The Best Home Gym Equipment: 7+ Essentials

When you read the words “home gym” you likely picture an unfinished basement with storage boxes piled up around a weight bench and a dusty old treadmill. Or maybe you go the other way and picture a mansion, with a dance studio-sized room that features mirrors on every wall and every exercise device known to man lined neatly up around the perimeter. Well, neither of those versions of a home gym is what I am envisioning. The style of home gym that I am a fan of is minimal and affordable, yet entirely functional.

If you know me, you will know that I don’t go in for the idea that you have to have the latest, greatest, cutting edge, and newfangled device in order to get a decent workout. I know many amazing athletes, like body weight and callisthenics master Al Kavadlo, who do the majority of workouts in parks and playgrounds. Then there is Darryl Edwards of Primal Play fame, who shuns gyms altogether and prefers to make all of his workouts into playtime. So throw away the idea that your home gym needs to be obtrusive and filled with expensive gear. My idea instead is to start with the bare minimum and work from there.

Throw away the idea that your home gym needs to be obtrusive and filled with expensive gear—instead start with the bare minimum and work from there.

But before we get into the gear, let’s find a suitable area in your home to set this up.

Choosing the Space for Your Home Gym

It is definitely not necessary to have a single room in your house that is devoted to exercise, but it is important to have a location for fitness equipment to live. Preferably a space that isn’t “out of sight and out of mind,” as well. Before deciding which room will house your exercise gear, let’s stop to consider a few things.

• Is there carpet on the floor? Carpet obviously is really good at soaking stuff up (especially red wine, am I right?) That means that it can quickly become stinky if you are sweating all over it on a daily basis. So, choose a room that isn’t carpeted and has flooring that can be quickly and easily wiped down after a heavy sweat session. If that is not possible, you may want to invest in some oversized yoga mats or a tarp that you can pull out before you get your sweat on.
• How high is the ceiling? Even if you aren’t super tall, if you want to do workouts that include jumping or hoisting objects over your head, and you don’t want to have to wear a helmet during your routine, you will want at least one foot of extra space overhead when your arms are fully extended.
• Is there decent...

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