Home Workouts: Equipment Your Female Athlete Needs to Get Fast and Strong

05 Dec Home Workouts: Equipment Your Female Athlete Needs to Get Fast and Strong

Home gyms exploded during COVID.

In the first month of lock down, you would be hard pressed to find gym equipment left to buy on Amazon. Everyone was snagging their dumbbells, pull-up bars, resistance bands, and for the more serious lifters, full blown squat racks. There wasn’t much left, and everything got back ordered.

Though year 2020 was hard for many, we can look at the positive of people getting more diligent about their health, and athletes taking the lead on their physical development.

Truthfully, the time of COVID was one of my favorite times as a coach. I saw young athletes develop a newfound motivation to strength train on their own, run sprints on their neighborhood streets, and race against their siblings. It was downright encouraging and inspiring to see them embrace such an uncertain time.

I had female athletes upload their videos with their dog joining them for core work on the living floor. I saw videos of entire families doing lifts together. I saw videos of girls hitting the nearest open turf field to do their sprint work.

During this time, I saw that remote training can be an amazing solution for athletes willing to work hard and get better on their own time. I’ve seen amazing feats of strength accomplished, as well as MPH sprint times bolster. I’ve even seen nutrition be totally revamped, and girls eager to learn how to optimize their performance and recovery through food.

I love remote training.

It’s a win-win for so many reasons: athletes can do their workouts on their own time, parents don’t need to commute, the entire family can get involved and healthy together, and coaching can still be super detailed. I love my phone app because I am able to dock all exercise videos, sets and reps, work to rest time, and provide technique feedback to athlete videos.

Too, not much equipment is needed to accomplish what you need from a strength, speed and power standpoint.

Here are my top pieces of equipment if you’re working out from home:

1. Dumbbells

My favorite are this set, or you can buy these power blocks to adjust the weight.

In order for female athletes to get stronger, load to needs to be applied gradually. Yes, you should start body weight to master the movements, but girls need to progressive overload so they build muscle tissue durability.

Here’s a sample remote training video for quadricep strength:

2. Resistance Bands

These resistance bands are great for progressing hip and core exercises. I’d argue every female athlete needs a set of these in her sports bag.

3. Pull-up Bands

We all start somewhere. And for the female athlete to perform a high number of reps of pull-ups for the first time, she may need an added boost.

These assistance bands are fantastic when set and rep schemes are high. Also, don’t forget to buy a home pull-up bar.

4. Freelap Timing System

Okay, this one is the MOST IMPORTANT piece of equipment.

I know, I know…it’s the most expensive, but if you want accurate sprint times, and to get the most intensity out of speed work, you need a Freelap Timing System. When you bring in the timing technology…you just run faster.

You can get the Freelap Timing System HERE.

When my remote athletes have their timing system, then I can accurately convert their speed work to a MPH number.

Work with me remotely HERE

Train with me in Tampa, Florida on speed, strength and conditioning HERE