Question

Hello! First off I must say thank you for making such an informative website. i have found many new types of exercise equipment that I am now interested in purchasing for my home gym and I was wondering if you might be able to help me.

I have a dilemma. I used to work out 2-3 times a week at my local gym. Due to lack of finances and an increase in membership fees i am no longer able to continue working out at the gym. I am now working out at home with a set of dumbbells and body weight excercises such as press ups.

I am really looking into purchasing a home gym such as the TRX home gym systems, but I am not sure weather to keep with the free weights or not. I want to build muscle and strength but I have caused myself a few injuries with free weights in the past. Any help at all will be much appreciated.

Answer

Sorry to hear about your injuries from the free weights, it can happen to the best of them - myself included. I messed up both my rotator cuffs a couple of years ago doing heavy weight lifting workouts and have since cut way back on overhead presses and barbell bench press movements and introduced other forms of less aggressive training.

I think you're smart to be using dumbbells for weight training as long as you're lifting in a controlled manner using good form and a moderate rep tempo. Keep your weight on the dumbbell exercises in check and only make incremental increases when you're ready to make sure your form doesn't suffer.

The TRX is a cool home gym, especially if you're into doing body weight exercises as that's what it's designed for. You can hit all your major muscle groups and vary the resistance by simply changing your body position on each exercise. I also like the Bodylastics resistance bands for hitting biceps, back, shoulders and chest and triceps because they give you a great pump and you can use them almost anywhere.

You should get the TRX Gym and Bodylastics Exercise Bands and add them to your home gym as your budget allows - it doesn't matter which one you get first as they're both inexpensive.

By using the dumbbells you already have with the TRX and Bodylastics, you'll have an arsenal of simple, effective equipment to stave off boredom and reduce your chance of injury that can come from slinging free weights around every workout.