Written by Sam Coleman | Co-founder
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Today we are presenting 4 effective and affordable home gym equipment that everyone should own. This is home workout equipment that will not only get you ripped and improve all areas of your fitness, but will also save space and money.
Whether you don’t have access to a gym, you don’t want to always have to go to the gym, or you simply prefer working out at home, the home gym equipment in this post will be perfect for you.
Now, we will never discourage anyone from traditional strength training, as we believe the big lifts (Squats, Bench, and Deadlifts) are the most efficacious exercises for gaining serious muscle mass. However, they are also the most risky in terms of injury and longevity. So, if your goal is to get ripped and build lean muscle at home, in a safe and effective manner, there are other great options besides conventional weightlifting.
The home workout equipment in this post are designed to make you move better, feel better, and look better. They are not designed to turn you into a massive beast, like Kai Greene or Phil Heath…
Thankfully, most people’s fitness goal is not to become Mr. Olympia. Most people just want to be lean and have low body fat. So, the info and home fitness tools here will support most of our fitness goals (…and we haven’t just wasted time writing a nearly 3,000 word article).
Even if you do want to get big (relatively speaking) and stay in the gym, having this specific home gym equipment will be beneficial as you can use them to improve other crucial areas of your fitness, such as cardiovascular health, mobility, and balance…not to mention, getting shredded.
Who should buy the home gym equipment featured here?
Literally, everyone will benefit from the home gym equipment we are featuring today.
And make note, we won’t be including the classic workout equipment like squat racks, olympic bars, and dumbbells...
Although those are great and proven workout equipment, they aren’t necessary for your home.
The gym equipment we are featuring here are truly perfect for people’s homes. They are space-friendly, cost-friendly, safe, and undoubtedly effective for building lean muscle, losing fat, and improving mobility and balance.
So, the answer to “who should buy the home gym equipment featured in this post?” is simple, it’s you and everyone else who has a home.
Examples of why you would want to build a home gym
Building a home gym makes sense if you want to be efficient with your time and get a workout in whenever you want.
...and maybe you still want to go to the gym, but just not as often…
In that case, home gym equipment is great too, because you can turn that 5-6 days in the gym per week into 2-3.
i.e. 2-3 days working out at the gym and 2-3 day working out at home, each week.
Home gym equipment is also great because you can spread out your workout time. Instead of needing to spend 1.5 hours in the gym to get everything done, or going to the gym twice a day, you can do one home workout for fat burning and/or mobility purposes, and one gym workout for strength training.
What's more, having a home gym is the perfect excuse to start doing two-a-days...and in the most efficient manner.
Also, simply put, if you don’t want to go to the gym on a particular day, you won’t have to. You’ll have everything you need for an intense workout, right there at home...
All in all, the home gym equipment featured here is a smart investment, as they aren’t expensive and they are going to remain useful for the long run, even if you decide later that you want to spend more time in the gym.
4 Most Effective and Affordable Home Gym Equipment & Why
Here’s our top picks for home gym equipment that everyone should own. These 4 home workout training tools completely eliminate the non-sense that you find with many “home workout equipment essentials” articles.
With the following four training tools, you will have everything you need to get into incredible shape and improve your fitness on all levels, while also saving space and money.
Not to mention, 3 out of the 4 are portable, so you can take them with you anywhere!
1. Kettlebells
Kettlebells are definitely one of the best fitness training tools, at home or in the gym. They are extremely effective for developing total body muscle and strength, and they can also be used to improve your cardiovascular health and fat loss.
Kettlebells are one of the most versatile home workout tools.
What’s more, kettlebell workouts can be supremely efficient. For example, you can get a serious, intense, salutary workout done in under 20 minutes by doing kettlebell complexes. And, a light kettlebell can be used as a substitute to traditional forms of cardio like running or cycling, but with half the time needed.
Furthermore, kettlebells are space-friendly. You can put them under your bed, in the corner of your garage, or in a closet, and then take them out when it’s time to train
So, if you want an effective multipurpose fitness tool that can help you improve in essentially all areas of fitness (hypertrophy, muscular strength, muscular endurance, balance, mobility), the kettlebell is a no-brainer.
Related: 18 incredible benefits of Kettlebells
What size kettlebells should you get for your home gym?
For your active, average man, kettlebells ranging from 18-26lbs will be good. For those with more strength and higher fitness levels, 26-40lb kettlebells are a better start.
For active women with average fitness, kettlebells ranging from 12-18lbs will be good. For women with more strength and a higher fitness level, 18-26lb kettlebells are probably a better start.
