The New Year is well and truly underway and why not start 2020 off right with some gym motivation. Fitness, health, and wellbeing are almost always on someone's New Year goals and it can really bring you down when you don't put those goals in motion. I'm here to tell you to START NOW! It's only February that means it's still technically the 'New Year' giving you plenty of time to purchase that gym membership, grab your gym bag and start chipping away at your goals. We are going to dive right into my go-to gym bag items. Just keep in mind I have been trying to make the gym a priority for the last year and some of these items are not a necessity to get you started but can help you add in some new exercises to your routine. I am not going to talk about having a water bottle, headphones, a hair tie ect you guys know the essentials these are a few extras to change up your routine. Let's get started.
Skipping Rope:
I picked up this skipping rope for $5.00 NZD and it has surprisingly become a stable item that I take with me to the gym or use at home. Skipping ropes are cheap items that are great for your cardio. Two minutes of skipping in between my sets of abs get me puffing every time. I haven't thought about skipping since I was in Primary school and it was a shock to me just how tiring and effective it can be when incorporated into a HIIT workout. Sometimes we don't have time to hit the gym for hours trying to get a cardio and weight session in, my tip is to add some skipping as your cardio on the days when cardio is not your priority. A few benefits of skipping to your health and fitness include cardiovascular fitness, leg strength, stamina, coordination, bone strength, balance, agility and it's a full-body workout. For such a cheap price why not pick your self up a skipping rope and give it a go!
Foam Roller:
This item I don't always take to the gym with me I prefer to use it at home, however, if you often find that you have trouble with muscle pain whilst in the gym, pick yourself up a foam roller. They are cheap and usually cost around $12.00 NZD, they are also a simple but effective self-massage device that allows you to apply pressure to specific areas. You can roll out your muscles either before or after your workout, for me, I prefer to do it afterward. Use a rolling motion with medium applied pressure to roll across the targeted body area.
Resistance bands:
I love my resistance bands to warm up my glutes and legs for leg day! They are great to use as a warm-up for your muscles before heaving weight training. There are so many benefits to resistance training such as strength and mobility, and muscle stimulus/ activation. You can use resistance bands for every body part, for me I use them most for glute activation some exercises I use them for include, squat jumps, hip thrusts, and hip abductors. You can pick up resistance bands for a variety of prices, the ones I have are from NZ muscle for $20.30.
Ankle Straps:
One of my favorite 2019 Christmas gifts has to be these ankle straps for the cable machine at the gym. I wanted to find some new booty exercises that I could do that wasn't a variation of a squat. I love squats don't get me wrong but I love pilates exercises that specifically target your glutes. When I first saw a girl do exercises on the cable machine at my gym I knew I had to get some of these ankle straps. Some gyms might provide them however my gym did not. There are so many great glute exercises that these babies can help you with for example hip abductors, cable kickbacks, leg extensions and more. As a bonus, they are really fun and effective exercises that you can incorporate into your leg days. They aren't too expensive you can usually pick up a good quality pair for around $30.00 NZD. Mine are from Rebel Sport click here to have a look.
Items on my wish list:
There are still a few items I wish to pick up to complete my gym bag. Items that I think will make the process of working out a lot more comfortable.
1) Towel - If your anything like me Girl, I can sweet! I know it's gross but my body will always sweat in the gym regardless of how hard I might be working. The worst is when I do a hill walk or run on the treadmill,10 minutes in and I am dripping in sweat down my face and the worst place is underneath my ponytail in the nape of my neck. The paper towels at the gym can help but personally I think having your own little towel just makes you feel like you can use it whenever you need and you don't have to feel self-conscious of sweating so much!
2) Weight Lifting Gloves - For those of you who lift weights at the gym, you’ll know the struggle when you have to interrupt a set because you lose your grip! This is a huge peeve of mine as my grip strength is terrible and it makes doing deadlifts (My most dreaded exercise) even harder than it already is. Weight lifting gloves can help this problem by providing a solid grip so you don't rip up you're bare hands. They also absorb some of the pressure on your hands and wrists, which should help to take some of the strain when you’re moving up to heavier lifts, so now you can up your weight! I can't wait to invest in some weight lifting gloves the pain of ripping my hands whilst doing lifts is one of the worst parts about the gym for me.
3) Barbell pad - One of the second most painful parts about using heavy weights at the gym is the strain on your neck or your pelvic muscles (Hip thrusts!). I think over time you get used to the sensation of heavyweights however it can still hurt in areas that you're using for support. Take squats for example, if you put a barbell pad around it cushion your neck you can focus on your legs not neck straining. And those pesky hip thrusts, although they are effective they can really put pressure on your pelvis, a barbell pad can solve this! My gym has one but it's always being used and so I thought it might be time to invest in one for my own comfort whilst doing hip thrusts in particular.
That's it for today's post! I hope you have been inspired to add some new exercises to your gym routine. The gym can be an effort at times and nobody likes to hurt themselves. I think some of these items can really help you focus on what's important at the gym, your form and getting the most out of each exercise. Thanks for reading, let me know in the comments what your favorite item is in your gym bag. Feel free to contact me for any queries or if you want to chat!
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