I have a few heavy kettlebells and dip bars in my room. I've never felt or looked better. I know many people out there get stuck on the "where am I gonna put a squat rack and barbells?!" hurdle. You don't need much!
Or you can do simple calisthenics. Especially if you are beginner, save yourself time and money and do exercises like push ups and squats at home. When you progress on that go to outside gym which is also free and never crowded from my experience.
You know, I went through Darebee's "foundation" program, recommended for people with no idea what they're doing, on the theory that being in better shape would be nice.
It has plenty of good points. But it's a miserable failure at letting you get into shape for the simple reason that it's a 30-day program with approximately 30 unique sets of daily exercises.
And Darebee seems to think of this as a strength! Variety, in their minds, will keep you interested in continuing with the program.
This incredibly misguided approach means that it's almost impossible to keep up the habit. Participating at all means that every day, you have to go find the program, find your current place, and look up whatever new exercises they've decided to introduce that day. Maybe those exercises will happen again two weeks later. Maybe not.
What I want is a set of exercises that I can memorize so that, if it becomes convenient to do some daily exercises during the day, I can do that without having to look up a schedule and then study what exactly I'm supposed to be doing. Working through the entire program left me completely unable to even repeat the same program.
I just can't understand where they got the idea that you need to be enticed into doing something most people consider unpleasant by imposing a lot of mandatory busywork every time you do decide to get on with it.
I managed to get down to 13% body from more than 25% with a single set of adjustable dumbbells that cost me $60. For the first time in my life I had visible abs. What pushed me was a single week of counting calories - I never realized how many extra calories I was consuming.
Boy do I hear that. I was mostly eating what was very healthy, but I'd throw in an apple here, some crackers there... it adds up so fast and grinds everything to a halt.
In my experience at weight watchers, 99% of people trying to lose weight simply have no idea they’re eating way more calories than they need, and they have absolution idea how insanely calorie sense some things are, like cashews.
For Burt everyone they don’t need to count calories, they just need to knockout a few calorie dense things and the weight comes off.
I work out at home with dumbells, the one thing I miss vs a gym is some way to do lat pull downs. I can’t do a chin up and don’t feel like I’ve got a good way to work up to it.
I also don’t work legs super seriously, I have 2x75lb dumbells I use for squats and deadlifts, I could do more if I had heavier weights but that’s not a priority.
For progressing to a chin-up or pullup, have you tried negatives? Or rubber band assist? Or, if you are willing to get rings, you can lower them so some of your weight is supported by your feet on the ground (body straight like a plank), changing the height of the rings will increase or decrease effort.
The modern way to progress to chin ups normally involves bands and eccentrics, but you can also just do partial reps (starting with the top of the movement) and gradually work on adding depth.
(This also avoids the stress on your elbows that can happen from the bottom of the rep if not controlled well.)
If you're quite far off starting with bodyweight inverted rows and working up in reps will train your arms and elbows in a very similar way from an easier position.
Anything "partial" gets a bad rep from people ego lifting with weights but it can be a legitimate way to work up to calisthenics exercises and saves fiddling around with bands
If you haven't tried single leg movements, that's the way to increase load on your legs when you don't have more weight available.
Moving fast is also a good way to increase intensity without increasing weight (you can clean less than you can deadlift, for example). The training effect is slightly different, but probably more useful for the average person tbh.
Chin up progression is eccentrics and band assists. They'll get you to your first chin up faster than lat pulldowns since you're actually doing the movement.
Congratulations! People definitely overestimate how difficult it is to start getting into gym and weightlifting. Pull-ups, push-ups, and crunches will get you 50% of the benefits with 1% of the effort. Adding on some additional weight from things like kettlebells is all you need then for your lower body. Gyms are nice when convenient but not at all necessary.
The advantage of the gym is that machines usually (but not always) force or at least guide the correct form. Free weights and free exercise leave so much room for a wrong form and building up to injuries.
Lots of commentary on the strength and weight aspects, but an equally important aspect for me is to add in a consistent and progressive focus on joint and muscle flexibility with consistent stretching [0]. While doing it initially on my own, I’ve come to realize that there are some stretches and range of motions that you just can’t push yourself (or at least I can’t) to progress without an external knowledgeable trainer who understands biomechanics and joint motion. I’ve been amazed at the range of motion that a joint can exhibit with some time and training.
