This article is for you if you’re looking to make exercise a regular habit and would like to do it at home without spending a ton of money on equipment or giving up a lot of space.
Why exercise at home?
Exercise is so important for your health, mood, appearance, … and simply feeling good. But it’s not always easy or enjoyable.
Simply getting to the gym can be a motivation killer because of the extra time and energy it consumes. And once you get there, you may have to wait for equipment, listen to music you don’t like, or deal with the discomfort of feeling intimidated or like you’re being watched.
Making exercise a regular habit can be hard enough without these additional obstacles, which is why exercising at home can make such a valuable difference.
But you need the right equipment for your workouts to be fully effective!
That doesn’t mean you have to spend a ton of money, but you do have to make informed equipment choices, which is precisely what this article is intended to help you with.
What to know BEFORE buying exercise equipment for your home
Know WHY you’re exercising
Above all else, if you’re going to make the effort to exercise, you should do it right. That means clearly understanding your goals and favoring the types of exercise that are most effective for those goals. This clarity is what will lead you to smart equipment choices (and more importantly, good results).
If you skip this step and buy whatever you can find for the cheapest price, you’ll likely end up with equipment that’s not well aligned with your goals. Your equipment will dictate your exercise choices more than your goals, which is backwards. That means less value from the time and effort you dedicate to exercise.
Make it about health and function first, appearance second
There are many ways to exercise, each of which will uniquely influence your physiology.
Few things can improve your quality of life as dramatically as exercise. It’s highly effective for improving physical function, minimizing disease risk, increasing energy, stabilizing mood, decreasing the risk of pain and injury, and prolonging or even preventing the onset of frailty later in life.
As appealing as six-pack abs might seem, there’s no doubt that the health and wellness benefits above have a much greater influence on your quality of life than your appearance. With the right perspective, these benefits will be far more motivating. Besides, exercising for health and function will most likely enhance your appearance anyway.
While the equipment suggestions below are suitable for a wide variety of fitness goals, including appearance, they’re primarily based on the perspective above.
Space considerations for exercising at home
If you think you’ll carve out a small corner of your messy basement or garage for exercise, think again because that small corner will likely become nothing more than a place for your equipment to collect dust.
For exercise to become a lasting habit, you should prioritize doing it in a place you’ll enjoy being in, or at least not dislike. Exercising in your garage will be hot in the summer and cold in the winter. And whether it’s your garage or basement, if it’s messy, each workout will be an annoying reminder of the need to do some cleaning. How do you think that will affect your motivation to exercise?
To be clear, you can exercise anywhere if you have enough motivation, but you’ll be working against yourself if you make it more difficult than necessary to stay motivated.
If you have the space and desire to dedicate an area of your home to being a permanent home gym, doing so is highly recommended because it will make your exercise time more enjoyable. But if you’re one of the many people who don’t have the space or desire, don’t worry; you still have plenty of options. Much of the equipment mentioned in this article can be stored in a closet when not in use. You can temporarily transform your living room or bedroom into your home gym in just a few minutes!
The downside of making your home gym portable, however, is even though setup and breakdown are quick and easy, it’s still a bit of added work that might chip away at your motivation to exercise.
Disclosure
Many of the equipment links below link to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, we may earn a small commission on your purchase(s) at no additional cost to you.
This does not influence the equipment suggestions in any way. Not all recommended equpment is available on Amazon, in which case we link to other merchants, from which we do not receive any commission.
We’d typically be linking to Amazon anyway, so we might as well benefit from it. 😊
Home equipment for aerobic exercise (a.k.a. “cardio”)
Although equipment for aerobic exercise is among the most important (you’ll learn why momentarily), it also tends to be more expensive and space-consuming.
The reason why this category of equipment is so important is because aerobic fitness has such a major influence on health and wellness. In fact, it’s such a strong predictor of health and longevity that neglecting your aerobic fitness limits your potential more than smoking! (1) Yes, more than smoking! So if you find yourself being held back by the cost or space requirements of aerobic exercise equipment (which are both manageable), find a way to get past it!
Low-impact aerobic exercise equipment for healthier joints
I recently met an older gentleman who has run more than thirty marathons and sixty half-marathons. Very impressive! But he now wears a brace on each knee, has a big belly (which is a significant health risk), and struggles to move.
That’s just one person, and there could be other contributing factors, but there are many other endurance enthusiasts who end up with arthritis and other physical limitations.
Exercise is a balance of damage and repair. Microdamage is part of the stimulus that triggers beneficial adaptations. But too much microdamage repeated week after week, year after year, is likely to lead to pain, injury, and limitation.
The point of exercise should be to build resilience, health, and longevity, not lose it.
