The KrügerBody Starter Kit: Everything We Actually Use

By Ann Bennett, with Coach Chris Krüger

You don't need to buy anything to start KrügerBody.

I want to say that first, because the next two thousand words are a list of products, and I don't want the list to become the reason you wait. Coach Chris has clients hitting 400 out of 400 on the challenge with nothing but a beach towel and a bedroom lamp. The habits do the work. The gear just makes the habits easier to keep.

So here's how to read this. Every item has two options. Get it done is the cheapest thing that works. Buy it once is what Chris or I own and would replace with the exact same thing tomorrow. Start with whichever fits your house and your budget. You can always upgrade after your first 28 days.

Some of these links are affiliate links, which means if you buy through them I earn a small commission at no cost to you. Chris's original product list for his private clients has no affiliate links in it at all, and nothing here was chosen because it pays. These are the things in our actual houses. The commissions help keep KrügerBody content free.

Jump to a section:

Sleep · Story Time · Bedding · Tracking · Water · Sauce · CORE-4 · Easy-8 Home Gym · Bonus Beast · Shoes · Odds and Ends · Supplements

Sleep

Sleep is number one. Three of the eight Easy-8 habits are about sleep, and Chris will tell you that if there's one cheap thing you can do tonight to improve your hormones, it's this section.

The goal is what Chris calls Melatonin Mode. During the day your house should be as bright as you can make it. Open every blind. In the evening, the white and blue light goes away and the house turns orange, like everything is lit by a campfire. Your body reads that as "make melatonin," and you fall asleep because you're sleepy, not because you're exhausted.

Nightlights

Dim red or amber LED nightlights in bathrooms, hallways, and anywhere you might wander at 2am. Enough to see, not enough to wreck your melatonin.

• Ann's Pick: Plug-in amber LED nightlights

• Chris' Pick: Amber LED nightlights

Nightstand bulbs

Overhead lights off in the evening. Lamps on, with orange bulbs in them. Chris's test is that his blue Dodgers hat should look gray in the living room at night.

• Ann's Pick: Amber LED bulbs, they last forever

• Chris' Pick: Amber incandescent bulbs, the real firelight look

Blue-blocking glasses

This is the one non-negotiable in the section. Chris sends two pairs to every single VIP client he coaches. Put them on an hour before bed, or any time you're watching a screen in the evening.

• Chris' Pick: NoCry blue-blockers, they fit over prescription glasses

Chris has bought all of these too, and which pair he likes best comes down to how they fit his face. If the NoCry pair doesn't fit yours, try one of these.

• Honeywell Uvex Skyper, orange lens, the classic, and the most reviewed pair on Amazon

• Infield Terminator UV-400, a sportier wraparound fit

• Orange safety glasses with case, budget pair, comes with a case

Free, no purchase required

Turn your TV brightness and backlight all the way down for evening shows. Chris has a preset where the brightness is literally zero. If you have to be on a computer at night, install f.lux. It's free and it warms your screen automatically after sunset.

Story Time

The goal isn't to force yourself to sleep. It's to relax your brain into it. Chris's rule is that you fall asleep during story time, not after it. Phone in airplane mode, across the room. Then read, or let someone read to you.

Read fiction you don't feel pressured to finish. Chris has never made it out of the first chapter of Don Quixote, and he says that's the point. You're trying to stay awake and you just can't.

Or listen. Find a narrator you like, set the sleep timer for 30 minutes, and try to make it to the end. You won't.

• Start an Audible free trial. Your first credit can be a whole series.

• Chris' Favorite: the King James Bible on Audible, which is free with a membership. He says his clients start at John 1:1 and are asleep before John the Baptist shows up.

• Ann's Favorite: The Chronicles of Narnia. The entire series is one credit.

Bedding

Natural fibers, dark room, comfortable pillow. That's the whole list.

