In the first part of this post, we talked about five pieces of training equipment that everyone should have in their gym bag. Here are five more key tools that ensure you can get a great training session no matter where you are.
6. Foam Roller/Lacrosse Ball
Soft tissue work has become extremely popular in the fitness world recently, and with good reason. Anyone with extended training experience can tell that even if you take every precaution to ensure proper recovery from your workouts, it’s almost inevitable that over time your muscles will develop some nasty knots and adhesions that can cause pain and limit mobility. Foam rolling is an excellent form of low-level soft tissue work that can break up those knots and get your muscles moving properly again.
I grouped the foam roller and lacrosse ball together because you really need both to get the most out of your soft tissue work. The foam roller hits bigger, broader body parts like the legs and upper back, while a lacrosse ball can get to tough-to-reach areas that a foam roller can’t.
Soft tissue work can hurt like hell at first, but there’s a nice way to ease into it. Use these roller/ball progressions as you build up tolerance:
- Soft foam roller/tennis ball
- Dense foam roller/tennis ball
- Rumble Roller/lacrosse ball
- PVC pipe/lacrosse ball
7. Chalk
If you’re training hard, you’re sweaty. And if your hands are sweaty, you can’t hold on to heavy stuff. And if you can’t lift heavy stuff, you can’t get stronger.
This is where chalk comes in. Grab a block of weight lifting or rock climbing chalk (the label should read magnesium carbonate), throw it in a resealable bag or Tupperware and you’re good to go. Rub some on your hands before any lift that requires a strong grip and a tight connection to the bar. This applies mostly to “pulling” exercises (deadlifts, rows, pullups) but can be key for lifts like bench presses and shoulder presses where the tighter you are, the stronger you are.
Some gyms get fussy about chalk use because it makes a mess. First of all, if your gym doesn’t allow chalk, they don’t care about people getting strong and you’d be best off finding a new gym. Second of all, you ain’t LeBron James. No need to make it rain powder all over the entire gym. Keep it tidy.
8. Fat Gripz
Thick bar exercises are awesome for variety and build incredible grip and forearm strength. They also take stress off the wrists, elbows and shoulders which is key for beat-up lifters. I wrote about how Fat Gripz are great to take tension off your joints in my 10 Tips for Cranky Elbows article.
A pair of Fat Gripz allows you to turn any barbell or dumbbell and most cable attachments into a thick bar. Rather than spend thousands of dollars on multiple specialty bars that you can’t take with you, spend $40 on a pair of Fat Gripz and you’ve got multiple thick bars every time you step foot in any gym.
9. Gymnast Rings
All fitness fanatics have experienced this nightmare. You’re traveling or on vacation, so you seek out a suitable gym in the area so you don’t have to skip a week of training. You buy a pricey day pass or punch card (or even a month’s membership if you’re really desperate), only to get to the gym and realize that it’s nothing more than a sissy health club with terrible equipment and even more terrible rules (no deadlifting is my favorite).
Rings eliminate this debacle entirely.
Not only do rings make body weight movements more challenging (and safer in most cases), but they let you train just about anywhere. They literally let you bring the gym with you. Just like a jump rope lets you do conditioning anywhere, rings let you strength train anywhere that you can loop the straps. Push-ups, pull-ups, dips, split squats, gymnast holds, core work – all great movements to do on the rings.
10. Dip Belt
While it’s easy to get an amazing workout with just your body weight on the rings, sometimes you gotta slap on some plates and go heavy.
I firmly believe that you can alter any body weight exercise and make it more difficult or “heavy” without adding weight. It’s entirely possible to turn a body weight exercise into a 3-rep or 5-rep max with no added weight. You just have to get creative.
Nine times out of 10 this is the safest way to go. But there’s no denying the impressive strength and physique enhancing effects of weighted dips and pull-ups.
The key here is to use sensible rep ranges and perfect technique. For weighted dips and pull-ups, stay in the 5-10 rep range (MAYBE as low as three reps occasionally) and stop the set well before failure to ensure perfect form. The last thing you want is to come to a dead hang on pull-ups with a couple 45’s dangling from you waist. This is a surefire way to get hurt, so use the dip belt wisely.
Must buy a lacrosse ball!
RE: Fat Grips. I have really small hands (child sized), can’t even manage a hook grip with a standard bar, would fat grips still benefit me? Sorry for so many questions!
Fat Gripz would definitely help. I’m in the same boat. I have small hands too, but that just means you can’t “hook” or wrap around the Fat Gripz which negates a lot of the grip training benefits. And it still opens up your hands on presses and curls so you still remove the negative effects of squeezing the hell out of a standard sized bar.