This will be the last post in this short series. How do I plan to use the garage gym. First of all, I will be the first to admit that garage gym-ing has its drawbacks, at least for me. I will examine each drawback in turn.
(My CrossFit box: better equipment, superior coaching, camaraderie, and higher ceilings! than my garage gym)
1) Lack of equipment: no kettlebells, no ropes, no Concept 2 rower, no GHD, etc. But with the exception of the rower, we rarely use many of these pieces of equipment at our CrossFit box. Almost everything that I want to do I can do in my garage.
2) Lack of camaraderie: this is a serious drawback for someone who has experienced the community at a CrossFit box. In fact, without at least a workout partner, it has already been difficult to find the motivation to work out in my garage. While it works for some to work out alone, I much prefer to workout with other people. Since I already have a strong sense of church community, I am hoping that several of my high school and college students will work out with me this summer.
3) Lack of coaching: I have been doing CrossFit long enough to feel reasonably comfortable with most of the movements, but coaching always helps, especially with the Oly lifts. This is one of the reasons why I plan to work out at my CrossFit box at least once weekly going forward, prioritizing the workouts with Olympic lifts.
4) Lack of competitive atmosphere: This is probably the greatest drawback to working out on my own or even with my students. Being around much better athletes than myself pushes me to give more, to get those extra reps. There is simply no substitute for this, and so as I wrote above, I plan to continue working out at my box at least once a week.
(The white board at CF Arlington Heights. Note all the PRs)
So how do I hope to use my garage gym? Well, it’s always nice to just have equipment in the garage and to go and knock out some pull-ups or ring dips. But here’s my plan for how I am trying to integrate my garage gym into my regular workout schedule:
1) Mondays: Basketball
2) Tuesday: Strength Day or REST DAY
3) Wednesday: Running + WOD
4) Thursday: Garage Gym WOD or CrossFit Box
5) Friday: Running + Workout with Students
6) Saturday: Garage Gym WOD or CrossFit Box
7) Sunday: REST Day or Workout with Students
So there’s a plan anyway! I will keep you posted on how it goes!
Question: How do you motivate yourself to work out?
Not getting those extra reps might be good for your body in the long run (and working out alone also develops the strength to push yourself without external help or even in adversity, which can be helpful sometimes as well).
Why so little strength work? I mean strength or rest? Also – you need one kettlebell, just pick your size. I camt believe you have left that one off your essemtials list….
Thor, thanks for the comment. I have historically struggled with working out alone, so it is a discipline I need to develop. As far as the strength work, most of the WODS I do include strength work – usually 20-30 minutes of strength work before doing a shorter metcon. I just put strength work along withe the rest day because I usually need a day for recovery after basketball, so at most I could do some strength work. But I really don’t know much about programming (I am following a couple of site’s programming), so any tips would be helpful. KBs don’t really figure into a lot of the mainsite workouts, and they are relatively expensive. But I do have one on my “want to buy” list.