10 Home Gym Pieces You NEVER Knew You Needed

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when Coop first met me he was like man I'm envious of your biceps and I was like dude I'm envious of your mustache thank you so if you haven't seen Coop before he's got an awesome Channel called garage gym reviews probably the most prolific gym equipment review Channel that's out there in the interwebs so today he's gonna break down for me like the 10 most unique pieces of equipment that you didn't know you needed so Coop thanks for coming in man yeah thanks for having me let's dive in you've got to check out Thrive Market seriously like if you are trying to just make better choices and you're trying to also save some money you've got to check them out so what it is is it's an online grocery store but everything that they have there are products that they have vetted in terms of being better for you options so it's not like going to your regular like Piggly Wiggly grocery store and you know Finding whatever junk is in the aisles it's really finding things that are good options for you 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gym kind of thing or they're working at a home they're just they want to get the most effective workouts in the least amount of time and that's what I'm all about is just efficiency efficiency efficiency sure so these 10 items these are not the things that I think are like the foundation of your garage gym if you're looking for that we have different content on that but these are like 10 unique items that I think people could add either to their home gym or some of these are ones that I specifically travel with every time I travel or ones that you can throw in your gym bag and take to the gym so the first one is called monkey feet they sound kind of unique and they are unique the idea behind them is really like most fitness equipment is nothing's new Under the Sun this is something that was done a long time ago and it's basically like an iron boot so the original iron boot was something you attached to your feet and allowed you to weight your feet like we don't have fingers on our feet so we can't grab dumbbells and kettlebells so a way to add resistance to your feet in a small package was with an iron boot well a company came out and they used a basically a inline skate as the inspiration and it's a boot that you put on your foot that you can then attach dumbbells to and really the big benefit to it is in a home gym specifically you don't have space for a leg extension a leg curl or some of those other items well this allows you to basically attach a dumbbell of various ranges in size and then do leg extensions standing leg curls lying leg curls but I've also found like a lot of benefit from doing hip flexor work so I'll stand on say a step up box and I'll just put my leg all the way down and come up or I'll hang from a pole bar and then do alternating they are difficult and you can load them in whatever weight you want to most home gym owners or most gyms you're traveling to will already have dumbbells so they attach to those and they're also really cheap so I think it's an item that a lot of people don't think of but could be beneficial I guess you could also use it for for ab work too it's like you could hang from a bar put them on your feet and so usually I'm like trying to finagle my foot into the Horn of a kettlebell and like trying to do you know a weighted AB raises and things like that which is like brutal because then you're getting more of a tibialis workout than I have an ab workout yeah no I've done it the same way you could also use it if you wanted to do weighted pull-ups or when it's just another way to wait without it basically coming from a different place than say a dip belt and I've done it for ab work too and one way I've done it before is like attaching change to my legs adds accommodating resistance but I actually prefer monkey feet feels great yeah posterior chain blast you could like do pull-ups and then immediately jump down and do hamstring curls oh totally like so just like frying your posterior chain without a doubt yeah that's awesome and they look like I mean some of these items are kind of goofy in the way they look but I'm telling you like you do some standing hand raises with them like your hands will be on fire it's not like the posterior change great yeah okay this next one is one that I happen to have here and my coop knows a ton about this one and this is a k-box it is designed to really help you get like more eccentric load right totally yeah so it uses flywheel as the resistance instead of think a cable stack or a free weight all the resistance comes from this little disc right here and don't think little as in it won't be difficult like this thing can get very hard the idea is that the more mass that is here so that mask can come in either width or length the diameter can increase that increases this speed at which it wants to pull you down so the idea is the farther or the harder and faster you pull away from the machine the harder it wants to pull you down so the way that you're able to basically increase The Eccentric load is you go harder on the way up which then it goes harder on the way down this cannot be mimicked by any free weight because if you think about it like all right you're doing a barbell movement it's going to be let's say you put 45s on each