My top 3 lightweight equipment for home and outdoor training

When it comes to training, the equipment you use can make all the difference. Whether you travel a lot and feel to pack something light to get your training in, have to save space in tour house or you just don't like gym, you can base whole routines and get great results with the equipment I will go in to detail about below. Here are my absolute favourites that are Indispensable in my Mary Poppins bag of tricks:

TRX suspension trainer

This fairly recently discovered contraption is so versatile and effective, especially if you know how to to use it right. It is just as effective as a mobility / stretching aid than as a bodyweight resistance training tool as people know it for. Many people also don't know you can actually train with it in your own home. Instead of attaching it to an anchor point which you would do outside, simply anchor it to a door way and you're good to go.

When positioned right, you can get an amazing amount of tension passing through the muscles, making it so effective for strength training, I also use it with clients to build foundational strength and technique before moving onto calisthenics rings.

Glute Band

Many people may associate this band as something reserved for women, but this is a powerful tool I have everyone using, usually at the start of the session when doing glute activation work. You can get a massive amount of tension on the glute and lateral hip muscles, which are so important for the health of the surrounding physical body, including the spine. Even without doing any movement, just turning out the knees with the band slightly over the knees will automatically feel the glute muscles engage. Then whatever exercise you perform from there ie squats will recruit the glutes massively. My go to for buns of steel!

Power / resistance bands

Bands have to be my favourite piece of equipment, light weight or not. They are amazingly versatile, I use them for mobility, sports specific explosive work, muscle building, core stability and assisting with pull ups / dips. The possibilities are almost limitless, I take them on every holiday and use them in all kinds of ways whilst still progressively challenging myself, I've even made up a few ways of using them! There's a whole set of these ranging from the lightest, which is usually yellow to the heaviest which is usually green. The yellow band is great for training the rotator cuffs and any other small, supporting stabiliser muscles. The heavier bands are usually to support and assist in doing the big bodyweight exercises like pull ups and dips. These bands are not to be confused with tube bands with handles on the ends, they're inferior in every department!

Please bear in mind, especially with regards to band work and suspension trainer work, I highly recommend training with a professional PT who knows exactly how to use them safely and effectively.