Whether you're sweating it out in an old shed or the space vacated by your long-dead '87 Buick, this routine will burn maximum fat with minimum equipment and even less space.
For most of us, just cleaning out the garage would be a great workout. Between pulling everything down from shelves, hauling it outside, and sweeping the floor we haven’t seen in years, we’d hit more muscle groups than anything in the gym. (Plus, there’s probably enough work to fill a week’s worth of training.)
But let’s assume you’ve made space for the car, and transformed your garage into a home gym with a pull-up bar and 13 more pieces of gear found in our garage gym gear guide. What’s the best way to lose weight and put on some muscle?
The answer: This five-day garage gym workout program.
HOW IT WORKS
The goal with these workout is efficiency. After all, you’ve saved time traveling to the neighborhood sweatbox and rid yourself of the distractions, people, and time-wasters that come from training in a communal setting. No doubt you have commitments at home, too, which is why many guys retreat to the garage in the first place. (At least now you’ll get a workout as you burn off stress.)
We’ve designed this five-day program for hard workouts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and active recovery on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
DIRECTIONS
The hard workout days are constructed as circuits. You’ll do each circuit three times, without stopping for rest at any point (unless noted, as with the planks on day 5). These circuits are structured to keep you alternating between pushing and pulling, or upper-body moves and lower-body moves, to make sure you’re hitting every muscle group as you work through the circuit. (One important note for Day 5: Only perform the medicine ball rotational throws if your garage has a concrete block or brick wall you can throw against. If you’re stuck with drywall or plywood, then do seated Russian twists.)
On active recovery days, warm up by foam rolling for 5 minutes. Cool down with 10 reps of active-isolated stretching for each leg. If you’d prefer to step outside the garage and take advantage of yard or driveway space to do some interval sprints on one of those active recovery days, go for it.
Pete Williams is a NASM-certified personal trainer and the author or co-author of a number of books on performance and training.
