The $100 Home Gym For Older Dads – 2024 Edition

In July 2016 I wrote this blog post called ‘The $100 Home Gym’.

It’s a good post that talks to the trials any new Dad faces in trying to escape to the gym when you have a young child at home with the Mrs.

I suggested that some of these issues could be avoided by creating a home gym of sorts based on a tiny spend of circa $100 (or 200 GBP) on just a few key items.

The items I recommended back then were:

• Kettlebell
• Foam roller
• Power bands

I even provided some workouts you could build around these three items. Like a good little fitness blogger.

Looking back now I realise I’m a wiser and more rounded soul than I was back then.

Because that list, though well intentioned, is fucking rubbish.

Perhaps, that’s a tad harsh.

What I mean, I guess, is that if I was tasked with the same mission today, in 2024, my list would look markedly different.

Or would it?

The $100 Home Gym – 2024 Edit

First things first – the budget.

It was 2016. Pre-Covid. Pre Zirp. Pre inflation. Pre Ukraine war. Pre Israel / Palestine kicking off.

Jake Paul was still a Disney kid or, at least, a Youtuber.

You could buy a fuck-tonne more for $100 in 2016 than you could today so I’m going to take a lil’ poetic license and stretch my budget to $200.

It’s only fair.

So let’s go shopping.

The $100 Home Gym Shopping List

1. Kmart Dumbbells – $35

Kettlebells were so 2016. Dumbbells are now where it’s at for me.

This is a complete lie, of course.

Both have their absolute place in the pantheon of great gym equipment. But dumbbells, for me, are more versatile somehow. Plus, they don’t roll around as much in the car.

So I’m gonna take a pair of these – start with 8kg if you’re new to training. Or even 6kg, although if you’re buying only one pair, you don’t want to go too light.

I could use a pair of 10kg dumbbells for almost every workout for the rest of my life and still be trim and maintain muscle and endurance.

But 12kgs are also good for deadlifts and squats. And then I pull out the 15kg for single-arm snatches and heavier deadlifts at volumes. 18kg are for CrossFit.

With 2 x 10kg dumbbells you can do 40 seconds of work followed by 20 seconds of rest of the following exercises:

• Deadlifts
• Hang Cleans
• Should Press
• Squats
• Bicep Curls
• Tricep Extensions (you’ll need to go to a single dumbbell for these)
• Single Arm Snatch (left)
• Single Arm Snatch (right)

2 or 3 rounds of this is one of my go-to backyard dumbbell workouts. I’ve probably done it a few hundred times. It’s a solid mix of strength and cardio.

You can find all the exercises online. Some are a bit technical and require a smidge of practise. [If you’re based in Sydney, come to my house and I’ll show you how to do them.]

Total Expenditure: $70

2. A Kettlebell (12kg or 16kg) – $50 each

Although somewhat similar to the dumbbells, the kettlebell offers too much additionally adjacent fat-busting bang-for-your-buck to be left out.

Kettlebell workouts differ slightly from dumbbell workouts in that they *generally* target the posterior chain more than the anterior chain (which is where *more* DB exercises will generally focus.

This is the scientific explanation, which, whilst technically accurate, could be considered “a load of old bollocks”, particularly in respect of an older Dad looking to shed some KGs and some body fat.

It stems from the fact that *most* kettlebell workouts are based around kettlebell swings which is essentially a proxy for a deadlift and, therefore, focuses on the back, the hamstrings, the glutes – all posterior chain muscle.

Kettlebells can also tend to give more of an all-body workout and a cardio focus than the DBs, but, again, we’re splitting the atom here at a level of detail that’s mostly irrelevant for us.

Some great kettlebell exercises include:

• Deadlifts
• Swings
• Upright rows
• Bent-over rows
• Bicep curls (holding the bell by the, ahem, horn)
• Tricep extensions
• Goblet squats
• Single-arm snatches
• Single-arm cleans

40 seconds on / 20 seconds rest for each of these x 3 rounds will give you a very solid workout and get the heart pumping and the calories burning.

Another all-time favourite is 15 swings / 10 goblet squats x 5 rounds which I learned about from strength-training sage / philosphizer – Dan John – back in 2015. 

If you want to go back to school in simple strength training, its philosophy and applications, in the most elegant and sensible way, you could just read his material and be done with it. Nothing else required. The guy is a genius.

Also, whilst 15 KB swings / 10 KB goblet squats might look easy on paper, at a decent weight it is brutal – attacking (in a good way) your central nervous system (CNS) in a way you hitherto hadn’t even consider.

A kettlebell – I can see from a simple Gumtree search – can be bought for around $50. Start with 12kg, then maybe go for 16kg, then 20 or 24 if you’re a bigger boi or have been training fior a while.

Total Expenditure: $120

3. Skipping Rope – $40 from Rogue Fitness

Skipping is under-rated. 

Probably because it’s quite hard if you can’t do it. 

But if you can do it relatively well, 5 mins of jumping rope at the beginning of your workout is a brilliant warm-up.

If you can do Crossfit-style “double-unders” even better – these really mess you up and are super-demanding.

I once spent 5-10 minutes a day “teaching” myself double-unders in the gym at the start of each workout. BY “teaching” I mean: whipping my arms with the rope as a flailed about trying to master them. The pain. The welts on my arms (which resembled a full-sleeve tattoo at one point).

But I got there. Eventually.

If skipping ain’t your bag, just do jumping jacks or something else. We’re all too old now to do something we’re not built for.Anyhow, I’d still add a jump-rope to my shopping list for the home gym.

4. Ab-Wheel – $20 – $30

Look, these are okay. 

If you ever use it. I have one, used it for a while, haven’t used it since. Do a shit-tonne of sit-ups (Crossfit-style butterfly sit-ups but whatever suits you best).

Ima stick with sit-ups and keep some money back.

Summary

In fact, I’m done with equipment altogether.

With the $200 home gym set-up, I think we can pocket some change and get away with two dumbbells ($70) and one or two kettlebells ($50 or $100) and have a pretty good set-up.

You can do “40 Seconds On / 20 Seconds Off For 8 Minutes” workouts with either the bell or the dumbbells, run through two or three (or even four) rounds, 3-4 times per week, build some solid muscle & strength, build a decent strength-endurance engine and literally NEVER get bored.

It’s been my go-to workout for the best part of five years now and has never let me down.

Take your spare cash and buy a case of beers or a decent bottle of wine and reward yourself after the workout.

SFD