side it's 135 on the way down on the way up it's the same now you can add accommodating resistance with like resistance bands or chains but it's just not the same as using this you can use this machine like there are people that this is like their main way of training like me personally this is more for like an accessory movement I'm training squats I'm training deadlifts I'm also doing a lot of upper body movements with it but for somebody that just wants a machine that can do a lot of things this is one of them now Smart Home Gyms there's a lot of Smart Home Gyms out there that can do some some of the eccentric things that this can do but man if you're looking for like any sort of like quad pump or bicep like this is like my preferred way of doing arms I do arms on this every time yeah from a leg perspective too like for sort of almost uh over speed training and being able to protect yourself so it's very good for preventing injury now granted the first thing I hopped on the first time I hopped on this I inflicted injury because I wasn't expecting it to be so intense right because again that little flywheel doesn't look like much but like when you're doing a lot of training where you're trying to control like sprinting is a great example like how many times have you been sprinting and at the end of a Sprint it actually hurts when you have to put on the brakes and stop like you're sprinting and then stop stop stop well that's because you're putting a lot of eccentric load on the quads and that's where injuries happen a lot they really do happen when people are overloading so this is a way to overload in a controlled fashion uh so use caution just start slow start light because you're probably not used to overloading in the e-centric like yeah totally the creator of this his name's Frederick he was actually a hockey player and he developed it to because hockey is like you're on the ice once you get over the boards like it's a Sprint it's not a long distance it's like a Sprint so a lot of people within that those Sports they're using these but one thing I really like about it is just how small of space it takes up yeah so in Home Gyms like people aren't dealing with a big space like having something that you can use in a lot of different ways very versatile it allows you to do that in a very small space and this happens to be the big one they even make them smaller so totally yeah this next one's all about like how weird can you possibly look because I think that counts for something so what's the weirdest thing you could possibly wear in a gym to make it look crazy and cool but it's also effective yeah this is actually the device I was wearing when I met my wife so it ended up working out great now I'm just kidding this is called the iron neck if you want to look like Raiden from what's Raiden from Street Fighter Mortal Kombat gosh dang if you want to look like Raiden from Mortal Kombat this will make you look like that it's called The Iron neck and the iron neck is one of the goofiest things I've ever seen the first time I saw it was on Joe Rogan and he was like you know he was all about it absolutely loved it um so I had some interest in it there and they sent us one to review I hadn't done a lot of neck training it wasn't something I do a lot of I actually noticed you have a neck harness over there so you may do neck training somewhat the reason I really started doing neck training is because I do Jiu Jitsu now so I'm rolling every day in the morning and the neck is like a really important part because people are trying to take their neck off they're also I'm also constantly with people and basically putting my neck against them sorry don't come at me but basically I need a strong neck and so the iron neck goes on allows you to attach to a band or some sort of cable resistance and then basically you're resisting it and able to go side to side so it's on some sort of track and you can adjust the dial the track it looks Goofy and honestly I think the higher end version is overpriced I would suggest the lower end version I think you can get everything you want to get from it but this will humble you the first time I used it like the company was like just do like you know 20 reps like three sets so I did it and I was like ah that wasn't a big deal I woke up the next morning my neck was sore and I don't like I don't know how often I mean you train a lot I've never really had a sore neck I've had sore traps yeah but never from like normal training did I have a sore neck this was like the first time and I've noticed a market Improvement in both the flexibility of my neck the lack of soreness in my neck and also the strength in my neck whenever I'm like doing Jiu Jitsu dang okay that's I mean and I'd imagine I mean if you want that want to look like Jocko willink or you want to like have that big neck look it's kind of a cool thing too totally and that guy you mentioned Jocko will like he's a like he loves the thing he talks about it all the time so it's great because I only film from like here up so like I was thinking of not training anything from like nipple down Perfect Dude chest screen just having a traps yeah yeah that's all I need I mean okay so let's see what's next here on the list okay this next one is more lower body so this is something I actually got from a guy that you know Ben Patrick from knees over toes guy this was a part