training

Building a Budget Home Gym | How to Stay In Shape AND At Home

Building a Budget Home Gym | How to Stay In Shape AND At Home

For years I lived the standard gym life. Roll in on the way to work, wait for open squat racks and benches, get cleaned up and ready in the locker room (surrounded by overly confident older gentlemen), and a day or two later repeat the whole process. Don’t even get me started on what January in the gym is like…a flood of New Year’s Resolutions pour through that door and make everything I just mentioned that much harder. So, during those years I continually dreamt of a home gym, but the potential price tag kept it feeling impossibly out of reach. I discovered that a highly effective home gym is actually well within reach for the average budget. In fact, the basics can cost little more than a year’s worth of gym dues (which, by the way, you won’t be paying anymore). So, if you’ve ever dreamt of leaving the globo-gym and working out in the comfort and privacy of your own home, here’s how to do it…

Do Deadlifts Hurt Your Back | My Medical Case-Study

Do Deadlifts Hurt Your Back | My Medical Case-Study

Last year, as I was approaching a goal PR in the deadlift I had been chasing for a long time, my back pain was getting worse. I started to worry about all those objections to deadlifting that I mentioned earlier, and I thought, “Great. I’ve slipped a disk. They’re gonna want to operate on my back. And my lifting career is done.” So, with my sciatic pain steadily increasing and X-rays not showing anything abnormal (aside from my already crooked spine and hips), they ordered an MRI of my lower back. I anxiously awaited the call from my chiropractor with the results, and I fully expected him to tell me never to touch a barbell again (have I mentioned I tend to be a pessimist?).

Imbalanced Fitness - How to Get in Shape for Hunting

Imbalanced Fitness - How to Get in Shape for Hunting

So, I had now accepted I was not fully prepared physically or mentally for the rigors of western mountain hunting, but what was I to do? I still had years of research and practical experience telling me that extended cardio sessions only serve to break-down muscle tissue, that total body strength was better than balancing on a ball while holding a 5 lb. dumbbell in a strange pose, and the simple fact that I like being strong and didn’t want to go back to being lanky and weak (what can I say, my wife is now very attached to my big, squatting butt). Well, as is often the case, it seems the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I didn’t need to swear-off barbells and start running marathons, but I also didn’t need to just keep pushing for new PRs all the time.

A strong man is harder to kill and more useful in general.

A strong man is harder to kill and more useful in general.

As a man, if someone tells you that you are too weak (especially too weak to simply hold your skeleton together) it drives you to change. I immediately began researching strength training programs, got a gym membership, and got to work! Now, if you've ever perused the internet for fitness advice, you're surely aware that there are more opinions than there are brands of overly priced yoga pants (what is LuLu Lemon, anyway?!). Not only that, all the opinions contradict each other. Muscle confusion, hypertrophy, sets of 5 or 8 or 10 or 30, cardio is awesome, cardio will kill you, squats are the best, squats will kill you...it's a nightmare!!! Eventually, all that advice becomes overwhelming, you fart around the gym for a couple months, progress and motivation stall, and you quit working out but keep paying for the gym promising yourself you'll go back next Monday. Ever been there?