Sheets

No synthetics. Chris's favorite is flax linen because it's strong, breathable, and cool. Mine is 100% cotton, grown and made in the USA.

• Chris' Pick: Quince linen sheet set

• Ann's Pick: American-grown cotton sheets

Mattress and pillows

We both recommend Avocado. Chris's line is that it's an investment, "but no one has ever said, I wish I had a worse mattress." For pillows, find one that works for your neck, natural materials if you can, and replace it every few years.

• Avocado mattresses and toppers

• Avocado pillows

Blackout

Do whatever it takes to make your room dark. Chris pinned a black sheet over his window as a teenager. That counts.

• Get it done: a black sheet and four thumbtacks

• Buy it once: 100% blackout insulated curtains

Eye mask

Chris wears one every night. These two are both soft mulberry silk.

• Silk eye mask, option one

• Silk eye mask, option two

Tracking

You need a scale. You do not need a smart scale.

Chris upgraded to a fancy one with bioelectrical impedance that promised body fat, visceral fat, metabolic age, and a free app. His words: the data was garbage, and worse, it was discouraging. It told him he was losing muscle while he was visibly getting leaner and stronger.

Any cheap digital scale from Amazon gets the job done. Weigh yourself every morning at the same time, write it on the CORE-4 or Easy-8 tracking chart from your member area, and compare to 28 days ago, not yesterday. If the number is trending down, your challenge score is going up, and your jeans fit better, good things are happening. Look in the mirror and see the truth.

• A plain digital scale

Print your tracking chart. Chris wants it on paper, on the fridge, filled in by hand.

Water

Chris's rule is simple. Nothing that's been stored in plastic and exposed to heat, especially the bottles that have been sitting in your car or garage. At his house they drink spring water delivered in 5-gallon glass jugs, dispensed from a ceramic crock with a stainless spigot.

His pro tip: buy the biggest Voss glass bottles you can find, drink them once, then refill them from the jug and keep them cold in the fridge. That's your liter of water in the first two hours of the morning, ready to go.

• Mountain Valley Spring Water, 1-liter glass bottles, 12-pack. For 5-gallon jugs, order delivery direct from Mountain Valley.

• Voss glass bottles, the biggest size you can find is best

If delivery isn't practical where you live, this is the filter I trust for our house. Reverse osmosis is one of the most effective ways to pull microplastics out of tap water at home.

• Ann's Pick: US Water Systems All-American reverse osmosis system

Sauce

When you're eating a pound or two of meat a day, a little flavor goes a long way. Chris's cabinet has a sauce section and no supplement section, and that's not an accident.

The rules for reading a label: gluten-free, no high fructose corn syrup, no MSG or L-glutamic acid, no autolyzed yeast extract or hydrolyzed protein. Seed oils and gums like xanthan or guar should be at the very end of the list or not there at all. Glass over plastic whenever you can. We prefer vinegar-based sauces with real cane sugar.

• San-J organic gluten-free tamari. Chris calls this "probably the best sauce you can use." Nothing added, just organic fermented soy.

• Rufus Teague honey BBQ sauce. Chris's favorite BBQ sauce, and this is the squeeze bottle, which solves his long-running complaint about never getting the last of it out of the flask.

• Portlandia Foods organic ketchup, made with real cane sugar. If you have a Natural Grocers near you, their house brand is my everyday one.

• 365 Whole Foods organic buffalo sauce. Perfect on high-protein meals.

• Gustus Vitae peri peri seasoning. A dry rub rather than a sauce, but it adds fire without junk ingredients.

• Jack's Organic Salsa from Costco. It comes in plastic, which is fine as long as you keep it cold and never heat it in the container.

Season everything to your liking. Onion, mushroom, pepper, garlic, salt, as much as you want. This is not the boneless-skinless-tasteless diet.

CORE-4

Here's the truth about CORE-4 equipment, straight from Chris: "If your goal is just to have a six-pack, you don't need anything except your body and maybe a beach towel or yoga mat."