of my body I was never training but it's called The Tib bar it's a very simple device when you think of lower body training outside like squats deadlifts you know posterior chain anterior chain type training the calves are really what you think of lower body but there's also a muscle on the front of your shin that can be very very beneficial for training like it's funny we neglect certain muscles just because we're not used to them or it's not like a showy sexy muscle like Calves you're if you're wearing shorts like people like big calves but nobody really walks around and goes man that dude's tib is incredibly large right that's so vascular I've never heard that but this is a muscle that you're using anytime you're doing stopping anytime you're walking backwards like it's just a very beneficial move a muscle that's in your body like all your muscles and so training it I think is important so the tibar basically sits on your toes and allows you to raise think of the opposite of a calf raise so it's loading in such a way where you lay down it's very cheap it allows you to do weight plates and you just do a bunch of reps I've noticed again a market Improvement in my training just from using this because really I never trained that muscle yeah now speaking of Ben Patrick and knees over toes like I had him on my channel just a couple of weeks ago at the time of filming this and he's huge on the sled but we used like the big version of what is called the tank sled when you're back at my studio but here we are in this gym and we've got the tank M1 which is one of my favorite pieces of equipment sure the normal tank I also have I'm a big fan of it it's what I have in my garage gym but I also have this one I think this one is really more practical for most people the reason being like you can tell just the space and the weight that big tank is heavy there's no way to store it on a wall this actually has a wall mount available what makes these unique versus a normal sled is that they use magnetic resistance so most sleds for the resistance they're just using friction so they're using the friction of the metal against the concrete and then you're throwing weights on top to just increase the friction number one they're really loud so if you want to like really have your neighbors hate you like use a normal sled but if you want your neighbors to like you or you live in an HOA where that's not even possible then this is really your only option if you want to use a sled the other thing is just getting it out there using the weight put it on there the only reason you put weight on this is really so you can keep the wheels down the resistance all comes from this magnetic resistance on the front it's just very simple to adjust so there's a lever here that goes from neutral all the way to three various options it's just very easy to use very lightweight very easy to turn around this is the modern version of a sled if you want to do any for any sort of sled walks forward any sled walks backwards any type of hit workout like you put me through a workout today and we use this one it absolutely sucked but then I was happy afterwards because I was so fit afterwards because I use this but I know you love them I love them if you're going to use a sled really this is the way to go yeah one of my favorite things to do is like start on a heavy resistance drop the resistance down as you go so wager on the fly to do sort of sled push drop sets so rather than say like being in a situation where you gotta peel pulls off as you go and it's like super cumbersome this makes it very easy to just on the Fly just keep on rocking and rolling sweet I never even thought of that I need to try that it's because it's hard yeah yeah for real all right this next one is one of my favorites and it's super simple jump rope now what should people be looking for when they're looking for a jump rope okay there's a lot of different types of jump ropes and the ones that I think are most popular today are actually ones I wouldn't recommend for most people and that's the speed rope it's like the bare steel thin cable really the idea behind it and the reason they were popularized is because of double unders in CrossFit but most people don't need to be doing double unders like double unders are a great exercise I do double unders all the time but a jump rope isn't just about intensity you can also use it for longer steady state duration stuff and I think a thicker cable allows you to just have better feel so learning the double letter is a skill do you need to learn a double under I don't think so I think you can just get as good conditioning using a single under I'm gonna pause you and explain why these are chipped up okay okay yeah that is from the process of learning double unders sure and getting pissed off and throwing it multiple multiple times yeah so it is beat up because double unders suck yeah they're not they're not easy you to learn I remember the first time I went to a CrossFit class and they had dumbbell unders on the menu and I was like I can do everything on this and I was trying the entire class through double letters so I don't think you have to do that in fact the majority of time that I'm doing jump ropes I'm just doing single unders or I'm doing like single leg steps yeah if you look at some of the best conditioned people in the world you think of boxers boxers have to