Building Your Own Gym - The Essentials: Car/RV Living Edition

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Welcome to Part 4 of the "Building Your Own Gym" Series. This series will focus on the top 5 items I believe are best for creating your own "gym" based on your individual situation. As the title indicates, part 4 in this series is focused on best equipping the fitness needs of those living their best lives on the road, in their own cars or RVs (or any other vehicular device).  1.  Kettlebells: Incredibly versatile, a kettlebell is an absolute game-changer for your fitness if you love to travel and are living out of your RV or car. Living in your car/RV necessitates that you take maximal advantage of your space.  Kettlebells take up very little space and are extremely fun for training.  Buying one kettlebell will absolutely suffice for your nomad training. A single kettlebell will allow you to do any unilateral pressing and rowing movements for building your upper body, while also allowing for kettlebell swings, goblet squats, cleans, and snatches for training your l...
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Building Your Own Gym - The Essentials: Frequent Traveler Edition

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Welcome to Part 3 of the "Building Your Own Gym" Series. This series will focus on the top 5 items I believe are best for creating your own "gym" based on your individual situation. As the title indicates, this article is for the frequent traveler (travel frequently for work, out of the home/apartment on a frequent basis) who is constantly out of the house and needs an essentials kit for working out to stay as fit as possible on the road. They need a kit that fits in a gym bag, so a kit I shall recommend.

All 5 of the items recommended below will all easily fit together into a small gym bag/travel bag. They are light-weight, portable, and will leave you with no excuse to not get a solid workout in, no matter where you find yourself in your travels. 


1. Suspension Training Apparatus:

    Taking up little space in your luggage but packing quite the punch in terms of versatility, suspension Training Apparatus' like the TRX Suspension Trainer and traditional gymnastic rings are the ultimate travel tool for upping the intensity of your "far away from home" (your welcome Spiderman fans) workouts; particularly the TRX Trainer system, which can be hooked up to door frames, tree limbs, chain link fences, playground bars, etc. The gymnastic rings are also excellent if you can find a good tree limb or set of playground climbing bars to hang them from. The gymnastic rings can also be hooked up to a door frame or chain link fence, but you would need to purchase separate clips and attachments to do so.

    In essence, suspension trainers can add an incredible amount of variety to your workouts through numerous different pushing and pulling variations as well as myriad awesome core exercises through feet suspended training. Your imagination is really the limiting factor in this case.

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2. Jump Rope:

    Taking up just about no space at all, jump ropes are a no-brainer for this list. If you didn't know already, jumping rope is one of the most effective ways (if not the most effective) to burn calories through endurance training. As an added bonus, it's also extremely fun, increases your athleticism and coordination, and can be done inside or outdoors. Ramp up the intensity to get a real sweat going, or use it as a recovery or warmup tool to get the blood flowing through your muscles.

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3. Miniature Parallettes:

    For anyone particularly interested in gymnastics training, having a set of miniature parallettes that can easily be broken down to fit in your travel bag and go where you go is a game-changer for your training. Miniature parallettes give you just enough space between your butt and the ground to practice your L-sits, handstands, and planches like you would at the gym.  Even if you aren't as much into gymnastics, the miniature parallettes are an excellent way to reduce the strain on your wrists when you are doing pushups on the road. If you are a frequent traveler who prioritizes your fitness on the road, we both know how familiar you and your wrists are with the pushup.

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4. Resistance Band:

    Resistance bands are fantastic for travel because they allow you to hit muscle groups that you otherwise have difficulty targeting without gym equipment. I'm talking biceps, shoulders, and scapula primarily. Resistance bands also are fantastic for hitting a trio of my favorite core exercises: The Palloff press, Palloff rotation, and Overhead Pallof Press. Try them all out and you will quickly discover how effective they can be for your training. If you plan to add resistance bands to your travel stack, opt for looped bands over straight bands. Looped bands are much more versatile. 

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5. Ab Wheel:

    The ab wheel is obviously fantastic for your abs, but it is equally demanding on your back and overall core musculature to maintain the proper "hollow", extended position in the ab wheel rollout. If you get an ab wheel for your travel bag, make sure you get one that is easy to break down and put back together. Check below for my recommendations. 

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