With the cost of gym memberships rising and the time it takes to travel too and from a gym, we’ve been inspired to setup our own Crossfit home gym. Crossfit is a core strength and conditioning system that aims to keep workouts constantly varied, high intensity and with functional movement.
Crossfit makes a lot of sense to gym rats and athletes who become bored with traditional weight lifting and cardio exercises. Crossfit posts daily workouts on their website with benchmarks to achieve and they inject some competition into it.
It’s now how much you can bench but how many burpees can you do? Crossfit gyms have some of the most traditional equipment such as barbells for power cleans and jerks but they have also introduced training with oversize tires, rings, kettle bells and ropes.
We recommend training with a qualified Crossfit instructor before attempting any exercises at home and on your own. It takes hours of practice to build the muscle memory to properly do some of the Crossfit exercises but there are some that you can probably jump right into if you are fit such as burpees.
To setup your Crossfit home gym you can do as little or as much as you want with the space and budget that you have. We started with a oversize tractor tire that can be used for plyo jumps, sledgehammer swings and tire flipping. We also use a jump rope to get warmed up as well as to push the cardio.
If you have space a pullup bar is the next logical choice and can be placed anywhere as long as you have ample space around it and make sure it’s got a solid hold.
Weight sets are easy to setup but can be costly. Search Craigslist for used Olympic sized bars and weights and opt for the rubber covered weights. You should also invest in the proper flooring.
For rings you need a bit more room but they are great for training.
A sledge and weighted ropes are also great but not totally necessary to get a full workout.
Start building your gym slowly and master some of the movements and before you know it you’ll have a kick ass Crossfit home gym.
photo: fitnesstown
No Comments