CHRISTINE: From the New York Times, you’re listening to the Wirecutter Show.
CAIRA: Hey everyone. It’s the Wirecutter Show. I’m Caira Blackwell.
CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset.
ROSIE: And I’m Rosie Guerin, and we work at Wirecutter, the product recommendation site from the New York Times.
CAIRA: Each week we bring you expert advice from our newsroom of 140 journalists who review everyday products that will make your life better.
CHRISTINE: Today’s episode of the Wirecutter Show is called Strength Training is For Everyone.
[SFX Iron Clank]
ROSIE: My Friends. I know that this whole thing is supposed to be New Year, new me, but we’re into Jan and it’s a new year and it’s the same me.
CHRISTINE: I feel like you’re giving up too soon.
ROSIE: I’m not giving up. I’m just willing to commit to this idea that I am the same person as I was last year.
CAIRA: Okay.
ROSIE: I hope I will grow and learn and one thing I am committed to is getting back into some sort of regular exercise. It’s always been an important part of my life, but I think in the last several years I have fallen off is a nicest way to put it.
CHRISTINE: With the two little humans being born.
ROSIE: Yeah.
CAIRA: It’s been three years exactly actually.
ROSIE: It’s tacky to blame them for everything.
CHRISTINE: It’s okay, you get a pass.
ROSIE: But I really do want to get back to some of that baseline because I’ve always really loved strength training. What’s your relationship to it?
CHRISTINE: I actually, this past year just got more serious about strength training. I had lifted weights since my early 30s because I was like, “Oh, when you hit 30, that’s when you start losing all your muscle.” And so I started lifting weights.
CAIRA: Wait, what age? I thought I had at least 20 years.
ROSIE: No.
CHRISTINE: Well, no, it’s once you hit your thirties, and into your forties, you start losing muscle mass and strength. So this year I actually hired a trainer because I wanted to learn how to do things like a deadlift with a barbell and I want to…
ROSIE: Do a pull-up.
CHRISTINE: I want to do a pull-up. I mean, that is a major goal of mine. I would love to do a pull-up. I can do an assisted, but I cannot do a real one.
CAIRA: My arms are for aesthetics only. Really sad.
CHRISTINE: Today we’re going to focus on strength. And we’re not talking about getting jacked –
CAIRA: Though if you wanna do that, more power to you.
CHRISTINE: For sure. But we’re talking about the kind of strength training that’s good for everyone. Building and maintaining the muscles you need for everyday movement. There’s a ton of research showing that basic strength training can lower your risk of heart disease and even certain cancers. Plus, it helps lengthen your health-span.
CAIRA: Your what now?
CHRISTINE: Your health-span! It’s like your life-span… but better. Because your health-span isn’t just how long you live… it’s how long you stay healthy and active.
CAIRA: Usually when you say that there’s mounting evidence for something, it’s like something that’s objectively bad for our health and I’m like, oh, that sucks. But you saying that working out is objectively good for your health is really bumming me out.
ROSIE: And it’s not just for January. This is…
CHRISTINE: It’s like every month.
CAIRA: Yeah. For the rest of your life.
But today we’re going to be bringing on two of our Wirecutter colleagues who know a lot about this topic. First, we’ll talk with Ingrid Skjong, who was our fitness writer for many years and is still a certified personal trainer. We’ll talk with her about why anyone should incorporate strength training into their fitness routine and how to get started or how to progress if you’ve already had practice.
CHRISTINE: And then we’ll talk with Seth Berkman, our current fitness writer who has tested a ton of strength training gear. He’s going to walk us through some simple gear you can invest in to strength train at home, and he’s going to cover everything from really inexpensive resistance bands to things like adjustable dumbbells, which are super useful. Imagine regular dumbbells but with interchangeable weights so you can make one set weigh more and more.
CAIRA: We’re going to take a quick break and then we’ll be right back.
CAIRA: Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show. With us now is Ingrid Skjong, who is our former fitness writer and our current editor of our large appliance coverage. She’s a certified personal trainer by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and she’s written Wirecutter guides to adjustable dumbbells, resistance bands, foam rollers, and many, many more.
CHRISTINE: Ingrid, welcome to the show.
INGRID: Thank you for having me.