go 10 plus rounds and they have to try and kill somebody or try and knock somebody out and try to not be knocked out you need really good conditioning you can't allow your condition to prevent you from being able to do that sport dude I think you could get extremely well conditioned using a simple tool like this you don't have to have machines like I love Michigan I love the conditioning machines I love stairmasters I love that kind of stuff but for most people don't allow the piece of equipment or the money you have to prevent you from getting more fit and I think do the simple jump rope every time I travel I'm taking one I use it every week I think this is a very under utilized tool and it's also just a very cheap tool so yeah really really totally okay so what's next on the menu here okay this next one I've got a couple bars okay I love specialty bars I love barbells in fact when I was going through your gym that's one thing I was going to recommend is you need more specialty bars I just love special rebars it can provide a different stimulus but the other thing is like I'm constantly trying to just help the monkey brain take stay focused yeah and so changing the variation on my training is helpful so if I'm squatting yeah I'll use a straight bar but it's also fun just throwing a safety squat bar or an earthquake bar and so that's one bar I want to talk about it's an earthquake bar an earthquake bar uses resistance bands and both of these next ones use resistance bands the way the earthquake bar used resistance bands though is it basically attaches kettlebells on Resistance Bands to the end of the bar and they call it an earthquake bar because it basically like shakes like crazy another name for it is a bamboo bar and the reason that I like the bamboo bar is it basically provides instability to the lift you're doing which then forces you to really control your movement a lot a lot of people don't think about the tempo so when we were training specifically you're like hey for this next set make sure you're going two seconds down two seconds up because you're thinking about the tempo a lot of people aren't and I think the earthquake bar forces you to think about Tempo because it's constantly shaking so if you're on bench man like it can just get absolutely crazy if you go fast but if you slow down I think that can then transfer over to using a regular bar have you used an earthquake bar yeah okay yeah they're weird that's the best way to describe it yeah it's definitely different I mean especially when you're doing any kind of like uh upper body stuff because that's a real weird world like squats I think you know like as an athlete like I've learned to be fairly stiff so it wasn't a huge adaptation but man when I put that thing on bench it was like what the heck is going on without a doubt yeah it's a major change I don't think it's like a necessary tool for a lot of people but I think it's another fun thing to throw in and then the other thing is called an X3 bar X3 bar is what I travel with so it's like my gym in a box and it basically is a small barbell with hooks on it very simple device that rotates and then you attach resistance bands to it the resistance bands go under a foot plate and then you can do all sorts of exercises the reason I like resistance bands for traveling for a lot of people is just because they're small yeah like they don't take up a lot of space and you can get heavy like you get a thick resistance band like there is a a resistance band that X3 sells that gets up to 600 pounds on a deadlift so at the top of the range of motion it's 600 pounds the other thing is a lot of people are intimidated by barbells and free weight training and resistance bands is a great way to get it an extreme load without feeling intimidated or feeling like oh this is crazy heavy because they start easier so the farther you are away from the attachment point the harder and more resistance there is so you start the rep say on a deadlift and it may be if that band it's unloaded and it may crank up to you know 100 200 pounds or so and by the top you're at 600 pounds and people can deadlift I'm just using this movement specifically people are going to deadlift a lot more here than they can from the floor so having that extra resistance as you come up that accommodating resistance I think it's just a fun way to train I don't use it for my training all the time but if I'm traveling or I just want to throw it in on arm day or deadlifts I'll do it nice man and this next one that we want to talk about is one that I think regardless of the gym that you have I think it's a very very important piece now people a lot of times will play around with like TRX bands everything's like that but like I've really been turned on to using just the Rings like these gymnastic rings and they intimidate people because you think oh my gosh I'm gonna have to do muscle ups with them no like they were a game changer in my shoulder mobility in my thoracic mobility and just a lot of rehab that I was going through so that's on your list I know yeah I think the gymnastics rings are kind of equivalent to the jump rope in that they're very simple they're very cheap they're very small but I think the instead of being for conditioning they're absolutely tremendous for upper body strength so in my opinion I use gymnet for my training I use gymnastics rings every workout so