That's it. Fourteen minutes a day, on the floor, hit play.

• Ann's Favorite: Manduka PRO yoga mat, the one I've had for years and will never need to replace

• Chris' Pick: an organic cotton yoga towel, which folds up smaller than a mat and washes like a towel (or you can use both a mat and a towel!)

Easy-8 Home Gym

You never needed a gym membership. You're a few pieces away from a complete home gym that will last for decades.

Chris's list is short on purpose. A power tower, a pair of adjustable dumbbells, and a bench are required for Easy-8. Everything else is a luxury for maxing out the 800 Challenge.

Adjustable dumbbells: PowerBlock Pro 100 EXP

These are the ones. Chris's exact words are "100% worth the investment. I plan to use this exact pair for the next five decades." They're compact, easy to adjust, and go to 100 pounds per hand for when you get there.

One important detail. Amazon only sells the version with plastic handles. The knurled metal-handle version Chris uses is only available from PowerBlock directly, so use this link.

• PowerBlock Pro 100 EXP, metal handles

Power tower: Fitness Gear Pro from Dick's

This is Chris's second one. He tossed the first before moving to Prague, came back to the States, and bought the exact same one again. His reason: "it works." Pull-ups, chin-ups, dips, and decline sit-ups, and once you can hit 800 out of 800, this is the only piece of equipment you'll ever need.

• Fitness Gear Pro Power Tower

Adjustable bench

Chris's bench is a cheap one from Amazon and he says it gets the job done. He doesn't even mount the decline attachment because you can do decline sit-ups on the power tower.

• Get it done: Amazon Basics foldable bench

• Buy it once: REP FID foldable bench, my favorite

Plyo box

Chris owns two and strongly prefers the wooden one. It's stable, solid, and feels safe. His soft one wobbles and mostly gets used as a table.

• Get it done: Amazon Basics wooden plyo box

• If you need quiet: REP soft plyo box, for apartments, early mornings, or sleeping kids

Step

Yes, the old-school aerobics step. Chris uses it for front-foot-elevated split squats in Easy-8, and his daughter uses it for box blasts. Versatile, compact, surprisingly useful.

• Get it done: Amazon Basics step platform, a great deal, but the top can be a little slick

• Buy it once: The Reebok Step, the original

• Short on space: Reebok Deck, a step that converts into an adjustable bench in a pinch

Bonus Beast

For your optional after-dinner movement, Chris says the two best pieces of cardio equipment you can ever own are a simple jump rope and a rebounder. Set a mirror in front of either one and you'll easily work up to 30 minutes a day of easy, nose-breathing, zone 2 movement.

Jump rope

• Sonic Boom M2 speed rope, the exact one Chris uses

Rebounder (mini trampoline)

• Get it done: A basic rebounder

• Buy it once: bellicon, my pick. Bungee cords instead of springs, silent, and easy on your joints.

Shoes

Your feet need to move. Chris's three rules for footwear: flat (zero-drop), flexible, and wide enough for your toes to splay. Heeled shoes shorten your Achilles every second you wear them. Rigid soles stop your big toe from working. Narrow toe boxes weaken the whole foot.

Two more from his list. Never flip-flops, because flipping and flopping trains your big toe to push down instead of lift up. Never slides, because sliding teaches you to shuffle. If it's a sandal, it needs a heel strap.

• Earth Runners sandals. The most-used footwear Chris owns. No socks, they go everywhere except maybe a fancy restaurant, you can get them wet, and they have a grounding plug so you pick up free electrons from the earth. Every pair has a heel strap.

• Earth Runners Ion Sync Tolos. Same minimalist sole, closed-toe, for cooler months.

• Birkenstock Lutry clog. Chris calls these his "Birken-Crocs." Crocs comfort without the chemicals, and always wear the heel strap.

