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To see the 2nd part of this series visit studio apartment home gym part 2: costs.

This one is for people that say they don't have enough space in their home for an exercise area. This is simply an issue of priorities. My home gym, as you can see, is not exactly large. With a little creativity though, here are a few exercises I can do safely in my tiny (<450 sq. feet) studio apartment:

• dips (using two chairs)
• dead lifts
• shrugs
• pistols
• overhead press
• skull crushers
• floor presses
• flys
• barbell rows
• handstand pushups (against a wall)
• curls
• cleans
• calf raises
• pull-ups and chin-ups! UPDATE 12/17/2007 - I now have a pull up bar!

The addition of resistance bands makes for almost limitless exercises; you're only limited by your imagination. One of my favorites is to emulate a cable machine by finding a good anchor point (my bed posts) for the resistance bands. Almost all weight machines are worthless, but cable machines are useful. Why should you have to have a giant machine to do it though, when you can buy some sweet resistance bands? I'm not talking wimpy bands here either; I have single bands that can provide >200 pounds of force.

I have found that almost every single important strength training exercise can be performed in a very small space with relatively inexpensive equipment. Half a year at most gyms here in Chicago would easily pay for a lot of nice stuff.

My personal regimen these days consists of three exercise groups.

The most important group is bodyweight exercises. I cannot stress this enough. Bodyweight exercises be performed almost anywhere. Push-ups (handstand, elevated, clap), pistols (one legged body weight squat, touch your thigh to your calf), and dips form the core of my bodyweight routine. I would like to add pull-ups to the mix, but I have yet to obtain a pull-up bar. Most of these exercises can have weight added to them easily if you have ambitions as a serious strength athlete.

The second group consists of the various freeweight exercises. I typically use the long bar for barbell rows, dead lifts, and hack squats. The dumbbells typically come into play for overhead presses and curls. Sometimes I use them to add weight to one-legged calf raises. A curl bar is also available for skull crushers. The only freeweight exercise I'd like to do that I cannot do safely is the regular squat (requires squat rack or power rack). This is unfortunate as it is an excellent exercise, but I make up for it with dead lifts, pistols, and hack squats.

The last exercise group consists of using the resistance bands. These are some of the best pieces of exercise equipment to own, and if I lost all my equipment these would be bought first. A totally comprehensive routine that would suit anyone except a power lifter could be put together using simply resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, and creativity.

Currently I am trying out grip exercising by emulating 'hammer' exercises. There is actually a weird old timey (turn of the 20th century) exercise routine that consisted of holding axes or sledge hammers at the very tips of their handles and then basically just moving your wrist around. I have performed this exercise with my dumbbell bars as 'hammers' and I have discovered it to be a brutal exercise, but in a good way.

One thing to note if you go the home gym route - safety first! If there are exercises you are not familiar with find or hire someone to teach you good form. I lucked out and happened to take weight training class in high school for my P.E. requirement. High school wrestling and football coaches wouldn't stay coaches for long if they didn't know how to keep their athletes safe. Perhaps I can take my own advice if I decide I need to start doing the Olympic lifts.

As an aside, a friend of mine recently found the CrossFit site. It seems like an excellent resource that embraces many of my same principles. Their workouts of the day are pretty interesting.