Building home gyms have become quite the trend through 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic that struck the world. The coronavirus compelled the government to establish health protocols for which businesses that are crowded or packed with people going in and out like fitness gyms had to stop operating in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
This caused a massive shockwave to fitness enthusiasts as their number one hobby was taken away from them. Since it is hard for these people not to exercise or get ripped, they resorted to assembling their own fitness area at the comfort of their own home.
Former gym-goers turned to this option in order to carry out their workout routines throughout the lockdown. This was a very ideal situation for them since the number one gripe about working and studying from home is that productivity gets drained.
With the ability to workout at home, people have had their morales boosted as their bodies were still able to release endorphins, which in turn, aided them in their work ethic and output.
Hypertrophy
The common mindset that goes around today is that in order to get bigger and develop your physique, you are going to need to lift ungodly amounts of weight. Whenever you go to the gym, you are bound to see several individuals lifting weight with poor form but still do it anyway just because of that exact philosophy. The truth is, that idea is flawed and could not be further from the truth. Muscles are not developed solely by lifting a ton of weight. They are developed through long periods of stress and tension called “hypertrophy”.
Hypertrophy is the process of loading your muscles with immense stress so that they can develop in size over time. The guide to achieving this is by focusing on the concentric and eccentric movements of your lifts. Concentric movements are when the muscle is shortened and eccentric movements are when the muscle is lengthened. Take the bicep curl exercise as an example.
The concentric motion occurs when the dumbbell is on the way up, and the eccentric motion is when the dumbbell is on the way down. It has been scientifically proven that we are stronger during eccentric motions as opposed to concentric. And so, the gold-standard guide for lifting weights to attain optimal muscle growth is to ensure the concentric movement lasts for one second and the eccentric for three seconds for each rep.
Taking that study into account, it is easy to see why calisthenics has become a more viable option for people who are familiar with how muscles are developed. It is all about the stress you put on them and not so much the weight itself.
Calisthenics offers plenty of bodyweight exercises that will stimulate enough resistance in your muscles that can, in theory, develop them the same way as if you were in a gym lifting weights. If you would like to participate in workouts that involve creativity and promote overall body strength, then this fitness method might be the one for you.
With calisthenics, you will be performing a variety of exercises using different types of equipment in order to target specific body parts you would want to enhance. Here are a few examples.
The Pull-Up Bar
The mother of all bodyweight workouts, the pull-up offers you the best strength gains for your upper body.
This piece of equipment can be latched or bolted to a wall which allows for great convenience and security.
Pull-ups are especially great for building your back and biceps, giving you that ideal V-taper look. Once pull-ups start to become too easy, you can always perform muscle-ups or paused pull-ups to induce more stress and tension on your muscles.
Gymnastics Rings
The gymnasts you see on the television during the Olympics hardly ever work out using weights yet they look toned and quite muscular. This is mainly because of the amount of work they put in on the gymnastics rings.
These rings give you even more variety of exercises that you can do because of how multi-functional they are. You can perform workouts that target your core like hanging L-sits, hanging leg raises, and hanging knee tucks, to workouts that target your upper body like muscle-ups and dips.
Gymnastics rings can be bolted to your ceiling and therefore, is very safe to use at home.
Resistance Bands
For individuals who are only starting to get into working out and do not have the strength to carry their body weight yet, resistance bands are the best tool to develop your strength. They come in a variety of sizes and will allow you to transition from one to another once you get stronger.
These bands can mimic gym exercises like dumbbell curls, tricep extensions, shoulder presses, and lateral raises to help you target those same muscle groups without the use of dumbbells. Resistance bands can also help you if you struggle to do pull-ups.
Simply tie the band around the bar and put your foot through the band. It can help boost your strength as you ascend towards the bar.
Pushup and Parallete Bars
Pushup bars are very convenient because they allow you to go deeper than you normally can if you only performed pushups with your hands.
Going deeper in the concentric motion of the exercise allows for more chest engagement and better development for your triceps, deltoids, and chest. The bars can also help you position your arms in a way that would be hard for you to accomplish if you were only using your hands.
Diamond pushups can now be done with much more comfort, without potentially straining your wrist for being in an awkward position. Parallette bars, on the other hand, are great for developing triceps because you can perform dips on them.
Aside from that, the bars offer a lot of extensive workouts such as elevated pushups, lunges, planks, and knee-ups.
These pieces of equipment should be the foundation of your gym as they are versatile enough to give you a plethora of exercises to choose from.
As opposed to actual gym equipment, these items are much cheaper and at the same time, can offer you the same size gains as weights can.
Considering how much money people spend on gym membership fees and gas money to travel there, you can guarantee that you are going to get your money’s worth if you are willing to invest in a home gym for calisthenic purposes.