Having fitness equipment that is both portable and highly effective considerably increases your training options, allowing you to do exercises and training routines that you wouldn't be able to do if confined to one training space.

Of course, portable training equipment is the best friend of the mobile personal trainer, and the more versatile and effective any one piece of equipment is the better as it means less stuff to lug around.

Here are some of my favourite pieces of portable training equipment, they all have the following benefits:

  • Simple to use
  • Highly effective
  • Relatively cheap
  • Can provide a full body workout
  • Versatile

The Sled

Sleds are among my all time favourite fitness equipment for conditioning.   Their versatility means you can work the entire body (and work it in a balanced fashion), so you can base whole training sessions on the sled or sled and bodyweight exercises.  If you're training yourself or small groups of personal training clients all you need is a flat surface you can run the sled on (park, car park, long driveway, footpath) and one or two sleds.  They're pretty easy to get into the back of a car, then off you go to wherever you want to train.

One of the great advantages of the sled is that you can incorporate upper body pulling exercises easily into your outdoor training - if you don't have a chin up bar or can't do chin ups it can sometimes be difficult to get this very important movement in when you're outside.

Here are some great ideas for sled training:

Ropes

As far as easy-to-use but thoroughly brutal pieces of fitness equipment go, you really can't beat ropes.  Even the best conditioned athletes can be challenged by ropes, at the same time they're a very low skill piece of fitness equipment so great for beginners.

Like sleds, ropes are great because you can really work the entire body with them, including upper body pulling movements.  Ropes are also great for partner drills (great fun!).

Here are some ideas for rope training:

Dead Balls

 

Dead Balls also make the list for versatile, simple to use, portable fitness equipment.  Great for a bit of strength or strength endurance training, and there's nothing better than slamming a dead ball on the ground for a bit of stress relief!  You can get a great workout in very little space with the dead ball too.

Here are some ideas for dead ball training:

 Aquabags

Out of all of the equipment listed so far, aquabags are certainly the most portable as they can be emptied and packed into a very small space (it does take a few minutes to fill them back up though).  The aquabag can be a great barbell substitute for outdoor training or smaller areas (the blue aquabag can be filled to about 35kg so can definitely give even strong people a decent challenge).  You can also perform some completely unique exercises with the aquabag and the moving water adds a new challenge to any lift.

Here are some ideas for your aquabag training:

The Stick

The Stick is the perfect portable solution for aiding warm up and recovery.  So simple, but so very effective.  I've found with my own training that 10 mins with the stick  after training is much more beneficial in terms of recovery than half an hour of static stretching.

Here are some tips for using the stick:

More Info...

For more info on the above fitness equipment click here.

Tags: training tips Sled training power sled power ropes power rope training portable fitness equipment fitness equipment for mobile personal trainers fitness equipment for home gyms fitness equipment Emily Friedel