Inexpensive Home Gym and Workout Essentials

First off, thanks for all the insight on working out, equipment, and so on. My question deals solely with homemade equipment. I am looking at putting together my own homemade gym, and wanted to know what you thought/feel are the essential pieces to have . . . i.e. sandbag, bulgarian, ropes, sleds, so on. I can’t always get to the gym (sometimes for a few weeks on end), and want to know I have a solid foundation to work with around my house.

Thanks! – K.B. – Middletown, Ohio
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K.B., I have received this question a lot!  Your homemade gym, equipment, and workout is going to be based on your training goals.   Fighters would have more punching bags and people looking to shed a few lbs might have more sleds.

However, I’m not going to leave you hanging!  I’ll call this my “Economy Gym.”

Economy Gym Essentials

1.  Power Rack and Bench - I’ll start right off with the big ticket item…but not everyone needs it.   If you want to squat, bench, pull up, dip, etc – there is no more versitle tool than a simple power rack.

Here’s my best deal: I have a nice power rack ($100 on craigslist) and a very sturdy adjustable bench ($110 on ebay).  Those have been awesome and I had to put some research in to find it.

Quick and Realistic: This is a homegym, and some people might hate me for this, but get yourself a  cheap power rack from NY Barbell or TDS.  If you aren’t going to be a professional powerlifter and need something to supplement your workout, this is the way to go.

Continue reading Inexpensive Home Gym and Workout Essentials…

Creative Conditioning and Muscle Building

This post is dedicated to the old school Synergy fans.   The diehard guys that were here when the site was just a static webpage I used to write the html for myself.  Man that was an ugly website…

Maybe not that old school….

Looking for more ways to condition?  I know I always am. 

Fortunately I’ve been testing a new conditioning manual to add to the Bull Strength Method.  I’ve cut 10 lbs in the last few weeks and have been still hitting the weights hard. 

That’s the trick.  Conditioning without losing muscle and strength.

Here is an exercise I have been implementing at the end of workouts.  I’ll call it Burpee Casting.

A few benefits:

• Quick explosive push up and a brief recovery (sledge swing)
• Added shoulder mobility once the joints are prepared
• Improved work capacity
• Added forearm strength (probably sick of me preaching about grip strength!!)

Here is a series of pictures, I do have a video that I will work on editing later this week. 

Movement:

Set up with the sledge between your feet, handle side pointing away (picture cut off)

Perform the burpee right over the sledge hammer

When you come up bring the sledge up with you in one hand (switch each time)

Perform the sledge swing movement and drop it back.

Repeat the movement with the other hand.  Yes, sorry for the poor picture taking, quite possibly my worst camera set up to date! 

Sledge casting is performing a mace swing style movement but with only one hand.  Drop the sledge over your far shoulder and then “pull” it back over the other shoulder by firing your lat. 

Can you do two things for me? 

1. If you want a video of sledge casting, post a comment about how you incorporate conditioning into your program.
2. Subscribe over on YouTube so you will be notified when the video goes live!  ===> Synergy YouTube

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  47 new YouTube subscribers last week – thanks for spreading the word, I know many of you have been posting Synergy videos on your facebooks!   I notice it and greatly appreciate the share.

Putting New Muscle To The Test

The summer training season is over…sadly.

However, now the true test happens!  The guys are all starting their sports seasons and putting their new strength and muscle to the test. 

We finished off the summer with our testing.  

Exercises tested:

• Upper body strength – bench press
• Lower body strength – box squat
• Relative body strength – chin ups
• Explosive lower body strength – broad jump (easier to test than vertical)

Surprising results…

The biggest improvement was actually in relative body strength.  Even though guys like Jake have gone from 185 lbs to 240 lbs, his chin ups improved from 11 to 17. 

Every gym record was broken in the tested exercises! 

Group One – Post Testing

Just as important, the athletes who aren’t “record breakers” all got involved and got big improvements as well.

So why am I posting about this? 

I am proud of my guys, but that’s not the reason. 

All these guys got strong, some incredibly strong.  But now its time for the true test.  All these guys lift to excel at sports. 

Bending the first nail is awesome, now let’s bend some opposing players!

The gym numbers are monsterous, but its time to covert that strength to their sports, that’s what’s MOST important.  I am posting this to help myself and everyone else keep the end goal in mind!  

Benching 295 as a high school freshman is awesome, but what’s even better is dominating as a linebacker!   

Good luck to everyone in their upcoming seasons.  Don’t be afraid to tweak the programing from what you see on the field. 

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  I’m barely going to mention this, but I just put out the Garage Gym Empire Program for a lot of people that have been shooting me business and personal training emails.  I laid out exactly how I run the business, the mistakes, the education, etc.  If you are into the training biz, check it out!

Old School Strength – Am I a jerk for this??

My father used to tell me that there is no strength replacement for a day of workout with your hands. 

And as a furnace man, he practiced what he preached.  He had huge hands and incredible “real world strength.”  After getting on the business end of a few boilers, I knew exactly what he was talking about.

This week I wanted to give my lifters a taste of some heavy grunt work, so I came with an exercise I dubbed “Bull Strength Fire Drill.”   It was brutal, and I felt like a jerk for making the guys do it.  However, no one complained, and they were all building some serious real world muscle!

Bull Strength Fire Drill

• Size up the dumbbell rack that is 55-100’s.
• Switch the top row with the bottom row.
• and repeat to replace all the DB’s

Rules: Alternate arms each removal.  Each dumbbell must travel above your stomach and then go to the floor.  You must rotate 10 of the DBs from hip to hip before placing it on the floor. 

Kevin should have rethought unloading the whole rack at once….

The Fire Drill was timed and the younger guys did it with the lighter rack – 5’s to 50’s.   The guys were working their core, legs, bracing, shoulders, biceps, upper back, and glutes.  A quality full body strength exercise that will work its way into the program about once a month. 

 Also, what’s the hardest part of a heavy training day?  Putting the weights away! 

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

PS.  Am I a jerk for making the guys do it?  I couldn’t stop sweating demonstrating it!

This weekend got a little crazy….Part I

Question:  You guys put out a ton of training info, and I love it.  I’m curious, what do you do with the few minutes of spare time that you have?

Umm…We Train?

Ha, kidding, let me give you a rundown of our weekend this far.   It involved tearing, bending,training, Lunges of Death, BBQ, video games, the UFC, and super meat pizza in that order…

The craziness started on Friday.  After heavy squat and some sled pulls, we decided to cut the workout short to deload.  However, there was a phone book in the gym so my brother decided to rip it.   Next, we found some left over nails from a deck project and starting bending them (never tried bending before, very addictive).

Fortunately, I knew “how to bend” from my buddy Jedd Johnson’s Nail Bending program, but I had just assumed I couldn’t (aka – sissied out). 

After we got off of the nail bending, I finally decided to try out Card Tearing.  (Well try it again, the first time a few months back was pathetic).   Again, I’ll have to thank Jedd for his form advice and supplemental exercises.   I’ll also have to thank him for my two new addictions, and my seriously sore hands, forearms, and fingers!

- Joe Hashey, CSCS -

P.S.  This is only part of the story, but I think the Lunges of Death video deserves its own post…

Double P.S.  A little more on Saturday morning…