With this in mind, your primary mode of aerobic exercise should be as friendly to your body as possible. You should consider this before shopping for equipment.
The top priority is minimizing impact, which makes a treadmill an unideal choice. While walking at a steep incline on a treadmill can provide adequate aerobic stimulus without the heavy impact, it can be a bit awkward. Plus, for most people, walking at an incline won’t provide the intensity needed for high-intensity interval training, which is important for maximizing the benefit of aerobic exercise.
If you absolutely love running compared to other endurance activities, go for it. But consider optimizing your running technique to minimize ground impact forces, and be aware of the avoidable risk you’re taking.
Ellipticals and rowers eliminate impact, but this doesn’t necessarily make them a good choice. Ellipticals are good for low-intensity training but make it difficult to reach an appropriate intensity for high-intensity interval training. Regarding rowing machines, proper rowing technique is more complex than most people realize, and if not done well, frequent rowing can increase your risk of low-back problems.
That leaves stationary bikes as the best joint-friendly equipment choice for aerobic exercise, and it’s what we recommend to our clients.
But that doesn’t mean you need to spend the $2,000 (or anywhere near it) that some popular exercise bikes cost!
Exercise bikes come in two forms: upright and recumbent. An upright bike is like a traditinal bicycle, with the pedals below your hips. On a recumbent bike, the pedals are in front of your hips, and the seat is more of a chair than a saddle. Upright bikes are generally a better choice because they engage more muscle and provide more freedom of movement, particularly during high-intensity cycling. This leaves three options: a traditional magnetically-resisted stationary bike, a spin bike, or a bicycle mounted on what’s called a “trainer.”
Wheel-on vs. direct-drive bicycle trainers
If space or budget are your primary concerns, and you already have a bicycle, it’s hard to beat a simple trainer that applies friction to your back tire (above left). You can pack the trainer away in a closet when not using it, and you can get one for as little as ~$50. The great part is that you can exercise anywhere in your home that you’d like to, but the downside is having to set it up each time. Plus, the friction is a bit inconsistent, making exercise less enjoyable compared to a much smoother direct-drive trainer (more on that next) or a traditional stationary bike.
If you like the idea of using a bicycle and are less concerned about storing the trainer after each use, a direct-drive trainer (above right) is a much better option. Most importantly, direct-drive trainers typically measure your cycling power in standard units (Watts), providing a valuable and objective way to assess your fitness. In contrast, most traditional stationary bikes only give an arbitrary number for resistance level.
The setup for a direct-drive trainer is a bit more involved. You must remove your bicycle’s rear wheel and attach the chain to the trainer. But this makes it much smoother, translating to more enjoyable rides. This direct connection is what enables the trainer to measure (and control) your power output.
Two of the more affordable direct-drive trainer options are the Magene T110 and the Kinetic RS. I’ve used both, and they’re both reasonable options.
If you’re willing to invest a bit more, my top recommendation would be the Wahoo KICKR Core, which is one of the trainers I currently use (the other being the Saris H3, which is a nice trainer as well). The KICKR Core strikes a great balance between quality, features, and price, rivaling comparable trainers that are twice as expensive.
Traditional stationary bikes
If you’d prefer a traditional stationary bike, there’s a wide variety to choose from, including options under $200. Although, this is one piece of equipment for which you may want to consider spending a little more to ensure you enjoy your time on it and that it’ll last for many years.
An important feature to look out for is an adjustable seat and handlebars that can be adjusted vertically and horizontally. This will give you the best chance of a comfortable fit, which is important because the discomfort of an improper fit can increase your risk of pain and injury and kill your motivation to exercise.
Also, make sure the bike provides a digital output for distance and some indication of how hard you’re working. Power (Watts) would be ideal, but even an arbitrary number indicating resistance level is better than nothing. Being able to control resistance digitally is also important, mainly for high-intensity interval training. Spin bikes typically lack these features, making a traditional stationary bike with magnetic resistance a better option.
If you’d like to use a virtual cycling app like Zwift, which helps to make indoor cycling more enjoyable, make sure to check compatibility before buying. In this case, a bike trainer is typically a better option, particularly the Wahoo KICKR Core (see above), which has features that directly integrate with Zwift.
Location, location, location
The last consideration for aerobic equipment is where you’ll use it. This deserves more thought than you might realize.
Most people prioritize keeping exercise equipment out of the way, often putting it in an undesirable place where they’re much less likely to use it. If you embrace aerobic training as a regular habit, as you should, you’ll be spending a lot of time on this piece of equipment. This means you want it to be in a location that you’re happy to be in.
There are many examples of poor placement, including anywhere that’s messy, cold, hot, constricted, or doesn’t have natural light (i.e., no window). Another poor choice is putting the bike right in front of something. Having to stare at a wall just a few feet in front of you for thirty-plus minutes is a good way to kill your interest in exercise!