CAIRA: Yeah, we’re so happy to have you here. I do just want to say all the suggestions and ideas that we’re going to make today are not going to work for every person. Everybody has different bodies and it’s a good rule of thumb to just check in with your doctor or a healthcare professional before you begin exploring new activities like strength training. Just putting that out there.
ROSIE: Don’t email Ingrid.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, this is not medical advice.
INGRID: Thank you.
CHRISTINE: Ingrid, you have been working at Wirecutter since 2019 when you became one of our fitness writers. What a time to come in and be a fitness writer at Wirecutter because wow, you got to test fitness equipment during the pandemic. That was like high watermark for people building out a home gym.
INGRID: That’s right. Everybody wanted something for home. I had at least two exercise bikes at one point in my apartment. I did adjustable dumbbells. There were piles of yoga mats at a certain point, so it was actually good. I got very real world testing.
CAIRA: Well before Wirecutter, you actually worked as a personal trainer in New York City. What kind of clients did you work with?
INGRID: I worked with a really wide range of clients. I had people who wanted to just get back to consistent exercise, people who were really interested in starting strength training and were completely new to that. I had some pregnant and postpartum people. I had older clients, a whole wide range, and everyone has their own reason for coming to a gym and wanting to work out, so it’s very interesting.
CHRISTINE: Only recently have I gotten serious about lifting weights, but there’s a lot of different ways to strength train. How do you define strength training? It’s not just lifting weights, right?
INGRID: Right. So strength training or resistance training involves moving your muscles against an external load or force. So when you think about it in that exercise context, you are lifting a dumbbell, you are pulling against a resistance band or even using your own body weight as resistance.
CHRISTINE: Who is strength training really for and why is it important to strength train?
INGRID: Strength training is really for everyone. It can almost always be modified or scaled to meet a person where they are, and as humans age, we tend to lose muscle mass. So strength training really steps in and is a really important way to combat that. It’s been shown to help build bone density, to help increase range of motion in joints, to help protect your joints, increasing stability, just bodily stability and helping to make those daily activities and tasks feel a little bit easier. If you think about the basic movements, they really do mimic a lot of movements that you see out in the world. You’re taking things off a high shelf, you’re taking a kid out of a bathtub or taking things out of a trunk. There’s just so many movements that you don’t even think about that strength training can really help with.
CAIRA: If you’re not already in a strength training program or you don’t have a personal trainer, it can feel really hard to start. Christine has actually been an inspiration to me because she has been humble in saying that she’s starting to take it seriously. She is taking it seriously.
CHRISTINE: Well, I’m also 20 years older than Caira.
CAIRA: But that’s the thing. I’m younger, but I really do feel like I’m not as healthy and I would love to get into it. So Ingrid, we really want you to put your personal trainer hat on and if you’re working with someone who’s trying to break into strength training or pick it back up, where would you recommend people start?
INGRID: One of the hurdles I think is thinking about what exercises to do.
I like to look at it from the vantage point of compound exercises and foundational movements. So a compound exercise is one that uses more than one joint and several muscle groups all at once more bang for your buck, essentially. Think about a squat versus a bicep curl so you’re using more. And also these foundational movements that we were kind of talking about earlier, pulling, pushing, squatting, a hip hinge, which is the movement that a deadlift requires. Also lunges, more one-legged movements, core exercises, and maybe even a loaded carry where you’re carrying a weight for a distance. Thinking about them in that way can help figure out at least a place to start. And then how want to do it is the other piece. This can depend on if you’re gym-focused or if you’re home-focused. You can use your own body weight for resistance. You can do push-ups, squats, planks, lunges, things that work those foundational movements but aren’t necessarily loaded yet.
Other ways to go about the strength training are weight machines kind of keeps you in line. It has bumpers to help you with the movements. That can be a nice way to start with the strength training and then move into free weights, dumbbells, barbells, even kettlebells, which gives you a little more freedom than the weight machines, but also require a little more technique and being cognizant of your form when you’re doing the exercises.
CHRISTINE: Is there a number of sets or reps you should be shooting for at first?
INGRID: So I would aim for two to three sets of eight to 12 repetitions of whatever exercise you’re thinking of doing. And if you get to those last few reps and you’re feeling like it’s a little bit of a challenge but not impossible like you haven’t maxed out, that’s a nice sweet spot to reach because you’re not exhausting yourself but you still feel like you’re being a little bit challenged.
