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There are plenty of reasons to avoid going to commercial gyms. There is the time wasted getting there, time waiting for the equipment, athletes’ foot in the change rooms and who knows what on the equipment. If you could do an effective workout at home, you’d only be a short shower away from getting on with your life. So what’s the catch?

If you’d taken the time to read some other articles around here, such as my ab machine reviews or my article on whole body vibration you’d know that the catch is that these machines are generally useless, dangerous or both.

The 5 pieces of equipment are listed below for their portability, inexpensiveness and convenience. That doesn’t mean they’re shaped like lounge chairs - like any worthwhile exercise these machines still require effort. The difference is that they can disappear into a cupboard when you’re done, as opposed to your bench rack which you now use as a clothesline and conveniently avoid ever having to use.

1. Powerbands

Ever wanted to make everything harder?

Like any self respecting exercise product these bands have ‘power’ in the title, but don’t let that put you off. They’re often used in conjunction with barbell work to increase/decrease resistance during reps, but if you grab a few different thicknesses there are plenty of things you can do with just the bands themselves. Wrap one behind your back to do some flys, stand on one end and do some bicep curls or wrap one around your body to add resistance to body weight exercises like push ups.

Here are some videos demonstrating just some of the options you have in using these things. Just make sure you grab at least 3 different strengths of band to start with since you’re going to want a thicker band for say squats than you will for bicep curls.

2. Power Bags

What a powerful bag.

Again with the power name, there are models of these you can pick up for less than a hundred bucks, fill some inner bags with sand from a hardware store and have a hundred kilos of weight to practice throwing around. Bands are great for resistance and improving strength, but there’s nothing like picking up a chunk of weight and putting it down a bunch of times to recruit your major muscle groups for a solid workout.

3. Chin-up Bar

Now you can stop hanging around children's playgrounds

Chin-up bars like the one pictured can be had on ebay for around $50 and will attach to most solid door-frames without the need for drilling or damaging the wall. Obviously the overall capacity depends on the strength of your door frame but if possible try to get a device that can handle significantly more than your body weight to allow for added weight/resistance as you get stronger. Many have multiple hand grips which are handy for varying the focused muscles.

4. Hand grippers

Get rid of that childish handshake

Even if you don’t dream of crushing apples in one hand like many in the ‘grip-strength’ community, hand-grippers are a worthwhile and convenient piece of gear to have around. Remember that your hands are a muscle group like any other and are most effectively trained with an ordered set/rep based approach. Try not to pick them up and start squeezing them every time you see them on the table, though you won’t be able to stop house guests from doing exactly that, every time.

Captains of Crush are pretty much the benchmark when it comes to hand grippers, they’ve also got standardized difficulty/resistance ratings which means you can reliably compare hand strength with some guy overseas if that’s appealing to you.

5. The Ab Wheel

The Abdominal Wheel

Are you sick of Ab machines that are easy and magic? Welcome to the Ab Wheel, it’s difficult and annoying.

On the plus side, it’s cheap and it actually works. You can start with a girl push up position as you roll in and out, then gradually progress to extending out from your feet which is a lot harder. Use this on grass or padded mats and save your knees the damage when you inevitably collapse halfway through a roll.

Well there you go, 5 pieces of cheap but effective equipment that you can easily store in your room. No excuses now, right?

DanEquipmentabs, apartment, Equipment, Exercise, home, work

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