5 Key Pieces of Equipment for your Home Gym

Amidst the pandemic and gym shutdowns, building your own home gym might seem like a daunting task. But we have enjoyed seeing how the XPO Trainer has been able to up the home gym game for so many of you. Getting creative and adapting to working out at home has been vital...for both physical and mental health!

While we think the XPO Trainer is key for every home gym, we know there's other equipment out there that is important for a well-rounded home gym. We got avid Crossfitter and friend Jon Devlin to weigh in.

"As someone who likes to spend 15+ hours a week in the gym, there is no way I could have gone the entire shutdown without a space to exercise. Through that, I have come up with a list of the five most important items for maintaining a high level of fitness at home," Devlin shared with us.

5 key pieces of equipment for a home gym -

1. Pull up bar - stretching, pull-ups, toes-to-bars, bar hangs. You can be pretty fit doing nothing but pull-ups, push-ups, air squats, sit-ups, and lunges. There is also a school of thought that all shoulder injuries can be cured just by hanging from a bar. I have found most minor tweaks are fixed by just a few minutes of hanging.
2. Cardio implement - air bike, rower, sled, ski erg, etc. Running is good conditioning, but changing the modality can only improve your work capacity. I am a particular fan of air bikes into sled pushes with good amounts of rest in between. This simulates all-out sprints with less risk of pulled hamstrings. 
3. Stretchy bands - mobility, resistance training, prehab. You can do curls, tricep extensions, banded push-ups, banded squats, etc. with them. Very cheap and versatile. 
4. Barbell + bumpers - expensive, but changing the loading allows you to do a ton of workouts from the floor. Cleans, snatches, presses, deadlifts, lunges, curls. Moving an external object efficiently and quickly is as functional as it gets. 
5. Big medicine ball/sandbag - odd object work. Barbells are nice, but rarely in the real world do we have an easy to hold implement. This piece of equipment is particularly good for holds/carries. Adding some of those into your routine makes moving furniture around the house a breeze. 

Jon said he has all 5 of these at his house and maintains a very high level of fitness incorporating them into his workouts.

"The nice thing about gym equipment is that it lasts a long time. I consider each of these items an investment in oneself." Here's to investing in yourself and your fitness!