• Vivobarefoot. Chris's tip is to skip the athletic line and buy the plain leather ones, then use them for athletic stuff.
• Be Lenka York boots. Chris wears his all the time, and they were his gym shoes for years.

Odds and Ends

Toothpaste

Fluoride-free, with hydroxyapatite, which is a mineral form of calcium that's already in your teeth. It rebuilds weak spots in enamel and has been used in Japan for decades. Chris's line: "When you're putting something in your mouth every single day, you want it to be both healthy and effective."

• Chris' Pick: Himalaya Botanique fluoride-free toothpaste

• Ann's Pick: Wellnesse hydroxyapatite toothpaste

Soap

Chris uses Dr. Bronner's tea tree castile soap as shampoo and body wash, but deliberately. A small amount, only on the parts that need it. Over-soaping wrecks your skin, and the whole point is to wash the oily parts while leaving your natural oils everywhere else. One bottle lasts forever.

• Dr. Bronner's Tea Tree Pure-Castile Soap

Laundry detergent

Your skin absorbs what it touches, and what your clothes are washed in counts. I make ours at home, and when I don't have time, I buy clean and unscented.

• Ann's Homemade Recipe: my nontoxic homemade laundry detergent recipe

• Buy it once: Active Wear clean, unscented detergent

Supplements

Most of them are a scam. That's the first line of Chris's supplement guide, and he means it. The industry is barely regulated, most products are artificial flavor and filler, and if the label says anabolic, extreme, shock, stack, or anything with "test" in it, put it back on the shelf.

Nothing in this section is necessary. Chris's advice is to finish your first 28 days without spending a dollar on supplements, see what real food and real sleep do, and then decide.

The one powder Chris says is worth it: creatine monohydrate

Plain white powder, no flavor, proven safe for almost forty years. Five grams right after your workout, before your meal, swished in a little water. It tastes like chalk. No gummies, no fancy types, no "isolate," just pure creatine monohydrate. And be honest about the size of the benefit: after a year of training, maybe two or three percent stronger. Real, but small.

Chris doesn't always take creatine. He's gone years without it. But when he does use it regularly, this is the brand he uses:

• Chris' Pick: Naked Creatine monohydrate, unflavored, nothing added

• Ann's Pick: ETHLETE electrolytes plus creatine, creatine and electrolytes in one stick, raspberry lemon

Your best actual supplements are food

A few oysters once a week, or a small amount of beef liver twice a week, will do more than anything in a capsule. If you can't stomach those as food, there are a handful of real-food supplements Chris is fine with, and they're the ones I take.

Ann's real-food picks

None of these are necessary if you eat the real thing. I like that they're easy, tasteless, shelf-stable, and convenient.

• Beef organs, freeze-dried liver and organs in a capsule

• Pure Oyster, about a quarter of an oyster per pill, for zinc. Made by Brian Sanders, who Chris trusts.

• Colostrum

• Cod liver oil, in the winter. This is the Nordic Naturals I use, or pick any brand that publishes oxidation and purity testing.

• Primal ground beef from REP Provisions, regular ground beef with 10% organs blended in. You can barely taste it, and it's the easiest way to eat organs without thinking about it.

• Slow-simmered bone broth. The collagen is fantastic for skin, nails, and hair, and you can make it from the bones you already have.

Skip all of this

Protein powders (save them for the zombie apocalypse), branched-chain amino acids, pre-workout, ashwagandha, testosterone boosters, and every other hormone supplement. Chris's word for the whole category is garbage.

Where to start

If you're overwhelmed, here's the order I'd buy in.

1. Blue-blocking glasses, amber nightlights and/or a few amber bulbs. Sleep is #1.
2. A cheap scale.
3. A yoga mat or a beach towel.
4. When you're ready for Easy-8: the power tower, PowerBlocks, and a bench.

Everything else can wait until your first 28-day comparison.

You're worth it.

Ann

Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you purchase through them, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I'm only recommending products that Coach Chris and I actually use.