Garage Gym Reviews- Providing Unbiased, In-depth Articles on Everything Fitness Related

I recently read an Article from Garage Gym Reviews, referred to as GGR for the rest of this article. The article "How to Program Your Own Home Workouts", is a how-to guide for those that are considering or just starting their home gym journey. I find myself in this camp as I re-enter the fitness community after a prolonged absence. I will dig into this article and the big takeaways that I will incorporate into my fitness journey.

Before I jump into the article, I want to take a quick minute to share my background. I am a United States Marine Corps and Air Force Reserve Veteran. I am also a disabled veteran due to a non-combat injury. Simply put, my helicopter decided it did not want to fly anymore. I have dealt with some nerve damage in my neck from this accident for years and led me to seek several treatments for the nerve pain and vertigo that stemmed from my time in service. So, my comments are specific to my own experience and my personal fitness goals.

Know Your Goals!

I found this article to be very helpful and consistent, for the most part, with my fitness goals. The first major takeaway is to Know your Goals! This means you need to evaluate what you want to achieve through exercise before you spend anything on equipment. In the article, GGR is very clear in stating that you need to first build a road map to achieve your desired results. They break this down further by describing the differences between Building Muscle, Getting Stronger, Increasing Flexibility and Mobility, Improving Endurance, Losing Body Fat, and Improving Athletic Performance. Within these breakdowns, they describe the best routines and the basic equipment that aids each goal. I found this to be very informative and helpful.

My primary fitness goal last year was to Increase Flexibility and Mobility with a secondary goal of Losing Fat. Covid prompted a huge change in my routine. Before COVID I was regularly going to Physio for Dry Needling and Massage Therapy for my neck back. Once COVID shut everything down I needed to do something, and I first found that with Yoga. I started with very light Yoga by I quickly notice a huge reduction in my pain. At that point, I started looking to increase strength and endurance as got fully back into backpacking. The Yoga Program I currently use is Skill-Yoga and I also follow a Calisthenics program through VShred. The article has some key insights to these goals and here are some of my takeaways:

*Best Rep Range for Building Muscle: 8 -15 with 45-90 secs between sets

* Best Rep Range for Gaining Strength: 1-5 with 2 to 3 minutes between sets (No Super Sets or Intervals)

I have read some other articles and seen some videos that would touch on this, but I must admit that this breakdown was helpful. Especially helpful was the revelation that a set of 6-8 can "blur the lines between muscle build and strength-building".

One of my own goals is to increase my pull-ups. I believe that this article will help me put together a more focused program to see real improvements. I also appreciate the time given to flexibility and mobility because I believe that this is very overlooked and I believe that a Skill-Based Yoga or Flexibility program, like Skill-Yoga, is critical in reducing the chance of injury and speeding up recovering time. I am looking forward to reading more of their articles and learning more as I build out my home gym. You should give them a look too if you are interested in getting in better shape for the Trail!