It can be a tough decision to put a piece of exercise equipment in an open area of your home where visitors will see it. But it’s not nearly as tough as some of the medical decisions you might need to make down the road if you don’t exercise regularly. Besides, you should be proud to let people see that you’re prioritizing your health!
Home equipment for strength and power training
“Strength and power” might sound intimidating or like something that only applies to athletes, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Strength and power are strong predictors of longevity. The bad news is that they each start to decline as early as your 30s. The GREAT news is that proper strength and power training can slow this decline dramatically.
If you don’t think strength and power are relevant priorities for you, think again because they prevent frailty later in life, which nobody is immune from and can bring your quality of life to an all-time low.
Beyond the age of 65, falling is a leading cause of death. Yes, … FALLING! But it’s not the fall itself that’s the problem. It’s the limited capacity for activity during recovery and the downward spiral of declining health that follows.
Strength and power are needed to prevent falls. They’re also needed to maintain the physical capacity to continue enjoying your favorite activities and living independently later in life.
The stronger and more powerful you are now, the more margin you’ll have for the inevitable decline, and the more likely you’ll be one of the people your friends and family talk about who can do all kinds of impressive things at an old age.
There’s one type of home exercise equipment that stands out as the best option for the safe, effective, space-efficient, and budget-friendly strength training that will improve your physical health now and in the future.
It’s dumbbells. Boring, perhaps, but highly effective and a perfect match for exercising at home!
There are scenarios in which kettlebells are more favorable, and it’s certainly worthwhile to have both, but as you’ll soon see, dumbbells strike a better balance between versatility and affordability.
If your main objective is health and physical function, it’s best to think about your strength training in the context of movement patterns instead of body parts. In other words, you should use compound exercises that train many muscles in a coordinated pattern rather than trying to isolate individual muscles. This translates much better to daily life because you rarely use muscles in isolation. Plus, training muscles in isolation is more likely to create imbalances, and it requires much more time.
With a well-planned strength training routine, you’d only need to focus on four to six compound exercises. The good news with dumbbells is that you can use them for all of these exercises. The bad news is that you’d need a variety of dumbbells, which is expensive and space consuming. Same goes for kettlebells. Fortunately, there’s a great alternative!
Plate-loaded dumbbell handles with flat ends
While adjustable dumbbells address space concerns, a good quality set with a broad weight range tends to be very expensive.
The Kensui AdaptaBELL PRO is a dumbbell handle that solves this problem. You can create a dumbbell in any five-pound increment up to 70 lbs simply by adding standard weight plates. And if you need a dumbbell heavier than 70 lbs, you could get the AdaptaBELL MAX instead, which can hold up to 150 lbs per dumbbell.
I have the AdaptaBELL MAX handles and like them as much, if not more, than any traditional dumbbell I’ve used. If you’re torn between the PRO and the MAX, it might help to know that the PRO handles are made of a durable plastic (hard nylon), while the MAX handles are metal.
Regarding the plates to load the handles with, plates that are too big (25 lbs and above) will make the dumbbells an awkward size. And because the handles hold a limited number of plates, using too many smaller plates (5 lbs and below) may cause you to run out of space and prevent you from loading the intended amount of weight. Based on this, you’ll primarily want to use narrow 10 lb plates. Alternatively, if you’ll be needing dumbbells of 50 lbs or more, you might want to consider 12.5 lb plates. You’ll also want some 5 lb and 2.5 lb plates so that you’ll be able to adjust the dumbbell weight in five-pound increments.
The cost of the dumbbell handles and weight plates can add up depending on how many plates you buy, but it’s still hundreds of dollars less than buying a variety of dumbbells or a good-quality adjustable dumbbell set.
While there are cheaper dumbbell handles than the Kensui handles, they have a bar that extends through the plates, making some exercises difficult, if not impossible.
The Kensui handles (and the cheaper handles just mentioned) are designed for standard weight plates with a one-inch hole in the center. If you already have or plan on getting Olympic weight plates (which have a two-inch hole and are intended for Olympic barbell exercises), you can buy adapters from Kensui to make Olympic plates fit on their dumbbell handles.
Equipment to help you get more out of your dumbbells
While you can do plenty of exercises with dumbbells alone, a few additional pieces of equipment will help you get more value out of them.
The first is a bench, which you’ll eventually need to effectively train the horizontal press pattern (e.g., dumbbell chest press). Pushups are a great exercise, but will only get you so far before you need more resistance, which the bench and dumbbells will provide. The Amazon Basics flat weight bench is affordable and sturdy, with a capacity of 700 lbs! For a sturdy bench, it’s relatively light and can easily be stored in a closet.
