Work out update: I finally got my own home gym
Hey there my Hive friends and followers!
Ok, the title is a bit clickbaitish here as you cannot really make updates on something that you haven´t been doing for a long time and what showed up on the balcony of our new apartment can hardly be called a home gym but let´s start at the beginning, shall we? :)
As you might remember from some of my older work out posts, I was into calisthenics for many years. Then, when we lived in Krakow, I discovered this outdoor gym where my transition from calisthenics to weight lifting began. After two years in Krakow, we lived another two years in Prague where I continued my weight lifting "career" at this outdoor gym. I really enjoyed my work outs at both of those places as I totally prefer these free outdoor gyms to the indoor regular ones.
However, there are no such cool outdoor places with actual machines and weights here in my Czech hometown and since free time has been increasingly scarce for me lately, I decided to build my own home gym. I did have a bit of some basic equipment before but now, I finally got what I always wanted to have: a home bench press set!
That´s right. The balcony of the apartment that we just rented here is big enough to accommodate a whole bench press set so I wasted no time and bought one. Usually, these things are quite expensive but I found a great deal on this one. The whole thing was not even 200 bucks...
It may not be the best quality and of course it´s also one of the smallest existing versions of this kind of kit (and I still have to be very careful with my technique because of the limited space :D) but who cares, iron is iron and what only matters here is how hard you pump it :)
So yeah, I can now get my bench press work out anytime I want and I don´t even have to leave my apartment for it, which is really cool and I cannot wait to get back to the routine. But wait a minute... what routine? Damn, I almost forgot that there hasn´t been any work out routine for me for long months! Four months to be precise... That´s right. I was very consistent with my work out training but I had to stop it due to time reasons when our daughter was about to be born and I haven´t really had a chance to get back to it yet. But now, with my own "balcony gym", I´m ready to get my work out back on track :)
With the dumbbells and other little items that I already had, the gym currently looks like this.
Is it enough to call it a home gym? I guess most fitness enthusiasts wouldn´t say so but I couldn´t care less, it´s my gym now and I´m going to spend every little free moment over there ;) Also, starting my work out again after such a long break will give me the chance to finally see whether those fitness legends about the muscle memory are true or not :) I was in a pretty good shape (mostly performance-wise) before I had to take the break but honestly, now, after four months of doing nothing, I feel like the smallest and weakest sh*t so I´m really curious to see how much time and effort it will take me to get back to where I was before the break. I will try to keep you guys posted about my progress ;)
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Nice! Just be careful when lifting, to not get holes in the walls :)
Hahaha that´s actually my biggest concern right now, there is literally just some 10 cm gap on each side :D I will really have to be careful. No ego lifting for me :D Thanks for your support my friend!
That looks like it fits perfectly! Very nice! Congrats on the purchase. I have a bit of a home gym as well. I spent some time on the treadmill this morning and about died!
Thanks man, this is the first time I have something like this at home, I need to get used to it :) Well, I prefer outdoors running to treadmill but I can imagine it comes in handy in bad weather :)
Bad weather and sub zero temps! It's turning out to be a good investment for us! We also have a TotalGym which I used a couple times a week.
Today I have met the second post about weight lifts or push-ups 😄 Ok I will start some push-ups and sit-ups again.
Go for it mate, regular work out is good for both your physical and mental wellbeing :)
wow congratulations and goodluck to your workout journey. i wish i can get mine completed too
Thank you :) But work out journey is not to be completed, it´s an ongoing and never-ending process ;)
Great. Its not a advance but a smart gym.
A smart gym, that´s cool, I like it :) Thanks for checking out my post!
Heh, tak tohle by s sebou nomád opravdu vláčet nemohl :))
No jo no, teď holt u nás probíhá těžká denomadizace, tak si to můžu dovolit :) Až pak ale zase šlápnem do pedálů a tohle někomu z mých známých / rodiny skončí v garáži, tak si vyslechnu svoje, to vím už teď :D
It looks that you will be in good shape !
I am not a gym person.
Haha I hope my friend! But it´s not easy when you have to start again after a long break and when you are not so young anymore :D
Well, You are younger than me.
I think this is an awesome life update of yours, I want to have my workout gym at home if given the opportunity and money. haha.
Well, it doesn´t have to be that expensive. Especially for girls and women who don´t need that many weight plates :) I think it´s pretty safe to say that you can build your own home gym for less money than you would spend on the annual membership in a regular gym ;)
That's the right attitude. If you try to fit the mood and the expectations of others, you lose yourself. I don't care what others say and you shouldn't either. Nice gym you have there, so use it!
Well said and it applies to most things and situations in life, not just work out :) Btw fitness is not about equipment anyway. It´s about the effort and consistency that you put into it. I saw videos from Africa, for example, where local dudes, incredibly buffed, were working out just with very primitive equipment made from wood and concrete. Where there is a will, there is a way ;) Thanks for stopping by!
