Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to the Deficient Vegans Podcast, episode 22. I'm Muscle Deficient Vegan here with the Protein Deficient Vegan. Do you wanna say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:05

Hi.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:06

Hi everybody. We're gonna talk this week about what equipment you really need to do home workouts. Depending on your goals, you might have different pieces of equipment that are essential or important for that. So we'll get into some of those and then we'll also discuss maybe some creative solutions so you don't necessarily have to buy equipment.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:21

Before we get into all that, do you think we should have a theme song? What does anyone else think? We should have a theme song? Can you let us know?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:29

Yeah. A theme. A theme jingle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:31

A theme jingle.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:32

Yeah. So for equipment for a home gym, you wanna make sure you don't fall into the trap of thinking you need a whole bunch of stuff or everything all at once, right? If you're out there on social media, you'll see a lot of really overcomplicated gym setups and really extravagant things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:47

It's a trap.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:48

But on the flip side of that, you'll also see people who are super in shape doing calisthenic workouts in a park with just monkey bars or a pull up bar or something like that. And calisthenics is basically just purely using your own body weight. Now, if you want to do a workout like that, you really won't need much at all. A lot of people don't want that or even maybe can't do some of those things as a beginner. So, uh, it really just depends on your goals and your current fitness level and things like that. So, and I think in most cases, some level of equipment will help optimize things at least a little bit. So we wanna focus on which equipment actually makes a difference for the goal you have. So as a beginner or somebody who just has a general fitness goal with no specific type of workout in mind, some of the things you can get are resistance bands is a really popular kind of first thing to have at home. A resistance band is basically just a big strip of elastic. And it kind of mimics the weight of a dumbbell or something. So they'll be basically harder to stretch certain ones and you can get 'em up to 20, 30, 40 pounds of resistance. And that's kind of where they top out. I think there are some like really professional ones that are a little heavier, but they start out pretty light. And then there are some heavier ones.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:56

Honestly, after having too many ponytail holders snap on me, those things stress me the hell out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:01

Yeah. There are a lot of movements with the resistance band where you're pulling it directly at your face.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:06

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:06

And then you can see the little, like the white wear marks and the rubber were starting to wear out a little bit and a little nerve wracking, but um, usually. They don't hurt you too bad when they break.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:17

I'm like turning my face away, holding my breath and praying.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:19

Yeah. That is a good option. Especially good for like traveling and stuff. They're like, they basically take up no space. You can stick it in your pocket. They're really popular for rehab work. If you have an injury, they'll probably have you using resistance bands , so that's definitely one option. The next step up there is gonna be a set of adjustable dumbbells. You can also just use normal dumbbells. They're called fixed dumbbells, which is like, this dumbbell is 20 pounds, right?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:41

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:41

But the problem is, over time as you work out, you're gonna need a lot of different weights of dumbbell and buying individual dumbbell pairs gets like super expensive. So you can go and find what are called adjustable dumbbells, which is effectively one pair of dumbbells that you have some kind of selector on to pick which weight it is. Sometimes it's like you turn the handle, sometimes it's a lever or a knob or whatever. They all do it a little differently. But the general idea is it's just one pair of dumbbells that can basically replace an entire dumbbell rack.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:08

Yeah. And they even make loadable ones.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:10

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:10

That are similar to like barbells. But those are a lot cheaper than the adjustable ones even.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:15

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:15

But they don't go up that high.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:16

Right. And you gotta deal with putting the plates on and off. Yeah. That is a good option too. It's like a tiny barbell. And you, it has tiny plates and you kind of add 'em to it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:24

I think I finally got to 15 pound dumbbells after going up in two to three pound increments before I was like, wow, this takes up a lot of space and I wasted a lot of money.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:32

Yeah, for sure. I mean, it makes sense in a commercial gym because you have multiple people trying to use 'em at once and they're like swapping 'em in and out real fast. But if you're the only person or you have one or two people at home doing dumbbell workouts, you don't even need multiple sets for the most part. So adjustable dumbbell is one pair will last you, a decade or more probably as long as you're careful with them. That that is one thing. An adjustable dumbbell set is like a little more fragile when you drop it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:54