If you’re looking to keep your home gym as minimalistic as possible, you can still do a dumbbell chest press without a bench. You can do it with your back on the floor, albeit with a limited range of motion and, in turn, less beneficial stimulus.
The second piece of equipment is a split squat stand, which is great for what I consider one of the best lower-body strength exercises: the rear foot elevated split squat. There are a variety of things you can use to support your rear leg for this exercise, including a bench, but this stand is much more comfortable and is adjustable, making the exercise more enjoyable, safer, and more effective. Plus, the stand can also be used for stretching and other strength exercises, and can be easily stored in a closet.
Finally, if you want to keep your exercise area tidy, you’ll want a weight tree to store your weight plates for the dumbbell handles.
Basic equipment for power training
As mentioned earlier, power is just as important for maintaining long-term physical independence as it is for your current function and performance. Power is basically an extension of strength. More specifically, it’s how quickly or explosively you can apply strength.
Training for power is a bit more advanced and, for most people, requires first working on strength and basic movement. Once you’re ready, here are a few home equipment options for power training.
Jumping is one of the best ways to train lower body power, but landing from a jump imposes large impact forces on your joints. This makes box jumps a more joint-friendly choice than regular jumps. Contrary to what some people think, the objective of box jumps is not to see how high of a box you can jump to, but rather to soften the landing and thereby decrease impact forces, thereby making it a safer exercise.
The Yes4All stackable boxes are great because they’re affordable and give you multiple height options. The 4” or 6” box is a good choice if you’re just getting started or will be doing single-leg jumps. Getting both boxes and stacking them together will also give you the option of a 10” box.
For rotational and upper body power, throwing slam balls is very effective … and also a lot of fun! But you’ll need a cement wall to slam them against, which is one case in which exercising in a basement or garage is a great option. Alternatively, if you have enough space, you can just throw the slam balls as far as possible. You could do so outdoors if you don’t have enough space inside.
If you’d prefer to avoid having extra equipment for power training, or if you don’t have the appropriate environment for slam balls, you could use dumbbells instead. Using the same compound exercises you’d use for strength training, you could turn them into power exercises by using less weight and doing them more explosively. But for safety, be overly conservative with the amount of weight, and be sure that you’ve mastered the technique for each exercise. Also, know that you won’t get the same explosive stimulus as you would from the exercises above
Cable tower – an optional, but major upgrade to your home gym
If you have the space and budget, a cable tower will give you some valuable training options that you can’t duplicate with dumbbells or other free weights.
Exercising with free weights is a great choice, but is dependent on gravity, which only works in one direction and thereby limits exercise options. Cable towers also rely on gravity for resistance, but the pulley systems they’re based on enable you to work against the resistnce in any direction.
Two of the key movement patterns you should include in your strength training are a horizontal press (e.g., dumbbell chest press) and a horizontal pull (e.g., bent-over row). With a cable tower, you can train these patterns while standing, which makes them more beneficial by forcing you to generate force from the ground and appropriately transfer it through a broader chain of joints and muscles. Training these patterns in this manner makes them more translatable to daily life and athletic activity.
As you become more serious about your fitness, two additional movement patterns to consider training are rotation (e.g., slam ball throw) and a vertical pull (e.g., lat pulldown). You can do a great job of building basic strength, resilience, and longevity without these patterns, but they’re definitely worth training if you can, which is easy to do with a cable tower, but not free weights.
A cable tower is a great piece of exercise equipment to have in your home gym, but remember that it’s an addition to rather than a replacement for basic necessities like an exercise bike and dumbbells. If you have the extra space and budget, the ER KANG plate-loaded cable tower is an affordable option that I have and like very much. The pulley height is adjustable, which is very important, and the tower is plate-loaded, which means you can load it with the same weight plates you’d already have for the adjustable dumbbell handles.
Need help getting the most out of your home gym?
Your home gym is only as good as how you use it. While buying equipment is a big commitment, it’s not enough. You have to use it regularly, and you have to do so in a way that’s tightly aligned with your goals.
You also need to do all of the above as safely as possible. The biggest benefits of exercise come from consistency, but you can’t be consistent if you’re frequently hurting or exhausting yourself.
If you’re unsure about any of the above, we can help. Our one-on-one coaching is a great fit if you’re looking to exercise at home, and it’s an even better fit if you’re tired of chasing fads and want to learn how to finally achieve sustainable results!
Backed by a PhD, decades of experience, and many happy clients, we know what it takes to get great results. We’ll provide you with workouts designed specifically for your unique goals, needs, and equipment availability. And most importantly, we’ll give you all the education you need to succeed, plus unlimited one-on-one support to make sure you get through every obstacle that comes your way!
Book a FREE consultation to learn more!