CHRISTINE: Ingrid, I actually wanted to get into free weights and so I started working with a trainer because I was very intimidated by just going into a weight room and lifting. But I think something that is pretty important is getting your form down. You need to perfect the form before you really load up with weight because you can really hurt yourself
INGRID: Yes. And jumping in with a lot of weight can A, be a recipe for an injury, but also be really frustrating because if you’re entering in above what you can handle, it’s not going to be fun and you’re going to feel very defeated right out of the gate, which is not what we want.
CHRISTINE: So it can even be better to lift a little lighter doing it with perfect form than it is to kind of ignore your form and do it with more weight.
INGRID: And I don’t think it needs to be perfect, but I think just from a safety point of view, being able to do it pretty much right is good. It’s definitely one of those things where any sort of blip in your form is magnified under weight and you definitely want to clean that up before you start loading.
ROSIE: So there are clearly a great many ways to strengthen muscles, but Ingrid, if someone is interested in lifting weights specifically, is the idea to start lifting heavy weights as soon as possible?
INGRID: No. Trying to lift a weight that’s beyond what you’re ready for is not great. There are different ways to go about strength training and if you start working with a personal trainer, they’ll be able to sort of parse this type of thing out for you, talk about your goals, see what you really want to accomplish. So if you are training for strength, that’s typically going to be a heavier weight lifted for fewer repetitions. If you’re training for building muscle, that is typically lighter weights, more repetitions and depending on your goals, it’s not always the weight that can be the variable that changes. There are lots of variables when it comes to training that can change things up enough where you are moving yourself along in a way that you should be so you can fiddle with the rest time between sets. You can mix up the tempo of how you’re lifting the number of reps and sets order of the exercises. So there are different ways outside of just adding more weight.
ROSIE: So when we use that term heavy, what do we mean, or what does that mean to you?
INGRID: So it’s definitely a relative term and it’s often calculated with something called the one rep max. Basically a one rep max is the maximum amount of weight that you can lift for one repetition of a certain exercise. So if you’re working with a personal trainer, let’s say, and you have strength goals, you want to deadlift 200 pounds or just increase your strength, you would do a one rep max test and then the higher range of those percentages is going to be heavy. So NASM, for instance, the National Academy of Sports Medicine says that at least 85% of that one rep max would be considered heavy for one of their strengths training protocols.
CAIRA: So the term progressive overload might pop up for anybody who’s trying to learn more about strength training, but what does that actually mean and how should you think about it as you apply it to your strength training journey?
INGRID: Progressive overload is incrementally challenging muscles with an intensity that they are not used to and eventually the body adapts to that intensity, it kind of levels up and then is ready for more. And so you keep doing that over 6, 8, 12 week program and by the end you’ve pushed things along. That adaptation is where the physiological changes start to happen.
CHRISTINE: So let’s talk about how frequently one should be doing strength training. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends strength training at least two times a week. Do you think that’s a good place to start if you’re already lifting that many times? Should you go up from there?
INGRID: Yeah, I think two times a week is a really good place to start. I think it allows for rest between the sessions so you can work out, have a rest, and then come back and do something else the next time. And the stronger and more experienced, you can increase the number of days that you strength train, focusing again on building a well-rounded program that’s really hitting all the muscle groups and as you increase the days, you do want to think about rest. Rest is a component of exercise, I think is an often forgotten component of exercise because people tend to just want to go, I mean, not everybody, but.
ROSIE: Yeah, I was going to say for me personally, I started to really enjoy the days between and I liked how it felt and I really put a lot of emphasis on that rest until I woke up one day and realized, “Huh, I haven’t been in the gym in for years.”
CHRISTINE: Full time rester.
INGRID: Full time rester, yes, but it can be important for physiological benefits too, to give yourself rest between days.
CAIRA: I feel compelled to ask. My brothers used to play football and during the summer they would do something called two-a-days, which is basically when you have two full practices in one day. And I’ve really taken that approach to most things that I hate, which is cram it all in at once and then you don’t have to think about it again for a long time. Is that a bad idea? Can you just get it all done at once, once a week and call it a day or is that not a good recipe?