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:54

Whereas the fixed dumbbells at the gym, you can pretty much throw those around without breaking 'em. So with an adjustable set, you do have to baby it a little bit. The other thing for like general fitness is a yoga mat or some kind of floor padding. There are a lot of floor exercises and stretches and flexibility routines and stuff like that you might wanna do on the floor. If you have a hard floor or a carpeted floor especially, it might be a little better to get some kind of mat to lay down that you can do that on. So if you want to focus specifically on hypertrophy or growing muscles the adjustable dumbbells become almost a necessity. Resistance bands aren't gonna get you super far there at least for more than a month or two. And then something else you'll wanna definitely try to get is an adjustable bench. Which is just a bench that can go up and down at angles. It can be flat or the back can be vertical. So you can do like sitting things with back support or you can do like a laying down bench press, something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:41

Yeah. And you can find those pretty cheap.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:43

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:43

I was part of a, like a Facebook group a few years ago, and girls in there were talking about doing, um, bench presses on their couch.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:50

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:51

And I was like. I probably wouldn't do that. Yeah.'cause it's squishy. Yeah. You know, like I feel like he could definitely pull something or.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:59

Yeah. Not a good idea to do it on something that isn't like stable.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:02

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:02

I remember we went to a hotel once and I was doing like shoulder press on a couch and I tried it on the bed and it was like, you know, kind of bouncing every time. It was not a good experience. Yeah. I wouldn't recommend that. Also another thing for hypertrophy specifically is some kind of pull up bar. You can get like a fixed pull up bar or you can attach it to a door frame in some cases, although I think you really want to get one that's trusted 'cause I think there are cheap ones that can just basically break the whole door frame. I've never used one of those, but I've definitely seen some videos that looked like they weren't much fun.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:32

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:32

But yeah, some sort of pull up bar situation. Is a good one to use because like pull-ups and static hangs and stuff like that are really useful. And then as you move more into strength training, so hypertrophy and muscle building is usually like you do more reps with less weight. So you don't necessarily need super heavy weights, at least not right off the bat, right? You can probably make it a year working in like mostly the rep ranges that dumbbells can provide. But if you go beyond that or you wanna go into strength training, you'll probably want to get at least one barbell and some actual weight plates to put on the barbell. This is gonna take up a lot more space than the dumbbell, so it's something you would maybe wanna reserve for later down the line. So you can get one barbell that'll last you probably your whole life, um, as just a single person user, and the same with the weight plates to go with it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:21

And you can get really cute ones in different colors. And I have one that says, fuck the patriarchy.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:25

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:25

In pink.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:27

Yeah, rogue will customize barbells and lots of different companies have colorful weight plates and stuff like that. And again, if you don't wanna buy something new, you were saying you were part of that Facebook group.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:37

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:37

There's a bunch of marketplace apps and Facebook marketplace and stuff like that. You can find people selling those all the time. And also for strength training, if you're gonna have the barbell, you probably want some form of squat rack. It doesn't necessarily need to be like a full rack, but something you can do squats on and also sometimes the squat racks have safety bars that you can use to do bench press in, which I highly recommend, especially if you're trying to do bench press at home. You definitely want to use some sort of safety setup.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:04

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:04

And then if you're just trying to do cardio workouts, you don't always need equipment, obviously. You can just go outside and run until you get tired of running. Right? But, uh, if we're trying to do something in the house indoors, maybe it's winter. I don't know. It can be helpful to have equipment. Again, though, you can do like follow along with a cardio video, no equipment at all. Do jumping jacks and all kinds of calisthenic cardio stuff.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:24

Or like dancing.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:25

Dancing, yeah, anything really. But if you did want to use some equipment for it, you can use something like simple as a jump rope. Boxers use jump ropes a lot for cardio. That's pretty common. But if you wanna get a cardio machine, it's gonna be up to your personal preference. Like, uh, if you can do an elliptical, a rowing machine, exercise bike, pretty much anything like that, you can get one again, like off a secondary market. Or you can go fancy and buy yourself a Peloton bike so you can follow along with the trainers and have an app.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:51

Underrated Cardio, I would say is like video games.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:54

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:55

Like I really like some games that are on the switch. And I also like, um, that VR headset, the Oculus has some pretty cool stuff you can do.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:03

Yeah. You do cardio with the beat Saber.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:05

Yeah. Until my face was so sweaty that my glasses, the, like VR glasses are so fogged up. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:13

