How To DoStrength Training At Home

Ugh! Get up; get dressed. Shove your gym clothes in the gym bag. Scrape the ice off the car. Thread your way through the traffic. Hunt for a parking place. 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 … Get up, grab your shorts, pick up your dumbbells, start your workout.

Which scenario sounds better? Obviously, doing your strength training at home. But is that really a good option? Probably not for a professional athlete. But for everybody else, it can be fantastic. Save time, gas, energy, gym fees, and frustration.

What does it take to get started? For a start, you will only need a little space and maybe a floor mat. You will also want a way to watch home-workout DVDs and online videos while you exercise.

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

Eventually, you will also want dumbbells, which come in graduated weights, and are sometimes sold as sets. You will need an increasing number of these and ever 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 replaces at least 15 pairs of regular dumbbells--saving both space and annoyance. In about 20 seconds with the twist of a dial you can change to any weight. A metal clip moves to pick up exactly what you dialed. Most non-professionals will only need this one set for all their weight training for the rest of their lives.

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. Its best to have a spotter at hand to prevent injuries.

You will also generally need an incline/decline bench to use the barbells most safely. Of course, you can use the dumbbells and bands on a bench, too. You just don't need it for the smaller equipment.

Home exercise machines, too, exist. If you have both a large space and a large budget, you may want to examine these. But you better get a home trial option to be sure it fits your space and personality. They are also widely available used from people who got them before being sure they would use them. Also remember, there is not only the purchase price, but the maintenance costs to consider.

Can you do strength training at home? Of course! A gym may motivate you by having classes or competitors, but look at how easy it is to just do the strength training at home--especially in winter!