Hey everyone,
I have just started on my cardio/strength journey and wanted to get any recommendations you guys have for home gym equipment, primarily treadmills and free weights. I unfortunately live far from a gym and doesn’t make sense for to travel 25 mins each way for a session.
For those of you who exercise at home, what gym equipment do you have and do you recommend them?
Thanks!
Hi Gus…
Keeping it simple I have from Wal-Mart a Golds Gym Bench XR 6.1 – that is a press and good for legs too.
Link: Robot or human?
And some 20 and 25 pound rubber hex dumbbells.
Download the Nike Training Club app. It’s free and has a great mix of body weight only or weight based workouts. The app also categorises the workouts from beginner to advanced and workouts range from as little as 10 minutes to over an hour.
And no, I don’t work for Nike 
The best exercise is that done with bodyweight. Get a chinning/dip station for the upper body. I put a wall unit in my garage during lockdown. The best thing for legs is wind sprints. Even with a 25 min drive I would still join a gym for variety. Boredom will kill motivation quickly.
Its an individual preference I guess. I haven’t been to a gym for a few years. For me, the 40 minute total travel time, shower, change back to street clothes was a huge waste of time. Plus waiting for the next station in your circuit to free up, feeling guilty if I wanted to do a few sets in a row.
I now have a doorway chinning and pull up station, a Powertec squat rack I bought 2nd hand from a guy who had gotten too big for it…he was huge. I have a Tufstuff multi station with pull down bar, an incline bench, and free weights.
It would be different if I had a training buddy and spent an hour and a half in the gym like I once did. I get plenty of work out time, every day, and its when I feel like it. For cardio, it varies, double step stair climbs, jive or other dance steps to a metronome, and a timer to tell me if I’ve done enough.
Sure, sometimes I wish I had a piece of equipment I dont own. And I’m out of space to buy any more. Not everyone is self motivated enough to exercise at home. For those who are, its an ideal arrangement.
Weightlifting is one of the safest forms of exercise. The bench press is the only movement that has a significant fatality rate. Consider a power rack if you intend to bench alone. I bought used gym equipment from a place called Dimond fitness in Columbus, OH. I would expect most major cities to have similar used equipment outlets. A crappy barbell is ok for squats and presses, but you will want a nice bar for pulls from the floor. My home gym is in a barn, and is heated by Coleman lanterns. The equipment is all from a commercial gym that went out of business.
A lot depends on how much space you have and what your budget is. I have a home gym that’s takes up about 80 sqft, and cost $2500. I also have a set of adjustable barbells.
I like my treadmill. I put a tv in front of it, which helps a lot with motivation. If you have the right outside & inclination, running outside has benefits too.
A not expensive way to do bodyweight exercises is with trx straps. When I was working with a trainer, she had a lot of exercises that used it & they can be quite the workout.
I have a set of dumbells & a functional trainer (Inspire) that I got from Costco that lets me do assisted pullup. It’s a fair amount of stuff, but nice to have.
The main thing is what you will actually use, of course.
Without doubt the single best, most versatile and one of the cheapest pieces of gym equipment are a pair of gymnastics rings. For 25 dollars you can workout your entire body (though it’s best for upper body) and it stores in a tiny space
In my opinion most folks don’t need much equipment. My main S+C gear is a pair of running shoes and a bike. I also keep some bands around to do isolated injury prevention. Really, for someone just starting out you will respond to anything, so find out what you like before spending too much.
I use this exercise frame:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QLH28SX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title
Some resistance exercise is a good thing (using your own body as the weights works well). I am not massively into exercise and bought the frame to test whether I had beaten sarcopenia (I am 63).
I do 5-10 mins on the frame each day otherwise I walk briskly,
Do you realistically think a significant percentage of people could do anything with those?
I’m glad to hear that people are exercising but Cardio alone isn’t enough. Resistance training is a must for health span and possibly life span.
DrM, I’ve been interested in these. Do you use the “target a fixed output” function? Where it in real-time auto adjusts the resistance based on your cadence to provide a constant total effort.
Seems like that could be great for zone 2 training.
Little baby weight plates like these
should be on your shopping list eventually. TRX, Crank It Straps, or gymnastic rings are excellent, and are highly affordable.
If you wish to avoid the expense of a power rack consider a routine something like this:
Front Squats
Gym ring push ups, or overhead press (alternate)
Gym ring rows or chin ups
Deadlifts
That’s all. A whole body workout in less than an hour. The rack position of the front squat can be hard to learn, so a dumbbell goblet squat can be substituted for a while. Dumbbells are great, but a rack of dumbbells often comes in 5 lb increments. This means a 10 lb increase in weight every time you try to increase the load. The result is usually discouraging. That’s why I like the little plates above. Baby steps aka progressive overload are the way progress is made. From a longevity standpoint lifting heavy enough to stimulate bone density is an important consideration.
I use a platform called Bkool to do my cycling, and I share my progress on Strava. With Bkool, I can ride up and down mountains and famous raceways from all over the world. Usually, I cycle for 1 to 1 1/2 hours each night. I can pedal faster to generate more power or push harder to increase my wattage. Depending on the length of the route, I set goals for how much wattage I want to produce. I enjoy competing against other riders on the same course, as it motivates me to work harder.
I used to cycle on the road more, but Bkool allows me to cycle no matter what the weather is like, and I don’t have to worry about getting hit by cars or crashing.
You do have the option of setting things up for a constant total effort.
Thanks a lot for all this color. I’m going to check it out.
Yes, pull-ups, dips, inverted rows and push-ups, everyone should be able to especially if you adjust the height to make them assisted. Ring muscle ups are easier imho (I can do a ring muscle up but not a regular one)
I have the climb, it’s more a gimmick though adjusting the height during a session can alleviate some discomfort
