Although my gym is fully equipped with every fancy piece of equipment anyone could need, a personal trainer friend of mine asked me an interesting question that has implications for the minimalists among us. Namely, he asked, “What gym equipment would you buy if you were in house arrest?”
“Do I get a garage in this hypothetical,” I asked. “Nope. Just your apartment.”
It was an interesting conversation because it gets us to the essentials of training. When you think about it, you really don’t need much equipment to build a good body.
Here’s what I’d get, in order of importance:
Weighted vest or X-Vest
The X-Vest is the best, and is priced accordingly. This one is well-reviewed and more affordable.
You could do push-ups, weighted sit-ups, bodyweight squats one-legged squats, Bulgarian split squats using your chair or couch:
You could walk up and down your stairwell (assuming that wouldn’t set off your ankle bracelet). You could just wear the weighted vest around your house to burn more calories throughout the day.
A Dip-Chin-Ab station/Weider 200 Power Tower
Try this workout using the Power Tower.
Put on your weighted vest. Do chin-ups, pull-ups, wide-grip pull-ups, dips and leg raises. You could train for strength by really loaded up the vest and doing fewer reps (and more sets) of dips and chins.
For cardio, you could do a series of dips, to chins, to ab raises. Your heart rate would be out of control high and you would burn a ton of calories.
You can also get one of these doorway pull-up bars, which are amazing to use when you travel. Mount this bad boy on your hotel doorway and you have no excuse to depart from the swole life.
Schwinn AirDyne
A engineering major can explain how it works. Basically it has a big wheel in the front. The harder you pedal the more resistance you get.
AirDynes are awesome because they don’t hurt your joints. Before moving, I sold mine to an old Chinese woman with arthritis. Her doctor told her to get one.
Protip: You can often get a steal on AirDynes from Craigslist. The New Year’s resolution crowd gives up on their fitness goals in around mid-February.
Perfect Push-Up
These things will save your wrists if you do a lot of push-ups. It won’t make your pecs huge because you won’t be able to overload your muscles (unless, of course, you get a weight vest).
Epsom Salt for Muscle Gains
Since you’re on house arrest, you can’t be getting fancy massages. Thus you need some epsom salt. A five-pound bag is good for two massages. (Some people even put as much as 5 pounds of epsom salt in a bath.)
Read about the benefits of magnesium and the magnesium miracle here.
Foam Roller
Everyone needs one of these, especially desk jockeys.
Did I leave anything out? If you were on house arrest, what would you outfit your home gym with?
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definitely C2 rower over the bike. more complete work out plus it stores very nicely. its the only piece of equipment i’m actually considering for my house.
while tacky, i also have the dumb bell bricks which lock and load from 5lbs to 50lbs each. you can do a lot with those and they dont take up much more space than two shoe boxes.
truth is though, you can do everything you need to with body weight exercises. if you get to one arm hand stand push ups and 50 single leg squats, you’re going to be just fine
Ah, I forgot about those adjustable dumb bells. Good call.
The C2 bored the hell out of me and never did anything for me. I’ve always been partial to bikes…even occasionally enjoy a spin class.
I used to think that way about the rower too until I put some time into it.
I am a big dude. running is hard for me, hard on my shins and I am not that technically proficient at it. Sure I can run a few miles and often run 800′s for warm ups, but I can’t make it a big ass work out.
The rower stresses a lot of the same energy pathways as running but also adds in the resistance element too. Once I got my technique down (which did require coaching), I was able to really get some great workouts in on the rower which left me completely exhausted and on the verge of vomiting (after sprints).
being competitive, it is also a great way to stay focused. I have a sub 7:00 goal for the 2000 meter sprint. my most recent best is 7:20.
I stress my body in ways I could never do with a run on that machine. Love/hate it!
Agree 100% with this. Rower sprints will mess you up and have you tasting blood. The only feeling that comes close is running hills.
Yeah, I hate running too. I don’t do it…hills, stairs, and my favorite – Prowler sprints.
I’ve used the C2… just no chemistry between me and that machine.
Curl bar with 50 lb weights, Concept 2 ergometer, and a cute towel girl to ‘spot’ me.
I swear by the kettlebell.
Elastic bands from EliteFTS for stretching, adding resistance to dips, pull ups and push-ups.
Also, if you have a little room a plyo box as well to work on power (e.g., moving your body weight explosively fast).
A jump rope, as well, would do some good.
And, the only other thing I might add is a punching bag, 100 lbs. generic version made by Everlast – could be hung from the door pull up bar (like I have mine) or the dip-chin-ab station you mentioned above. And, when taken down could be used for some resistance training.
What would you include if you had a garage(or a basement in my case)? I’m forwarding this post to a friend who doesn’t have as much space. Really informative.
I had a garage for years. Bug your local gyms to find out when they are selling/throwing away used equipment. Got my squat rack that way. You can usually get good deals on old dumb bells.
Kettlebells
Power rack.
Olympic bar and weights
Home built sandbag
Dbs
d&p is my first stop on the internet — after twitter
Dip belt: If you’re strong, you are going to need more than a 40 (or even 80) pound weighted belt.
I’ve been working Bryce Lane’s “Ultimate Brute-Force Real World He-Man Power Program”.
http://www.ironsports.tv/brute.htm
All you need is an empty beer keg and couple of cinderblocks.
I don’t know how that’d go over in an apt, but it works perfect in a garage/basement type setup.
Chinning bar to hang from the door, a jumprope, two kettlebells of different sizes and a dip belt is a good, compact minimum.
if you have a garage, get a squat rack and a rower and you will never need anything else.
If you’ve got somewhere to hang them (I’ve got a beam across my living room ceiling), a set of gymnastic olympic rings like these are ideal – http://www.muscledriverusa.com/MDUSA-Wood-Gymnastic-Rings–Pair-Free-Shipping_p_2467.html
You can do dips, pull ups, chin ups, muscle ups, leg raises – pretty much anything you can do on a frame, except because the rings aren’t part of a rigid structure, everything is twice as hard and requires a lot more additional core muscles to stabilise.
Also, if you ever get out of your house arrest and decide to travel the world, these are ideal to throw in a bag – they take up almost no room, and can be slung up on any beam or tree branch anywhere.
Good list. A few things I might not have thought about on there.
I want to build a dip station, but haven’t figured out yet how to put that together. I’m pretty sure PVC pipe wouldn’t last on it’s own.
Still as long as I can do everything individually i’m in no rush to build it.
I have a similar pull up bar. It’s an awesome piece of equipment.
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