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I am sure that when you embark upon your quest for a better body, you realize that you will have to use some sort of equipment to achieve this goal.  The problem is that for many reasons,  you are not keen on the idea of enrolling in a commercial gym.  Can you still achieve your goals with a home gym?  Absolutely!  In this article, I will show you that the magic of the home gym lies in simplicity and consistency – not in fancy equipment.

The 2 Key Advantages of the Home Gym

1. Convenience –  You can’t deny the convenience of the home gym.  Private.  Personal.  Available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  And – you don’t have to leave your house, find parking and then fight for the best pieces of equipment at the busiest times of the day as in a commercial gym.  And when you shower, since it is at home afterward – no worry of athlete’s foot!
2. Simplicity –  Contrary to what anyone might want to tell you, you do not need the most expensive nor the most complicated equipment.  In fact, if initially all you had was a floor to do push ups and leg lunges, and a doorway chin-up bar to do pull ups, you would have all that you would ever need until you got additional equipment.

The 2 Keys to Success in Using the Home Gym

1. Progressive Weight Resistance –  Let me get right down to the point, you cannot develop the best body possible without the use of weights, that is, the use of barbells and dumbbells.  You can mess around with pilates, yoga and Richard-Simmons-style-jumping-jacks all you want, and you will not develop anything more than a chubby frame that can do aerobics a little better than the chubby person sitting next to you who does nothing.  You don’t even need to get all of your pieces of equipment all at once; you can begin little-by-little, adding on more and more in stages.  These are the stages that you might purchase your equipment:
   • Dumbbells (2)
   • Barbell (1)
   • Barbell/Dumbbell Plates (25 lbs. – 10 lbs. – 5 lbs. – and 2 ½ lbs)
   • Workout Bench (for doing the bench press)
   • Squat Rack (for doing leg squats)
   • Sit Up Bench (for doing sit ups and leg raises)
   • Doorway Chin Up Bar (The Iron Gym®)

You can later add more and more pieces of gym equipment as you can afford and can comfortably fit in your workout area.  You can start your gym with as little as $125.00.

1. Consistency of Use –  More important than any combination of gym equipment or where you choose to workout is your consistency of using it.  Who do you think would have the better body – the person who is the member of the ultra-modern, ultra-fancy gym who works out once or twice a month, or the person who has a modest but efficient gym, but one who works out everyday?  Yes, you guessed right!

The home gym can indeed be the key to your physical fitness success.  You can do it.  Train like the super-fit movie stars train – in their home gyms.  Where else?

Please leave your comments.

Yours in health,

Charles Prosper

“The 12-Week Fitness Guru”

If you pick up typically any magazine from the newsstand on fitness, you will notice that all of the photos that show body builders exercising are almost always shown in a professional gym environment. If you see this, issue after issue, the message, tacitly is that the only way to exercise yourself correctly is to join and belong to a professional gym. Not so. Though I have belonged to several professional gyms over the course of my life, consistently, regularly and successfully, I have done all of my full-body exercises using barbells, dumbbells and a bench from my home gym for the last four years. And I continue to make great results! With that said, I want to guide you into how to properly purchase your first home gym by telling you the 3 things to avoid and the 3 things to do when buying a home gym.

The 3 Things to Avoid When Buying A Home Gym:

Thing to Avoid #1 – Avoid Buying More Than What You Need To Get Started - There are many, many types of equipment that would be great for a home gym: barbells, dumbbells, lat pulley machines, squat racks, inclined bench, declined bench, chin up bars, stationery bicycles, calf machines, and the list goes on and on. You don’t have to have or purchase everything that is possible to have to start. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Student. You can just start with a barbell, two dumbbells, a simple workout bench, and a variety of different barbell and dumbbell plates. You can start small, and you can always add on more later as you wish. If you had to start as simple as possible, you could just start with a pair of dumbbells and some weights. You could do a plethora of body movements with just this to start.

Thing to Avoid #2 – Avoid Buying The Latest “Fad” Miracle-Working All-In-One Infomercial Exercise Equipment - Let me let you in on a little secret. The fancier the equipment and the more you spend is in direct proportion to how little you are likely to use it when you receive it. Why? Because you have been lead to believe that the magic is in the equipment rather in your own resolve and discipline. Barbells and dumbbells have been around for what seems like forever, and they will continue to be the basic and most reliable standard for a long time to come.

Thing to Avoid #3 – Avoid Buying More Than Can Fit Comfortably In Your Workout Area - Let’s say that you do have the means to purchase a lot of different types of equipment for your home gym. You still need to be practical and carefully measure off your designated workout area in order to operate efficiently.

The 3 Things to Do When Buying A Home Gym:

Thing to Do #1 – Do Read The Customer Satisfaction Comments On The On-line Web Ordering Sites - Before you go out and buy any piece of equipment, check out what others have to say and what others’ experiences are with that brand of equipment that you are considering to buy. Check the web ordering sites first.

Thing to Do #2 – Check Our More Than One Brand of The Type of Equipment You Want To Buy - In this information age, there is absolutely no excuse to make an investment on any important product without comparing price, quality and the various brand names available by reading about it on the internet first. And after you have done your research, and you are satisfied with the brand that you are about to buy, if available, you can go to your neighborhood sporting goods location, check it out and maybe even buy it right there instead of ordering it on-line.

Thing to Do #3 – Purchase A Recommended Book On Fitness or Initially Hire A Personal Fitness Trainer - Most barbells and dumbbells and other basic equipment may not always have the best or the most complete information on how to use them in order to be able to create your own exercise routines. For this I say that you should purchase a highly-recommended book on fitness from a reliable source or to, at least initially, hire a personal fitness trainer to get you started with a home exercise routine. And stay with him or her until you know enough to do it out your own.

Happy exercising!

Yours in health,

Charles Prosper

“The 12-Week Fitness Guru”

P.S. Please leave me your comments and feedback.  I need the reinforcement that someone is listening.