Yeah. The good thing about cardio is like, as long as you get your heart rate up, everything's pretty much equally effective. But if you were somebody who likes to actually go out and ride a real bike in the warmer months, then you might want to get an exercise bike to have for the cooler months. So you're still staying in practice with like that specific thing you like to do?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:29

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:29

But if you're just generally like: I just want to get moving and do cardio, and I'm not real picky and I don't run marathons. I don't bike, I don't do anything like that. Oh, also another good one is swimming. So yeah, a lot of options for cardio.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:40

When I was living in an apartment, I actually bought this like stand that my bike could mount onto. Oh yeah. That added resistance to the wheel and I could basically use it like an exercise bike, but it was like so much cheaper than buying an exercise bike and took up obviously a lot less space since I already had a bike in my apartment.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 8:54

Yeah, that's a good tip. And then like if you're, that's the bike you ride, you're used to being on that bike. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Yeah, so just in general, as you're getting new equipment to put into your home gym or just into your house, if it's not really even a dedicated gym situation. I think the most important thing is like start small. Start with like only what you feel like you really need to get started and you can just build up over time.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:14

I've like never taken that advice myself. I remember when you moved in, you were like, uh, because I had like multiple punching bags and like a treadmill and an elliptical and a bike.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:27

Yeah. Well, luckily we end up using most of it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:29

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:30

On a rotation. So, but yeah. I mean, different strokes for different folks. Right. But if you're just starting to get into fitness especially, I would definitely recommend just starting with a couple of things, if any.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:40

Especially if you're in like a, an apartment or something.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:42

Yeah. Oh, yeah. If you foresee.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:44

If you run outta space pretty fast.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:46

Or anywhere where you like foresee you're gonna be moving in the near future. Yeah, I would definitely think hard about what you want to be running around.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:52

Unless you can make your work pay for the movers.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:55

Yeah, that would be nice. Also like just being consistent with doing some kind of workout is gonna be a lot more important than like having the best equipment or the right equipment or even equipment at all really, if you're doing anything without equipment, it's gonna be better than doing something like, almost never once you buy the equipment. So, focus on consistency and just whatever minimal equipment you need to get that done.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:17

I feel like a wearable tracker is also kind of a big component of like a home gym. Like if you're gonna be working out, you probably should have something like that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:23

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:24

If you're taking it seriously.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:25

Yep. And if you hadn't listened to the last episode we just did yet we talked all about those, so you can go back and check that out. So, for resistance training specifically especially if you're trying to do bodybuilding, hypertrophy, muscle growth focused type of workouts, you can get a really long way with just an adjustable bench and a pair of adjustable dumbbells.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:42

And P90X.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:44

Yeah, P90X is good, but you can probably get a year or two into a pretty advanced workout plan with just the adjustable dumbbells and adjustable bench. So I wouldn't think that you need much more than that right off the bat or even anytime soon. If you can manage to get your hands on those you'll be really set.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:01

Yeah.'cause we had a pair of the Bowflex ones, I think. Yeah. And those were, those go up to 52 pounds?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:07

Yeah, I think so. 52 pounds.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:09

Yeah. And then what is the, what's the brand we have now?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:11

We have power blocks now.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:12

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, they have like one for, uh, smaller hands, which I really like.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:16

And then, there's another set where it's like expansive. Then it can go up, I think, to 90, I think they actually have a pair now that goes up to like 120.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:23

Oh, wow.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:23

Yeah. So yeah, you can get the ones with the expansion kits or any kind of adjustable, just super nice. We use 'em, you know, several times a week. And also if you are gonna go and find something secondhand on a marketplace or maybe even just from somebody, you know, um, if it's gonna be something that has a safety component, like you don't really have to worry about this as much with like a dumbbell, but for something like maybe even a barbell, but a, definitely like a squat rack or a bench or something like that. You wanna make sure it's not damaged and it's still safe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:49

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:49

You don't wanna be lifting on an adjustable bench and it collapses because something was worn out or broken or something like that. That can be really dangerous. So you just wanna make sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:57

Yeah. I really try to follow this one rule in life and it's if I die doing this thing, are people gonna think I'm an idiot and then I don't do those things?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:06

Yeah. That's probably a pretty good rule.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:07

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:08

I think a lot of us guys could, uh, learn to live by that a little more. I think it's built into our DNA to do very stupid things.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:16

