Tighten Your Belts… And Your Waistline! Creating A Home Gym

It’s so difficult, as a dad, to find any amount of time to get away from the house. The only time you would get out into the open would be to either go to work or to go shopping. The latter means you will normally have the kids in tow or be subject to huge amounts of trolley/road/payment rage. On top of that, to find any amount of time to exercise is completely pointless. When can you possibly fit in the recommended three times per week to travel to the gym, do the exercises, and travel home around your working day, and spend time with the kids before they go to sleep? With everyone around you tightening their belts at the expense of their waistline, the only option to keep fit is to make a gym at home. You may think could be too expensive to invest in a home gym, but you don’t need to have piles of fancy equipment. You don’t even need to have much space! Here are a few little hacks to get you thinking.

Make A Makeshift Pull-up Bar

There are so many different variations on bicep curls, bent over rows, and jumping jacks, that we are confused about what the definitive exercises are a lot of the time. We want the right exercises, and we want them now! They say there are really only a few key ones you need, and pull ups are one of them. Body-weight, biceps, triceps, and core exercises can be done by a suspended bar. Install a U-shaped bar to the side of the house (with your partner’s permission, of course) and get some sports gloves! Other options would be to purchase a pull-up bar that goes in between door frames, or if your kids’ swing is sturdy enough, you already have one in the garden!

Need The Gym Atmosphere?

A lot of people need the music and mood to get them pumped; otherwise, you just stand around staring at your phone (like many guys at the gym). Getting some Bluetooth speakers like these ones on IThingum instead of relying on your tinny phone speakers to get you in the mood will help you turn your conservatory, living room, or garden into funky pump central! There are always plenty of YouTube videos of routines if you need to target a specific area, most likely the belly!

Get The Kids Involved!

You probably think that chasing after the kids is exercising enough a lot of the time! Well, another trick to get yourself working out while playing with the toddlers is to focus on one part of your body while getting down on the floor. We manage to get ourselves into bizarre positions when carrying our kids around the room pretending to be King Kong, so focus on tightening your core, or if you’ve got your son hanging around your neck, integrate a couple of press-ups. And each time you go back to playing, you can focus on a different muscle group or body part.

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