Of course, all of these numbers are relative to your strength and experience. In any case, you can’t go wrong if you stay within these ranges.
If you only want to get one set of kettlebells, we recommend that you stay on the lighter side. That way you can use them for HIIT and cardio-style workouts. And if you want to build muscle, you can simply ramp up the volume and intensity.
2. Resistance Bands
When we say resistance bands, we are talking about the heavy duty continuous loop resistance bands, because these are the most versatile and effective. You can use them for warm up, workout and recovery.
We believe that every person should own a set of resistance bands, even if you only workout at the gym.
Resistance bands are portable, so you can take them anywhere you go, of course, this includes the gym. As you already know, since at every gym you will find people utilizing their own resistance bands.
Besides portability, they are immensely effective.
Here are some of the best uses of loop resistance bands:
- Mobility: in our opinion, bands are the best training tool for improving the mobility of all your joint complexes.
- Warming up: bands are great for getting your blood flowing and body temperature up in a way that is easy on your joints.
- Resistance training & Band Workouts: you can add resistance to bodyweight exercises (i.e. banded push ups), pair them with kettlebell exercises (i.e. banded kettlebells swings), and use them on their own like you would with dumbbells (i.e. resistance band shoulder presses). You can target each muscle groups like your legs, shoulders, and chest. Moreover, one band has a range of resistance levels.
- Explosive training: bands are great for explosive exercises like banded box jumps, banded bear crawls and so on. They can take your explosive power to the next level.
- Assistance: bands can be used to assist you with exercises that you are having trouble with, like pull up assistance, dip assistance, and even push up assistance.
- Transverse plane of motion: bands cause resistance through elastic force, not gravity, which means you can cause tension in any direction. This makes them one of the best workout equipment for training through the transverse plane (get your core strength up!)
- Stretching: at the end of the day, flexibility is an essential part of fitness. You can use bands to deepen or get into stretches that you would otherwise have trouble with.
Related:
What Size Resistance Bands Should I Buy?
Because of how affordable they are, and the various sizes are all useful for different purposes, we recommend going for a full set of 5 bands.
If you want to save a bit of money, go for a set of 3 bands (the first three sizes).
Related: What size resistance bands should I get?
3. Steel Maces
As with kettlebells and resistance bands, steel maces (aka macebells) are tremendously versatile. To us, it is one of the most protean fitness tools that exists, which is probably why it has been around for centuries.
Steel maces lend themselves to resistance training and mobility training, and they are fantastic for calorie burning workouts.
To get more specific…
Steel mace training will help you build powerful, boulder-like shoulders that are not only strong, but also fluid and mobile.
Steel maces will also help you develop formidable grip strength.
And, one of our favorite aspects of steel mace training is how they train you through multiple planes of motion…
Most steel mace exercises are explosive and they combine multiple movements into one as they are based on movement patterns rather than isolation exercises. This means you will be doing full body compound movements, which is what real world strength requires. Not to mention, this is how you truly develop a high level of fitness.
Furthermore, in regards to planes of motion, due to the nature of the steel mace’s design (it has an offset weight), it is the perfect tool for training in the transverse plane. With a steel mace, you can develop incredible core strength and stability, and intimidatingly powerful rotational strength.
Also, the uneven distribution of weight will test your balance, ergo, increasing your stability and coordination tenfold.
All in all, steel maces are the training tool every athlete needs.
And in terms of home workout equipment, steel maces are affordable. So, when considering this and their impressive functionality, steel maces are truly one of the best bangs for your buck that you can get in the fitness product market. Furthermore, they don’t take up much space at all, just like a kettlebell. In fact, they take up even less space as they can stand up vertically.
Related: Steel Mace Benefits
What size steel mace should you get?
The best starter mace is a 10LB mace. This applies to pretty much everyone.
Now, this might not seem like much weight, especially when thinking in terms of dumbbells. However, because steel maces have an uneven weight distribution, and the style of training has a learning curve, even a 10lb mace will be challenging.
Moreover, steel maces have a long handle, so you can increase or decrease the difficulty simply by repositioning where you hands are on the handle...
As you become more adept with maces, you can move up in weight. That said, the 10LB mace will always be a go-to size as it is the most versatile. It is one of the best mace sizes for HIIT workouts, and definitely the best size for steel mace flows...both of which are great ways to utilize a steel mace.
Even the most advanced mace athletes use a 10LB mace regularly.
Read more on what size steel mace you should buy and the best uses for each mace weight/size.
4. Pull Up Bar
Pull ups are an exercises that every single human should be doing. No questions asked. They are easily the best exercise for your back. They work a large number of muscles in your back, shoulders and arms. What’s more, they will help you build some serious core strength.
