Outfitting your garage gym can be daunting. There are so many useful tools to choose from – a rowing machine, squat rack, barbells, Olympic plates – and a whole bunch of others that marketers want to make you believe are worth your hard earned dollars. While we could give you a detailed, step-by-step guide for creating a fully kitted out space, we think it’s best to start with the most basic tool imaginable.
A while back we interviewed Dr. Travis Jewett about his Dad Strong program and welcome him back to share his simple, low cost, highly effective recommendation for your home workouts. A few years ago, his local high school was upgrading its weight room and planning to get rid of its old gear. Rather than see old racks, barbells and such end up at the trash dump, Travis loaded up as much as he could fit in his track and started putting it to work in evening sessions with parents from his neighborhood. While he’s finding all of the equipment beneficial, it’s the old, slightly rusty dumbbells that are seeing the most use.
The plan couldn’t be any simpler: grab a dumbbell that’s light enough for you to do upper and lower body work with, head outside and get creative. You could either cycle through a whole circuit like Travis is going to take you through in the video, or just pick two or three of the exercises and do several sets of each. One of the great things about the dumbbell (or kettlebell, if that’s what you have to hand) is you can switch arms when you fatigue and use a suitcase carry – think lugging your bag through an airport – for some purposeful active recovery.
Doing one-sided dumbbell or kettlebell work not only involves lifting the weight itself, but also requires you to resist rotation and use muscles on the non-active side of your body to stabilize. It’s also easier to move such a tool in different planes of motion that you’d normally move through with a barbell or on an exercise machine, which are usually up-and-down, front-to-back dominant. You could also use a sandbag if you want to shake things up a bit and challenge yourself with a more unstable, asymmetrical load. Need some added accountability? Then give the other dumbbell in the pair to a neighbor or family member and do the workout together.
Now grab your dumbbell or kettlebell, fire up this video and get ‘er done.
