10 Home Gym Essentials For Every Budget

If you have the space (and it doesn’t require much), creating an area for your personal health and fitness is a worthwhile investment. That being said, assembling a home gym can be intimidating. We’ve put together this list of the essentials to help get you started.

1) Exercise Friendly Flooring

Depending on where your gym is setup, it may be necessary to invest in some exercise friendly flooring. If you’re planning to do exercises that will likely damage your floor (dropping heavy weights, pushing a sled, etc.), it's worth considering getting gym mats to cover the whole area. However, if you plan to stick with mostly bodyweight or resistance training, a yoga mat or a jump mat could be sufficient.

2) Free Weights

Free weights refer to any weights you can pick up and move around. Acquiring free weights makes it much easier to build muscle from home and ads countless options to diversify your workouts beyond bodyweight. If you’re just starting out, a set of adjustable dumbbells are one of the more versatile and affordable options, but a set of kettlebells, or even a barbell are great to have in your home gym. Take a look at your budget and your fitness goals to figure out what will benefit you the most. 

3) Workout Bench

You can get a good workout without a bench, but if you have the room, it can be a game changer for your entire routine by adding versatility to weight training. It can be used to make certain movements safer, target specific muscles, and improve posture. There are several types of benches to suite your needs: adjustable, flat, foldable for easy storage, etc.

4) Workout Friendly Headphones or Speaker

Good music or audio in general can make a world of difference in your workout, but not all headphones are designed to withstand intense motion. If you’re not worried about disturbing neighbors or roommates, a good speaker or sound system works, but for most of us, a pair of exercise friendly headphones is a must. We’ve made a review/comparison on the AirPods Pro v Powerbeats Pro for exercise specifically, but in general, headphones with an ear hook are ideal for working out. 

5) Resistance Bands

Resistance bands are a very easy and affordable way to start a home gym. They can be used for everything from mobility and balance to speed and muscle growth while taking up little to no space. A set of bands might be the only thing you need if your at-home gym is only a corner of your bedroom.

6) Pull-up Bar

Although primarily used for pull-ups, a pull-up bar can be a versatile tool for working out your entire upper body (toes to bar, scapula retractions, etc.). The simplest route is to go for a bar that can be hung in a door frame, but you could take your gym to the next level by opting for a rig which can double as a weight rack.

7) Mirror

The design reason for having a mirror in your home gym is to make the space feel bigger, but it plays a very practical role as well. Without seeing yourself, it’s difficult to know exactly what you’re doing. A full length mirror makes it a lot easier to adjust your form and notice when you’re not doing a movement properly. 

8) Plyo Box

Plyometric training is a great warmup for both weightlifting and cardio (and as a workout itself). The most common use of a ploy box is box jumps, which are used to boost explosiveness and strengthen the quads, but the box can be used for assisted squats, tricep dips, as a makeshift bench for weightlifting, etc. It’s also simple to build if you’re starting a gym on a budget. 

9) Medicine Ball or Sand Bag

Medicine balls and sand bags are must-have accessories for improving coordination and balance. These could be included under free weights, but they got their own mention because the shiftiness of their weight gives them a unique ability to work muscles related to balance and good posture. Training with these will often enable you to exercise more safely in general by improving your core stability.

10) Jump Rope

Similar to resistance bands, jump ropes are incredibly portable and easy to store anywhere. They’re an excellent source of cardio, and can even be used for strength depending on the type of rope you buy. We have a jump rope buying guide as well as some training recommendations for you to get started with jump roping.