The PPP Home Gym Pack

Lockdown is here and you're wondering how to survive when talking in terms of your health and fitness. You know you need to keep active, so you walk, then you realise you can only walk so much and how long is this thing going to last for anyway? You tried a few bodyweight workouts and they were good but you're wondering what else you could do to increase resistance in your training while the gyms are closed?

My top pick is our Home Gym Pack. It includes a Foam Roller for mobility, moderate to thick Resistance Bands for increasing resistance in your training sessions and a Glute Activation Band as well to help out with a whole lot of the lower body exercises.

An important part of training is ensuring that you are activated and mobile before you get into it. This will help with a whole lot of niggles and pains that you may have day to day and also help you achieve maximal activation and range of motion while you are training. Always start a session with foam rolling to release any tight spots that you may have before training. There are also a few activation drills that you can use the Foam Roller for as follows.

The purple 32mm Resistance Band is a medium resistance band with a resistance value of 25kg - 45kg, meaning you can load up bigger, stronger muscles with it.

Legs, back and chest are the target muscles with this one. Terminal knee extension, banded squats, banded push ups and banded lat pull downs are your go to exercises with this band. Ensuring you’re performing each movement with good form is vital. Try your best not to swing around and use momentum here. Contraction is key.

The green 44mm Resistance Band is our largest band with a resistance value of 35 - 60kg. It's a great band to use for exercises such as banded deadlifts, banded pushups and assisted pull ups. Use instead of purple band if you're needing greater resistance.

This band is also great to use for mobility purposes, such as a hip flexor release. Anchor it to a post while doing the hip flexor stretch and have the band around the rear leg close to the groin. The big band will provide tension to grant a greater stretch. Alternatively, you can do the hip flexor stretch just like the photo below.

Onto the Glute Activation Band now.

Many people use it, but do they know how to use it? The main purpose of the band is to act on the knees and pull them inwards using the elasticity of the band. The muscle responsible for fighting against the band is the gluteus medius- just off the side to the big part of your glutes. It helps provide extra tension to the muscles (that generally aren't used) and teaches the body to drive the knees out and incorporate more of your glute med into the movements you are completing. It also builds up extra resistance for the glutes to fight against therefore building extra fatigue while you are training. It also helps with knee tracking when squatting, as a consequence helping you move more efficiently with or without the band. A little insight into what actually happens when you use the bands, a lot of people assume it's used just to build the extra fatigue- when in reality it is doing a lot more than just that. 

A few exercises that the band is useful for includes banded hip thrust- body weighted or weighted, crab walks, banded squats (weighted or unweighted), psoas marches (very useful), and also for any sort of hip abduction work.

This is the pack I deem to be most useful for people wanting a purposeful pack and an all-in-one home gym pack for those who can’t access a gym. Mobility and a wide range of bands makes this the most purpose driven pack in the market.

Click here to purchase your Home Gym Pack.