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Sunday, July 12, 2015

My "Home Gym"

Today, I wanted to give you a little play by play of what one of my strength training workouts is like when I am doing it at home. This workout is from last week when I lifted back.

Welcome to my "Home Gym"! 

AKA... the sun room!

My favorite space to workout at home.
My piano bench serves as my weight lifting bench.

Here are some of the tools I use when I lift back.

Stability ball. Bought at Marshall's for less than ten bucks.

8, 10, and 15 pound dumbbells.
The big weird thing on the left is a power block weight set at 25 pounds.

Your standard foam roller and the Supernova ball from Rogue Fitness.

Water, my phone for timing my planks and stretches, and of course, the workout I plan to do.

Every lifting workout I do starts with a thorough warm up. I like to warm up my rotator cuff, do some shoulder rolls and arm circles, stretch, and then do some lifts for whatever my target body part is for the day. For instance, today I did some dumbbell rows at a lower weight and some assisted pull ups with a lot of assistance- just to get my muscles activated and ready to go!

This is what my rotator cuff warm up looks like. I do anywhere from 8-10lbs.

After a thorough warm up, it's time for the workout! I like to write it out beforehand to make sure I don't skip anything and arrange my circuits in a way that works for me.


Circuit 1: Assisted pull ups and bird dogs. I can't pair pull ups with much because to me, they are a full body workout! Bird dogs are just "chill" enough that I can do them in between sets.

Chairs are great for assistance!
This is overhand grip.

Bird dogs are not as easy as they look! 
I have to concentrate and really engage my whole body or I lose my balance.

Circuit 2: Dumbbell rows (25lbs) and bicycle crunches. 

Yeah, I am eyeing up the camera. 
I am not a great photographer and didn't know if the picture had been taken!

I do my bicycle crunches with slow and controlled movements.
My neck starts to hurt if I go too fast, which is another way to do them.

Circuit 3: Unassisted pull ups with neutral grip and stretching.

Why am I wearing flip flops when I workout? I really don't know.


I looooove pigeon pose for my ITB and hips!

I can do more pull ups when I'm angry.
While I worked out, I watched The View. Candace Cameron Bure was on... hence I was able to do several anger filled pull ups! Oh my gosh I dislike her.

Circuit 4: Bicep curls (15lbs) and stability ball pass. I don't know where my bicep curl picture went, but you know what they look like.


Circuit 5: Plank w/ rows (10 lbs) and stretching. 

Where did the dumbbell go!? I swear, my right hand is gripping a 10 lb dumbbell!
Also check out the veins popping in my neck, haha! Plank with a row is no joke!

Figure 4 stretch is great for my hips and IT band!

Circuit 6: Forearm planks and rolling. 

I never plank without entertainment. 
Luckily I had more than one episode of The View on my DVR.

The Supernova's teeth can really dig into my glutes and get those kinks out!

So that's my "Home Gym" and that's what one of my workouts is like!
Do you workout at home?
Have any fun workout tools?

17 comments:

  1. I love the supernova! I need to get some 15 pound weights for my "home gym". I have 5 and 8 but since I don't have a gym membership anymore I need a heavier option.

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    1. It is a great tool! There are some parts of my body that the standard foam roller just does NOT work on anymore. I am building up my pain tolerance, apparently. I am sure you are too!

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  2. I love your home gym and enjoyed seeing your entire workout in pictures! I have a home gym where I can row, cycle on my trainer (in the winter only) lift and do yoga. I have the adjustable weights and also a few barbells. I have a bench where I can do my bench press and leg curls/extension and a 'power tower' where I can do pull ups (which I don't) dips (which I don't) and vertical knee raises (those I can do!!) Rick uses it to do T25. It works out great!

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    1. A "power tower" that is an awesome name for a piece of gym equipment! Don't forget your TRX cables, right!?

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    2. Yes, how could I forget my TRX. Love it.

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  3. I have gym equipment in my basement ( that I never use..haha), but I also have a room like yours where I throw all my exercise stuff in ( balls, foam rollers, bands, etc.). I'd love to get one of those over the door pull up things.
    That is a great workout routine you have!

    Why do you dislike Candace Cameron Bure?
    Do you keep your christmas tree up all year?

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    1. I got my pull up bar on amazon for about $30. Paul put it together and he said it was really easy! At first just hanging it on the door made me nervous.... it doesn't make sense how it stays hanging there, but it does!

      We keep that small Christmas tree up all year. It is our tree with our travel ornaments and cat ornaments. It is up really high because Christmas (my cat) will eat the fake pine needles if they are in reach.

      The reason I dislike Candace- we disagree wildly on many social issues. Her stance on them are based off of the bible. Which is absolutely her right- that's not why I dislike her. What makes me dislike her is that she thinks our laws should reflect her biblical beliefs, never mind the separation of church and state.

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  4. Hmmm, I think the supernova is on my wish list. I am trying to build up to planks with a leg up...I am pretty close. My weights--you would laugh. Much lighter! I do a lot of body resistance exercises. Mainly, because I don't like going down in the basement. It's creepy down there!

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    1. Haha our basement is not creepy but it smells like cat pee!!

      You would love the supernova. It gets out those deep little kinks. I love it on my bum!

      Planks with a leg up is no joke. That is awesome. There are so many great body weight exercises.

      I would not laugh at your weights! I haven't lifted lower body forever and when I am able to start again, I am going to be starting from scratch. It will be a humbling experience for sure.

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  5. Thank you for the photos in this post! Sometimes I feel like a total idiot when I do not know what the moves look like for certain exercises that I can hear the names of. Tomorrow I am hitting up the gym and I'm going to try a few of those bird dogs. I will let you know how it goes.

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed! I am going to do the same thing for one of my chest workouts. I google stuff too! When you talked about figure 4 pose I was like... ooh I think that is the twisty thing I do with my legs. Googled it, and lo and behold, it was!

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  6. I am sorry your knee bothered you after squatting. Story of my life! :( I just don't do it anymore. Hopefully after my doctor appt. tomorrow I will be healed. ;)

    I don't do the push up for plank row because when I do the rows it is for back day and I save push ups for chest day. But if I was doing full body or something like that, adding a push up would be cool/hard/vomit inducing!

    You could try doing some light reps of your BIG moves. So if you are doing full body, do a light bench, light row or lat pull down, light shoulder press, and then something light for your legs that doesn't bother your knees. It doesn't take long as I only do one set each and bang out 15-20 reps.

    My bday is on the 8th and Paul's is the 11th! So I am one year and 3 days older than him. :)

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  7. DJ Tanner is such a disappointment. Her views disgust me.

    I have a good amount of workout stuff for at home, but I really need to get it organized in one place! Maybe I'd use it more if it was set up like a real little gym.

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    1. It is annoying lugging everything out.... which is what I do. Everything is stored in the guestroom. We just don't have a enough space for an actual gym.

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