I'm not gonna disagree.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:19

Um, also you can find a lot of good Black Friday deals. Yeah. So if you can just, you know, hold off until late November that's usually the best time to buy fitness equipment, especially if you're trying to buy weight over the internet, like dumbbells or weight plates or anything like that. Because those can get pretty expensive to ship. But a lot of the time for Black Friday, they have really good deals on the actual weight plates themselves. So, and sometimes even free shipping, which is huge. So, check that out for sure. You can also implement some creative solutions where you don't necessarily have to buy equipment, especially when you're just starting out. But think about things like a backpack full of books instead of like a dumbbell.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:54

Like big textbooks.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:55

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:56

Yeah. So take the ones you're using for pressing your tofu and just throw in a backpack.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:01

Yeah. That's great advice. You can also do dips on a chair.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:05

Stable chair without wheels.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:07

Obviously. That's a really great point. And to me it seems like, yeah, but um, I'm sure somebody's tried this.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:13

I've seen some stupid shit.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:14

Don't, don't do anything on chairs with wheels, right? First of all.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:17

Don't stand on them. Don't lean on them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:19

And even in your chairs without wheels, make sure they're like, well built chairs. Test 'em out a little first. But a lot of people do dips on chairs. You can do dips on like a countertop again, make sure it's stable, maybe even on like a staircase, something like that. So yeah, there are some flexible options there. You can also do incline pushups on a countertop or a staircase. And then also with the resistance bands we were talking about earlier, they make like anchors to the doorway so you can do rows or even like a curl. So, uh, if you attach the resistance bands to a wall or a doorway or something, they actually become quite a bit more useful. But just, getting you in the mindset of thinking of creative things you could do. But again, make sure they're safe.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:57

Please.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:57

Yeah. Another one you could do is like a do it yourself sandbag type thing. So fill a bag up with sand, use that for a dumbbell or a kettlebell, something like that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:05

Yeah. There's also just a lot of body weight workouts you can do.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:08

So when we're talking about home workouts, it might be useful to think about the pros and cons of doing a home workout or trying to build a home gym versus, you know, just going to a gym, getting a gym membership if you can afford that. So some of the pros of being able to work out at home are, you have like complete control of the environment. So including like the music you're listening to, the temperature, it is like the, uh, activity of anybody else who happens to be in the house. You can maybe control to some degree at least, right?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:33

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:33

Also there's no wait times for like the machine you're on, which is the big one at the gym. Not only do you have to drive to the gym.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:39

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:39

And spend some time doing that, but also once you get there, especially if you're trying to do super sets where you're like doing different exercises back to back, uh, that's not even an option at a lot of gyms. But even just doing exercises, one after another, you might, you know, do one exercise and you go to do the next thing you want, but somebody's using that so you go to do something else and then that other thing gets taken again and you end up spending.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:59

Yeah. Pivoting the whole time.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:00

Yeah. You're pivoting and you spend like an hour of just waiting for things basically across your entire workout.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:04

Yes. I also think the commute time thing that you mentioned is a big one for me because I'm a home buddy. I don't like leaving the house if I don't have to. I don't really wanna socialize.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:12

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:13

So like. There's resistance there of like, I have to now leave the house and go be around humans. You know, and the motivation just kind of drains.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:23

And also, you'll probably be more likely to go to the gym if all you have to do is go to another part of your house. Right?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:28

Right.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:29

Like sometimes there's a little bit of friction where you're like, ah, I don't really want to drive, blah, blah, blah. I don't feel like doing it today. But it gets a little harder to make the excuse if you're already really at the gym and you just have to go do your workout. So that's actually really big for me. That brings up another point. You can wear whatever the hell you want at home.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:45

That's true.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:46

Yeah. You can work out with no pants on if you really feel like it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:48

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:49

Yeah. You don't have to put hair gel in or whatever. I don't know. I've never done that to go to the gym anyway. But I see a lot of, I see a lot of people who get very dressed up for what feels like to me to go do a workout. Yeah. And you don't have to do any of that.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:00

I've seen people with fake lashes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:02

Wow.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:02

That is like dedication.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:03

Yeah. I've never put on fake lashes, but that seems like it would take a lot of time.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:06

Yeah, I would think so.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:07

Yeah. Also you can customize your home gym. That can be fun. You can hang up, you know, banners and flags and.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:12

And colors, different colors.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:13

