🏋️ This is the coziest email ever

Brrrrrrrrr, it’s cold out there. This week’s edition of Home Gym Club is dedicated to keeping you warm, especially when you’re training in your garage. We recommend heaters, insulation, and warm running gear (if you train outdoors). Polar Plunge Day is January 1st, after all.

What’s in today’s newsletter:

• We tested the best garage gym heaters for extreme comfort.

• Learn how to DIY your garage gym insulation to retain heat.

• Need to warm your muscles before training? We have the best warm-up exercises.

Reviews

Bring the Heat!

When outfitting your home gym with more than gym equipment (like heating, storage, and lighting), we turn to experts in the field to provide you with the most accurate information possible.

For our roundup of the best garage heaters, we tapped our resident HVAC expert, Matt Strong, a competitive powerlifter and professional engineer with nearly a decade of experience designing heating systems. We also polled our Home Gym Community to see some of the most popular heating products being put to use.

DIY

Must. Stay. Warm.

Be it cold, hot, rainy, or dry—to have a great garage gym throughout the year, you must consider the best ways to insulate your garage.

We’ve talked to a couple of experts in the field of HVAC and homes about the different insulation types, the pros and cons of each, and common pitfalls in building an insulated garage. Click the button below to learn how to insulate a garage, with steps to help you on your next DIY project and reduce energy costs.

Outdoors

Best Running Vests

Maybe you’re a gym-shorts-year-round, the cold never bothered me anyway type of runner. We salute your commitment to outdoor training, no matter the season. But are you comfortable?

Running vests are an excellent winterized option because they offer a lot of versatility. Most are water-resistant and windproof but not as bulky as a rain jacket, which can slow you down and limit your range of motion. Others have extra insulation to keep you warm so you can run outside even in colder months. Thanks to zip pockets and other hidden storage, they also give you a place to store your valuables. Here are the best running vests for all situations!

Train

Best Warm-Up Exercises

Here is another way to keep yourself warm and ready to train: the best warm-up exercises.

Pre-workout dynamic warm-up exercises can improve the effects a workout has on your muscles and tendons, increase your flexibility and range of motion while training, and, in some cases (such as running), contribute to your overall endurance and performance.

We walk you through some of the best warm-up exercises to prepare your whole body for a more vigorous workout routine where you’ll finish your training feeling thermic.

Quick Hits

Warm Up with Protein Coffee

• Protein coffee, or “Proffee,” blends two of our favorite things and is super easy to make at home. Here’s a recipe for a Vanilla Oat Milk Protein Latte.

• Thinking of escaping the cold with a toasty sauna session? First, make sure you know the 10 rules of sauna etiquette.

• Warm up your demeanor with a holiday slump prevention plan.