Setting up your own weight training facility at home is easier than you might think. This is a great way to keep up your strength without having to head out to the local gym on a near-daily basis. This is also a great way to save some money in the family budget as well.
The key is preparation. As long as you know what you want to accomplish, you can set up your home gym accordingly. With a bit of dedication and consistency, you will find that you can meet your goals in no time at all. Continue reading to learn more about how you can effectively do all of your weight training right from the comfort of your own home.
Article Contents
Can Weight Training be Done at Home?
You can do just about any type of weight training imaginable at home. Expensive equipment is not necessary. You set your own goals and then up the area as you wish. All you need is ample space and area to move around in. That will give you the flexibility you need to do strength training at home.
You can do weight training at home with or without official gym equipment. Much of the furniture you have around the house can often double as weight training equipment if you desire. The more proficient you become with your weight training regime, the more equipment you will eventually want to add.
What Kind of Weights do I Need for Weight Training at Home?
While many types of weights can prove useful when training at home, starting with two sets of dumbbells is typically recommended. One of the sets should be on the heavy side, while the other should be a bit lighter. You can do many different exercises just with these two sets.
As your weight training regime progresses, you can add more equipment. It just depends on space and your particular goals. If you are just a beginner looking to tone up a bit in places, you can even get by with virtually no equipment. However, eventually, you will probably want to beef up your home gym just a bit with some actual weights.
10 Tips for Doing Weight Training at Home
Exercising in a gym can often be overwhelming. All of that equipment readily available can put you on sensory overload. Thankfully, you do not need everything the local gym has if you want to do effective weight training at home. Here are ten great tips to help you get started.
Develop an Elevated Range of Motion
When weight training at home, you will want to increase the intensity of your workouts gradually. You do not necessarily have to add more weights to accomplish this. In fact, you can have a harder workout simply by increase the range of motion that you use during your weight training regime. There are some easy ways that you can do this.
Take a break for the regular split squat that you have been doing. Instead, raise your front foot up on a step in your house. If you do not have a step, then a hard book will do the trick. Gradually increase the distance that you lift your leg. The simple act of elevating your foot will increase your strength in several areas of your body. You can also do this with push-ups.
Slow Down Your Reps
When working out at home, you should never feel like you are in a hurry. Nobody is breathing down your neck trying to get on the machine that you are using. As such, this is your time to slow down your repetitions. Doing so will increase the intensity of your workout and give your muscles the activity that you desire.
If you are doing squats, consider increasing the amount of time you spend lowering your body to about 5 seconds. Take a brief pause when you are at the bottom, and then spend another 5 seconds coming back up. This requires much more of your body weight, so you will begin to show dividends from this type of activity in no time.
Move In Unfamiliar Ways
Doing weight training at home is also your chance to do movements you might otherwise not consider attempting. New movements are quite beneficial when trying to gain strength because they provide your brain with just the new challenge that it relishes. In addition, it intensifies the workout to the point that your body will make some noticeable new gains.
The key here is to move in ways that you never have before. For example, you might try lateral lunge instead of the backward plunge you are used to performing during your workout. Pilates is another type of workout routine you should try doing at home. If you have not done this before, it will tax you and give you the kind of workout you have been relishing.
Try New Types of Repetitions
Weight training at home is also the perfect time to challenge yourself. You can do this with some new types of repetitions. For example, instead of always moving straight up and down, establish a fuller range of motion to work out even more parts of your body with each exercise.
You can start by performing a deadlift off the floor with a kettlebell. Come all the way back up with the weight and then lock your body. On the way down, stop halfway. Then, come back up and lock yourself again. Then, go all the way down to the floor and repeat the process. This will mix it up, and your brain will be challenged to figure out what in the world is going on.
Perform Supersets in a Creative Fashion
Since you might not have the heavyweights available at home that you would at the local gym, it is time to get creative. This is when you want to start doing some supersets. Such sets end up continually working the same muscle areas. You will end up pre-exhausting your muscles without having to turn out so many reps as you would in the gym.
One common superset is the walking lunge. For this, you will do three reps and then move right into tempo squats at either your bodyweight or in conjunction with some dumbbells. Do this going down for five seconds, take a pause, and then take five more seconds to come back to a standing position. This is a hard workout that is sure to pay dividends.
Focus On One Leg at a Time
If you are looking for a great way to adjust the muscle imbalances that often occur after heavy weight training in a gym, focusing on just one side of the body at a time is the way to go. This is super-challenging training that you can do with much lower weight levels than would be possible in the gym. You will feel the burn, and your muscles will respond accordingly.
You can start this by focusing on just one leg. This is useful when you do not have access to the heavyweights you would at the gym. You can take the deadlifts or squats out of routine and replace them with slower moves that have you focusing on the lowering of your body during each repetition.
Perform More Repetitions
If you want to feel like you are working harder, the instinct is to start adding more weights. That is not what you need to do at home. You may not even have the weights available to do that. Thankfully, there is another way. You just need to start performing more repetitions. Keep going until you feel about 80% fatigued on any given set, and then stop.
If you can get to the 15 to 20 range in terms of the number of repetitions, your muscles will develop more endurance. You also do not want to overdo it. Skip the crazy challenges that you find on social media. There is little benefit from you doing 100 crunches followed by 100 push-ups. Be sensible about your repetitions and you will start to reap the benefits.
Mini-Bands Are Useful for More Than Just the Warmup
Many people have started to use mini-bands and resistance bands while they warm up. They are also helpful when stretching. Now is the time to expand their use. When you are doing weight training at home, mini-bands can be used to make activities such as squats and deadlifts all the more challenging.
When you wear your mini-bands, try to wear them roughly 12 inches apart from one another. When you do this and then start doing push-ups or bicep curls, you will really start to feel as if your muscles are on fire. You will encounter the same amount of muscle fatigue while using only a fraction of the weight.
Create Your Own In-House Weights
There is no need to rush out and try to buy a bunch of weights so that you can start working out at home. You probably have much of what you need lying right around the house. If you are looking to do some lightweight work, soup cans are great. If you need something a bit heavier, go find a bag of rice or flour. That should do the trick nicely.
Liquid is also quite heavy. Water and milk jugs are pretty popular amongst those who do weight training at home. You can even empty the jugs and fill them with something longer-lasting, such as sand, pebbles, or even concrete. Get creative. You can do some effective weight training at home without having to spend a lot of money in the process.
Use a Combination of These Tips
This final tip is to use a combination of the advice we have just given you. If you do that, you will create a super workout that hits all of our muscle groups and gives you the type of results you have been looking for.
You can begin by focusing on your range of motion and then adding a bit of resistance training to the mix. Then, switch to some exercises that focus only on the legs and speed it up a bit. Remember to increase the number of reps where applicable and have fun with it. Switching things up will keep your brain active and your muscles working.
Wrap-Up
Doing your weight training at home brings about many advantages. First, you will have more time to do the things that you enjoy while always making sure that you can fit your weight training routine into your schedule. It does not take much to create an environment in your home that is conducive to weight training, so consider getting started today.
