Combining home exercise with limited equipment with gym

Question

I would like to start alternating workouts/stretchings that I can do from home (with my limited equipment, listed below), with gym sessions (because I am a student, I have access to a full equiped gym).

My home equipment is very scarse, and consists of the following:

• A stretching mat
• A yoga ball (which I usually use for sitting when I am working on my laptop)
• Something similar to the pictured below, which is usually used for push-ups

My question is not how to start a home workouts (there are already good answers here and here regarding that topic; I have also looked into this), but rather how to combine a mix of home workouts and gym 2x per week.

---

Notes:

• I am 23, 6'4, 93 kg, fit.
• I have had a couple operations on my right leg in the past, including a torn ACL. Because of this I would like to avoid running as cardio.
• This is maybe a soft-question, but I am also interested in personal experiences: what works for you?

---

My objectives are:

• Gaining strength, building muscle and also very important to gain flexibility/coordination. As a "big" person, it is something I would like to improve.
• I don't have any specific sport in mind. But in the past I have played (and would like to start with again) basketball. I also would like to start skiing/snowboarding next winter.
• Mostly it is that I like to be fit and exercising in general to fill my time with other things besides studying/working.

Answer 1

I had a slightly similar situation to yours in that I traveled around a developing nation for a couple of years without access to any form of gym equipment. In short, I would try to do something like this:

Gym Days

Do full body barbell strength training. One day do squats, overhead press, and deadlifts. The other day, do squats, bench press, and power cleans (or barbell or dumb bell rows). Those are equipment dependent exercises and you'll making the most use of your time. Honestly, you could just do that twice a week and you'd make good progress. Aim for 3 ramping warmup sets of 5, then one set of 5 around 80%, then one set of 5 around 95%-100% (as in 95% of your 5RM, not 95% of your 1RM).

Home Days

A lot of this depends on your goals, but these are some ideas and you can mix/match.

• Yoga. Yoga is awesome, and like strength training anyone who's done it for a while can speak to the great results. I find yoga a bit hard to do by myself.

• Gymnast rings. Dips, pullups, levers, shoot-thrus, muscle ups, and even crosses are available all via simple set of $50 rings.

• General calisthenic conditioning. You should probably be doing these things as warmups anyway, but a nice ~15 blend of burpees, flutter kicks, pushups, bicycles, pullups, and maybe some pistols if you can handle them would go far.

Answer 2

If I were at the gym twice a week and working out at home one or more times a week, I'd focus my gym time on big strength exercises and my home workouts on mobility and bodyweight moves.

For instance, one template might be:

• Gym: squat, pull-ups
• Home workout: Yoga (following a video if you have never been to class), burpees
• Gym: deadlift, overhead press
• Home workout: Yoga, push-ups

Another idea:

• Gym: squat, deadlift, overhead press, pull-ups
• Rest day
• Gym: squat, deadlift, overhead press, pull-ups
• Home workout: lunges, plank, burpees
• Home workout: push-ups, air squats, mountain climbers

The basic template is to use the gym to work on strength and the home workouts to work on everything else: flexibility, mobility, conditioning, muscle endurance. It's generally best for the strength workouts to follow a well-tested program, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to look into something like 5/3/1 or StrongLifts.