In my search for activity matching my environment, amount of free time and level of agility, i surfaced several sports and activities. At last, most appealing were those with low requirements for external equipment, but weighting on empowering an individual to reach out for their personal best.
Gymnastics seemed perfect match - only as long I had access to fully-equipped turn hall. Later, parcour and freerun made the magic of pulling me out to the town. Well, while I used to have urban surrounding with artificial architectural obstacles to conquer. Inline skating similarly, strongly suggests a well maintained track...
However, at last i stumbled upon calisthenics - which means excercising with your own body weight. Cutting loose any need for special equipment, preventing muscle and joints overloading, saving money for gym entrance fee and making various medicines superfluous ...great, isn't it?
NB even tough guys from army employ calisthenics...
The very last advancement was the discovery of Barstarzz - a movement of young sport enthousiasts, currently spread all over the world performing tricks on bars and with one's very own weight - example of routine vid on Youtube; both sexes equivalent, no entry or retire age.
Honestly, despite of wide accessibility of playgrounds (kind of adjusted and fitted with rips for enhanced workout), not necessarily everyone has such a park around the corner. So I opted for an alternative - a more miniature one and what's most important - portable (light and foldable), what somehow reflect even the price (10,- to 15,- €' for each piece):
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| ENERGETICS push-up handles |
Push-up handle
Basically, widen up the distance from surface just for about 10 cm, but this makes enormous difference for domestic conditions.
Despite that this model can be naturally set apart into IKEA style package: handle and 2 bars I experienced almost no leeway while training with them. Of course, usually I do an endurance type of exercise, for explosive push-ups you do not need anything like this.
Unlike similar offer from Nike, it has a foam to prevent undesired sliding during workout on hard, flat surface.
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| Any handgrip would do |
Handgrip
Subtle, with foam or without, this pair of hand grips supplement many exercises esp while the focus is on legs, this keeps even hand busy.
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| simple powerful: a wheel |
Power wheel
When neither bars, nor swing, hanging ropes available, it plays a prominent role in whole body training. Advanced users may find way to train legs, belly, shoulders, in one smooth set. No additional weight required. If you feel to endure higher load, just combine it with some sort of explosive push-ups or do an extra set. It has no rest - it keeps rolling away ...
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| resist the rubber :) |
Resistance Band
Can you imagine that just a very thin flat rubber band of about 1.5 m could cause your muscles ache?
Personally came to contact with this tool only recently - useful for what push-up or pull-up in common training omit. The wide open arm position as well as leg movement sideway.
A rhetoric question to conclude:
To what extent is a fitness equipment essential to a effective workout?
How much performance enhancement can we reach with any available tool or training gear in comparison to variations purely with our own bodies?
PS
All of these products I tried myself, gained only feeling of having more strength, but got no injury while training with them. I endorse all of these because of my personal conviction (unfortunately, I received no financial reward from any manufacturer).
However, I view all of this just as a supplement when there is no other natural or man-made set of bars to work out on. Let's get wild in the nature instead of air-conditioned and heated gym interiors ... forget the TV, coach potato! For inspiration dedicate 3 minutes of your life to watch a Youtube video by ArtigasJoaquin.
instructional video with training routines supplementing these training tools to come :)
stay tuned!
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