Is there any indication stretching leads to improved health outcomes like resistance training does per the article?
Everything I’ve seen indicates it’s a “nice to have” if one has unlimited time but if you’ve only got an hour a day or whatever for a workout you’re better off spending it all on resistance training.
The article is about muscle hypertrophy, not health outcomes.
>if you’ve only got an hour a day or whatever for a workout you’re better off spending it all on resistance training.
The health benefits of resistance training plateau around 90-120 minutes per week. And don't forget about cardio, which is arguably more important for reducing disease risk. I would guess that maintaining flexibility helps reduce risk of injury and mortality from falling, which becomes increasingly likely as you get older. But there's not much evidence that increasing flexibility beyond a normal functioning range has any ancillary benefits.
Resistance training should be a form of stretching. If you're taking the loaded muscle through full ranges of motion, as you should be, then that also means ranges where the muscles are fully stretched. Unfortunately many people cut the range of motion short so they can add more load, which is counterproductive for both flexibility, injury risk and progress.
Looks promising. After a shitty year with terrible hips pain (doctors said it was about muscles pinching a nerve) daily swimming has made the pain completely disappear. Motorbike riding and now some kettlebells exercises are doing the same for the long term rotator cuff problem.
I'm in my better shape in the last 30 years, maybe in my entire life. The most surprising thing is how simple, cheap and little time consuming it's been. Compared to gym subscription, the swimming pool, rubber mat and couple of kettlebells are spare change.
Public pool, city owned. August daily was less than 1€/day. Now I'm taking classes (my style... has room for improvement) not sure about the price for the winter months, but it's subsidized so not very high.
TBH, gyms have lower prices now over here. You can find a decent subscription for 30€/month, half of what used to be. But they're overcrowded. For me the main factor is time. I end up wasting a lot of time waiting for a free spot or shower, changing clothes, etc. Training at home is much simpler. Combined with a couple of days out swimming or running, a better solution, for me anyway.
Edit: between my previous comment and this one, I've completed my daily home routine :-)
Funny enough - I spent time last year, and paid for a professional trainer who worked with celebs/elite athletes - to build an app to do what I wanted.
For a long time I had been doing greyskull LP but kept progressing and getting injured and then having to reset.
I've been following my own app now and am loving life and sharing it with friends.
When I read "American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand" I cannot but be reminded of the late Dr Ralph Carpinelli's enjoyable critique[1] of the ACSM's position on strength training in 2009. I wonder if their recommendations have changed?
Yikes, didn't realize that the 2009 stand included a few really silly things like that. Yes, the 2026 stand is overall pretty decent and doesn't have much objectionable in it.
>We synthesized data from 137 systematic reviews (>30,000 participants). Compared with no exercise (control), RT significantly improved muscle strength, size (hypertrophy), power, endurance, contraction velocity, gait speed, balance, and multiple physical function outcomes. Few RT prescription (RTx) variables affected primary adaptations. However, voluntary strength was enhanced by lifting heavier loads (≥80% one-repetition maximum), through a complete range of motion, for 2–3 sets, at the beginning of training sessions, and ≥2 sessions/wk. Muscle hypertrophy was enhanced by higher volumes (≥10 sets/wk) and eccentric overload. Power was enhanced by moderate loads (30%–70% one-repetition maximum), low-to-moderate volume (≤24 repetitions⋅sets), Olympic-style weightlifting, and power RT (fast concentric phase). Power RT enhanced physical function. Training to momentary muscle fatigue, equipment type, exercise complexity, set structure, time under tension, blood flow restriction, and periodization did not consistently impact training outcomes.
>Conclusions:
>Healthy adults should perform progressive RT, with variable prescription consistent with our findings, to improve muscle function, size, and physical performance. Muscle strength, hypertrophy, power, and certain components of physical function can be enhanced by manipulating the RT variables highlighted.
I have a few heavy kettlebells and dip bars in my room. I've never felt or looked better. I know many people out there get stuck on the "where am I gonna put a squat rack and barbells?!" hurdle. You don't need much!
Or you can do simple calisthenics. Especially if you are beginner, save yourself time and money and do exercises like push ups and squats at home. When you progress on that go to outside gym which is also free and never crowded from my experience.
