The $100 Home Gym

How to create a highly-effective home gym for $100 or less...

Anyone can put together an effective home gym for less than $100. The fitness tools listed below are proven to build muscle and burn fat... and have helped A LOT of people get in shape.

Here there are:

36-Pound Chrome Iron Dumbbell Set

These low-cost chrome dumbbell sets can be found for under $40 at most big sporting goods stores. They provide more than enough resistance for most beginners and can be used to perform dozens of different exercises. These include the "big" movements, such as:

• dumbbell squat
• dumbbell lunge
• dumbbell row
• dumbbell shoulder press
• dumbbell bench press
• dumbbell biceps curl
• dumbbell triceps kickback

As you can see, few things will give you as much "bang for your buck" as a good set of dumbbells.

Pull-Up Bar

A good door-frame pull-up bar shouldn't run you more than $15 or $20. Besides dumbbells they have the highest effectiveness-to-cost ratio of all exercise equipment. Here's what they let you do:

• pull-ups
• chin-ups
• assisted pull-ups (using your legs)
• assisted chin-ups
• weighted pull-ups/chin-ups (with a dumbbell tied around your waist)
• hanging leg-raises
• hanging knee-raises
• hanging side-twists

In case you don't know already, pull-ups and chin-ups are probably the best all-around back exercise. You might not be able to do too many at first but, over time, they'll strengthen and build your back muscles dramatically! Also, many fitness experts agree that the hanging-leg raise is the most effective all-around abdominal exercise.

Stretch Cord Multi-Gym

A stretch cord gym (around $30 in most stores) is attached to a sturdy door and provides an array of possible muscle-building movements. These home gyms feature high and low pulleys which allow you to do things like:

• triceps extensions
• overhead pulls
• cable crossovers
• seated rows
• standing rows
• biceps curls
• chest presses
• chest flyes

Although not a necessity, a good stretch cord multi-gym provides a very nice way to mix up your home workouts and is an incredible fitness value. It can also replace the pull-up bar as a way to train your back if need be.

Jump Rope

You can find a decent jump rope for around $10 at just about any fitness or department store. It will provide you with one of the world's simplest and most effective aerobic fat-burning workouts - IF you are willing to learn to use it properly. Here are a few tips for jumping-rope:

• swing the rope with your wrists, not your arms
• keep your head straight and eyes focused straight ahead
• breathe through your nose, not your mouth
• jump on a surface with some give, like a wood floor
• don't jump very high - an inch or two is all that's needed to clear the rope

Although it might take a week or two to learn the "rhythm" of jumping-rope, it's definitely worth the effort. There's a reason boxers always train with jump ropes - THEY WORK!

The Workout

By using the tools listed above - along with push-ups and crunches - anyone can get a tremendous full-body workout at home. And the best part is you've spent only $100 on equipment that should last you many years!