You're very right about that my friend! I used to watch The Biggest Loser and one of the phases in the competition was when the losing team of the week got locked out of the gym. This obviously was done in purpose, to teach them how to train with nothing. As you say, "Where there is a will, there is a way". You have benches, chairs, water bottles, whatever you can get your hands on, can be used, including your own weight. Have a nice day and all the best, to little Flora too :)
100% agree. Thank you very much for your wise words and nice wishes. Greetings from all of us! :)
Thank you :)
Congratulations on your new gym equipment
I’m sure that you will acquire more of it within a short time especially if you are dedicated
Thank you but there obviously is no room for more stuff ;)
You are really doing a Great job over there
Thanks :)
Nice set-up! 200 bucks sounds really worth it. I dream of having my own home gym set-up. Maybe in the future.
I hope you will get to build one too one day. I´m sure a simple one like this would work for you just fine as you have the right fitness discipline and dedication ;)
Hezky pěkně! Tomu říkám efektivně využitej prostor (ne nějaká, cojávim, kytka :D). Jako jasně, asi to není úplně olympijská osa 220, 20 kg atd. Ale člověk musí pracovat s tím, co je k dispozici. :)
Já bych pod to možná ještě pro jistotu jebnul podložku, bo nehody se prostě stávají. Ale to je detail.
No, efektivně možná až právě moc - ta osa má 167 cm a šířka balkonu je 180 cm, takže na techniku to bude fakt náročné - žádný roztřepaný ego lifting nehrozí, to by hned byly díry ve zdi :D Vzhledem k té extrémní opatrnosti, která bude nezbytná, už asi ani podložka třeba nebude. Každý gram závaží budu muset mít holt plně pod kontrolou :D Ale jo, těším se, až se do toho zas dostanu :) Pak možná ještě sepíšu článek o tom, jak že je to teda s tou svalovou pamětí :D
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Oh, cool! Get back to the routine slowly, I know it must feel great to have this set up right on your balcony but I am sure you will get back to a full workout wisely :)
{not like me when I start to practice the piano "like crazy" after a break then my tendons suffer haha}
Thank you! Yes, I will take it slowly step by step :) I´m currently at just some 50% of my "ATH" anyway :D We need to be careful about our tendons! And bones. And muscles. And joints. And everything in our bodies :D
Yay! 🤗
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Tak tomu hovorím využitie balkóna. Ja by som tam teda dala paradajky a papriky, ale každý podľa svojho 😂 Je super vidieť, že sa zabyvávate a dúfam, že manželka si tam pomaly zvyká.
Držím palce, aby si to tie svaly ešte pamätali 😉
Neboj, na rostlinky a bylinky taky ještě dojde, tenhle můj posilovací (dětský? :D) koutek zabírá jen asi třetinu toho balkonu ;)
No jsem zvědav, jak to půjde :)
Great, good for you 👍🏻, I'm sure you're not gonna have any problem getting back to your exercise routine 🏋🏻♀️ and I can see you have a nice view, too from your window. But I only see a machine for your arms, what about your legs? You know how many muscular men are, here we call them ice cream shape body 🍦🤭🤭🤭, a lot of muscle on top and chicken legs 😂😂😂🤷🏻♀️. But of course I don't think that you are like them 😉
Thank you :) Yesterday, I did some first trial work out to see how much my performance dropped after the break and I was nicely surprised that it´s actually not so bad :) I think I´m currently at some 70% of my maxes so I hope to be back at 100% in a few months :)
Well, you can always grab the dumbbells or the big bar and do some squats, which is I also do sometimes but honestly, I don´t enjoy my leg work out as much as I do my upper body work out :D My excuse used to be that I did a lot of jogging instead (which was true) but now, I´m too heavy for jogging so I guess I need to do more squats not to look like "human ice cream" :D Btw how about your fitness journey, any muscles showing up, Miss Superhero? :)
70% 👍🏻, cool, that's excellent 😉, you know, the body of people who use to train has memory so when you come back to the gym, sport or whatever activity you did it's easy to get your rhythm back 😉, at least ten or twenty years have passed 😬🥴😂😂😂
Hahaha, so you don't like very much leg training 🤷🏻♀️ I think that most men don't like it hahaha, maybe it has something to do with flirting with women, because unless you are a soccer player, you're not going to go out in shorts to attract the attention of a woman you like hahaha, but you are going to show off your biceps, pecs or abs hahaha. On the other hand, women exercise their legs and butt a lot because it's what physically attracts the attention of men 😂, let's say it's an animal thing 🤔🤷🏻♀️.
