As you progress in your various compound exercises, adding resistance bands can focus your control. They also recruit your stabilizing muscles, making them perfect for functional training.

Foam rollers are long tubes often made of rubber or dense styrofoam. To use them, you slowly roll your back, hips, or calves — really any area of your body — over the top of the roller.

Using a foam roller before your workout can help you to stretch your muscles to warm up for a workout. Foam rolling can also help your muscles recover from an intense workout.

Foam rolling targets deeper muscles. Should you save up and purchase everything at once or piecemeal it together as your budget permits? Should you start with a big piece of equipment like a treadmill, or focus on weights first? Here are some budget-friendly options to consider:. buying brand new.

A used pound dumbbell isolates muscle groups the way a brand new one will. When looking for used equipment, you can check Craigslist or other buy and sell sites. Many gyms will also sell used equipment as they upgrade, so it never hurts to reach out to them. YBells are a 4-in-1 alternative to dumbbells, kettlebells, medicine balls, and push-up bars.

YBells are a much easier way for you to have access to all four pieces without the clutter and expense of purchasing multiple pieces of equipment.

By simply changing your grip, you get all the workout and training advantages in one award-winning, compact, and comfortable design. And it looks clean and modern, making it easy to fit into any room in your home. Equipment that can get your heart rate up which is vital to a cardio workout and target your muscles is the best way to get a better bang for your buck.

Here are a few examples:. The primary reason to build a home gym is to work out. Yes, that seems extremely obvious, but remember that convenience and accessibility are vital to your motivation to work out.

Factors like your commute, rush hour, disinterest in your equipment, or the difficulty of your equipment mean the difference between skipping a workout or powering through a workout.

Putting together a gym you will be happy with and excited to work out in will pay off tenfold as you start basic exercises at home and march towards your fitness goals. United States United States United Kingdom.

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Types of Home Gym Equipment. Cardio Equipment for a Home Gym. Exercise Bikes Stationary bikes are one of the best forms of aerobic exercise. Ellipticals Ellipticals are a great cardio option for those who need low-impact workouts.

Weight Training Equipment for Your Home Gym. Two 5 lb. Medicine Balls Medicine balls are about the size of a basketball and typically weigh anywhere from 2 to 25 pounds.

Barbell and Plates A barbell is a long metal bar usually weighing 45 pounds that you load with weighted plates on each side. Stretching Essentials for Every Home Gym.

Resistance Bands Resistance bands are an often overlooked and underestimated workout tool. When deciding our picks, we took many factors into consideration but gave the most weight to versatility, value, and functionality in a home gym space.

The more types of exercises or purposes that a piece of equipment can serve, the better it will rank on this list because of that. We also made sure testers with different bodies tried each machine, too, to give a well-rounded review.

We get it: outfitting a full home gym can be quite expensive, which is why we place a premium on products that offer the most bang for your buck. The value a piece of equipment offers is also weighted heavily here and stems quite often from the quality and durability of a product.

The price reflects what they bring to the table, or more accurately, what they bring to the garage, basement, or spare room. Oftentimes, the more expensive items are selected due to their exceptional quality, and we expect them to last a lifetime with proper care.

As we tried different machines, we made sure to look at the components, prioritizing sturdy, steel materials, as opposed to plastic. The functionality of your equipment is essential to setting up a space that works for your training needs.

In order for us to recommend something, it has to do what it is intended to and do it exceptionally well. Otherwise, that product may not make our list. So, we kept different sports and fitness goals in mind while trying out different home gyms. Would this machine work for a CrossFit athlete as well as a bodybuilder or fitness newbie?

That way, we made sure to offer something for everyone. This pin and plate loaded home gym from Force USA has true versatility. Pin loaded stack weights, crossover cables, plate weight options, a functioning power rack, and more enable you to hit every muscle without leaving the house.

Our top pick is a home gym package that offers stunning versatility, can take the place of 11 strength training machines, and comes at a relatively low price. The compact design and nearly endless variety of workouts give the G6 an edge over the competition here. One of the main considerations when building a home gym is balancing space with utility.

You want enough gear to provide a complete workout space, but you may not want a truckload of gear taking up the whole house. You can set it up to do low rows, as well as core exercises with the landmine station.

Plus, you can even hook up TRX bands to the suspension trainer ring. What makes this machine so unique? It comes with safety spotter arms, a dual hook straight barbell, a pulldown rope and v-bar, and a host of other attachments.

Plus, you can add on jammer arms and a leg developer as well. With nearly endless workout options, this machine has something that can please just about anybody. The Rep Fitness FT Compact Functional Trainer is true to its name. Trying to extract the same functionality of a commercial gym in your tiny one-car garage might seem like an overwhelming prospect.

Thankfully, we found this home gym to be a big hitter while maintaining an impressively small footprint. Plenty of weight for my purposes. Our best compact home gym pick is less than 4. It is pretty short, though, so taller lifters might have to bend their legs during pull-ups.

Despite its conveniently low profile, REP managed to fit a pair of lb weight stacks into it pounds total.

In our experience, the pulleys also take some time to break in and may require some greasing the first few times you use the FT Space is one of the top factors to consider when setting up your home gym.

Whether you have ample room or are working with a single tight corner, the REP FT can open up a world of training possibilities. This power rack doubles as a cable machine with two pound stacks for each cable. The basic package features 12 attachments, while the upgraded kit will bring the total to The X20 is rated to hold up to pounds, so even the most elite-level athletes can confidently hit their heavy lifts.

