One thing I really liked about the P90X program was that it only required a set of dumbbells (and a pull up bar) and if you have a set of adjustable dumbbells the space required for your workout area is minimal.
But… there are a few exercises that require (or are easier to execute) with an exercise bench. Which exercises you might ask? Well for me the key ones are bench press, inline and decline. Now you’re probably saying “Push ups do all that” and you’re right. Problem is, I have something going on with my right shoulder and it really shows up when I try to do push ups. With push ups you can’t really adjust the “weight” so I thought that using a bench and dumbbells would let me continue to work the muscle but fine tune and adjust the weight.
Where to find a weight bench. You should know – I’m cheap. Additionally I believe that the more sports equipment costs, the more you are paying for branding and marketing. Let’s face it, my tennis game would not improve 5% if I played with Rafael Nadal’s racquet and he could beat me like a rented mule using a $15 junior racket from Walmart. So my hunt started at Walmart.
I liked this one http://www.walmart.com/ip/CAP-Strength-FID-Bench/8145312?findingMethod=rr
I also considered making one and this one had a very utilitarian vibe going for it. http://www.instructables.com/id/Weight-Bench-5-positionFlatIncline-doubles-as-/
But ultimately I found one on Craigslist and grabbed it up for $35.
So with winter in full force (tennis balls don’t bounce in the cold) I am limited to Monday morning early-bird indoor tennis on Mondays (6:30 AM – uuuuugggghhh) so it’s 3 days of strength and a couple of days of cardio (treadmill or bike).
But remember “The pain of being overweight is far worse than the pain of working out”.