INGRID: You can get it all done in one session. There is research showing that one session a week can be beneficial, particularly to those who are very new to it or haven’t done it for a while. But honestly, if it comes down to doing it or not doing it and you have one day and 30 minutes, I think doing it on that one day is more important than trying to then do the gymnastics to try to get to. I think people have a very all-or-nothing approach when it comes to exercise and being a little kind to yourself and saying, “If I can get 20 minutes here, I’m going to do it and that’s good. And then if I can get 20 minutes tomorrow, great.”
ROSIE: I’m curious, Ingrid about this idea of strength training and maybe it looks like PT prior to perhaps a surgery, maybe cancer treatment for older folks who may have mobility struggles, the idea of strengthening your body ahead of something you’re going into, what are your thoughts around that?
INGRID: In general, you’d always want to check with a PT or your doctor to make sure that that is something that you’re in a position to do, but I do think strength training, it’s been shown to help increase range of motion. It’s been shown to help protect your joints and in general, I think anything you can do to keep yourself strong and mobile going into any one of those scenarios would be beneficial on the other side of it.
ROSIE: Yeah, we often hear about rehab or physical therapy after something like a surgery, but I think the idea of doing something in anticipation of, for me that was a new concept as of the last several years, thinking about that.
INGRID: Yeah, I think it kind of runs adjacent to the idea of prehab exercises. So I’m a runner and I do a lot of smaller exercises with loop bands that are done with the intention of hopefully staving off injury and just making me better prepared to run. And I think that can be applied to those scenarios too.
CHRISTINE: And even on a macro level, I just sent my mom an article about how strength training can help prevent falls in older adults, right? You’re preparing for life, you’re preparing for getting older and keeping your body strong.
INGRID: Yes, and that is why I have sent my mother resistance bands and said, “Mom…”
CHRISTINE: The perfect Mother’s Day gift.
INGRID: And a custom plan and try to get her to do it because it does pay off. Focusing on stability as you get older, focusing on strength really does make those daily activities easier, but also if something does go wrong, might position you a little better.
ROSIE: Later in this episode we’re going to talk to Wirecutter senior staff fitness writer Seth Berkman, about how to think about building out a home gym because I think a lot of these things can be done at home and so we’ll talk about that in the products that you might want to consider when doing so. But Ingrid, if someone’s interested in actually leaving the house, I can’t imagine why and going to a gym, which admittedly can be intimidating, especially if you’re a woman, if you’re old or if you have a disability, so on so forth. What is your guidance and advice for folks who may feel vulnerable or uncomfortable in that environment?
INGRID: Yeah, I would say first shop around. If there are different gym options available to you where you live, take a tour of them, do some research to get an idea of what the feel is at the gym, what the approach is. If there is only one option for you, go in with a plan. Really think before you go, what piece of equipment you’re going to head to, how long you’re going to be there, and then what you’re going to do after that. It can really help to have a set strategy in place. You know exactly what you’re going to do, that can go a long way. Going in with a friend, it can always be a little more fun and a little more comfortable when you have a workout buddy with you. Consider what time of day you go. Sometimes going when it’s less busy can give you a little more room to breathe and move and not feel like you’re under a microscope and then teaming up with a personal trainer if it’s within your budget, if it’s something that you feel like you will make use of and are in a position to commit to, having someone there who knows the lay of the land and can take the programming piece out of it for you can be really helpful too.
CHRISTINE: I want to ask more about that because I recently worked with a personal trainer. It was a really good experience. I only did it for a limited amount of time because I didn’t want to spend that money for the long-term. But if somebody is interested in working with a personal trainer, what is your advice for finding the right trainer to work with?
INGRID: It’s a good question. I think finding the right person can kind of make or break the experience and also sort of your ongoing relationship with exercise. So I would say first and foremost, be as specific as you can about your goals. That can really help focus in on someone who is going to be best positioned to help get you to where you want to go. If you are asking in a gym about personal training, the manager of the personal training outfit often will have an idea of the expertise that’s available and the trainers that are available and that can be helpful. Asking about certifications and specializations is important. Your trainer should hold a certificate from a recognized organization like the National Academy of Sports Medicine or the American College of Sports Medicine. And then I would also say schedule an assessment or a trial with them if you can. A good personal trainer will do an assessment with you to get a sense of your goals, to also see how you move, which can really help with the programming and also just to get acquainted with you. And a trial can be kind of a low-lift, no pun intended, way to see if you like them.
