Personal Training Outside of the Traditional Gym
Garage Gym Ideas For Trainers: Quick Tips
Training clients out of a garage gym for me was an entirely new and rewarding experience. As most trainers, I really found my footing and clientele in a traditional big box gym. I knew I wanted to go in business for myself, so I began to research what all a garage gym would entail. There are numerous ideas on how to start a garage gym scattered throughout the web, including here Build a Garage Gym. For me though, nothing opened my eyes as much as actually getting the business running.
I learned that although having my own space was great, it was also helpful to be mobile. As much as we would like our clients to all meet us at the same location, sometimes that’s a pipe dream. In fact, one of the best ways to grow your business is to be mobile. For that reason, I really fell in love with Hyperwear products.
The SandBell became the backbone of my mobile business
I live in Austin and to be honest sometimes a truck is impractical. Sure, I would love to carry around a barbell and squat rack but for me it wasn’t feasible. Instead, I found that with a set of SandBells I could reasonably accomplish all of my clients various needs all while carrying them in the trunk of my dodge challenger.
See, the SandBell can work as a traditional weight for sure. If I throw the weight on my shoulder, I can comfortably load over 100 pounds between the two sides. Some of my clients could handle even more with the SteelBell since it’s more dense and has a higher weight range. But most importantly the product served more than one purpose. Sure, it could be heavy but was even more valuable as a movement enhancer. I would use the shifting weight of the sand to not only challenge my clients’ muscular system, but also their neurological system sown to even the fascia itself. I found that multi-planar movements felt natural with the SandBell in my clients hands. I could hand it to a 60-year-old woman, or an 18-year-old athlete and it worked for multiple demographics across the board.
The next item I really enjoyed getting to use was a weighted vest
My background had taught me many ways to challenge the body with simply one’s own weight. However, sometimes you need to challenge explosive movements with an additional load. Nothing felt more natural than the Hyper Vest PRO. It was easily adjustable to whichever client needed to use it. For the majority of my clients, I found a large fit reasonably well. I had tried other vests but they felt awkward. This was different. It didn’t move around when my clients started to jump. Instead, it stayed snug which is something I couldn’t find anywhere else.
My last big purchase was the Hyper Rope
I had always been a fan of traditional battle ropes, but this was something else. It challenged my clients because it actually took some control to use. Where as a traditional battle rope you could go ham and cheese on, this required an ability to back off, to find the middle ground. This worked well for my clients and my training philosophy. The best part about this is it didn’t have to be anchored. So if we were in the middle of a park or even a parking lot, it could still be used.
Not to mention these items were super easy to store. When I had days where my clients all wanted to meet in the garage, I could store everything in a small corner of the gym, freeing up a huge amount of space to move. Hopefully my experience and garage gym ideas for trainers helps you out as you update or begin your own personal training business.
For more fitness and training knowledge checkout @mattyicetraining on Instagram.
