More Tricks of The (Knee) Trade

How simply and affordably can I set up a new home gym?

Moving and setting up a new home gym is a chance to re-evaluate:

How much do I need for my goals?

How simply and affordably can I set this up?

Quick notes so far:

Bumper plates with a 2x4 make a really good station for step-ups, split squats, and even hex squats:

This allows me to do my main knee-building exercises with a small footprint, and many people already have bumper plates. (A 2x4 costs $2 or less.)

Hex bars are common and affordable. They allow me to load my legs as much as desired without needing to set up a squat rack.

It’s not that you “have” to elevate your heels, but doing so makes it easier to emphasize your knees and legs.

This has been used successfully on squats for many decades, but it’s lesser known for step-ups and split squats.

Next note:

If you have any sort of treadmill, you may have a good regression station for the deep split squat. I no longer need regressions, but this will make it easy for Alissa to get her split squat back (when she’s ready) after baby #3. Having something to hold onto can make it much more pleasant to get into this strength/flexibility exercise:

At 8 months pregnant, the one piece of equipment Alissa still uses is the backward treadmill (along with the 2x4 for deep bodyweight squats):

A resisted treadmill and a back extension are the first 2 products I don’t want to live without in my home gym, because of how much easier they make things for my family.

The next category of equipment I think about is hamstring curls, and that has a huge variety of options. This garage happens to have a near-perfect spot to hold my heels down for Nordic negatives!

It’s not that I think Nordic negative is “better” than other methods, but how cool that a method used by many Olympic gold medalists happens to cost me NOTHING?!

My general advice for hamstring curls:

1. If you go to a gym, use the ham curl machine!

2. If you train from home, hamstring rollers are awesome and don’t cost much!

3. Take a look around your house. There might already be a Nordic negative station!

Awareness: Resisting your body’s weight with your hamstrings has high force potential! This makes it arguably the best hamstring exercise to help prevent knee injury. It also means YOU MAY NEED MORE RECOVERY. I’ve seen Nordic negatives work great as long as you don’t overdo it.

This is simply how bodies work: More force usually means more recovery needed. Not all exercises are the same. Enjoy the journey.

That’s all I’ve got so far.

Apologies for this not being my smoothest article, but someone out there may find these initial observations useful.

Yours in Solutions,

Ben

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