All kinds of colors and signs, motivational thing, whatever you want. You know, it's nice to have, if you can have a dedicated space, even if it's just like a section of the garage or like a corner of a room or something, you can kind of make this your workout zone, even if it's not a whole room that's a gym or something like that. That can be cool. And then you also don't have to worry about people with tripods filming you or getting mad when you walk across their camera space.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:35

Dude, that is like stressful.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:36

Yeah. Like I get they're out there doing their thing, but like, I'd rather not have to deal with it if I have an option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:41

I don't wanna be in the back of someone's video.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:43

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:44

Ever.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:45

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:46

Ever.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:46

Right. So that's just something else you get to completely not have to deal with if you're just working out at home. Some of the cons of a home workout are obviously you're, no matter what you do, really, you're gonna have, unless you're The Rock, I guess you're gonna have less equipment at home than they do in a professional gym. So you'll have like less things available to you. You won't be able to maybe do leg extensions at home or like a real row at home or something like that. There are definitely some options there, but it's not gonna be the same as the complete options available to you at a commercial gym.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:13

Yeah. I also like the machines at a gym and you can't really replicate that at home unless you have a mansion, I guess. I don't know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:21

Yeah, all the specialized equipment and the machines for like individual isolations are really nice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:26

Yeah. I think the machines are good too, like if you're a beginner.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:29

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:29

Because I feel like you're less likely to get hurt on a machine because your body's only moving the direction of the machine.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:35

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:36

I feel like it's like less risky. Yeah. If you're just starting out. So.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 17:39

Yeah. Especially the really special machines like a hack squat or like a belt squat or something like that. Like you can get that at home, but you're spending a couple thousand dollars and taking up a pretty big footprint in your house for this one machine that does this one thing. Yeah. And it's pretty excessive.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 17:55

Yeah. I kind of feel like the only machine I would think you would get. It's like a tonal. Yeah. Because it can do a whole lot of different things, but damn, those are pretty pricey.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:04

Yeah. And then, the other thing is you probably have less total weight available at home. This is probably only an issue for maybe like squats and dead lifts and stuff like that, but you're gonna have to keep buying like 45 pound plates as you progress over time, so it's a little inconvenient.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 18:21

And I think like the biggest con I would say is just the price. I think unless you're going really, really limited equipment in your home gym, like you're probably never gonna beat the price of a commercial gym. Oh. Especially like something like Planet Fitness is really cheap and you have access to like ther massage chairs and whatever else.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 18:39

Yeah. It's really not a, like a cost thing for sure. Yeah. It's more of like convenience and spending less time. So as you start to build out some home equipment, some of the things you might want to upgrade down the road, this is definitely as long as you're sure you're gonna work out and you're consistently working out for more than a year or so, and this is a thing you think you're gonna do long term, is really when I would even start to think about, you know, upgrading to some of these things. But you could do something like a full modular power rack, so the big squat racks you see at the gym with all the holes in them. Because not only are they good for squats and bench press and they're really safe, but you can add a bunch of different attachments to it. So you can add a landmine attachment, which is where one side of the barbell is attached to the floor basically. And you can do a lot of different types of rows and presses and stuff with that you can add lever arms, which lets you do a lot of different exercises. There, there are a lot of different attachments that you can add to a rack and kind of expand the usefulness of your gym just around that one piece of equipment without buying entire machines for different things. So that's a really good option. Again, as long as you're like committed and you know you're gonna stick to it long term. Something else might be a couple of specialty barbells. Maybe if you have an injury or some discomfort or you just want to do a really particular movement pattern for an exercise, you could get something like a buffalo bar for the squat where it's like bent or you could get a trap bar for deadlifts or one that I really like. I have the safety squat bar, which I like for squats.'Cause I've got like a little bit of a shoulder issue that irritates if I do a normal one sometimes. So.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:06

Is that the one with the handles?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:07

Yeah, that's the one with the handles in the front.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:09

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:10

So that's really nice. They're also really good for good mornings, so people you could just kind of sitting on the back of your neck. It's got a big pad. And you just bend over. So those are pretty nice. And then also, an EZ curl bar.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:21

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:21

So it's like the one that's kind of zigzag in the middle.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:24