CHRISTINE: All right, so Ingrid, just to recap what we’ve talked about because this has been a great conversation. If you’re new to strength training, first of all, the big headline here is everybody should be strength training. It’s important for your overall health. There’s lots and lots of reasons why this is a really good thing to do. You can start out kind of small focus on your form, but the important thing to think about with strength training is this idea of progression and as you progress in weight, you’re going to be building your muscle and starting out two days a week is a great place to start.
CAIRA: Or one super packed day.
CHRISTINE: Or one super packed day if you’re ambitious Caira.
ROSIE: Thanks Ingrid.
CAIRA: Thanks Ingrid.
CHRISTINE: Thank you.
INGRID: Thank you.
CHRISTINE: Okay, so we’re going to take a quick break and when we’re back, we’re going to get into the strength training gear our fitness writer Seth Berkman recommends for a home gym. We’ll be right back.
CHRISTINE: Welcome back to the Wirecutter Show. This episode is all about strength training, what you can do at home and when it might be worth going to a gym and the products that can help you get a jump start. Earlier we spoke with Ingrid Skjong about the basics of strength training and how to start.
CAIRA: And now we’re going to chat with Seth Berkman, who is a senior staff fitness writer who covers everything from fitness trackers to running shoes. He’s a self-proclaimed avid slow runner who can usually be found in our Long Island City office, testing, rowing machines, treadmills, and massage guns plus massage chairs, which is really fun. He’s going to walk us through some basic inexpensive gear you can invest in to strength train at home.
CHRISTINE: Welcome to the Wirecutter Show.
SETH: Thanks for having me. I feel like I’m part of the cool kids club.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, you definitely are. You’ve made it.
ROSIE: You’re welcome.
CAIRA: So pumped.
CHRISTINE: Well, Seth, I’m really excited to have you on the show today. People can literally buy thousands of different products for their home gym, including really expensive barbell setups, but today we really want to cover this in a approachable way. Let’s talk through the options and let’s approach it by cost so we can take it by small, medium, and large. If someone is just starting out and wants to get into just the basic gear, what are the first things you’d recommend?
SETH: One of the first things I would recommend are a set of resistance bands. You can buy these in many different formats. They have some with handles, which you would see most commonly that you would hang over a door or something like that and do a lot of pulling exercises. But then you can also buy resistance bands. They’re called super bands or some people call them pull-up bands and they’re the longer latex or natural rubber bands that you might see that can go anywhere in length about four to five feet, but they can also extend and stretch longer. So those are really helpful as the name kind of indicates pull-up bands. They can assist you with pull-ups where if you can’t necessarily do a pull-up on your own, you can tie them either around a bar or a band and put your knee or even your foot in them to kind of give you that boost to do a pull-up motion. Resistance bands are relatively inexpensive. You can buy a lot of them individually, but we mostly recommend sets for them, so you do get four to five different bands of varying weight. So if you start out with say, the smallest resistance, that might just be five to 10 pounds on a band. As you get stronger, you can build your way up to more resistance, more pounds and grow strength in that manner.
CHRISTINE: I was using our resistance band, the ones with the handles this morning.
CAIRA: Oh, were you? I was going to say, I think we both need the pull-up band.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, I definitely need the pull-up bands.
SETH: I also can’t do a push-up, so.
CHRISTINE: Okay, so bands are a great place to start. They’re very accessible. You can use them in a bunch of different ways. There are other things in this sort of first category, the small category that you’d recommend getting?
SETH: Yeah, it’s also great to get a kettlebell and I think some people get intimidated by a kettlebell because it just looks like a big hunk of metal, essentially like a cannonball almost, and they think, “Oh, that’s heavy. It’s unwieldy too,” because you do have the bell shape in the bottom and then a handle, but you can find kettlebells three to four pounds, very manageable weight for most people just to start out and they’re great for stabilization exercises, but also lifting as well.
You can curl a kettlebell like you would a dumbbell for bicep training or strength that way. I use kettle bells actually on the floor, so you put one hand on the kettlebell to kind of raise your body in a way, and then your other hand is on the floor and doing push-ups that way. They are great for swings and things like that, squats as well. So really not just for strength training, but all kinds of exercises.
