So some people are still hesitant about visiting the gym. Fair enough. The thing is, a complete session can be constructed with minimal equipment. On friday, my total body strength session went like this:
- Vertical upper body pulling: pull ups. Just find some kind of bar, in a pinch a thick branch of a tree will do.
- Vertical upper body pushing: suspended handstand push up. Tougher than it looks.
- Transverse plane core stability: suspended rotations. Keep your midsection rigid and twist from the shoulder girdle.
- Lower body push: assisted pistol squats for high reps.
- Upper body horizontal push: single arm suspended push up
- Upper body horizontal pull: single arm inverted rows
- Lower body pull: eccentric only single leg suspended hamstring curls
- Sagittal plane core stability : Suspended body saw
- Frontal plane core stability: suspended Copenhagen plank
As for the organization of the session, just pick your flavor – you can go through all the exercises in a circuit, or pair antagonistic movements into supersets. Also, you can work with a partner, I-go-you-go style. For most of the exercises in the session, this realistically means something like a 1:4 work to rest ratio.
Of course, having a gym complete with kettlebells, power racks and bumper plates will allow for an even more productive session, but sometimes, to quote Teddy Roosevelt, you got to „do what you can with what you have where you are „. In the long haul, consistency trumps intensity and missing sessions altogether rather than substituting for a minimal equipment version will, eventually, take its toll.
Long story short – go out and do something right now, rather than waiting for circumstances to be perfect.
So long, don’t get hurt
The Performance Engineer 