5 Essential Pieces of Equipment

This is a question that is asked a lot. Do I need to join a gym to gain muscle?

The short answer is no! With correct planning and certain basic pieces of equipment you can start building muscle right in your own home.

For various reasons you may not be able to train in a gym. You may feel awkward about training in a gym. Financially it may be out of reach. There maybe no gym near you. Travel to and from gym takes to long or is a problem. A busy lifestyle means working out at home is a better use of your time.

With the correct basic equipment you can build muscle in your own home. All the fancy machines are great but most machines have an equivalent freeweight substitution that you can use.

There are five pieces of basic equipment that you need to grow /gain muscle.

1. Cast iron barbell set
2. Cast iron dumbbell set
3. A sturdy bench
4. Chin up bar
5. A squat rack

A dumbbell set and barbell set can quite often be bought as a single set with the weights being interchangeable. A cast iron set is best but other types will do the same job.

A sturdy bench for seated movements and bench presses is essential. The bench must be able to be inclined and feature safety catches for your own safety especially if you train alone.

Chin up bars are used for a variety of exercises and can be quite cheap to buy. They may also come as part of the squat rack. A decent squat rack can be quite expensive but is a very essential piece of weight training equipment. Squats are one exercise you can't afford to leave out of your weight training program. So you definitely need to be able to unrack the weights safely and have the ability to drop the weight on to some sort of safety catch if your strength happens to give out.

So now you have your home gym. You can train when you want and with who you want. You don't have to wait for someone else to finish their exercises. The cleanliness is of the gym is in your hands.