Go into any gym in the world and you’ll see hundreds of weight machines all over the floor. Then in the corner will be some huge guys lifting big mountains of steel. It’s pretty intimidating if you’ve never lifted weights before. Maybe you’ll just decide to stick to the rowing machine instead, or if you’re really in the mood you will go for a run on the treadmill. You shouldn’t need to do that.

After all, resistance exercises are great for building a well defined body. Go running all the time and you’ll lose weight, but it won’t exactly look great if you don’t have any muscles to wrap the skin around. You don’t need to head into the middle of the weights area to get a good resistance workout. It can easily be done elsewhere with a few key gadgets. We’ll go over them and if your gym doesn’t have them you could take them yourself.

Resistance bands
Not the little funny looking ones you might pick up at the doctor’s, but the actual ones that are made of strong rubber. Those will create the same resistance you would get if you lifted proper weights. The only difference is, you can use them anywhere and you don’t need to go near any iron plates. Unless you want to look like a bodybuilder they are all you need. Just get on quietly with your workout in the background.

Gymnastic rings
There’s a reason why gymnasts have some of the best bodies in the world. They can use their own body’s resistance and have a great workout using rings. You just need to find somewhere in the gym you can drape them over and you have enough options to work every body part. They are also a lot more fun than pushing iron away from your body and you’ll enjoy the gym more.

A Gymboss
This is a fantastic little device you can carry about in your pocket. When you do any exercises you want to make sure you’re not resting for too long. You can set up intervals so you know when to start and stop. If you are doing some bodyweight circuits on the mats it makes it easier to have a much more effective workout, plus you can really push yourself when you know you can’t stop until you hear the beep.

In-ear headphones
I don’t know about you, but most of the world doesn’t want to listen to the terrible music that’s played in most gyms. When you aren’t pumped up it’s a lot harder to have a great workout. If you’d rather listen to something like the Rocky soundtrack you’ll have to bring your MP3 player. In-ear headphones means you won’t have your hands at your ears every 2 seconds.

A Bosu ball
When you do any exercises on a Bosu ball it makes them much harder because you have to use extra muscles to stabilize yourself. If you’re wondering where these muscles are they’re the tiny little ones you can’t even see and they don’t get used a lot. They will when you use the Bosu ball.

Thomas Barker is the author of the above guest post. He is an avid blogger who provides information about horizon fitness equipment which has often proved to be the best brand for commercial-quality home exercise equipment.