results than sporadically lifting weights.