I am facing a so-called “first world problem” today but a problem nevertheless. I am currently vacationing in Italy and while the view is spectacular, the gym leaves much to be desired. So what is a serious bodybuilder to do in a situation like this? What do you do when the next decent gym is about 80 minutes away by car, and that’s just to get you there?
You create your own gym! And it’s surprisingly quite easy (those of you who have worked with us before should know this already!). How do you create your own gym? Using flex bands! For this trip, I packed the 30lbs., 65lbs., and 100lbs. bands. The bands basically make the world your gym as you can pretty much do any exercise with them. I hooked mine on a bar for lat pull downs and triceps press downs, and was ready to start my workouts.
For the more daring types out there: If you have some basic equipment like I do in this ‘gym’, you can add the bands to the exercises to increase resistance at the peak of the motion. For example, you can have your band around your back while you bench, and I guarantee your triceps will be fired by the next day!
Or try hooking the band with the lat pull down, thereby making the contraction that much tougher.
Here are some other ideas for your new gym:
1. Go for timed sets! For example, try to hammer out as many reps as you can for 45-second sets.
2. Time the whole workout. How many quality sets can you put into 40 minutes?
3. If you are truly brave, try the 100-rep workout on my Muscle and Strength page!
That’s it for today! It’s time for me to go cheat on some delicious pasta!
Until next time,
Maik Wiedenbach