Having a home gym has greatly improved my life, here are a few reasons how it can benefit you too.
There are countless studies showing the wide range benefits of exercise, everyone knows this. Everyone also knows that they should be exercising every day for 30 minutes or so. At yet, not everyone does (myself included, no one is perfect) because life can get in the way.
I don’t have enough time today.
I don’t feel like going to the gym.
It’s too cold/hot out today.
It takes too long to get to the gym.
The gym is closed today.
There’s no shortage of excuses.
But, there’s actually a solution to ALL of these issues.
Sounds too good to be true? It’s really not.
The answer is a home gym.
And no, I’m not talking about having one of those fancy home gyms where an entire family can live in (like the one the Rock uses, although it is an awesome gym that goes with him wherever he shoots movies).
Dwayne “The Rock'“ Johnson’s traveling/home gym.
I’m talking about having a pull-up bar and a couple of dumbbells.
If you can afford a squat rack that you could also use to deadlift or bench press, or have a Body Solid home gym, that’s great. But, for the average person who doesn’t have a lot of extra space in their home or is short on cash, all you really need is a workout bar and some dumbbells.
You don’t need to spend $2,995 on fancy equipment like this to create a decent home gym.
Here’s a picture of my home gym.
My “home gym.”
That’s right, it’s just an iron gym workout bar, dumbbells, and a t-shirt that I lay on for ab workouts.
How much did this home gym cost me?
In total, $0. Well if you include the shirt it was $15, but the equipment was free.
My neighbors were moving apartments and made a big pile of things they were going to throw out. I saw the workout bar and figured I’d save it from going to the junkyard. The same thing happened with the dumbbells expect my dad got them from someone else that was moving out.
I’ll admit I got lucky, but even if you have to buy the workout equipment it will cost less than $80.
The workout bar goes for $25 and you can use it to do pull ups, chin ups, push ups and crunches. With this bar alone, you can work out your chest, arms, and abs–three very important body parts.
Here are a few exercises you can do with the iron gym bar, it goes for about $25 (link).
I’d also recommend getting some dumbbells–the ones with adjustable weights (you can add or subtract weights to the bar instead of buying multiple dumbbells of different weights).
Together, this will cost you about $80 for the bar and weights, but it’s well worth and here’s why. Having a home gym eliminates all of the excuses for not working out.
Reason 1: Convenience
The gym’s too far?
No worries, the home gym is in the next room.
Too cold or hot outside?
No problem, you can work out indoors and adjust the room temperature.
Gym's closed?
All good, the home gym is always open.
Don’t have enough time to workout?
Good thing the home gym is here and you don’t have to commute to and from a gym.
To make it even better, you can get some chores done around the house while you recover between workout sets. In my last workout, I managed to sweep all the floors in my apartment and dust the rooms as well.
At your home gym, you can also play whatever music you want or listen to podcasts or just workout without any noise or distractions found in a regular gym.
Reason 2: You’ll Workout More
Before I had a home gym, I only worked out 3 times a week. I’d do chest, legs and back. Since I hit the main body parts, I’d often slack off when it came to working out other body parts.
However, with the home gym, I consistently workout my arms, shoulders and abs, as my 4th workout of the week.
One additional workout a week may not seem like much, but it does add up if you do the math. Going from working out 3 times a week to 4 times is a 14% increase in my weekly workout. That still seems little, so here’s some bonus math.
1 additional workout every week.
There are 52 weeks in a year.
That’s 52 additional workouts every year.
One extra workout a week quickly adds up to 52 extra workouts a year. Imagine how much stronger and in-shape you’ll be with 52 extra days of exercise.
Reason 3: You’ll Save A Lot of Time
You will save time from not having to commute to and from the gym. Let’s say it takes the average person 10 minutes to get to the gym, so 20 minutes round trip.
Multiply 20 minutes by 52 weeks and you’ll get 1,040 minutes.
Divide that by 60 minutes and you’ll get 17.3 hours.
That’s right, you spend 17 hours a year just going to and from the gym.
That’s almost a full day that can be spent with friends, family, reading books or growing your business.
So who wouldn’t want to save 17 hours and get 52 extra days of workouts every year?
I know I would.
Two books that I’d recommend reading related to working out are:
The first book is by a book about weight lifting and diet by the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the second book is by a Navy SEAL who teaches people how working out and having more discipline actually leads to a better life.
In exchange for a few bucks and a couple hours, a book will give you an enormous amount of valuable information that can help you in life. It’s practically high-robbery. So take advantage of this and read as much as you can.
If you want to check out my list of recommended books, you can find that here.
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