A lot of what is considered in this section is about barriers to going to the gym and it does beg the question of why you should go to the gym to do strength training.
Well, in short, it's because you need the equipment. To appreciate that you need to know a bit about what a strength training programme looks like. If you don't then go check out the training info section.
But what about training with just body weight?
You can do a fairly decent upper body routine with just body weight exercise though the main problem is training legs. If your legs are weak then you will never be strong as a whole. If your legs are twig shaped and your upper body gets decent then you'll look silly in shorts. Plus, even for upper body it is much simpler to use weights and you can still have bodyweight exercise within your lifting routine.
Or do you plan to buy equipment for a home gym?
This is a valid option so long as you are really willing/able to make the required investment. To make good progress you should be doing one of the routines I've mentioned previously or something rather similar.
For them you will at least need:
- Squat rack, preferably with safety bars, that goes low enough to bench from (£130)
- Bench (£60)
- 20kg bar (£90)
- 100-120kg in weights (£200)
You may also want:
- Rubber floor matting- to protect it from weights being dropped on it
- Dumbbell handle- then you just need one/two handles that you load the needed weight onto instead of a whole set
- Pull up bar- the sort that you hang from the door is usually most practical
And you'll be surprised how quickly you need more weight. In the brackets is a rough idea of what it would cost new (in the UK, in case the £ didn't give that way :p) but you can save money if you get lucky on gumtree/ebay. The new costs are for the cheap end of the market, personally if I were to be setting up a home gym I'd spend a bit more to have it work and last well.
You'll notice I didn't say go to Argos and get a 50kg weights set. You can't bench or squat properly with no other equipment and 50kg is nowhere near enough to be challenging for long enough to make any noticeable progress. Trust me I did it. I lifted 50kg in my room for months and the progress I made was nothing compared to when I finally went to the gym.
- Squat rack, preferably with safety bars, that goes low enough to bench from (£130)
- Bench (£60)
- 20kg bar (£90)
- 100-120kg in weights (£200)