Recently in Build A Home Gym Category

PVC is an essential building material for creating a great CrossFit Home Gym (or commercial gym for that matter). Check out these homemade rings:

And, of course PVC Parallettes are a staple of most CF Gyms: use them for L-sits, Handstands, Handstand Push-Ups and regular Push-Ups.

A wonderful, even essential piece of equipment for CrossFit, is a five foot length of PVC pipe or wooden dowel. These are great for performing the Olympic Lifts. While the lifts perhaps make more sense when performed weighted, being able to do them with a light weight is a great way to learn proper form. In fact Coach G. calls adding weight to fix a movement "painting a dirty car". Some things you can do with a dowel:

• snatch
• clean and jerk
• Bergner warm-up
• shoulder dislocate
• flagpole strech
• deadlift
• press
• push-press
• push-jerk
• thruster

Here is a surprisingly hard workout you can do with just a dowel:

Broomstick Mile

With a broomstick complete the following:

• Back Squat X25
• Front Squat X 25
• OHS X 25
• Run 400 M
• Shoulder Press X 25
• Push Press X 25
• Push Jerk X 25
• Run 400 M
• Hang Clean X 50
• Run 400 M
• Snatch X 50
• Run 400 M

The Kettlebell is an excellent piece of portable (well, more portable than an Olympic weight set) equipment. Any dumbbell or barbell exercise can replicated with the kettlebell, and more specialized moves can be done as well.

For our purposes, the main moves we will do are:

• The Kettlebell Swing
• The Kettlebell Snatch
• The Kettlebell Clean & Press

Get your kettlebell here.

Perhaps the most essential piece of portable equipment you can buy, the buddy lee speed rope can be carried literally anywhere, and can add a great deal of variety to outdoor, and, indeed, all workouts.

The most important move to master for CrossFit is the double-under or power jump. In the double-under, the rope simply passes under the feet twice for each jump. To perform the double under, one must first learn to jump fairly quickly. Maintain a neutral body position (upright), keep the feet together and turn the rope with the wrists, not the arms. At first you may want to try jump-jump-double-jump-jump-double. Another way to get your first one is to spin the rope as fast as you can from a dead stop and jump high: don't keep using this method, but you may want to do it to prove to yourself that it is possible to do.

Get the Aero Speed Rope, which I highly recommend, here.

The D-Ball Medicine Ball is a great compliment to the Dynamax ball. The D-Ball can be used for Ball slams. With a D-ball (You'll wreck your Dynamax ball, don't try it) throw the ball to the ground from the outstretched start of the launch. Only by following-through the throw with the hands will you be able to catch the low bounce of the D-ball. A 20 pound ball is pictured.


The d-ball is also more compact than the Dynamax, and is, therefore, more portable.
Get yours here

The Dynamax Medicine Ball is an amazingly versatile piece of equipment. I have the 8 lb, 14 lb and 20 lb sizes, but if you had to get just one, the 20# is probably the way to go for most men, and the 14# for most women. The Dynamax website has information on how to chose the right one.

These balls are essential for:

• Wall-Ball
• Med Ball Cleans
• Various Throws
• As targets for air squats
• As core builders
• etc
• etc
• etc

You might not know that the ten physical skills of CrossFit:

• Cardio-Respiratory Endurance
• Strength
• Speed
• Power
• Stamina
• Flexibility
• Coordination
• Agility
• Balance
• Accuracy

Come right out of the Dynamax manual: check it out here:

The Well-Rounded Workout: An Introduction to Medicine Ball Training

Get yours here.

I'm preparing to open my own gym in the near future, and imminently start offering some classes outside, at clients homes, and other facilities. Getting the most bang for the buck, equipment wise, is on my mind. One amazingly versatile piece of equipment is the Elite Ring Set from ringtraininging.com I have ordered mine, and you might want to do the same if you are looking for something that is versatile, portable and allows scaled exercises for everyone from seniors to elite athletes.

All of the ring exercises are scalable from very, very easy to extremely difficult. For example:

• Support: this can be done by anyone; easy, support on toes, hard; support for time to failure.
• Push-up: easy, rings at chest height; hard rings inch off ground, feet elevated
• Body Row: easy, rings at head height; hard, low rings, feet elevated
• Dip: easy, low jump to support; hard, weighted dips

Of course the rings are essential for learning the muscle-up as well. get them here.