UPDATED: My at-home gym 💪🏼

Back in May, I wrote a blog post sharing how I’ve set myself up to continue hitting my fitness goals despite lockdown and not being able to go to the gym.

When I first started my fitness journey, I always had a part of my workouts every week done at home. In the beginning, it was more like 90% of my workouts were at home and the remaining 10% was at the gym!

This was mostly because I had terrible gym-intimidation back then which I’m sure is normal for anyone getting started (hopefully this is a quick reminder that gym-intimidation eventually goes away and you can start feeling comfortable and confident working out at the gym.)

When lockdown hit, I found myself having to re-adapt to my previous way of working out – all at home! Luckily, I had always set myself up to workout at home on days I didn’t feel like going to the gym. Consistency is important to me so pre-COVID, when I would wake up late to go to the gym, I’d just go to the other room and get a workout in before going to work.

It was pretty much the same thing now, except I’ve had to really adapt exercises that required specialised equipment. I re-learned that there is always alternatives that work just as well!

You can read my original post with all the equipment that I have for my at-home-gym. In this post, I’ll be sharing some of the things I’ve updated since that post including any new additions that I have!

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Welcome to Paw’s Gym! 💜

I get asked about my at-home-gym set-up almost every day when I post my post-workout selfie on Instagram. I thought it might be worth creating a video touring you folks through the set-up, so here’s a short video I took. Hopefully, it’s useful!

Side note: I mentioned recently that I’ve been really getting into creating videos! So this was actually quite fun to film, edit and put together. I’d love to know what you think about a mix of text on a blog with a video! 😊

Updated Equipment

Pull-up Mate Portable Pull-up Bar

I updated my pull-up bar because when we moved to our new apartment, we couldn’t find a wall or door frame that fit our old pull up bar correctly. After searching online for an alternative, I came across Pull-up Mate who sell this portable pull-up bar. If you’ve ever jumped on a call with me, you would’ve probably seen the bright red bar in the background. 😆

As you can see from the video, it’s a stable pull-up bar that can be used for pull-ups (duh) and dips as well depending on how you set it up. I’ve only used mine for pull-ups practice, but it’s been a fantastic piece of kit that has helped me continue to progress with my pull-up goals this year!

I prefer it to my old pull-up bar that caused me anxiety when I went on it. I was always a little worried that I’d break the door frame. 😂

You can find out more information on Pull-up Mate bar here. I bought just the Pull Up Mate bar for £99.95.

6ft, 10KG Barbell + 2.5KG x 4 plates

I finally got myself a barbell! 🎉

I’ve been thinking about it for a few months and kept holding off because my adjustable dumbbells have been great for a variety of exercises. However, I did want to get back into using a barbell for exercises like deadlifts, hip thrusts, squats, overhead press, rows. I felt like I was more “used to” and comfortable with a barbell over my dumbbells. My dumbbells were also a strange shape, making it difficult to set myself up for a specific exercise.

However, I read the description wrong for this barbell 😬 I thought it came with 10kg x 2 plates — but it actually meant that it came with smaller plates that add up to 10kg. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Luckily we have some plates from our non-adjustable dumbbells so all together with all the plates in the barbell, it totals up to 40kg-ish.

I bought mine off a seller on eBay for £80~

Resistance bands & Skipping rope

I got some long resistance bands with attachments on the end to add to resistance-only exercises for things like rows, tricep exercises, pulldowns. I also bought a long round resistance band to help with my pull-ups on my Pull Up Mate.

And finally, I got a skipping rope to switch up my cardio routine. I’ve gotten better at not whipping myself after a lot of practice! 😂️

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‼️ Things coming up…

What I have now has been more than enough to help me hit my strength goals as well as keep me in relatively good shape during this time. I don’t know how long it will be until I feel safe to go into a gym again, but for now I decided to make the most of what I have.

Bigger Plates

As I’m writing this post, I actually have two things that I ordered to fully “complete” my little home gym. The first thing is 10kg x 2 plates – I finally found one that wasn’t too expensive on eBay and yep, you bet I re-read the description multiple times to make sure I got it right this time. 😂

Although my plates have been fine, I prefer having larger plates to help position myself better with certain exercises such as deadlifts. Also adding to the weight will help me continue to reach my strength goals 🚀

A foldable treadmill

The other thing that I invested in was a foldable treadmill. What? You ask. OK, hear me out. 🤣 It actually isn’t specifically for my home gym, but more for under my standing desk because sitting and standing for 8-10 hours a day just isn’t healthy!

I’ve also been feeling quite paranoid leaving the apartment but I still wanted to have days where I’d stretch my legs for a walk. I looked around and after a lot of research, I found quite a lightweight, foldable treadmill that fits perfectly under my standing desk and if not in use folds up and doesn’t take much space.

I’ll share a full review on it when it comes and I have a few weeks of use on it. But for now, I think I made a good decision. 😂 I keep telling myself that if it isn’t a good choice then I can always sell it or give it away to my dad to add to his home gym!

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Overall, I’m actively trying my best to continue to stay healthy during this time. I don’t just mean physically but also mentally! Exercise is the thing that has truly kept me sane this year, and I will be leaning towards it for comfort for the rest of my life probably. 😊 #PawGainz, amirite?

Stay safe and sending you all healthy vibes! ✨