CHRISTINE: What’s the advantage of, if you don’t have weights at home right now, what’s the advantage of buying a kettlebell first versus maybe buying a couple of five pound weights or something like that?
SETH: The versatility of a kettlebell, it’s more natural I think for some people to hold with two hands. Whereas if you were to buy a five pound dumbbell, let’s say it has that very particular shape where kettlebell much more conducive for swinging and kind of holding with the two-handed motion for maybe those stabilization exercises that you’re looking for.
CAIRA: I wish I had talked to you before I bought one set of five pound regular dumbbells and then another set of 10 pounds and now I just have a bunch of dumbbells around my house that I never use.
CHRISTINE: I feel like the kettlebells also look tougher.
CAIRA: They do.
SETH: They do.
CHRISTINE: It’s like if you walk in and you see two five pound weights, you’re like, “Oh yeah, they do have a little bit of weight.” But if you see a kettlebell, you’re like, it doesn’t matter how heavy it is. It’s like that person’s serious.
CAIRA: And you can consolidate them and just shove them in a corner or something.
SETH: They make great door stops too.
CHRISTINE: That’s true. That’s true. I like that.
Anything else in this category?
SETH: Yeah, I would definitely recommend a yoga mat. You think about strengths training, that might not be the first thing, but a yoga mat serves great purpose in terms of just giving you stabilizing surface, but also there are exercises that you can do for strengths training where you will be laying on your back and so to have that little bit of padding underneath you definitely helps as well. And you can find a good yoga mat for 20, $25 and it should last you many years.
CHRISTINE: So you can essentially get a suite of these things for maybe under a hundred bucks?
SETH: For sure. Yeah, and that’s something I would always kind of recommend to someone is you don’t want to hop in right away and buy the 200 pound set of weights or something like that. One, you want to be sure that you’re starting at a place where you feel comfortable with, but also in terms of long-term usage of it, you don’t want it to be a wasted investment. You want to be sure, “Oh, this is something I can stick with or something I want to continue doing.” And you can find these very basic entry level beginner level tools for strength training, all each costing around $20 or less, and if you were to buy them all together, you could probably get yourself a good “starter set” for under a hundred dollars.
ROSIE: So Seth, speaking of price if you go into a store or how about Amazon for any of these products, there are literally thousands of options. Some of these resistance bands or yoga mats, I’m curious what is going to make one better than another?
SETH: So one thing that you want to consider when it comes to items like yoga mats or resistance bands is material. If someone has a latex allergy, a lot of the yoga mats or resistance bands, you cannot buy because they are with latex. So you’re looking for something that would not have latex, which they do make. There’s also very, I don’t know if you would call them cosmetic factors, but some of those products, because they’re made from natural rubber or latex, they do have a smell to them that you might find offensive or using resistance bands after a while, many of them, your hands will smell rubbery and you want to wash them off or they may have a greasy feel to them. Sometimes companies put powder like a talc or cornstarch on resistance bands because it’s supposed to help with the grip, but some people don’t like that tactile feel of having the powdery substance residue on their hands afterwards.
Those are some things to consider.
You also want to look at warranty. I think that’s always a big thing. You may find a set of resistance bands for $10 or something and you think, “Oh, that’s a great deal,” but any resistance band will snap on you at some point. The idea is to try to get one that will last maybe a year, maybe two years or something. And if you see a company has a warranty for a year, some companies have lifetime warranties where if you buy one and it snaps three years from now you can get a replacement band. So that’s something to consider in terms of purchase and price too is if you’re able to replace it at little to no cost. And then another thing I would also just consider when you talk about looking at so many options is do look at the user reviews. A lot of times people will include photos thinking about how long you’re going to be able to use this, but also in the safest manner possible is pretty important.
CAIRA: So Seth, can we talk about that medium cost here? What are some things that you might spend a little bit more money on that can help with an at-home strength training regiment?
SETH: Yeah, once you’re looking to increase your strength training a bit, one of the first things I would look at is a pull-up bar. And so pull-up bars are interesting exercise tools because a lot of the ones that you see used are the kind that you can essentially just hook on the back of a door. Most of them do come with nuts and bolts and ways to affix it in a more permanent way, but people like that ability to just attach it on the door, do some pull-ups, take it down. Pull-ups are a great exercise. They’re definitely not the easiest of exercises.
