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Do You Need Expensive Equipment
To Get In Shape?

By Jon Ingram

According to the commercial gyms, the only way to lose fat and get strong is to have access to sexy cardio machines like treadmills with flatscreen TVs, all manner of weight machines for each bodypart and if you are really lucky and you have a good gym, powerplate machines. The truth is somewhat different.

Gyms are businesses and as such need to make money to survive. Nothing wrong with that, we live in a capitalist society after all. However, most gyms care a hell of a lot more about their bottom line than the needs of their members. If you join a gym, you enter into a contract where you effectively lease their equipment, usually for a period of 3, 6 or 12 months. The more facilities the gym has, the more expensive the membership costs. The thing is, once you have signed your contract, the gym cares very little for your progress. In fact the best members are the ones that sign up for a 12-month contract and never show up. That way the gym owner can keep his expensive equipment in pristine shape and never have to replace it.

Now don’t get us wrong, we are not against gyms. We run one after all! However, most of the equipment found in a gym is highly ineffective for strength and fitness goals. In fact, we would go as far to say that there is an inverse relationship between the cost of the equipment and its effectiveness at getting you fit and strong.

There is no more effective strength and conditioning tool than the humble barbell.

Everyone is looking for that magic machine that will help them to lose 10kgs and get a six pack. Actually it already exists and it is pretyy boring and low tech. It is called a barbell.

As it turns out, the barbell is by far the most effective tool in any gym. It is also usually the most commonly misused. Want to get strong, well conditioned, lean and flexible? The barbell can give you all that and then some. If you had nothing more than 200kgs of weights, a barbell and a power rack, it would be enough to cover your fitness needs for a lifetime.

Forget the pink dumbbells, the ab rollers, the pec deck, elliptical machine, swiss balls and other assorted toys in your gym and focus on the barbell. Concentrate on compound movements which work multiple muscles and joints through a full range of motion. Basic movements like squats, deadlifts and presses will provide your body with the stimulus it needs to get the adaptations you want. If it is strength you are after, work on low reps (1-5) of the big movements and constantly strive to add weight to the bar, no matter if it is only 1kg. Want to get lean and conditioned, try barbell complexes. Take a light barbell and string together 6 deadlifts, hang cleans, push presses and back squats. Repeat five times and see if that does not tax your cardiovascular system and burn body fat.

If you can hold a position like this on the rings, chances are you will also have arms and shoulders like this.

There is another tool for which you don’t need a gym membership is almost as effective as the barbell; your body. Calisthenics is a tried and trusted method of developing a strong and fit physique using movements like push-ups, pull-ups, dips and basic gymnastic skills. You are only limited by your own creativity when it comes to bodyweight movements. Once push ups become too easy, you can move on to elevating your feet onto a box or moving to handstand push ups against a wall.

Investing in a pair of gymnastics rings can take your training to the next level. Cheap, portable and supremely versatile, rings can be used for a countless number of bodyweight movements which will benefit your training program.

Gymnasts are able to develop incredibly muscular physiques without ever lifting a weight. All of their strength comes through advanced bodyweight training, such as handstands, ring work and parallel bars. Make no mistake, if you are even able to perform a relatively simply gymnastics skill like a muscle up for 5-8 reps, you will have the physique to go with it.

Another group of athletes that display high levels of strength, fitness and muscularity are sprinters. These athletes rarely run more than 400m, but usually carry very low levels of body fat. Think about it, did you ever see a fat sprinter? You can read more about sprinting in myth number three, but suffice to say that sprinting is a fantastic exercise for performance, fat loss and hypertrophy.

At CrossFit GVA we believe that a combination of weightlifting, sprinting and gymnastics are the perfect recipe to create strong, lean, healthy and well conditioned athletes. You won’t see much expensive equipment in our gym, but you will find motivated people who understand fitness and are reaching their goals.

About the Author:

Jon Ingram is a certified Personal Trainer and CrossFit Coach in Geneva, Switzerland. He is the owner of CrossFit GVA (www.crossfitgva.com) and you can find his musings on all things strength and conditioning at www.joningram.ch.