With Christmas just around the corner, I thought I would take a moment to share with you the bits and pieces of kit, equipment and supplements) I’ve added to my life and then kept there because I just wouldn’t be without them anymore. The things I would classify as essentials now.
With everything listed here I have just one wish – that I’d discovered them about 20 years earlier.
Supplements
I’ve tried quite a few different combinations over the last few years and have settled on the following as the essentials for me at the moment:
Pill popping Ammi
- Fish oil – If I leave this out for a while I find my hair getting less glossy and my joints get a bit creaky. I even have a favourite brand – the strongest one on the UK market.
- Glucosamine condroitin – I can’t actually tell the difference with this one if I stop taking it, but the research supports the fact that, long-term I should be taking it.
- Vitamin D – I live in the UK and I do a desk job that keeps me indoor all day when the weak sun we have here is out and about. Since I started taking this I’ve felt happier, healthier and when I’ve had colds they’ve been the kind that make my nose run without the fuggy head to go with it. (Except colds brought on by sudden removal of extreme stress which are still bad, but they aren’t really colds.)
- Magnesium – This has made an amazing change to my life. I will never again go without a sack of Epsom Salts in the bathroom.
![]( "Magnesium")
Magnesium Epsom Salts
- Digestive supplements – When I am more stressed I take digestive enzymes, probiotics and hydrochloric acid tablets with my meals to aid with digestion. I’ve found it reduces the digestion problems I otherwise get at times of stress and also seems to result in better nutrient extraction (I certainly seem to show less nutrient deficiency than I used to).
Mooncup
The mooncup is a brand of vaginal cup for collecting menstrual flow. It’s made of silicone and sits inside the vagina unobtrusively collecting menstrual flow.
Mooncup
Thanks to this I haven’t bought tampons or other sanitary products for years now and the mooncup has more than paid for itself in the money I’ve saved and the peace of mind. It is clean, quick and easy.
If I think my period might start while on holiday, I can just slip this into my washbag or rucksack. I no longer have to worry that I might have a forgetful morning during my period week and fail to take sufficient sanitary products to get me through the work day – if I need to I can just empty it into the toilet and start again.
Every woman, without exception, should have one of these. In fact, they should give one away to every girl as she reaches puberty. It would solve so many financial and environmental problems.
If I had the choice I’d live in these all the time. As it is I tend to wear them for work if I’m not in my home office or with a client and am therefore with people who don’t know me so well. In fact, in 14 months I’ve worn them so much, both indoors and on long-distance treks, that I’ve worn through the rubber soles in a few places, the sole is almost worn through elsewhere, the fabric has a hole on the top along one of the seams and I’m just counting the days until the next shipment of Vibrams arrives in the UK at the start of January (with plenty in my size again – currently there are none available in the UK in my size unless I’m prepared to trek to the other end of the country since I need to do a re-fit to a new size and want to look at the new designs and sole thicknesses).
My dying Vibrams
The rubber has completely worn through in places and it's so thin across the ball of the foot now that the ripple grip has all gone
Free weights
It might seem excessive to have your own free weights and, to be fair, we have two of us using them, which makes it more worthwhile. Despite all of that I would strongly recommend people get their own free weights if they have a corner of a room where they can be fitted.
Just a few of our free weights plates (the rack would be full if they weren't scattered round the garage)
Free weights have done more for my body composition, health and well-being than anything else you’ll find in a gym and they aren’t that expensive to set yourself up with a basic collection. We treated ourselves to a cheap squat rack from Decathlon, which was probably the most expensive bit (we’ve since had to upgrade to a proper Powerrack because Chris is now shifting weights that are at the upper-limit of the old rack’s range and it was getting dangerous having to walk backwards for big distances with a heavy bar on your back to squat and have no lower bar as a safety).
The old squat rack now rusting in the garden
Other than the rack, we got ourselves a bar for barbell work (again, cheap from Decathlon – it didn’t need to be Olympic style), a few dumbbell kits which came with 10kg of 2kg and 1kg plates already included, and then stocked up on some more iron plates (a few 20kg, 10kg, 5kg and 0.5kg plates). On average the plates (again, Decathlon is the friend of UK lifters) cost £1 per 1kg so yes, there is a capital outlay, but neither of us has paid gym fees for at least 3 years now which, at about £45 per month (and not always having all the equipment you want available when you want it) means we’ve made a saving in the long run.
Having your own weights in-house also has some definite benefits although there are also problems.
Bar pad
This deserves a mention all of its own. I don’t remember what exercise we originally got this for, but it was before we had discovered the hip thrust and I know it definitely wasn’t bought to “protect the back of the neck during squatting” which is what every shop assistant was describing it as when I was phoning round to find a replacement.
Bar pad - essential for hip thrusts
I quickly realised that some padding was needed to protect the pelvic and hip bones in the hip thrust since I had no muscular padding in those areas. I had a moment of genius and started using the bar pad. Imagine my disappointment a year later when Bret Contreras wrote in an article about the bar pad being an essential piece of equipment for hip thrusts when I thought I was the only person who had had this great idea.
My first bar pad lasted for a couple of years, seeing me from my early days of only being able to shift 35kg in glute bridges through to shifting 130kg in my hip thrusts about 3 months ago. Eventually the padding completely split along its length and I had to find a new pad. I hip thrust twice a week, and the new pad has only been exposed to weights of 135kg and 140kg – it split at the ends about 3 weeks ago. Fortunately I bought cheap ones (could explain why it is splitting already) and bought two. When it gets too far split I’ll unwrap the new one since the pain on my pelvic bone and hips of hip thrusting without a bar pad is unbearable.
*****
So these are the things I would never want to be without now. Do you use these too? Is there anything else you have on your essentials list?
