Home Gym Workouts

By Author: Brian Waters
Total Articles: 3698
Comment this article

Home gym workouts need not be any less effective than workouts done in a gym, provided certain basic principles are observed. A home gym is unlikely to have the same professional equipment as a commercial gym, so some adjustments will be necessary. Here is how to get the best results from a home gym workout.

Cardio
It can never be quite the same at home. Gym workouts often commence with either running, or exercises using a treadmill or elliptical trainer. If your home gym is especially well equipped, you may well want to start in the same way. Most will not be so lucky, and will need a different type of exercise to warm up with. You could just go for a run outside, or you could use something like a small trampoline to get your blood moving.

Chest
Here again if you have a weight bench available, it is ideal for this stage of your home gym workout. Use bench presses, either with dumbbells or barbells. Dumbbells will allow you more freedom to develop your body evenly. Not many will have access to this facility, however, and in this case you will need to improvise. Try some declined pushups. They are hard ...
... work, but if you feel that you are not getting the necessary work load, try raising your feet. That will be much harder, but if you need it harder still, try using one hand.

Legs
Legs are not the easiest part of the body to build using home gym workouts, but with a bit of ingenuity, a lot can be achieved. It will, of course, be easier if you have a bench. You can then employ basic leg curls. Using weights, try squats as they are very effective in developing the thighs. Calves are more difficult to deal with, but if you can stand on your bottom step with one foot, without your heel touching the step, then you can raise yourself using that one foot. This is a very physically demanding exercise, and will yield good results.

Arms
The arms are much easier to make part of a home gym workout. Although professional gym equipment is always a help, to develop your arms you only really need a set of dumbbells. Perform basic curls to build the biceps effectively, and work your triceps by doing easy seated triceps extensions. As well as these, make use of the dumbbell kickback, as this is a proven workout for those just starting.

Hopefully this guide will have illustrated what can be done with home gym workouts, and that you can get a lot of results from them.