You know, I went through Darebee's "foundation" program, recommended for people with no idea what they're doing, on the theory that being in better shape would be nice.
https://darebee.com/programs/foundation-program.html
It has plenty of good points. But it's a miserable failure at letting you get into shape for the simple reason that it's a 30-day program with approximately 30 unique sets of daily exercises.
And Darebee seems to think of this as a strength! Variety, in their minds, will keep you interested in continuing with the program.
This incredibly misguided approach means that it's almost impossible to keep up the habit. Participating at all means that every day, you have to go find the program, find your current place, and look up whatever new exercises they've decided to introduce that day. Maybe those exercises will happen again two weeks later. Maybe not.
What I want is a set of exercises that I can memorize so that, if it becomes convenient to do some daily exercises during the day, I can do that without having to look up a schedule and then study what exactly I'm supposed to be doing. Working through the entire program left me completely unable to even repeat the same program.
I just can't understand where they got the idea that you need to be enticed into doing something most people consider unpleasant by imposing a lot of mandatory busywork every time you do decide to get on with it.
The Scientific 7-Minute workout is a great starting point.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/well/workouts/
I'd rather recommend beginners check out r/bodyweightfitness' recommended routine
[dead]
I managed to get down to 13% body from more than 25% with a single set of adjustable dumbbells that cost me $60. For the first time in my life I had visible abs. What pushed me was a single week of counting calories - I never realized how many extra calories I was consuming.
Boy do I hear that. I was mostly eating what was very healthy, but I'd throw in an apple here, some crackers there... it adds up so fast and grinds everything to a halt.
Yes, getting abs is 90% of diet, 10% exercise.
In my experience at weight watchers, 99% of people trying to lose weight simply have no idea they’re eating way more calories than they need, and they have absolution idea how insanely calorie sense some things are, like cashews.
For Burt everyone they don’t need to count calories, they just need to knockout a few calorie dense things and the weight comes off.
I work out at home with dumbells, the one thing I miss vs a gym is some way to do lat pull downs. I can’t do a chin up and don’t feel like I’ve got a good way to work up to it.
I also don’t work legs super seriously, I have 2x75lb dumbells I use for squats and deadlifts, I could do more if I had heavier weights but that’s not a priority.
For progressing to a chin-up or pullup, have you tried negatives? Or rubber band assist? Or, if you are willing to get rings, you can lower them so some of your weight is supported by your feet on the ground (body straight like a plank), changing the height of the rings will increase or decrease effort.
The modern way to progress to chin ups normally involves bands and eccentrics, but you can also just do partial reps (starting with the top of the movement) and gradually work on adding depth.
(This also avoids the stress on your elbows that can happen from the bottom of the rep if not controlled well.)
If you're quite far off starting with bodyweight inverted rows and working up in reps will train your arms and elbows in a very similar way from an easier position.
Anything "partial" gets a bad rep from people ego lifting with weights but it can be a legitimate way to work up to calisthenics exercises and saves fiddling around with bands
Simple dead hangs are a good start. Lots of people can’t hang for 30 seconds
If you haven't tried single leg movements, that's the way to increase load on your legs when you don't have more weight available.
Moving fast is also a good way to increase intensity without increasing weight (you can clean less than you can deadlift, for example). The training effect is slightly different, but probably more useful for the average person tbh.
Actually I feel like moving very slow is also a way to increase intensity.
Move fast on the concentric (increases power), move slowish on the eccentric.
Yes. Although as you get older moving fast on the concentric might also increase your chances of injury.
Chin up progression is eccentrics and band assists. They'll get you to your first chin up faster than lat pulldowns since you're actually doing the movement.
Congratulations! People definitely overestimate how difficult it is to start getting into gym and weightlifting. Pull-ups, push-ups, and crunches will get you 50% of the benefits with 1% of the effort. Adding on some additional weight from things like kettlebells is all you need then for your lower body. Gyms are nice when convenient but not at all necessary.
The advantage of the gym is that machines usually (but not always) force or at least guide the correct form. Free weights and free exercise leave so much room for a wrong form and building up to injuries.
Lots of commentary on the strength and weight aspects, but an equally important aspect for me is to add in a consistent and progressive focus on joint and muscle flexibility with consistent stretching [0]. While doing it initially on my own, I’ve come to realize that there are some stretches and range of motions that you just can’t push yourself (or at least I can’t) to progress without an external knowledgeable trainer who understands biomechanics and joint motion. I’ve been amazed at the range of motion that a joint can exhibit with some time and training.
