The Minimal Equipment To Take the Next Step
Unfortunately, there is only so far that you can go without any equipment. The good news is, to amplify the effectiveness and balance of your workouts doesn’t take much equipment or much room at all! These simple pieces of equipment will expand your workout options in a profound way that workouts with no equipment simply cannot. Without equipment arm pulling exercises are very ineffective and arm pulling exercises should be a MAJOR part of any good workout program. Here’s all you need:
A Pull-up Bar and Strength Bands
A pull-up bar and strength bands, especially if you are not yet able to do more than 15 strict pull-ups or 25 push-ups unbroken…like almost everyone on the planet, add incredible amount of variation to your program and there are great at-home solutions. Can’t do a pull-up yet, no problem. Strength bands will expand your pull-up and push-up options with banded pull-ups and banded push-ups among other exercises. There are only so many body-weight only works that I can give you in good faith, but there are unlimited that I can get behind if you have a pull-up bar. The pull-up bar expands our arm pulling options in a way where you can actually get a complete workout program.
These doorway pull-up bars are clearly not the absolute best thing in the world, but 1) they are cheap, 2) you can easily put it up and take it down, and 3) having one is about a thousand times better than not having one. Although you will not be able to kip, it will open up a lot of different at home variations for pull-ups, chin-ups, core work, and even something to hang a band from for banded pull-ups and push-ups. I have one and was surprise to actually like it.
If you’re willing to install it on the side of your house or in your garage, a ceiling or wall mount pull-up bar is amazing. Although it is still a little close to the wall, it will allow you to kip some. If you really want to take kipping seriously, take a look at the squat rack recommendations in the full home gym scenario below.
Not only can you use strength bands for banded pull-ups and banded push-ups, you can use them for various mobility and stretching exercises and for resistance exercises too. No matter where you shop, they are always surprisingly expensive ($30-ish bucks per band), but they are extremely worth it.
I recommend getting two bands:
1 & 3/4 inch band (green) and a
1 & 1/8 inch band (purple).
Dumbbells
Honestly, you can get a ton done with just one dumbbell, but if you are buying one, you may as well buy a pair as it will expend your options even more. Choosing the correct weight for the dumbbells is a little tricky.
You want to get this one wrong a little too heavy so you can grow in to the dumbbells a bit, but you don’t want to get something that is outside of your fitness level, which is what makes this a little tricky, but I’ll do my best here to help. In most workouts, we typically prescribe a “Medium” or “Heavy” dumbbell for movements. So, you should be trying to get a dumbbells that would be just a hair heavier than what a Medium dumbbell would be for your current fitness level. That way it is in between medium and heavy and you can grow into it a bit. Hopefully this will help:
For Elite, World-class Athletes, Heavy would be (70/50) and Medium would be (50/35).
*The prescribed weights stand for (Men’s Weight/Women’s Weight) in a competition setting. So this would mean, if you were a world class female and looking to use a medium pair of dumbbells, when the workout prescribes medium, you would use 35lb dumbbells.
For Intermediate/Advanced Athletes, Heavy would be (50/35) and Medium would be (35/25).
For Beginner/Intermediate Athletes, Heavy would be (35/25) and Medium would be (25/15)
For People who are brand new to working out, Heavy would be (25/15) and Medium would be (15/10).
Medium: If you had to strict press the weight, you could do around 20 reps.
Heavy: If you had to strict press the weight as many times as possible, you’d be able to do a max of around 5-10 reps.
Rubber Coated Dumbbells are definitely worth the little bit extra $$$ they cost. Especially at home, you have to be so gentle with solid metal dumbbells and the solid metal dumbbells are just sharper as they touch your shoulders and other parts of your body. Rubber coated all the way!
I recommend a pair of Medium Dumbbells.
Above are the basics and they will get you really, really far. If you’re interested in other at-home equipment and mobility tools that can continue to add a lot of value, I have an article where I lay out the priority of what I would buy first, later, and what I feel is a waste of money…