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:24

And helps your arms not have to lay completely flat while you're doing curls. It's just a little more comfortable. So I like those a lot. Something else that's interesting is like a multifunction bench. Uh, I just got one of these like a year or two ago. I got that Freak Athlete Hyper Pro, not sponsored or anything. I just really like it and I actually use it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:42

Is that the blue one?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:43

No, that's the orange thing that we do the leg extensions on.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 20:47

Oh yeah. That one is nice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 20:48

Yeah, so you, it does a lot of stuff. It's actually like a leg extension, leg curl, you can do glute ham raise and I, I think it's, it actually does like 12 or 13 different exercises. I almost exclusively use it for leg extensions and leg curls, just 'cause there's not really a great way to do those at home.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:03

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:03

But that's really good because you can put plates on it, but also it has an attachment to hook up if you have some kind of cable situation at home, you can just hook it up to there to add the weight to it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:12

It's like the Swiss Army knife of leg exercises.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:14

Yeah. And I was worried about it because like I saw it and I was like, oh man, something like, that's probably gonna be like really unstable and kind of chintzy. But actually I got it and it's really nice and stable and I use it three times a week. So.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:24

And you can kind of flip it up and push it against the wall, which is nice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:26

Oh yeah, yeah. It stands up and get it outta the way. And then maybe some form of cable station would be a good upgrade at some point. You mentioned the tonal, which is like super space saving 'cause it just attaches to the wall.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:37

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 21:37

It is pricey, but there are other options. There are actually cable stations that kind of, uh, integrate with a power rack so you can just attach it right there where your power rack already is. It doesn't take up much more space. But there are also some freestanding cable stations that, I mean, don't get me wrong, they're not cheap, but if you're gonna be keeping it for 20 years, 30 years, yeah, it seems to make sense.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 21:57

Yeah. I'm a big fan of the tonal. The subscription is crazy expensive. Yeah. But, uh, we canceled ours and we just use like free, free exercises. Yeah. Like make our own exercises.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:07

Yeah. Once you cancel the subscription on the tonal, it basically just turns into the cable machine at the gym.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:11

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:11

So you set your weight, grab the cables and attach whatever you want to it. I use all the normal gym cable attachments at this point.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:18

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:18

I've got a bunch of stuff for lat pull downs and rows and curls.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:21

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:21

And tricep extensions.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:22

And you can buy different attachments on like Etsy and stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:24

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:24

People have made attachments for the tonal that.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:26

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:27

Tonal doesn't sell.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:27

There's even a pedal to turn off and on the weight.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:29

Oh yeah. That is nice.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:30

Yeah, I mean, I think probably a third or more of my workout every time, uh, on the, the tonal cable station. So. Really highly recommend, but again, pretty pricey. But if you're thinking about it in terms of, you know, 20 or 30 years, maybe, I don't know how long we'll get outta that thing, but it'd be nice.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:44

I don't know. Electronics make me nervous, but.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:46

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 22:46

So far it's, you've had it, what, three years?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 22:48

Yeah, definitely seems like it's been worth it. We use it all the time. So to summarize, there, you start out simple upgrade things when you need, like, when they directly support your goals. And as you get more comfortable with knowing how consistent you're gonna be in the gym and how much having equipment for different things is really worth to you. And then stick to only buying things, in my opinion, that you expect to actually use multiple times a week long term.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:11

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:12

We got a couple benches, we got the barbell, we got the power rack and stuff like that. I've had some videos where I kinda show the gym, but I think everything we have that was a bigger purchase is in my workout every week. So I only bought things that really directly impact my goals.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:26

I did not.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:29

Well, there's some, there's some, some early days stuff down there, like, you know, the, the shake weights and the booty bands and some things like that that Yeah. Have been relegated to a dust bin somewhere, but.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:42

And sometimes I'll get like a hyper fixation where I'm like, I want to do nothing but like kickboxing workouts. So then I bought a heavy bag and speed bag combo, and now it, it like sits there and I don't use it that often.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:53

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 23:54

But it's fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 23:55

Yeah, it's fun and it's good to experiment with. And then like every once in a while you can be like, oh, I might hit the bag a couple times this week.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:00

Mm-hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:00

Yeah. Whatever.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:01

Yeah, I watch too much Rocky is the real problem.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:04

Rocky does make you wanna buy a punching bag, that's for sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:06

I mean, as long as you don't watch the fifth movie, I will watch that whole series, like from start to finish multiple times a year. I love.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:14

