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8 fitness tools you can buy to achieve an effective resistance workout at home
8 fitness tools you can buy to achieve an effective resistance workout at home
Mara LeightonFeb 20, 2019, 19:00 IST
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A home gym manages to solve a surprising amount of our best excuses for skipping a workout: you set the pace, there's no dress code or commute, and your only competition is with yourself. You don't have to find parking or change into more acceptable athleisure, and you can watch your favorite TV shows on loud while you beat your personal record on a stationary bike.
If you're technically a morning person - but not enough of one to adhere to a daily 6 am drive and shower in a public locker room - you can find a way to more seamlessly integrate exercise into your day-to-day. Suddenly, it becomes convenient, and convenience turns into routine.
And if you're looking for the most valuable home gym tools, you should consider resistance tools. You don't have to spend a lot to get something effective, and you don't have to clean out the garage to fit a multifaceted weight rack in order to work every muscle in your body.
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Resistance training poses a lower risk of injury (something that's especially good if you plan to workout alone), the tools are relatively intuitive to use, and you're not likely to ever outgrow them, so you'll continue to see results even as your fitness level increases. You could, theoretically, use the same workout tool for many years to come.
Below, check out 8 resistance tools perfect for an effective home gym:
Especially great for beginners, resistance bands are about as simple as resistance training gets. You can mix them into your workouts seamlessly (squats, leg curls, bridges, band walks, standing abduction) to make them harder and more effective, and they're cheaper and more versatile than a lot of other options.
Engineered by a Navy SEAL to fulfill a need for effective training he could use abroad, TRX suspension systems are a highly portable, versatile workout tool that turns your body weight into your own gym machine. Since its creation, it has become a mainstay in gyms across the country and been adopted by supermodels, pro athletes, US army, and Ivy League college sports teams as a canonical workout tool.
Given its suspended design, your range of motion is more fluid and complete than with traditional weight training — both decreasing your risk of injury and allowing for greater flexibility and challenge.
The TRX system can be set up virtually anywhere there's a doorframe and open space, and you can use the TRX app or booklet of different exercises to customize a workout that makes your body (+gravity) the ideal workout tool.
The Perfect Fitness Ab Wheel is a cult-favorite with 2,500+ five-star reviews for a reason. It's simple to operate, but the wheel has an interior spring design that will actively work against each of your movements, adding resistance to actively engage your core and work against your every roll.
If you're sick of the deterrents of a stiff neck or your spine digging into the floor during crunches, this is a great tool to lend some challenge and consistency to ab workouts.
The Bowflex dumbbell set is expensive, but it's considered "worth it" for people committed to home gyms for good reason. It's adjustable, so it takes up minimal space compared to the 15 weights it replaces, and it's easy to operate. Each dumbbell can adjust from five to 52.5 pounds (going up in 2.5-pound increments up to the first 25 pounds) with the turn of a dial.
You can find much cheaper dumbbells, but you'll probably need to commit to either one stagnant weight (which may not translate to as many workouts, or which you may outgrow) or buy multiples and deal with the storage.
If you'd rather do your squats in front of the TV for less time and see faster results, you may be interested in Physiclo's inventive leggings.
Simply put, they're workout leggings with resistance bands built into them — so every movement you make attracts up to ten pounds of extra resistance in any direction.
Co-Founder Frank Yao came up with "resistance clothes" alongside his fellow med students and physicians while working at an NYU rehabilitation center to help patients turn everyday activities — and their limited exercise during a hospital stay — into more efficacious opportunities to build muscle tone and overall fitness. Realizing the implications of "resistance clothes" for even casual gym-goers is what led to Physiclo.
In an independent study by the Human Performance Lab at Cal Poly, researchers found that people wearing Physiclo in a variety of exercises had a 15% increase in oxygen consumption, 15% increase in energy expenditure/calorie burn, 18% increase in average heart rate, and 22% increase in ventilation/breathing rate. Physiclo also touts a 23% bump to muscle engagement and aiding marathon runners to improve their finish times over a 10-week testing period by almost 8 minutes.
Medicine balls, like resistance bands, are cheap and pretty seamless to begin using — making this another great option for beginners or those reticent to commit to multiple home gym pieces. Add one into a lunge, squat, deadlift, step jump, or bridge to make simple workouts harder.
It's worth mentioning that while a medicine ball is a popular resistance tool (and preferred by many), you can use almost anything as stand-in — though you'll feel more legitimate, and probably more inspired to work out, if you use something for that purpose rather than a heavy book or 9 cans of soup stacked precariously together.
You may also look into ankle or wrist weights if you're looking for a hands-free option.
If you'd rather let the resistance come from a recumbent bike (or the bike and leggings with built-in resistance bands), you should look into Marcy's version. It's cheap at $140, and it's noted as Amazon's Choice online with over 1,000 5-star reviews.
It has a step-through design that's supposed to maximize mobility and mitigate instigators of back and knee pain, eight resistance levels, a well-padded seat, counter-balanced pedals for support and control, and a small computer screen.
You can also adjust the foot straps for your feet, so you don't feel like you're about to slip out.
Rowing machines are pricey, but Sunny Health's isn't astronomical — especially when you consider that some machines run closer to $1,000, like this $945 best-seller.
Sunny's has foam grip handlebars to mitigate callouses, non-slip foot pedals, eight adjustable resistance levels, and a large digital monitor to display markers like time and calories burned.
If you're looking for one major machine to add to a home gym, rowing machines are a great value, since they're a uniquely complete workout, since they utilize virtually every muscle in its range of motion and can grow more difficult on command. It's also a low-impact workout and provides a full range of motion.
