6 tools 🛠 to turn your home into a MINI-GYM 🏋🏽‍♀️| Fitness💪🏼|

Theraband warm-up- Manchester Shoot

You’re going to discover six tools you can use to transform your home into a full-time fitness facility that keeps you burning calories and building muscle all day long, without getting bored of doing burpees, body-weight push-ups and body-weight squats!.

I’m often asked about my secrets to staying fit and lean despite being a busy working with plenty of hobbies other than pumping iron or running on a treadmill. Fact is, if you glance around my house, you’ll quickly realise that I’ve “hacked and modified my environment” to allow me to stay as fit as possible without actually stepping foot into a gym. Sure, I have the type of home gym I describe but my philosophy is that a workout at the beginning or the end of the day should be the optional “icing on the cake” for mini-movement snacks you’ve been taking quick breaks to squeeze in all day long.

TOOL#1: THE KETTLEBELL

The kettle bell has been shown to be just as effective as sprinting when it comes to burning fat and boosting cardiovascular fitness☝🏼.

I’d recommend you start with something simple: for females, around a 15lb kettlebell and, for males, around a 35lb kettlebell. This seems to be an excellent starting size to keep behind the living room couch or under your work desk in your cubicle for quick breaks through the day to do things like kettlebell swings, kettlebell squats and even kettlebell carries up and down stairs.

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Basic kettlebell weight

TOOL#2: HARD (SMOOTH SURFACED-my preference) FOAM ROLLER

When it comes to avoiding injury, soreness, and those aches and pains that can so often accompany a constant quest for improving fitness, burning fat or maintaining muscle, the integrity and health of your deep tissue and fascia is just as important as your six-pack abs or bulging biceps.

For this reason, I keep a foam roller both upstairs in my living room and downstairs in my office, and if I ever feel any nagging aches or pains coming on throughout the day, I stop for a brief break to “don't shout, if in doubt roll it out”.

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Basic blue hard smooth foam roller

TOOL#3: GYMNASTIC RINGS

For everything from hanging leg raises to muscle-ups to a host of other exercises that require nearly every tiny muscle in your body to contract simultaneously, a good set of gymnastics rings  can’t be beat. A pair of gymnastics rings can be hung from rafters, from a stud in the ceiling or wall, outside in the backyard, or, for a portable option, carried to any local playground for a workout. My current protocol is to simply stop every time I walk near my own set of gymnastics rings hanging in my living room and to practice 1-5 muscle-up exercises (lol, well I try at least😏).

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Gymnastic rings

TOOL#4: PVC PIPE OR A SWEEPING BRUSH

A PVC pipe or brush might seem like an unlikely exercise tool, but this light and cheap piece of hardware can actually be a quite useful addition to your workout arsenal – as long as you know what to do with it. I have a basic stick (it’s actually an ash rake handle) in my living room and I use it for two primary exercises when I need to loosen things up: shoulder passthroughs and overhead squats.

Shoulder Pass-throughs:

1) Start with the PVC pipe or brush in front of your body, with your hands in a double overhand grip outside the width of your shoulders. Keep your arms extended and grip loose.

2) Raise the PVC pipe or brush in front of your body and lift overhead. Once overhead, retract the shoulder blades down and pull behind your back.

3.) From behind the back, keep your arms extended as you pass back up behind your head and into your starting position.

4.) You can adjust and widen your grip if that movement was too difficult. Narrow the grip if you had no difficulty executing the warmup drill. Repeat up to 10 times.

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Basic Kitchen Brush

TOOL#5: YOGA TRAPEZE OR INVERSION TABLE

A yoga trapeze is a new addition to my home fitness and body care arsenal. Prior to discovering and learning how to use it, I had simply stuck with an inversion table for any hanging upside down activities.

A yoga trapeze is a swing-like contraption that allows you to hang from it in various ways. It can also be used to act as a support tool for many other yoga postures and muscle strengthening techniques. It is a very natural form of inversion therapy that lengthens the space between each of your vertebra, acting as an all-natural spine traction system for strengthening the core or reducing low back pain – especially in people who sit a lot. A yoga trapeze also helps to build core and upper body strength through various movements, and allows you to get upside down, reverse your blood flow, and send fresh oxygen to the brain.

TOOL#6: MINI TRAMPOLINE

You might learn that cardiovascular benefits aren’t the only big upside to bouncing on a trampoline. For example, running can lead to knee, hip, ankle and other joint injuries, especially for people with existing joint pain or arthritis or excessive weight. But even though the biomechanics of trampolining are similar to jumping and landing on the ground, the trampoline absorbs up to 40% of of the potential joint impact, making it far easier on the body compared to pounding the pavement.

Many trampoliners tout the benefits of “lymph flow” and low-impact blood flow, both which can be beneficial for the immune system, natural, mild detoxification, and increased blood flow to the brain.

A couple of times a week, for about 15 minutes, I bounce up and down on my own home mini-trampoline, an activity that can easily done while talking to someone, watching TV, listening to a podcast or audiobook, or simply listening to your own breath in a meditative style bouncing activity. Mini-trampolines are small, easy to store, and pair perfectly with everything else you’ve discovered in today’s blog, from kettlebells, to foam rollers, to gymnastics rings, to a PVC Pipe or broomstick, to the yoga trapeze.

Mini-trampoline

It is not always practical to fit certain exercise equipment into your home for obvious reasons such as lack of space, hazards and aesthetics however you may be keen to use one or two of the above which is a good start. Remember when something is 'out of sight out of mind' right? So when we place things in our visual field to be noticed and as little reminders we are 90% more likely to act upon it. Give it a try ☝🏼.

I hope you find this somewhat beneficial 😀, any questions please leave a comment below.

'Your body is your temple'

The PhysioSwan 🙏🏼