ForumA Woman’s Guide To The Ultimate At Home Workout
For today’s busy, but health conscious woman, there is nothing better than having a personal home gym.
More and more people are building their own home gyms because:
- Health clubs charge outrageous membership and personal training fees.
- Health clubs are not child-friendly environments.
- Health clubs are often crowded during peak hours.
- Health clubs are hot-beds for a multitude of germs and viruses such as the flu virus.
Those who shy away from building their own home gyms do so because they feel they do not have enough room in their homes or just cannot afford the equipment. But, the fact of the matter is that nothing could be further from the truth. There are hundreds of highly effective, affordable and space-saver fitness equipment on the market today.
The following is a list of highly versatile and budget-friendly fitness equipment every woman needs in order to start building the home gym of her dreams.
Yoga Mat
Most fitness enthusiasts know that there is nothing more refreshing and energizing than starting the day with a morning-Yoga routine, like the one illustrated in this video. However, what most new fitness enthusiasts may not know is that besides being essential to the proper practice of Yoga, a high quality, thick and non-slip Yoga mat is also the most basic and versatile of all fitness equipment. With a little bite of imagination, one can use a non-slip, high quality Yoga mat, such as this Aurorae Yoga mat, for an array of bodyweight exercises as well as core exercises and Pilates.
Resistance Bands
As this video clearly demonstrates, resistance bands, such as these flex bands, are instrumental to the effective practice of Pilates. Those of you who do not practice Pilates can also use these bands to help you add a level of resistance to your morning-stretch routine or your pre-workout warm up sessions.
Exercise Balls
The stability ball, often also referred to as an exercise ball, Swiss ball or balance ball, is not a new piece of fitness equipment. For decades now physical therapists have utilized the power of this simple, yet highly versatile piece of fitness equipment to help rehabilitate people suffering from spine injuries, sport injuries, and traumatic head injuries, who need to regain their hand-eye coordination.
Recently, fitness professionals have also become aware of the exercise ball’s awesome ability to strengthen the torso, tone the abs, improve one’s posture and help minimize lower back pain. Due to these, and a variety of other reasons, stability balls are fast becoming today’s most popular piece of fitness equipment. If you are interested in incorporating an exercise ball into your workout routine but are not sure how to go about choosing the right ball than please read the article: How To Choose The Right Exercise Ball.
Ankle/Wrist Weights
I love these ankle/wrist weights. They are an extremely stylish, comfortable, highly effective, and easy to use piece of fitness equipment. All you need to do to get an effective workout using these weights is strap them on your wrists and/or ankles and go about your daily chores. I like to use my ankle/wrist weights while I clean the house. These weights keep my heart rate up while the added weight helps me burn more calories as I move around the house and tone my arms as I clean. Of course, as this video demonstrates, these weights can also be used during any workout routine
Medicine Balls
Medicine balls help add variety to your workouts. They are especially useful for helping tone and balance your upper body while you work on strengthening your lower body. Medicine balls are also a fun and highly effective addition to partner-workouts. These balls can easily be passed from one person to the other during the course of the workout thus improving both hand-eye coordination as well as adding an agility and weight training element to the workout.
Exercise Wheel
To the untrained eye this funny looking wheel with handles does not look like a highly effective piece of fitness equipment. But, those who are familiar with it affectionately refer to it as “the wheel of pain”. That is because this unpretentious looking piece of fitness equipment has the power to use your own bodyweight to train your abdominal muscles as well as your shoulders, lats and glutes.
Dumbbells
We are all aware of the role weight training plays in firming and shaping our dream bodies. Unfortunately, often women, especially women new to the world of fitness, are reluctant to start weight training due to the fear of “bulking up”. Therefore, it is important for every woman to understand that lifting weights that will put a moderate level of strain on your muscles will only tone, elongate and strengthen your muscles. The following video demonstrates just one form of exercise a woman can do, using dumbbells, to sculpt strong, sexy arms.
This PowerBlock Dumbbell Set is a must-have item for every woman’s home gym because it is especially designed with a woman’s fitness needs in mind. In order to help tone your muscles, and maintain that definition over time, these easy to grip dumbbells are designed to increase the resistance they place on your muscles in three pound increments. You can gradually work your way up to lifting 24 pounds with each arm, which is the maximum amount of weight the average woman can lift without worrying about “bulking up”.
Bosu-Balance Trainer
The Bosu-Balance Trainer is a new piece of fitness equipment that is fast becoming a favorite amongst personal trainers, physical therapists, athletes and fitness enthusiasts simply because it works. The genius behind The Bosu-Balance Trainer’s ability to simultaneously train every muscle in your body lies in the fact that it provides your muscles with an extreme amount of imbalance against which they must work. This imbalance forces all the muscles in your body to contract, in order to balance the body.
As this video clearly demonstrates, the simplest of all exercises such as the forward lunge, turns into an intense workout for your calf, quads, hamstrings, glutes, abs and back muscles, since all of these muscles must contract in order to balance your body during the lunge.
Exercise Bench
No home gym is complete without a sturdy and padded fitness bench like this Trion Fitness Folding Flat Bench. This highly versatile piece of fitness equipment is the ultimate multi-tasker. As this video demonstrates, you can use this bench for a variety of bodyweight and weight training exercises. In the decline position, this bench can also be used to train the mid and lower abs as well as the obliques, better known as “the love handles”. Best of all, when you are finished with your workout you can simply fold this compact bench and slip it under your bed.
Weight Training Gloves
These sleek, stylish gloves are a must-have item for any woman looking to incorporate weight training into her workout routine. Besides protecting your hands from callouses and an array of other workout related injuries, these machine-washable gloves will also help support your wrists during weight training sessions and help you grip dumbbells better, thus improving the amount of control you have over the weights.
Further Reading
I like to refer to this book as the “poor woman’s personal trainer”. If paying a personal trainer $100+ an hour to come to your home and train you is not within your budget than this book is a must-have item for you. This gem of a book is filled with hundreds of step-by-step, easy to follow, illustrated exercises designed to sculpt every muscle of your body.