I thought the fifth one was your favorite one.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 24:15

No, the fifth one is garbage.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 24:19

Oh man. Okay. Moving on to our myth of the week for this week. So the myth we're talking about this week is that you need to feel the burn or feel the muscle or feel sore after your workout because they're all kind of the same myth, uh, for muscle growth to actually be working. So that's not really true. It can kind of work in one way. Like if you do feel the burn or you do feel sore, you can probably be pretty sure that you worked out that muscle, right? And that you did enough that it's going to stimulate muscle growth. But it doesn't really go the other way where if you don't feel those things, you didn't work the muscle, right? Like if you are increasing your, the weight that you did last time, or like the reps or the sets or whatever your progression is, and you're doing the movement pattern right. Like you're doing the right range of motion, you're doing the exercise the way you're supposed to do, then the muscle is working because that's how the movement gets done.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:12

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:12

So you don't really need to worry too much about whether or not you like feel it or you get a really big pump or a burn or you're sore afterwards. I wouldn't worry much about those things at all, really.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:22

The key is that you're like progressing. Yeah. Almost going to failure though, right?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:27

Right. Yeah. Definitely you wanna get to the point where you're coming within probably, three reps to failure or something like that, every set. And you want to feel like it's a challenge and it's a struggle while you're doing the workout.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:37

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:38

But that doesn't always equate into feeling the burn or feeling like you're sore afterwards. So.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:44

Totally unrelated story.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:46

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:46

But, so I had a hyperactive thyroid at one point, and I was on medication to like slow it down.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 25:51

Mm-hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 25:52

And they didn't tell me this was a side effect. So I found it out on my own. But I did my first like arm workout one, like after being on it for a couple of weeks. Yeah. And like the next morning I woke up and I couldn't lift my arms.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:05

Oh wow.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:05

I had to call off work because I couldn't lift them at all. Like, couldn't brush my hair, couldn't drive. Couldn't put on clothes.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:13

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:13

Like completely immobile.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:15

Yeah. Now imagine if you thought every workout after that, you were like, well, if it doesn't feel like this, it didn't work.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:22

I didn't do shit.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:24

Yeah. So anyway. Yeah. If you're doing it, if you're doing the exercise the way you're supposed to be doing the exercise, the muscle is working. Just make sure you're adding weight every time you try to do it. Also you put out another new YouTube video this week. What was this one about?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:37

This one is pumpkin spice seitan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:39

Oh.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:40

Um, so like dessert seitan.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:42

Yeah. I really like the pumpkin spice seitan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:43

Oh yeah. It's one of my favorites. It's like a good little fall snack.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:46

Mm-hmm.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 26:47

But if you've seen it on the website or any of my socials and you haven't tried it yet and you've been thinking about trying it, this video goes in depth on like what it should look like in every step and like, kind of like the texture and why I use certain ingredients.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 26:59

Okay. So if anybody out there has any ideas about podcast topics they wanna hear about, or any questions about what you heard here.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:06

Or recipe ideas.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:07

Or recipe ideas or questions about some of the recipes you see on Protein Deficient Vegans website, uh, let us know. You can send us a text with a link in the show notes and the show notes also have our websites, our social media, you can reach out to us pretty much any of those channels, and we are more than happy to talk to you and get back to you. And, if you leave the text message thing that sends us something where we can kind of reply on the podcast specifically if that's what you want. But, if you have a question in one of the other channels, we might mention it too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:33

Oh, totally random topic for anyone who paints their nails, but I don't know if you've used Moon Cat before, but it's a vegan cruelty-free nail polish, and I'm like obsessed with it because you got me a bunch of Halloween colors for my birthday and I love them, and one's magnetic. And you can use this little magnet and make it do all kinds of cool stuff.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:52

And the magnet thing is super cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 27:54

It's so much fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 27:55

As a spectator, I have to say, I'm, I've been playing with the magnet on the little paint samples you put on the box.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:02

This is obviously not sponsored 'cause we don't have enough people to get sponsored, but, but I'm just saying moon cat. Very cool.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:08

The colors I've seen are all really cool and they're all shiny and sparkly and all those other things I imagine people who paint their nails like to see.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:13

Yeah. Oh, a lot of fun.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:14

Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, I think that's all we had for this week. Do you wanna say bye?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 28:19

Bye.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 28:19

Bye everybody.