5 Affordable Items Every Fitness Bro SHOULD Have

People claim time, or the lack thereof, is the number one reason they can’t commit to getting in shape.

Behind time, the second biggest reason people give for not starting a workout regiment is that they think they can’t afford it.

Hiring a personal trainer can be expensive depending on where you live. In New York City, most trainers start at $100 an hour.

You could go the more economical route and hire an online coach like me.

But what if you make minimum wage and can’t afford either option? What if you have a good paying job but after bills, rent, and student loans you have next to nothing left?

What I say next is the most important thing you’ll ever read here on BroBible.

The most important thing you can ever spend money on is yourself.

I’m not talking about buying new Nike’s, an Xbox, or even a tailor made suit—though, those are nice.

Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make, period.

But you don’t need to drop $300-800 a month, or more, on personal training or coaching to invest in your health. There are a few tools you can buy online for less than $100 that will help you get in shape and achieve the body of your dreams.

Food Scale

You want abs and you want to shred fat, right? Gain muscle and look like a superhero?

Those are worthy goals, bro.

But here’s the truth. You’ll read a ton of articles on BroBible about fat loss and muscle gain, but the biggest component to success is in the kitchen.

Ugh, I know, who wants to hear that, right?

There is no signal item you’ll purchase that will benefit you more than investing in a food scale.

You don’t need to use it forever, but at this handy contraption is going to help you make huge progress.

Use it to weigh the meat you cook. (Note: meat is always weighed raw. If you cook it, then weigh it, you’ll be consuming extra calories)

You can also use it to weigh out oats, rice, deli meat, condiments, etc. Oh, and if you weigh peanut butter—sorry bro. It’s depressing how small a serving size is.

A food scale is also a great tool for better understanding serving sizes, which will benefit you when you go out to eat.

Most scales will cost you $20 or less on Amazon, but the Ozeri Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen and Food Scale (pictured above) has a 4.5 star customer rating from over EIGHT THOUSAND reviews.

Purchase: $12

Pull-Up Bar

Pull-ups are one of the best bang for your buck exercises.

They’ll help you build a stronger and wider back, but they’ll also help you build bigger arms and shoulders.

If you can’t afford a gym membership and train at home. It can be difficult to hit your back muscles as effectively.

That’s why if you train at home, I always suggest having one of these installed in a doorway.

Make sure to pick one up that can hold your bodyweight, you can forgo the ones with multiple grips. All you need is the ability to do a standard pullup or chin-up.

You can grab a pullup bar on Amazon for under $30, including the ProSource Multi-Grip Chin-Up/Pull-Up Bar, which has been reviewed over a thousand times with a rating of 4 stars.

Purchase: $28

 

Resistance Bands

These are the most versatile piece of equipment you can own.

Resistance bands are the easiest item to pack in a suitcase. Which means you can continue to stay fit when you’re away from the equipment at home.

Every form of strength training can be used with bands:

  • Squats
  • Deadlifts
  • Shoulder Press
  • Lateral Raises
  • Push-Ups
  • Flyes
  • Curls

They’re also great to have should you not be able to perform a pull-up on your pull-up bar because you can do band assisted pull-ups.

Purchase: $28

 

Ab Wheel

For some reason, every time I use the ab wheel at the gym, AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock N Roll)” comes on my workout playlist and I start singing about ab rolling instead of rock n rolling.

You want to build a rock hard set of abs, right?

To accomplish this, first, you’re gonna need the food scale I mentioned above. Once you’re nailing your nutrition, ab wheel rollouts will light up your core like a firecracker.

Forget all those other ab machines you’ve seen on TV. They’re shit.

Ab wheels however, are not.

If you’ve never used an ab wheel before start slow. You can shorten your range of motion by placing yourself near a wall, stopping before you’ve gone too far.

These small, seemingly simple, devices will challenge you more than you think.

As you get stronger, you can increase your range of motion and push your core strength to new levels.

These will cost you $1020 on Amazon.

Purchase: $25

 

Workout/Food Journal

Tracking your workouts and what you eat are the number one keys to success.

How will you know if you’ve gotten stronger and more kick ass if you don’t track your workouts?

As I said above, nutrition and maintaining a calorie deficit are paramount to losing body fat.

What’s tracked is managed and if you don’t know what you’re eating, or tracking it, how are you going to know if you’re in a deficit? You won’t.

Notebooks on Amazon cost only a couple of dollars. But hey, we’re technological bros, so save yourself some dough and use MyFitnessPal for nutrition or any one of the hundreds of workout tracking apps out there.

Purchase: $27

You Have No Excuses

There are hundreds of advantageous when it comes to hiring a personal trainer or online coach. But you can lose weight and better your health from home for less than $100.

And remember, bros, always invest in bettering yourself. It’s the greatest investment you’ll ever make.