If you wanna workout at home and invest in your own home gym, this post is for you. I’ve rounded up what I believe to be the best fitness products you can purchase for your home gym and why I believe that to be so. There’s a lot of fancy stuff out there but these items are basic, must-have items that are useful, practical and affordable to help you make the most of home workouts. You don’t need fancy equipment to get the job done.
Music. To me, this is a fitness product. I can’t do fitness without music. Even if I didn’t have anything else, I could pull off a workout as long as there’s music!
Playlists I’ve posted previously:
- Girls Gone Rock
- Turkey Day 5K (no laughing!)
- Top Workout Songs: 90’s Edition
- I’d Rather Not Be Running
- You can see all playlists here.
Free apps to consider:
- iHeartRadio
- Pandora
Good gym shoes. Never underestimate the importance of a great pair of gym shoes! I can’t really suggest the “best” shoe here because we all have different preferences and needs when it comes to shoes. Also, arches vary significantly and while a shoe might be “great”, it won’t be if it doesn’t fit your foot right. I would suggest visiting your favorite shoe store and trying on shoes that you like. My feet tend to like Reebok. I find Nike’s to be too narrow in general but a lot of people love Nike’s. See what I mean? ;)
Dumbbells and/or resistance bands. There are a million different ways to workout your body using only your body weight. However, it’s nice to kick things up a notch by adding resistance to those moves. If you’re tight on space, I’d recommend resistance bands. They will definitely add resistance and you can find them in sets that come with accessories like a door attachment and a carrying case. I tend to prefer dumbbells over bands just because I’m terrified of the band slapping me. If you do get bands, I highly suggest to stay away from the super cheap ones (unless you’re wearing body armor)!
For dumbbells I recommend getting a couple of pairs to start with. To make it easy, Amazon has several “starter kits” available with 3 pairs of dumbbells and a tiered holder to keep them contained. You can get this 20-pound set for around $25 currently.
I also highly recommend (and personally use) the Bowflex SelectTech Dumbbells. I’ve been doing my workouts in the living room lately so I just leave them there for easy access. The set I have is adjustable from 5 to 52 pounds PER dumbbell. It also comes with a nice holder to keep the dumbbells on. They are spendy! But worth every hard-earned penny. We’ve had them almost 3 years now and they’re still like new. The only time they can be difficult to use is if you’re following a workout that’s fast-paced (or with super or giant sets) and you need to change weight quickly. That’s when single pairs can come in handy. (Example: some of the Body Beast workouts)
Heart rate monitor or fitness tracker. I’ve played around with both a heart rate monitor and fitness tracker. I personally prefer a fitness tracker. I have this Polar FT4 and a Fitbit Blaze and I just prefer being able to see more data about my physical activity. I’m a numbers nerd. If you’re only concerned with heart rate and calories burned, a heart rate monitor would be a great choice.
You don’t need a ton of money to set up your own home gym. Our home gym had very humble beginnings and then we just keep adding additional equipment as we can afford it. We’ve saved thousands in gym memberships and we have several types of equipment to show for it.
Happy home gym building,