CAIRA: Impossible, some might say.
CHRISTINE: I feel like it’s the white whale. I feel it’s like, especially for a lot of women, I feel like men tend to have more… I don’t feel this way upper, I know. A lot of men have more upper body strength, but yeah, it’s a hard exercise to do.
SETH: And that’s where resistance bands could be a great assist to that. Just the sense of being able to do a pull-up is really gratifying in a way that self-confidence boost that it brings to you using pull-up band or resistance band along with it may give someone confidence. And so once they’re able to do that and challenge themselves, and maybe go down to smaller weighted resistance bands and then hopefully at one point not use a resistance band at all. Once you’re able to incorporate pull-ups into your workout routine strength training, the benefits are really innumerable.
You can also use pull-up bars if you don’t do push-ups well or you struggle to do push-ups. A lot of pull-up bars are designed where if you take it off the door and then put it on the floor with the handles facing you and do push-ups with that, that kind of gives you an assist for doing push-ups on the floor.
CHRISTINE: So Seth, our pull-up bar pick is from Ultimate Body Press. How much is this thing gonna cost somebody?
SETH: Our pick is in the range of about 60 to $70, so our pick is really big. We called it the “Texas pick” one because it’s really big, but also some of the handles look like Longhorns that you would see on a steer or cattle. One of the things we like about it has four or five different handle placements. So you have the traditional two handles in front, but there are also handles on the side, so you can do pull-ups from various angles on that one. The one thing that I would mention about pull-up bar is storage might be a problem if you don’t have the biggest apartments or rooms or spaces. They don’t break down or fold or collapse. One of our testers, he has the Texas pick now and he keeps it in his bathtub essentially just because that’s the only space that is big enough but also kind of conducive for the shape of a pull-up bar.
ROSIE: All right, Seth. Final category, this higher cost tier, what are some things that might be a bit of an investment but we’ll pay off later down the line?
SETH: So that next level out, a set of adjustable dumbbells could really help improve strength training and that is a bit of an investment. The set that we recommend now normally retails for about 360, $370, but they’re great for you think of the traditional arm curl exercises, but all kinds of arm exercises, chest exercises and adjustable dumbbells are great because most of them should be relatively easy to clean and maintain and the ones that we test and we really look to kind of recommend are very simple to adjust. Hence, the name adjustable dumbbells where it’s either as simple as twisting a handle or pressing a button and you go from five pounds to 10 pounds to 15 pounds within the matter of one or two seconds.
CAIRA: I was looking at your adjustable dumbbell guide a while ago because I was looking to buy some and I decided not to because they were very expensive. A, why are they so expensive and B, can I test some adjustable dumbbells because the ones that I bought instead were super cheap and they suck, so I made the wrong choice, obviously.
SETH: Yeah, that’s a really good question. The set that we recommend now from Core Home Fitness, they’re on the lower end actually in terms of price. I was just talking with my editor Tracy today about a new set that came out and they look pretty fancy. There’s $720 for a set of adjustable dumbbells. Ours are like half the price.
CAIRA: Okay.
SETH: And so when you think of price, some of it is material. I like the ones we have now because the handle is smooth. When I used to lift weights with traditional dumbbells, I would often get calluses if I didn’t wear gloves on my hands, but some people want that. So some of the adjustable dumbbells will have a metal knurled handle. That’s when you get that feeling of just like thousands of little bumps on the handle. It’s supposed to help with your grip. One of the flaws, but not deal-breakers for our recurrent pick is the cradle is essentially plastic. And so it’s not the strongest. And actually our biggest qualm over the years with the core dumbbells is so they go up to 50 pounds. So if you set it to 50 pounds and then pull it out, it will get stuck in the cradle. So you have to either put your foot on the edge of the cradle or you need some kind of resistance to actually pull the dumbbell at its full weight out of the cradle.
CAIRA: Well, that’s a workout.
SETH: Yes.
ROSIE: This sounds like a lot of rigmarole.
CHRISTINE: But they don’t take up that much space. That’s the plus side. If you were to get that much of a weight range, like let’s say five to 50 pounds in individual dumbbells and you’d have to buy a lot and they’d take up a lot of space, right?
SETH: Right. You’d have to buy essentially 10 different sets that would take up more space and definitely more money in having the individual ones.