On the whole, pull ups are an essential compound movement - they are to your upper body what squats are to your lower body.
What’s more, with a pull up bar you can do hanging leg raises, the best core exercise in the game…
Put simply, everyone should have a pull up bar in their home. One of the most important things in life is to be able to control your bodyweight, and the pull up is the ultimate test of this.
Plus, if you desire that sexy v-shape, pull ups are a must.
Related: Chin Ups vs Pull Ups, Which Is Better?
Remember, with pull ups, don’t worry about rep count, focus more on quality reps. As you get stronger, you will be able to do more reps. Also, there are many variations of pull ups, so you can target all areas of your back, arms, and even your chest (pull up bar dips - however, you’ll need headspace for this one).
Can't do pull ups? Follow our Pull Up Progression Plan & Variations (Beginner to Advanced)
Related: 13 Best Pull Up Alternatives To Work The Same Muscles
More on why we chose these four home fitness equipment
- Kettlebells are the best for building muscle and strength.
- Resistance bands will take any exercise and your overall fitness to the next level in a number of ways.
- Steel maces are the best for training though multiple planes of motion, which is what it takes to truly kickass in life. Not to mention they are fun and the workouts will burn tremendous amounts of calories and fat. This is our go to home workout equipment (along with kettlebells) for HIIT, cardio, and full body conditioning.
- Pull ups are simply an exercise everyone should do and master, so it’s a must for your home. Even if you don’t buy the other home workout equipment, and you plan to do bodyweight exercises only, you'll need a pull up bar.
To sum it up, all the home gym equipment here complement each other perfectly.
If you are thinking about the home workout equipment here, and wondering, “what about my chest?” Well, with resistance bands, and variations of push ups, you can definitely build a chest that will impress. Also, put two chairs together and you have a dip station!
Overall, with the 4 home workout equipment featured here, plus bodyweight exercises, you will have everything you need to be a fitness superstar.
PORTABLE
We’ve already touched on this point when describing the training tools above, but to reiterate, kettlebells, steel maces, and resistance bands are all portable. Therefore, you can take this home gym workout equipment on the road with you, whether that’s for traveling on a road trip (or even on a plane in the case of resistance bands), OR to a park for a workout in the sun or the woods to train in the nature in the most primal way.
“What about getting a squat rack, bench, olympic bar, and dumbbells for my home gym?”
If you can afford it and you have space, we’d never be against getting a squat rack (which also has a pull up bar!), bench press, olympic bar and some plates.
If your goal is to build serious muscle mass, this is the best equipment you can get for that. It’ll be costly, but by foraging through Craigslist and FB marketplace, you may find some good deals. Or you can check out our post that covers the Best Squat Racks on the market today.
Even if you do get some large conventional training equipment, we still recommend the 4 home workout tools we presented in this post, as they will help your fitness in a more functional, athletic way.
If you decide that dumbbells are for you, read this article we wrote to help you determine what weight dumbbells you should buy?
When large conventional gym equipment isn’t necessary
To further recapitulate, if getting massive isn’t priority, then the 4 home training tools are best. They are affordable and they will help you get into great shape.
Also, getting BIG requires serious eating as much as it requires progressive overloading, if not more. So, as long as you eat right, you'll grow regardless.
What’s more, if you are not experienced in weight lifting, the big lifts are quite risky. With big lifts like olympic bar squats, deadlifts and bench press, you are much more likely to get injured as these lifts puts a lot of pressure on your joints and spine. Even experienced lifters often get injured by pushing themselves to hard with certain lifts.
All in all, the risk to reward ratio is much better with the 4 home workout gym equipment we’ve featured in this post. You will get ripped and build lean muscle without as much risk of injury.
CONCLUSION
It can be easy to get overwhelmed with all of the home gym equipment options available. However, trust us when we say, so much of it is unnecessary. With all the fitness equipment mentioned in this post, you will have everything you need. We’ve completely eliminated or better yet neglected to mention anything that we believe is non-sense.
Our goal with this post was to eliminate the non-sense by providing you the most effective and affordable home gym equipment options.
Related: 9 At Home Workout Plans for Fat Loss & Building Muscle
We greatly appreciate our readers and we would never steer you in the wrong direction. We are deeply confident when we say these home gym workout tools are all you need to get into all-around, kickass shape, while also minimizing any risk of injury. The ultimate goal in fitness should be longevity and overall well being, and with all of the home gym equipment here, you can achieve that. Guaranteed.
Sam Coleman
Author