No Time For The Gym? Not A Problem!

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How many times have you heard that there’s just not enough time. Quite frankly I hear it a lot. What I want to know is, if you have plenty of time to complain about not having time, why not stop complaining and make better use of what you got? Eh, whadda ya gonna do?

Health Is Very Important

Look here, our health is crucial. Point blank period. We have to take care of ourselves. There is no doubt about that. I don’t mean that everyone needs to be a bodybuilder or an Olympic weightlifter. But we need to spend some time during the day doing some type of rigorous physical activity.

Lifestyles nowadays are geared more towards seated desk jobs and with technology taking over damn near everything, we lose almost our primal instincts and activities as a species were once accustomed to.

I Just Can’t Make It To The Gym

Hey Jack I understand. Finding the time to drive to the gym then workout and drive home for some just is not in the cards. And that’s fine. Heck it may just not be physically possible due to location. Don’t let that stop you. There are many great solutions. “What do you do?” you ask.

Build A Home Gym For Peter’s Sake!

GET A SQUAT RACK!!!! You can do everything you need to build functional strength with barbells, a squat rack and a bench. It’s that simple.

A squat rack comes in many shapes and sizes. Find something you like looking on Craigslist, buy new or used, whatever you can afford. Any home gym should be built around a quality squat rack.

The Benefits of a Squat Rack

Nobody I know wants to buy all these damned contraptions and fill up an entire room or garage in your home with this crazy nonsensical exercise equipment. I know I don’t and never will. Isolation and accessory work has its place in the weight room and especially rehabilitation but, the facts are the facts. Building practical strength comes from performing practical movements.

When I go to the gym I pretty much spend most of my time in the squat rack. And if it wasn’t for gym etiquette and common courtesy of others I would spend my entire session inside the rack.

Why do I use a squat rack? Heck, many reasons. To list here are some of the benefits of a squat rack that I could come up with :

A lot of lifting without taking up a huge amount of space
No need for a spotter
Piece of mind, equaling greater lifting confidence
Adjustable pins allows for different ranges of motion
Ability to handle a wide variety of exercises
Built in pull up stations, dips stations
In some cases storage racks for your weights

As you can see its a good investment.

So You Got The Rack, Now What?

Now that you’re all set up with your rack, barbells, bench and weights what are you going to do? Well for starters I suggest the Barbell Academy’s Building Strength Routine. Perfect for anyone who wants to build the functional and practical strength. Check it out if you haven’t.

But to give you an idea of how much can actually be done inside a rack I have compiled a non exhaustive list of exercises.

Bench Press
Overhead Press
Rack Pull
Barbell Shrug
Barbell Bent Over Rows
Barbell Curl
Pull Up/Chin Up
Dips
Hanging Knee Raise
Hanging Leg Raise
And More

So there you have it. No time for the gym then make your own gym at home. If you’re a busy mom, business professional, or just plain overloaded with activities do yourself a favor: Don’t ignore your health. Pick your plan, load up your barbell and get lifting!