You are "too heavy for jogging" because of your muscles or because you have gain weight? 🤫🤭
Well, my fitness journey is doing well, I have gain some weight 😃 which is very good for me although for the results I want I need to focus a little more on the diet, which means a lot of money 🥴 hahaha, so at the moment I do what I can with what I have 👊🏻
Hahaha this is a great comment and I think you are right about why men tend to focus more on their upper body and women on their lower body :D But I actually wear shorts very often, especially in summer but sometimes also in spring and in autumn when it´s warm enough. Oh and when we live in the tropics or subtropics, I wear shorts all year round, I don´t like pants anyway :D
Well, I put on a lot of weight in the last couple of years. Both muscles and fat, of course :D I´m currently at some 90 kg for my not so tall height of 177 cm. That´s not comfortable for jogging anymore. But as long as there is more muscles than fat, I´m ok with that :) I was super skinny when I was younger so I enjoy being big and strong now :) Glad to hear that you managed to put on some weight too, superheroes need muscles to be able to save the world! :D
Hahaha, it's true, women take care of their butts and legs and men of their abs and arms 🤷🏻♀️ it's how nature works hahaha.
Oh, that means I'm a little taller than you 🤏🏻 hehehe. Well, yes, I think 90 kgs is really heavy for your height
Yes of course, we need muscles to fight for justice and eliminate the scum of the world 👊🏻 although the most important thing is cunning and intelligence 😼, always 😉
Oh you are taller than that? Then you must be considered a very tall woman in Venezuela :) I mean here in my country, people of my height are considered small because the Czechs are one of the tallest nations in the world (many of my friends here are around 190 cm or even taller) but I remember that in Latin America, I felt quite tall :D
Well, the proportion between height and weight can be misleading sometimes. Bodybuilders of my height, for example, often weigh 120 or even 130 kg. In fact, muscles are 20% denser (=heavier) than fat. That´s why muscular people are heavy. But such extremes are not natural, neither healthy of course ;)
Hahaha, yeah, I am 1.80 cms tall, I often hear people saying to me "you are very tall" hahaha 🤷🏻♀️ and yes, sometimes I feel like a giant when I walk in the streets 😂😂, many friends and family have even told me that I should have been a model or participated in the Miss Venezuela contest 🤭 but I have never liked beauty contests. I also felt like a giant when I went to Greece some years ago,
everyone was so short 🤭🤭🤭🤷🏻♀️. You're right, the people of eastern europe are tall, I didn't know that Czechs were between the most taller, I think that the tallest people are from the Netherlands, Serbia and Croatia.
Muscles aren't only denser than fat, they also need a lot of food. In fact, in cases of survival, the most muscular people are the ones who can tolerate hunger the least because the muscles ask them a lot of food. On the other hand, the thinnest people are the ones who best manage to resist extreme cases when there is nothing to eat. I learned that in a program called Naked Survival, the majority of those who arrive with their tremendous muscular bodies don't last even five days 😬🤣🤣 while the skinny ones who look like they're going to be blown away by the breeze last until the end 😃👊🏻😉 hehehe.
Well, if you are 1.8 cm tall, than you are not taller than your insect friends that you take pictures of but joking aside, even with 180 cm, nobody would call you a giant here in my country, a lot of local girls and women are this tall or even taller so we are used to it :) But yeah, the tallest nation in the world are the Dutch, they are really big. But when it comes to individual ethnicities, the Maasai People may be the tallest. Their average height is more than 190 cm. I met some Maasai in Tanzania and they really were very tall. Thin but tall.
Good point about being muscular. It takes a lot of food to nurture the muscles so the big muscular guys usually suffer the most in the survival shows where there is not much food :D
Ooops! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤦🏻♀️ well, maybe that's my secret to take good insect photos hahaha, become smaller than them 🤭🤭🤭
I was joking, of course I'm not a giant, at least I'm going to live with the pygmies 😂😂😂
Well, actually, I don't care if in your country you're not tall with a 1.80 mts because I don't live there and I'm not planning to move there either 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 so I will enjoy being a "giraffe" here in South America, in Greece and in many more countries 😁🤭🤭😎 I will keep away from the Maasai, the Dutch, the Serbs, the Croats and the Czech hahaha.
Yeah, you know what they say about a lot of huge muscles in a body 🙄💉💊🤯
Have a great week my friend 😺🤘🏻🤗
Love your humor and life attitude :) Cheers from the Land of the Giants! :D
😁😸 hehehe, thank you very much my friend what a lovely comment 🤗. Well, you know, that quality of good humor and happy attitude undoubtedly comes from my Venezuelan side 💃🏻🌻 because Greeks have bad characters hahaha 😬🤣🤣🤣🤷🏻♀️.
😂😂🤷🏻♀️ Greetings to my giant distant relatives 🤭🤭🤭💃🏻