Equipping your home gym with high-quality equipment allows you to exercise whenever it’s convenient for you, without incurring excessive costs! You don’t need to invest heavily; any affordable piece will suffice. Standard dumbbells provide an affordable and straightforward means for weight training, while resistance bands can offer considerable mobility. A stability ball can help strengthen core and balance exercises.
1. Workout Mat
The Workout Mat is a sturdy and reliable mat designed specifically to support home HIIT, yoga, barre and CrossFit sessions. Featuring 12-millimeter thickness for plenty of support during sweaty workouts as well as demanding movements like plyometrics and calisthenics—plus it comes in an array of vibrant colors!
GGR Editor Frieda Johsnon enjoyed the rubber material of this mat as it proved “grippy for various floor exercises.” However, she found it too thin for kneeling positions and didn’t fit into her gym bag’s carrying straps properly.
2. Dumbbells
Dumbbells are an essential piece of gym equipment and can also be an efficient home workout option. Their compact design enables them to help tailor workouts specifically tailored to your fitness level and goals.
Beginner models typically feature smaller weight ranges with one-pound increments and include either neoprene or rubber coatings to keep weights from rolling around on your garage floor. They’re also shorter than standard dumbbells for easier storage.
Advanced lifters should consider adjustable dumbbells with adjustable weight increments to progressively overload their workout, which will allow them to advance more rapidly. Our favorite option is Titan Fitness Loadable Handles, which can easily be adjusted using a switch lock mechanism.
3. Resistance Bands
These elastic bands add resistance and challenge your movement by applying force in every direction, testing how well you can stabilize and lengthen. Plus, they can enhance bodyweight exercises.
A 2019 study demonstrated that resistance bands provide comparable strength gains as lifting heavy weights. They come in sets with different degrees of difficulty; some feature flat, strip-like therapy bands; others have tubing with interchangeable handles or are otherwise constructed like rubber tubing with interchangeable handles.
Some bands come equipped with door anchors to ensure the band remains securely attached to a sturdy surface. Skye suggests beginning with lighter bands before gradually progressing up to heavier levels.
4. Rower
An ergometer (rowing machine) provides an effective low-impact cardio workout, working both arms and legs while burning major calories and strengthening both strength and cardiovascular fitness. Rowing machines also boast impressive resistance-training benefits that boost cardiovascular wellbeing.
Indoor rowers have undergone a remarkable technological upgrade over the years, offering immersive virtual workout classes right in your own home. One such model is Peloton Row at $2,995 that provides instructor-led workouts with motivating music and inspiring instructors, plus onscreen metrics for those who like competing or tracking performance.
5. Medicine Ball
While dumbbells, bands, and boxes all offer strength training benefits, medicine balls surpass them. Renowned for building power and explosiveness, these weighted balls filled with gel or sand measure about shoulder-width in diameter, providing strength training with something different than dumbbells, bands, or boxes alone can.
A medicine ball can be used to engage muscles throughout your body by throwing, bouncing and twisting it in various directions. You can even use it for rotational core exercises and lower-body dynamic drills to strengthen joints and improve balance. Furthermore, medicine balls provide great opportunities to incorporate metabolic resistance training—an exercise technique that maximizes calorie burn both during and after physical exercise—into your exercise regime.
6. Exercise Ball
Exercise balls (commonly referred to as Swiss or physio balls) have long been used as essential pieces of equipment for strengthening core muscles and improving balance, coordination and posture—often seen at gyms, home workouts and physical therapy sessions alike.
Fitness balls provide an unstable surface to activate core muscles and promote muscle balance by engaging anterior muscles (those in front of your body), which usually support weaker posterior ones. To find your ideal match, select a fitness ball that corresponds with your height; product descriptions typically provide size charts online so you can find the ideal product size and size chart.
7. Yoga Mat
Yoga is an invigorating mind-body practice with numerous physical, emotional and spiritual advantages. An essential component of yoga practice is your mat, providing comfort, stability and a dedicated workout space.
If you regularly attend Bikram or hot yoga classes, a PVC or rubber mat with its closed-cell design may provide more comfort due to preventing sweat absorption. Unfortunately, even these mats can get “funky fresh,” and some individuals prefer grippy mats with towels bonded onto them as their texture ensures improved grip even during heated yoga sculpt classes at 96-degree temperatures.
