A home gym can be a life-saver⎯literally. It gives you the opportunity to get consistent exercise, while saving your pocketbook at the same time.
Home gyms come equipped in a variety of ways⎯it just depends on your needs and your budget. In the fitness industry, what's commonly called a "home gym" is a weight machine that contains multiple exercise stations. Some examples are home gym machines with a bench press or flye station for chest work; seated row or lat pull for your back; leg press, leg extension, or leg curl stations; and a flat bench for abdominal and free weight exercises.
Chest Exercises
The bench press is a common chest exercise. You can perform this exercise with your chest press machine or with a flat bench and a set of dumbbells. If you use the flat bench and dumbbells for this exercise, you will have the added challenge of maintaining control over the weights throughout the exercise, so it's wise to start out with less weight than you'd typically use with a machine. It may also be a good idea to use a spotter.
The advantage of using dumbbells for other exercises is they create a more functional training environment for you since it requires you to use other muscles in your body to help balance and control the weight.
Back Exercises
The seated row and lat pull are two home gym exercises that offer you a good way to strengthen your back. With a little ingenuity, you can add variety to these two commonly performed exercises. For example, by introducing the single arm row exercise and the row with a "scapular pinch" to your back routine, you can challenge your back muscles and conditioning in a slightly different way. Also, the lat pull exercise can be varied by widening or shortening your grip on the weight bar, or by varying your hand position from an overhand to underhand grip.
Leg Exercises
The multi-station home gym machine usually includes at least one leg exercise station⎯leg press, leg extension or leg curl. With the leg press machine you can perform your traditional leg press exercise, which will work your hamstrings, glutes and quads, as well as other lower body exercises such as calf press and single leg press.
Core and Other Exercises
If your home gym comes equipped with a flat bench, you can use it to perform core exercises for your abdominal and lower back muscles. Crunches, lower abdominal leg lifts and back extensions are all exercises you can perform from a traditional flat bench or one that adjusts.
Other exercises you can perform on your home gym, depending on its attachments, are the tricep press, standing bicep curls, oblique rotations, upright row, and hip extension and flexion.
Your home gym offers a variety of exercise options, and basically something for every major body part, so if you find yourself getting bored with doing the same basic exercises, get yourself a good exercise book, or hire a certified personal trainer to help you shake things up.
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