I'm doing a lot of weighted pulls right now I have a goal of doing a one arm pull up and so I want to do a one arm pull-up on a gymnastics ring it's a dynamic range and so I'm doing lots of weighted pull-ups lots of weighted dips and I use the Rings for that but you don't just need to use them for that like you said muscle ups I like to do a lot of body weight muscle ups but in addition to that you can throw them down and use them like TRX rings so you can use them for rows you can use use them for push-ups basically you can change the angle and therefore either increase or decrease the load based upon your body weight and the angle that in which you are and man I just think like you can attach them to anything like if you go out and with a tree because the gymnastic rings are adjustable like you can adjust them so they're even you can add in the pull-up bars you can add the squat racks you name it I think for the price for the space everything about them like gymnastics rings for me are one of my favorite tools and ones that I recommend to just about everybody yeah and a hot tip for them everyone's always kind of sitting there trying to make them perfectly level and things like that don't worry about it for a little bit I mean yes certain things make sure they're level but what I like to do is have them off kilter and I'll do pull-ups where they Rock You know I just always balance if I have the low side the right left side down the right side up I'll do two sets like that and then I'll go the other way nice just do them off kilter like that it really makes a big difference so speaking of pull-ups there's one other thing that's kind of an easy attachment that's that uh it's the angle 90 right that that is a really cool attachment I've not yet tried it but I know you're big on it and I've seen it floating around on the internet yeah again this is another extra tool I don't think these are necessary in fact for most people I'd recommend Rings over these but I do like what's called angles 90 grips and they're essentially an orange almost look like a like upside down banana almost and a little strap and they allow you to basically connect to anything you want and have a very advantageous grip so depending on where you hold it it is either more advantageous or less like it can actually be disadvantageous if you use the outside edge because you just can't grip as hard kind of want to makes it slip off but if you want like a really advantageous grip which I mean like basically taking your grip out of it so when I was with Marcus Philly the other day we used wrist straps on one of the movements because he's like I just want to take the grip out of the pull this allows you to do that just by flipping it around so if you don't want grip to be the main limiting factor to any of your pulling exercises say for pull-ups or you can attach them to Cable machines I like to use them a lot of times for face poles there's a lot of ways that you can use them and again you can throw these in your gym bag you can take them to your gym you can use them in your home gym or you can travel with them if you just want to like a device that you can throw onto something and either do poles Farmers carries pull-ups you name it like these can work well heck yeah yeah all right so all these things are things well almost all these things or things you can travel with but at the end of the day they're things that if you don't have a lot of space you get a lot of use out of and a lot of things are going to give you sort of these ancillary moves and ancillary exercises that maybe you're not thinking of or like he mentioned and we have to be able to keep this monkey brain satisfied like I know we've all been in the same spot where like it just gets a little boring like it's just it gets stale like it's always fun to try something new and it's like going out and like my wife going out and saying I want to go get some shoes why do you want to get shoes well because it makes me excited to dress up and do something and maybe it's a little harder for me to understand that but I'm that way with gym equipment like I get something new like I actually want to go to the gym totally yeah I think these tools are not necessary but these are ones like you said to like tame the monkey brain they get you excited about the training if you're feeling like a dole or lull in your training go ahead and pick something up new and these also train different movements or different parts of your body that maybe you're not training a lot you know like the neck or The Tib or with the sled like it's a hard thing like we should be doing more hard things and the more opportunity we can do that and the less friction we put in our lives to allow us to do that and I think that's what these tools allow us to do the better and the better you will be in the long run jump roping with monkey feet on while wearing the iron neck I've done it it's awesome no I'm just kidding so as always keep it locked here on my channel and Coop where can everyone find you garage gym reviews so if you look on any social platform at garage and reviews also our YouTube channel garage and reviews and then main one like if you're looking for reviews on any sort of equipment we have thousand plus in-depth honest reviews on everything you can think of from cardio machines to strength machines garagemreviews.com I know see you tomorrow