What are you willing to give up?

[Rich Knapp]

IMO:

Its all in how bad you want it. I also never had a gym membership till 2009 and thats because we lived with my daughter (didn't have any room for a bench/cage). Even now I have a Lat Pull Down/Low pulley by a pure fluke, ONLY go to the gym either with friends or for just cardio. This is only maybe once every 2 months or so.

You learn to find ways to do things with what you have if you want it bad enough.

With drive you can do anything you can do in a fancy gym with just a bench/cage and Db's as many past and presant lifters have prooved.

I also know guys that can't get drive outside a fancy gym. They need the motivation and attention of the members to drive them.

Not bashing. Just a observation from in my area were I live.

Give me a bench and some Db's and leave me the *uck alone. lol

[glwanabe]

Originally Posted by Fazc

I have trained for 1 year while at Uni with nothing more than a barbell and weights. And I can tell you it sucked.

What single piece of equipment did you miss the most?

Just training isn't enough, just going to the gym isn't enough. What I would ask is can you give up the idea that discomfort in the gym is a bad thing? Can you give up the idea that sitting on your ass for recovery is the only way to get better? Can you give up the idea that recovery workouts are not just the realm of steroids abusing lifters? Can you give up the idea that if you don't dirty bulk, you're losing out on gains?

These are, I feel, questions which need to be asked. Are you really willing to do what it takes, or would you rather lay the blame on genetics and *life*? People inevitably talk a great game especially on the internet. Actually doing it is a different kettle of fish.

Good!

[LtL]

I think Faz explained my opinion better than I did: I think there are more important ideas in the fitness industry to challenge than this and you could gain more by doing so. Could you train with just a barbell? Of course you could. I have read books on the training of guys like Sandow who didn't bench press and didn't have squat racks and they got strong as hell in what they did do. For your average gym rat though challenging things like rep ranges, ie: you can't get bigger whilst doing low reps, or diet: you can't bulk without 50% of your diet being carbohydrate.

LtL

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by glwanabe

What single piece of equipment did you miss the most?

Squat rack. Without a doubt it was the Squat rack.

Power Cleaning to Front Squats just isn't enough for me. I would have needed to power clean in the region of 120kg at the time to FS effectively which I had no interest in doing and would have taken more than a year to do. To do that now I would need more like in the region of 160kg power cleans which is just not going to happen any time soon because it just isn't a goal of mine.

Also I'll say quite confidently that if it wasn't for investing in Powerlifting equipment, shirts, suits, briefs etc I would not be lifting in the same capacity as I am today.

[BendtheBar]

I think GL is asking some interesting questions such as, what could you learn?

I run into quite a few guys with limited equipment and think discussions like this can yield quite a bit of fruit.

In the past we raw a 12 week Reeves challenge and it I still see it rippling across the net on several forums. People are still using it, and still learning, stretching their boundaries. I see no downside to trying new things, stretching your boundaries, and asking interesting questions.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

I don't really think GL is challenging anything here guys. I think he is asking the question, what could you learn?

I run into quite a few guys with limited equipment and think discussions like this can yield quite a bit of fruit.

Yeah absolutely and I'm glad GL is posting more!

I think if I really looked for an answer or a lesson to learn I'm sure there is something there, but it would not be anything I couldn't have figured out anyway. So my counter question would still be, why?

[glwanabe]

Fazc,

If you remember. Post up a typical weeks work during that time.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by Fazc

So my counter question would still be, why?

Why not?

I learned quite a bit about training with limited equipment. It was a fun experience. It equipped me to better help others with limited equipment.

[Fazc]

I was following mostly the York courses. So a lot of PC&P, PC&J, PC&FS, some PC&Shrug that type of thing. Deadlifts too.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Why not?

Haha, Steve

Bear in mind the original question being 'what are you willing to give up'. My point is that I don't think giving up pieces of available equipment is going to teach you much if it all, and potentially be a waste of time. My counter questions were asking why would one want to give up equipment which is beneficial, what lesson would you expect it teach you?

If the only thing it would teach you is how to become better at training without equipment I would think it fairly pointless.

I'll train for a week without the use of my left arm, why? Because it will make me better at training without the use of my left arm. But Faz, you have two arms.... I see.

I don't get it and I'm asking for clarification!