Home Gym Equipment, By: Hugo Riveria

There are many reasons why one may decide to have a home gym in addition to a commercial gym membership:

1) Variety

2) In case you miss your training at the commercial gym, you always have your home gym available.
3) No excuse to miss a workout when the commercial gym is closed.

With all of the fancy expensive gadgets that appear on TV it may seem very confusing for somebody that is looking to set up a home gym to know what to get. Since I like to keep things simple and cheap, I believe that all you need to have an awesome home gym is a strong and stable adjustable bench and a set of adjustable dumbbells. With this limited equipment you can perform the following basic mass building exercises:

Back: One Arm Dumbbell Rows (Palms facing your body), Two Arm Dumbbell Rows (Palms facing forward as if you were doing regular barbell rows), Two Arm Dumbbell Rows (Reverse Grip), Pullovers.

Chest: Incline Bench Press, Flat Bench Press, Flyes (Incline and Flat).

Thighs: Dumbbell Squats (hold each dumbbell by your side), Wide Stance Dumbbell Lunges.

Hamstrings: Stiff Legged Deadlifts.

Shoulders: Dumbbell Press, Upright Rows, Lateral Raises, Bent Over Lateral Raises.

Traps: Dumbbell Shrugs, and Upright Rows.

Biceps: Dumbbell Curls, One Arm Dumbbell Preacher Curls (using the bench in its incline position), Incline Dumbbell Curls, Concentration Curls, Hammer Curls.

Triceps: Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extensions, Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions, Close Grip Bench Press, Triceps Kickbacks.

Calves: Two Legged Dumbbell Calf Raises & One Legged Dumbbell Calf Raises

Abdominal: Sit-ups, Crunches, Leg Raises, and Knee-Ins, Leg Raise Crunch. (Note that for these exercises all you need is yourself and the floor; no need for expensive ab machines; call me old fashioned but as Dave Draper says "the wheel is round and it works best that way").

If you also get yourself a squat rack with a chinup bar in it, and a dip station along with an olympic set then you have just added more exercises to your arsenal. Also, if the weight bench you bought has a good Leg Extension/Leg Curl attachment to it and a Pulldown bar, those are even more exercises added to your list. These are additions that I would recommend for the very serious bodybuilder. Somebody that is trying just to firm up and get in great shape however can certainly just get by with the dumbbells and bench alone. The key here is the quality of the equipment. Unfortunately, I have seen alot of crapy things out there on the market. The best set of dumbbells that I recommend for home use (and please do not think that I am getting paid for saying this) are the Powerblocks. The reason for this is that they save alot of space, they are easily adjusted in weight and very safe. The last thing you need is for a dumbbell to be unsafe and fall in your face. (Here is their web site address: http://www.powerblocks.com/). Whether you decide to get the powerblocks or not, my best recommendation when it comes to adjustable dumbbells is that you look for those that secure the weights on the sides on a very reliable manner. As far as the bench, go for a strong one that is stable and does not wobble when you start adding some serious weight. Again, safety in this matter is key. If you try to save some money by buying crappy weightlifting equipment it may turn out to be more expensive on the long run.

Now that we have discussed home gym equipment, next week I would like to list a few routines (I'll list both mass building and toning routines) that can be built using this limited equipment.