While many gym and fitness centers are closed and we continue to observe social distancing during the pandemic, one of the best ways to stay healthy is to create a proper environment at home for working out. The good news is that we can easily set up a temporary home gym with minimal space, be it in your bedroom, living room, or any other free space at home.
What about the equipment? Is it going to burn a hole in the pocket? Not necessarily, here is a list of great quality yet affordable home workout equipment to help you get started.
1. Yoga mat
First off, you will need a soft yet stable and comfortable surface for body weight training, yoga, or stretching exercises after your workout.
2. Dumbbells
Dumbbells are an essential piece of equipment in any home gym. While being very space efficient, there are many exercises you can do with a pair of dumbbells including bicep curls, rows, chest press, squats, triceps extensions, you name it.
3. Fitness gym ball
Gym balls are versatile and plenty of fun. You can use it to work on your core, upper body, lower body, and for stretching too. The biggest benefit of the gym ball is that it works on your core stabilization, adding it to other workouts like pushups for example, will engage the core muscles too.
4. Suspension trainer
The suspension trainer is another great versatile equipment for strength training for the entire body using just bodyweight. You can do many exercises with the suspension trainer to help build muscles and develop your core stability. You can easily vary the difficulty by changing your body angle. You will need to secure the suspension trainer to a sturdy wall or door, or on good size tree.
5. Push-up bars
Push-up is a fundamental exercise for the upper body. While we can do it without any equipment, using push-up bars protect your wrists by keeping them in a straight natural position while doing push-ups. It also helps to better engage your chest, shoulder, arm, and core muscles.
6. Skipping rope
Rope skipping is undoubtedly the best home cardio workout you can do within a small space. Lightweight and space saving, the skipping rope is an essential piece of equipment in your home gym to burn the calories away. Skipping ropes are good for circuit training and warmups too.
7. Wrist & ankle weights
Using wrist and ankle weights helps add resistance to your strength training and toning exercises. You can couple them up with other exercises like lunges, leg lifts, donkey kicks, arm circles and more.
8. Resistance band
Resistance bands are effective, inexpensive, portable and easy to store, making them a great piece for home workout. It helps with toning the arm, legs and glutes, improve posture, and useful for stretching too.
9. Kettlebell
The kettlebell is a great piece of equipment for your home gym, allowing you to do strength and cardio training. There are many ways you could use this equipment to work on different muscle groups including the core.
10. Foam roller
The foam roller is an important piece of equipment in any home gym. It is extremely useful as a dynamic warm up before workout to get the muscle groups ready and help prevent injury. On top of that, you can use it post workout as a massager to aid with muscle recovery.
11. Pull-up bar
Lockable pull-up bars can be easily installed without any screws, and instantly turn your home doorway into a pull-up station. It can be used for pull-ups, chin-ups, and a variety of other back and bicep exercises. You can also use it together with resistance bands for pull-up assist.
12. Ab roller
Lockable pull-up bars can be easily installed without any screws, and instantly turn your home doorway into a pull-up station. It can be used for pull-ups, chin-ups, and a variety of other back and bicep exercises. You can also use it together with resistance bands for pull-up assist.
