What equipment can I use for my workouts?

Equipment is important when it comes to resistance training, in fact for most exercises it is what provides adequate resistance for increasing your strength and muscle mass.

For resistance training, the equipment is typically some kind of weight. It doesn't need to be fancy or complicated, it's literally just a heavy thing that will make your muscles work harder whilst you're holding it.

You are probably familiar with classic gym equipment; dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells etc. These are useful tools. However, they aren't absolutely necessary. Often you can use everyday objects from around the house to provide adequate weight and resistance for most of your exercising.

Watch this video to see Brodie and Gaz demonstrate some of the equipment options discussed in this article:

Recommended equipment for Be Mobile Online strength workouts

As discussed in the video above, for most of our workouts, you essentially need 2 pieces of equipment:

1. A pair of hand weights

   A weight that you can hold in each hand.

   1. Gym equipment example: dumbbells
   2. Home equipment example: milk bottles

2. A single bigger weight

   Something bigger and heavier, ideally with handles.

   1. Gym equipment example: kettlebell
   2. Home equipment example: bag loaded with heavy objects (books, bottles, bricks etc)

If you have these two types of equipment organised, you'll be able to appropriately load the majority of exercises within your at-home strength workouts.

It's even better to have a selection of different weights, so that you can increase or decrease weights as you go (hopefully increase as you get stronger!).

So if you have a few dumbbells or kettlebells lying around, that can be helpful. If you want to purchase some gym equipment, adjustable options are a good choice. They do make adjustable dumbbells and kettlebells, and although they are a bit more expensive, they can be worth it due to the convenience of being able to adjust them as needed.

But, home equipment can be adjustable to. Using a bag is great, because you can just add heavier objects into it as you get stronger. Using plastic jugs (eg. milk bottles) are also a cheap adjustable option, because you can progress to bigger ones as needed (1L, 2L, 3L etc). Each litre of water weights 1kg, and you can fill them with sand or gravel to make them even heavier.

Where can you purchase weight equipment?

Weight equipment can be purchase in-store, online and through second-hand goods websites.

What are the benefits of each option?

In-store purchase:

• Ability test the piece of equipment before buying. 
• You will have the product immediately without waiting for delivery. 
• Easy returns for faulty equipment.

Online purchase:

• A broader range of products to choose from. 
• The products will often be cheaper.

Second-hand goods purchase:

• eg. from Gumtree, Craig's List, Facebook Marketplace
• There's lot's of equipment available. Gym's will often sell off their old equipment quite cheap.
• Value! You can get a great deal.
• Weight equipment is very durable. There's usually no moving parts and they're made of dense, strong materials. So even dumbbells and kettlebells that are many years old can be in excellent useable condition (other than perhaps some scratches or surface rust).