Strength Training At Home: What You Need And What You Don't

Ugh! Get up; get dressed. Gather the gym clothes, find the gym bag. Go out and scrape ice off the car. Fight the traffic; find a parking spot. Find your gym card. Trudge to the locker room, change clothes, and cram your stuff into that tiny locker. Wait for your turn on a bench. And that's all before you can start your workout.

Or you can get up, grab your shorts, pick up your dumbbells, start your workout.

Which would you prefer? Obviously, doing your strength training at home. But is that really a good option? If you are an Olympic hopeful, probably not. But for everybody else, it can be fantastic. Save time, gas, energy, gym fees, and frustration.

OK--what do I need? Some space where you can swing a cat. For a start, you will only need a little space and maybe a floor mat. A way to watch DVDs or online videos will be helpful, too, as many home workouts are available--often free.

Pretty soon you will need some equipment. A good place to start is with the light, compact, and effective resistance bands or tubes. You begin with the lightest colors and gradually acquire the darker, the stronger resistance bands as you need them. Some hooks can keep them untangled and quickly accessible.

Eventually, you will also want dumbbells. These come in graduated weights, sometimes sold as sets. As your strength increases, you will need an more of dumbbells and more space to keep them in. Keeping track can become annoying.

Much more convenient than multiple dumbbell pairs are the Bowflex SelectTech 552 dumbbells or the bigger Bowflex SelectTech 1090s. One pair of these gives you as many weight options as at least 15 pairs of regular dumbbells. These high tech plate sets change weights with the twist of a dial--about 20 seconds to change it. A metal clip moves to pick up exactly what you dialed. Click and go. This one set will last most non-professionals throughout a weight training career.

Barbells at home can give you a larger weight range than the SelectTech 1090s, but they take more space and are expensive and dangerous. It is easy to lose control of barbells. You need a spotter to prevent injury, and you are more likely to have one available at a gym than at home.

You will also generally need an incline/decline bench to use the barbells most safely. It would not hurt to use a bench with dumbbells and bands. You just don't need it for the smaller equipment.

Some people splurge and get home exercise machines. If you have both a large space and a large budget, you may want to examine these. Try to get a home trial option to make sure it fits you and your space. They are also widely available used from people who got them before being sure they would use them. Remember, there can be serious maintenance costs as well as initial purchase price for such equipment.

Can you do strength training at home? Of course! A gym may have more equipment, more camaraderie, more expert advice, and more motivating competition, but strength training at home is a lot more convenient, and counting gym fees, over time a lot less expensive.