CAIRA: Okay, so what I’m hearing, Seth, is that if you’re a beginner and you’re really just trying to get into strength training, the best thing you can do for yourself is start small. That means just a yoga mat, maybe a kettlebell and resistance bands, and then if you want to keep ramping it up from there, you can get a pull-up bar and then the ultimate final boss adjustable dumbbells. Is that right?
SETH: Yeah.
CAIRA: So before we wrap, we always ask your guests one final question. What’s the last thing you bought that you’ve really loved?
SETH: It’s very on-brand I guess, but just this summer when we started testing, so I have jump ropes now and I love jumping rope. I’m crazy about jumping rope.
CHRISTINE: Yeah. What’s your favorite jump rope?
SETH: So we recommend this brand called KSY. It’s made in Korea and it was created by this guy who was a championship jump roper, and so literally I could never jump rope before and then this summer just very slowly trying and then now I jump rope every day. It’s sort of like…
CHRISTINE: What makes this jump rope so awesome?
SETH: Handles are a big thing, I feel for a lot of jump ropes, just the tactile feel that you get and they’re smooth, but they have a little bit of grip to them. The design also was very nice. Handles have a very sort of, not psychedelic, but-
CHRISTINE: I don’t know if you jump rope for five minutes, it feels psychedelic.
CAIRA: Feel like torture.
SETH: More intricate design. But the other day I was like, “Maybe I’m too into this,” because I was doing my laundry, but I was jumping rope in my laundry room in my apartment.
CAIRA: That’s psychotic.
SETH: Yeah.
ROSIE: Seth, thank you so much for joining us. This has been really great.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, thank you.
ROSIE: Thanks, Seth.
SETH: Thanks for having me.
ROSIE: What a one two punch we had today.
CHRISTINE: Wow. A lineup.
ROSIE: Ingrid and Seth.
CHRISTINE: For real. Can we work out with that?
CAIRA: I’m not ready for that, Christine.
CHRISTINE: I’m doing it.
ROSIE: What are your takeaways from this double feature?
CAIRA: I think my takeaway is that I need to test adjustable dumbbells with Seth before I commit to buying them because…
ROSIE: That’s fair.
CAIRA: … I don’t want to buy them right away and not use them, so I want to make sure I find a pair that I actually like.
CHRISTINE: Yeah, that’s the advantage of working here is you can try things out.
ROSIE: Yeah, for me I think it’s that you can get a setup going for a home gym, maybe yoga mat, resistance bands, kettlebell for under a hundred dollars and I think that is terrific, particularly for folks who are kind of dipping their toe in. I think the other thing for me is when I get back into lifting this year, which since I’ve said it on mic and all of you are my witnesses…
CHRISTINE: You’re committed.
ROSIE: I am committed, I shouldn’t start heavy. I got to set my ego aside just because once I could lift a lot, doesn’t mean I still can.
CAIRA: But you’ll get there.
ROSIE: But I’ll get there. Slow and steady wins the race.
CHRISTINE: That’s right.
My takeaway is that I am going to get a pair of super bands, the bands that Seth recommended for doing assisted pull-ups. I have a lot of different types of bands at home, but I don’t have this type of band.
CAIRA: Catch that white whale, Christine.
CHRISTINE: That’s right. I’m going to do pull-ups. I want to do a pull-up by the end…
ROSIE: You got this.
CHRISTINE: … the end of the year. So I want to do an unassisted. So I’m going to be assisted for quite a while, but I’m going to get some of those.
ROSIE: Well, if you want to find out more about Wirecutter coverage or if you want to check out any of the products we recommended today, go to nytimes.com/wirecutter or of course you can find a link in the show notes. Stay strong my friends. That’s it for us. See you next week. See you.
Bye.
CAIRA: Here’s what’s coming up next week on the Wirecutter Show.
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Make sure you’re following the show on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss it. The Wire Cutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Editing by Abigail Keel, engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman.
Today’s episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Alicia [inaudible 00:40:35] and Diane Wong.
Wirecutter’s, Deputy Publisher and Interim General Manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wire Cutters editor. I’m Caira Blackwell.
CHRISTINE: I’m Christine Cyr Clisset.
ROSIE: And I’m Rosie Guerin.
CAIRA: Thanks for listening.
