It’s been almost one year since I started my training business. We quickly outgrew the basement in our home and moved the business into 1500 square feet of warehouse space. Having more room to workout has been the biggest help to do my job effectively. Along with a larger training area, there are several gadgets and pieces of equipment that are invaluable. Here are a few of my favorite gym things. . .
Freestanding Bag for KickboxingOur pile of boxing gloves
First, I’ll start with kickboxing. I would never in a million years ever expect that all of my clients (and myself) would love to do kickboxing as a form of conditioning. If given a choice, almost everyone would choose to do kickboxing at the end of our workouts. Even though it is very difficult and intense, and it requires a lot of skill and coordination, there is something really empowering about putting all of your bodyweight and strength into kicking and punching something! We all have a lot of pent-up aggression. Several of my clients have even purchased a bag like this for at-home workouts. To get an idea of what we do, I’ve got some video clips of various combinations we do at the gym.
- 5-50lb. set of PowerBlocks with Stand
Weights! At the gym, we use an Olympic set of weights, kettlebells, and PowerBlocks. The PowerBlocks were a great investment because they not only are a cost-effective answer to a full set of dumbbells, but they also take up very little space. We have 2 sets at the gym right now. . . the set pictured above and another set that goes from 5-90 pounds. Everyone uses the kettlebells, too, whether it is for a simple 1-arm row, or KB swings, or Turkish Get-ups .
Gymboss Interval Timer
I would not want to work at the gym everyday without my Gymboss. You can usually find it clipped to my shirt during conditioning. I highly recommend buying one! $20!
Heavy Rope & 32kg Kettlebell
The rope is a piece of equipment that everyone loves to hate. It’s hard, but effective. Need to get your heart rate elevated? Can’t run? Have a sore knee? Can’t jump rope? Do you need to do some conditioning? The heavy rope is a good answer. Ours is a 50 ft. 1 1/2 inch rope. This video gives you an idea of how we use it during our conditioning segment at the gym.
Schwinn Air Dyne
This is another piece of equipment my ladies love to hate. Often, we’ll do a “finisher” at the end of our workouts. It’s usually about 5 minutes of high intensity work. On the Air Dyne, for example, we’ll do 5:00 – 20 seconds “on” as hard as we can go, then 40 seconds of recovery. By the end of the 5 minutes, your legs feel like they will explode! Yes, the Air Dyne is old school, however, it is a very effective piece of equipment that no gym should be without.
I’ve got more gadgets and pieces of equipment on my Favorites list. I’ll be sharing the rest with you soon!
[...] Part 1 of “My Favorite (Gym) Things”, my list included free-standing punching bags with gloves, PowerBlocks and kettlebells, a Gymboss [...]