[0] https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-ideal-str...
Is there any indication stretching leads to improved health outcomes like resistance training does per the article?
Everything I’ve seen indicates it’s a “nice to have” if one has unlimited time but if you’ve only got an hour a day or whatever for a workout you’re better off spending it all on resistance training.
The article is about muscle hypertrophy, not health outcomes.
>if you’ve only got an hour a day or whatever for a workout you’re better off spending it all on resistance training.
The health benefits of resistance training plateau around 90-120 minutes per week. And don't forget about cardio, which is arguably more important for reducing disease risk. I would guess that maintaining flexibility helps reduce risk of injury and mortality from falling, which becomes increasingly likely as you get older. But there's not much evidence that increasing flexibility beyond a normal functioning range has any ancillary benefits.
Resistance training should be a form of stretching. If you're taking the loaded muscle through full ranges of motion, as you should be, then that also means ranges where the muscles are fully stretched. Unfortunately many people cut the range of motion short so they can add more load, which is counterproductive for both flexibility, injury risk and progress.
Looks promising. After a shitty year with terrible hips pain (doctors said it was about muscles pinching a nerve) daily swimming has made the pain completely disappear. Motorbike riding and now some kettlebells exercises are doing the same for the long term rotator cuff problem.
I'm in my better shape in the last 30 years, maybe in my entire life. The most surprising thing is how simple, cheap and little time consuming it's been. Compared to gym subscription, the swimming pool, rubber mat and couple of kettlebells are spare change.
Surely that's swimming pool fees or subscription? I can't imagine having your own pool is cheaper than a gym subscription.
Public pool, city owned. August daily was less than 1€/day. Now I'm taking classes (my style... has room for improvement) not sure about the price for the winter months, but it's subsidized so not very high.
TBH, gyms have lower prices now over here. You can find a decent subscription for 30€/month, half of what used to be. But they're overcrowded. For me the main factor is time. I end up wasting a lot of time waiting for a free spot or shower, changing clothes, etc. Training at home is much simpler. Combined with a couple of days out swimming or running, a better solution, for me anyway.
Edit: between my previous comment and this one, I've completed my daily home routine :-)
Funny enough - I spent time last year, and paid for a professional trainer who worked with celebs/elite athletes - to build an app to do what I wanted.
For a long time I had been doing greyskull LP but kept progressing and getting injured and then having to reset.
I've been following my own app now and am loving life and sharing it with friends.
Find what works for you but by all means, lift!
When I read "American College of Sports Medicine Position Stand" I cannot but be reminded of the late Dr Ralph Carpinelli's enjoyable critique[1] of the ACSM's position on strength training in 2009. I wonder if their recommendations have changed?
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/244936612_Challengi...
Google scholar link since that one didn't work for me: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Chal...
Yikes, didn't realize that the 2009 stand included a few really silly things like that. Yes, the 2026 stand is overall pretty decent and doesn't have much objectionable in it.
> I wonder if
If you read the linked paper, you will wonder no more.
Won’t post the ChatGPT summary here, but if you’re obsessing over sets and reps and cadence, worth having a look
For what it's worth
>Results:
>We synthesized data from 137 systematic reviews (>30,000 participants). Compared with no exercise (control), RT significantly improved muscle strength, size (hypertrophy), power, endurance, contraction velocity, gait speed, balance, and multiple physical function outcomes. Few RT prescription (RTx) variables affected primary adaptations. However, voluntary strength was enhanced by lifting heavier loads (≥80% one-repetition maximum), through a complete range of motion, for 2–3 sets, at the beginning of training sessions, and ≥2 sessions/wk. Muscle hypertrophy was enhanced by higher volumes (≥10 sets/wk) and eccentric overload. Power was enhanced by moderate loads (30%–70% one-repetition maximum), low-to-moderate volume (≤24 repetitions⋅sets), Olympic-style weightlifting, and power RT (fast concentric phase). Power RT enhanced physical function. Training to momentary muscle fatigue, equipment type, exercise complexity, set structure, time under tension, blood flow restriction, and periodization did not consistently impact training outcomes.
>Conclusions:
>Healthy adults should perform progressive RT, with variable prescription consistent with our findings, to improve muscle function, size, and physical performance. Muscle strength, hypertrophy, power, and certain components of physical function can be enhanced by manipulating the RT variables highlighted.