'I tried the at-home fitness kit now 36% off which means I can ditch the gym'
Gymproluxe's portable gym is reduced in an early Black Friday sale to a price that makes it cheaper than a couple of month's gym membership, so our resident at-home fitness fan gave it a try
With winter drawing in and weather getting cold and wet, staying active and keeping fit is harder than ever – especially if you’re unable or unwilling to get to the gym. While at-home equipment can help bridge the gap, a lack of space can often prove an issue with the risk being you end up using an expensive exercise bike or treadmill as somewhere to hang the washing.
Fitness brand Gymproluxe has unveiled a versatile alternative that is easily stored and can work for people of all ages and fitness levels and, in an early Black Friday sale, it’s currently reduced by 36% in a starter bundle with a host of extra freebies. But is it really worth the outlay?
Many of us dabbled with at-home fitness equipment during the covid pandemic, when gyms were closed and we weren’t able to leave the house. However, as a mum of two then pre-school aged children I had been working out in my living room long before then, having realised that with no babysitting and a limited budget whatever I was going to do to get fit and lose weight needed to be done at home, usually while dodging grapes thrown from the high chair.
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I started with an app called DDP Yoga , which offered me hundreds of workouts headed by former WWE wrestler ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page - who put the DDP in DDPY. Over the months I was able to use the workouts, which included yoga positions, calisthenics and old-school strength building to improve my fitness and tone up. Eventually, by combining it with the Lose It calorie counting app, I lost more than six stone in a year.
Once lockdown ended and real life resumed I juggled balancing consistent exercise with managing nursery runs and eventually full-time work, but DDPY has been a consistent staple in my life since then - and it left me a deep-seated affection for any kind of at-home workout - they might not work for everyone but as a woman who given a choice would rather not leave the house unnecessarily they definitely work for me.
Over the years I’ve worked out using a treadmill bought from Wowcher , a Cubii under desk cycle bought to use while on work calls and even a weighted hula hoop . But I've recently become aware that as I get closer to perimenopause it’s important to keep my muscle level high as women tend to ‘use it or lose it’ as they age meaning I've been looking at experimenting with weights or even, begrudgingly, biting the bullet and signing up for a gym - but with local options costing up to £50 a month it just felt a bit more than I was comfortable doing.
Available from Gymproluxe direct or Amazon, the portable home gym has been reduced early for Black Friday.
Enter the Gymproluxe which promises a weights based workout without any of the large equipment you’d normally need like benches, weights bars, dumbbells or kettle bells. It arrives in a small but pleasingly heavy box and, when you open it it’s quickly apparent for a compact bit of kit it’s a surprisingly versatile piece of kit.
The makers promise it’s an all-in-one portable gym which can give you a full-body workout in just 20 minutes a day. The fabric exercise band has three resistance bands on each side attached to handles and can be used with or without a solid metal bar which the bands can be looped over to offer wider movements for things like bench presses or seated rows.
The bands have three levels of tension, a 10kg, 15kg and 20kg which can be used individually or in combination to do workouts using the equivalent of anything between 20kg and 90kg. I started, perhaps optimistically, using the 15kg on its own, but realised quickly that I could do more than that when doing workouts using my legs but soon felt the burn when working on my arms at that weight.
I’d used basic resistance bands in that giant elastic band style to help with my more challenging yoga positions over the years but in comparison these are next level. I was a complete beginner to how to use them for strength training, so the accompanying app that comes with the Gymproluxe set was a helpful addition.
There are videos for everything from how to unbox the set through to workouts, starting from as little as 10 minutes up to extensive long ones, which I found great for building up my fitness levels and giving me confidence using the straps.
At its simplest you use the bands by either standing, sitting or lying on the bands and then pulling the handles, although you can add the metal bars for more intensive workouts. I was surprised, particularly when I started, by how much I felt the workout the following day.
I’ve started falling into a rhythm now though, having realised the importance of warming up first, I do a short yoga workout first and then use the Gymproluxe every other workout, alternating between doing an upper or lower body session to complement what I’ve already done.
Undoubtedly the dozens of videos means you could use it as a standalone workout tool but I like having the variety and, as I’d need to warm up either way, it works well in conjunction with the DDPY app. Having used it off-and-on for several months it’s become a regularly used part of my fitness routine.
I love that it can be stored easily in its carry bag under the bed and that, unlike something like the Peloton where there’s an additional monthly charge, the app is free forever once you’ve bought the set.
Overall the app has a good variety of workouts and multiple male and female instructors which means you don’t get bored. There are a couple of ways that it could be better though.
It’d be great if you could pair it with a heart rate monitor to see the impact on your workout as you go. Also some of the workouts can feel a bit stop start because most instructors explain what an exercise is, show you how to do it and then tell you how many sets of reps to do. While this is great if you want to have music on while you work out, it does mean you have to pause and then hit play as you go.
The Gymproluxe Band and Bar Set 2.0 usually costs £179.99 but is currently on offer for £115 in an October Bundle Deal from the Gymproluxe website , a saving of 36% on its usual price. This includes the full band set, metal bars, carry case, lifetime app access, transformation guides and a 12-week program to get you started.
Meanwhile the set is also on offer from Amazon , where it has a 4.2 out of 5 star rating based on almost 200 reviews. It is currently just £109.95 which the retailer states is the lowest price in 30 days.
If you're less fussed about the app functionality, the TRX Go Suspension Trainer has bands, anchors for indoor and outdoor use and a poster with suggested exercises. It's currently £119.95 on Amazon and has 4.8 stars out of 5 from shoppers.
While the Gymproluxe is definitely an investment, it works out as the equivalent of a couple of months at the gym and has the added benefit of me knowing I’m much more likely to take it out from under the bed than I am braving a wet autumn evening fitness class or gym session.
I’ve seen increased strength and some improved muscle definition in the time I’ve been using it, although I’ve been deliberately taking it slowly on upper body exercises in the time I’ve been using it due to a recurring injury. It’s a great and easily implemented addition to my workout routine and if, like me, you’d heard of resistance bands workouts but weren’t really sure where to start or how to do it safely, it’s a great introduction to the process which isn’t going to get boring quickly because of the app of multiple workouts available.