Do You Prefer Working Out At Home?
Working out at home doesn’t have to be hard! With the right equipment, you can easily fit your workout into any busy schedule and make it even more convenient by doing so from the comfort of your own home. The following list outlines some of the best home gym equipment on the market today, including treadmills, exercise bikes, weight machines, and more. Whether you’re just getting started or are looking to upgrade your current equipment, this list should help you find what you need!
You Can Start Out Small
Many of us have big ambitions for our home gyms, with visions of swanky treadmills, large-screen TVs, and heavy weights lining a custom-built rack. But such extravagant equipment is unnecessary—not to mention not affordable for most people just starting out. If you’re hoping for results but don’t want to bust your budget, invest in an inexpensive home gym setup that will give you what you need without emptying your wallet.
Add To Your Home Gym As You Go
Over time, you can attain more home gym equipment. You can also upgrade current equipment as your budget allows. This is the way most home gym enthusiasts will do it. Eventually, you may very well have the glitzy home gym you’ve always dreamed of.
Your Own Body Weight
Your body itself is always going to be the simplest exercise equipment to use. With just your body weight, you can get an excellent total body workout. The most common bodyweight exercises are going to be push-ups, pull-ups, dips, crunches, and squats. By tweaking the way you do these common bodyweight exercises, you can target pretty much every major muscle group.
Make The Exercises Harder
The downside to training with just your body weight can be that you get so strong that it gets too easy to do many of the exercises for a very high number of reps. You can make any of these exercises more difficult by changing the way to do them. Instead of squats, do walking lunges. Try Tyson push-ups that have your feet against a wall and have you pushing up and back for more muscle activation. There’s no end to how you can take advantage and make bodyweight exercises harder to do.
Boost Your Intensity
You can also make a bodyweight exercise routine more intense by decreasing rest times and doing supersets. Try doing a circuit of exercises with very little rest between them. Start with movements for the larger muscle groups and work your way to training the smaller muscles. You can also superset an exercise with an easier version of it once you hit failure.
Abdominal exercises are already usually just done with body weight anyway, so they lend themselves well to home workouts. Crunches, leg raises, planks, and side planks can all easily be done without any added equipment.
As far as cardio goes, walking and running won’t require any equipment outside of activewear. These are common forms of exercise to do with just your body. They are also best done outdoors, which in my eyes makes them even better.
Strength Training Equipment
Start With the Basics
Once you get to the point where you can get some equipment to start a home gym, it’s best to stick with the necessities. The weights themselves are gonna be essential to building more strength and muscle mass. How much weight you get depends on your present level of strength. A barbell and either a pair of adjustable dumbbells or a set of fixed ones will be a great start.
Add A Weight Bench and Squat Rack
A bench and squat rack are two major pieces of equipment to have if you are serious about weight training. If you can, get a lat pulldown machine too. A pair of adjustable dumbbells and a barbell with enough weights for your strength level are also a must. These items will start you on your way to having a great home gym. The best bet is to combine them and find a high-quality yet affordable lifting station that has all of these items.
Add More Useful Equipment
The gym equipment for your home gym does not stop at a weight bench, squat rack, and some dumbbells. There are plenty of machines that can also be used effectively at home and even more effective if you own both a pulldown bar and a bench press machine. There are all kinds of abdominal training equipment you can use, but one of the best is an abdominal wheel because it works out your back as well as your abs. Some people prefer dip bars for their home gyms or even exercise balls instead of free weights or machines. You will find something that works for you.
Essential Lifting Accessories
Some basic accessories are always key to have for optimal weight training at home. I consider wrist straps to enhance your grip, to be one of the essentials when it comes to heavy strength training. A lifting belt should also be used for heavy squats and deadlifts. Other accessories such as weighted dip belts and fitness trackers will also enhance your workouts.
Cardio Equipment
Cardio exercise is integral to any fitness routine. It’s also easy to do at home or outside – you won’t need to go to the gym either way. To me, cardio training is a great way to enjoy the outdoors, but there are plenty of options for you if you want to stay in.
Running
Running is one of the best cardio exercises you can do without leaving your home. For many people, running outside is a superior way to work out—it’s convenient, it’s free and you can use almost any surface (as long as you’re not in a city). But for those who don’t want to deal with traffic or run alongside streets filled with obstacles and pollution, having a treadmill at home is ideal.
Treadmills vary widely, so it’s important that you spend some time looking into what features matter most before committing to any purchase. Some treadmills come equipped with advanced programs and built-in webcams for when friends or family members want to keep up with your workout from across town.
Cycling
Cycling is easily my favorite form of cardio. It allows the opportunity to explore while getting a great workout. Of course, my personal preference is to ride my bicycle outside. There are plenty of great bicycle accessories to enhance your ride. Of course, indoor cycling options are numerous as well. It really comes down to personal preference.
Boxing Workouts
Another enjoyable way to take advantage of doing cardio at home is to get some boxing workout equipment. A heavy bag will give you a great workout. To avoid injury, make sure to get a pair of bag gloves and hand wraps. One of the most fun, in my eyes, exercises to do is to hit a speed bag. There’s a learning curve to getting good at the speed bag, but once you do, you can learn tricks that most can’t even come close to doing.
Other Useful Equipment
Yoga Mats
One common form of exercise many people like to do at home is yoga. The best yoga workouts will require a yoga mat. You don’t want to do this on a dirty floor after all. A mat is useful for more than just yoga and stretching workouts. You can do ab exercises like crunches and leg raises while lying on a mat.
Foam Rollers and Massaging Guns
Foam rollers and massaging guns are two popular tools for keeping yourself limber when training at home. And while they’re not strictly gym equipment per se, they should be part of any fitness fanatic’s arsenal. It’s important to keep your muscles in tip-top shape and these items can do wonders for you. I’ve only recently taken advantage of both and can say that they definitely help with muscle soreness and recovery.
Work With What You Have
No matter how much home gym equipment you have, it’s essential to get workouts in on a consistent basis. Of course, you do plenty without any equipment at all. It’s really just a matter of doing it.
Get and Stay Motivated
The biggest issue when it comes to working out, whether it’s at home or the gym, is getting the motivation to do it. At least if you work out at home you won’t have to take the time to drive to the gym. However, it’s still easy to take it for granted when you can just train at home. Don’t let the equipment you do have collect dust. Use it often. As you get great results, it should make it much easier to keep at it.
