6 Things You Need to Have to Start Your Home Gym for Performance and Good Health

What are the bare minimum things you need to start your home gym?

• Adequate space; And
• Dumbells

Things You Need to Have to Start a Home Gym

1. Have Adequate Space

Having enough space for your workouts is super important as it keeps you safe by allowing for proper form and reducing the risk of injuries.

Plus, it lets you move freely, try different exercises, and allows you to focus on your workouts without worrying bumping into anything important.

2. Invest in a yoga mat or exercise mat

Invest in an exercise mat to keep yourself comfortable (at the very least more comfortable) when doing exercises that puts stresses on your knees, forearms, etc.

3. Get yourself some dumbbells

If you are on a budget and can only afford one piece of gym equipment, buy dumbbells. This is because you can perform several weighted exercises with dumbbells alone.

What exercises you can perform with a dumbbell:

• Dumbbell Bench Press
• Dumbbell Rows
• Dumbbell Squats
• Dumbbell Lunges
• Dumbbell Shoulder Press
• Dumbbell Bicep Curls
• Dumbbell Tricep Kickbacks
• And much more

4. Buy a Barbell if you wish to be stronger and perform better in compound lifts

Barbells are not necessary when you have dumbbells already, but it does grant you the ability to load heavier plates, which is perfect for compound exercises like squats and deadlifts.

5. Consider buying an Olympic Bar with Olympic Weights Plates

If possible, I suggest you invest in an Olympic Bar and Olympic Weight Plates.

Of course, you can opt to use a regular barbell instead, but do keep in mind that there is a limit on how much weight you can pile on a regular barbell bar before it starts to bend.

My advice is that if you lift or want to lift anything over 90kg, then invest in an Olympic bar.

Though the bar and weight plates are more expensive, they are still a good investment as they provide you with more safety when lifting heavy weights because the olympic bar is much more durable than a regular barbell bar.

6. Consider buying a Kettlebell

Although the dumbbell is versatile there are explosive exercise that are fluid and static in nature that can’t be done with dumbbells alone. That’s where kettlebells come in.

Introducing Kettlebell swings and the halo exercise.

Kettlebell swings are great as it requires you to stabilize you core throughout the exercise while driving the momentum using your glutes and legs.

The Halo is an exercise I use to keep my shoulders flexible, but it surprisingly gives your core a good workout too as the exercise requires you to keep you core tight for stabilization throughout the exercise.

For more information regarding on how to perform these exercises and other kettlebell exercises, I refer to this website, it is really great.

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

Bodyweight exercises are great exercises too

Regardless of your goal for exercising whether it is for performance, health, or bodybuilding reasons, do not disregard body-weight exercises.

After all, you won’t say exercises like Burpees and Pull-ups inferior to other weighted exercises.

Perform hip exercises to prevent or relief lower back pain

Whether you are currently experiencing lower back pain or not, I suggest you implement various hip exercises that focuses on rotational and forward and backward momentum in your workout.

This is because when we are too stiff in our movement when working out, it will create tightness in the hip, which may result in lower back pain.

for more information and examples of hip exercises, click here.