If you want every option under the sun, this home gym is truly the complete package. Cables, heavy weight stacks, weight plate storage, racks, pull-up bars, and more — this machine has it all. The X20 Pro is an all-in-one home gym solution with a solid power rack, two pound weight stacks, and 17 different attachments included.

The rack comes with a variety of attachments, though some are certainly better than others, and you may have to replace some with more ergonomic or specialized pieces. The Upgrade Kit is likely not super useful for most people, but it would be a great addition for athletes because of the jammer arms.

In our garage, we barely had an inch of clearance. However, if you have plenty of space, customers do love interior depth. We had a professional put it together for us, and it still took them over five hours.

Read our full Force USA X20 Pro Review. The Tonal is an interactive home gym that delivers up to lbs of total electromagnetic resistance with the use of two maneuverable pulleys.

What's most impressive is that it adapts as you progresses, which means you'll always be pushing closer to your fitness goals. Our best smart home gym takes up zero floor space, offers up to pounds of resistance, and provides workouts that adapt to your training and progress.

Tonal comes with two cable handles with different exercise options , a rope pulldown attachment, a bench, and a barbell with up to pounds of resistance.

The handles and barbell have a Bluetooth spotter button that you can press to instantly reduce the weight. However, for more experienced lifters, this may not be adequate, which we found with some of our testers.

The tech also allows you to keep a close eye on your progress without the need for pen and paper. Read our full Tonal Review. The G20 All-In-One Trainer takes an entire gym and packages it into a single space. This home gym is the complete package, sporting plate loaded features in addition to being a power rack for squats and benching with a regular barbell, which you can add on to your order.

This home gym allows bodybuilders to do just that. At first glance, the Force USA G20 may look intimidating, but once you look at all the separate parts closely, you see just how useful this multi-trainer can be. This rig comes with 29 attachments and can replace a leg press , smith machine, functional trainer, lat pulldown, power rack, low row, and more.

That means every pound of resistance will still be a pound in hand instead of half a pound. You do have to fork over a pretty penny, but the financing options are pretty good, depending on credit approval. A great cable machine should be reliable, smooth, space-efficient, and able to handle any workout you throw its way.

The REP Fitness Compact Trainer is all that and then some. REP makes a lot of high-quality products, and this home gym cable machine is no exception.

The REP Compact Trainer is solid, the pulleys and cables are silky smooth, though they do require a short break-in period. Putting some light lubricant on the pulley wheels may help alleviate that initial stickiness.

One thing that taller athletes should consider is that the FT is shorter than most cable machines. The REP Fitness FT Compact Trainer saves on space, has a fair price point, and is a smooth-operating cable machine that should last for years if not decades.

Even though the weight stacks are lighter than some other machines, the FT is still a great option. The Sole F80 treadmill is full of modern touches. It can withstand long runs, offers an incline range up to 15 percent and speed range up to 12 mph, and has a cushioned deck that makes running 40 percent less impactful on your joints than the outdoors.

The Sole F80 is powerful yet compact and loaded with extras, making it our top choice. There are a lot of treadmills on the market, but the Sole F80 is our best home gym treadmill.

It performs like a full-sized treadmill that you might find at a health club but it still has a relatively compact footprint as well as easy-assist folding. The cushioned deck can potentially reduce impact by up to 40 percent, making the F80 potentially better for your joints than outdoor running.

Plus, Sole does a great job with the infotainment system — combining a Larger runners should be aware that they may experience some track slipping or skipping, since the 2. However, this machine is great for indoor use. Read our full Sole F80 Treadmill Review. This luxury rower is equipped with a inch touchscreen display and offers automatic adjustments to the resistance based on your rowing efforts.

This rower is the best example of form meeting function, offering a variety of fun colors and a vibrant touchscreen to brighten your home gym environment. With this updated version, Hydrow kept all of the great features of the original design but made the machine lighter and more compact.

According to our personal testers, rolling the machine around was way easier than expected. Following along with the classes on the inch screen is enjoyable, and the trainers are top-notch — we really like the chill on-water rowing classes.

If you connect your headphones, the only noise will be from you huffing and puffing, thanks to virtually silent magnetic resistance. However, customers love the tech experience.

How they can talk while rowing amazes me every time. Though the rower is more costly than some, the stainless steel frame and high-quality build, coupled with the premium rowing experience, justify the price in our eyes. Read our full Hydrow Wave Rower Review. This rack features gauge steel uprights that can hold up to 1, pounds.

It can also be completely customized with two different height options, three options for the depth, your choice of 13 attachments, and even the color scheme. Luckily for powerlifters, the amount of equipment needed to deadlift , squat , and bench press is relatively low when it comes to space.

However, stability, durability, and quality should be top of mind when lifting heavy, which is how we decided on our top home workout machine for powerlifters.

Though all powerlifters perform the same three movements for competition, different athletes have different training styles. To accommodate individual needs, the REP PR is fully customizable. The two-inch spacing throughout may make it a bit more challenging to find the perfect height for your bench press.

The rack does feel extremely stable, though, even with the four-post layout. And if you want even more sturdiness, you can add the extra two posts for storage since it includes a rear stabilizer. The Bowflex Xtreme 2SE is an impressively versatile home exercise station, perfect for anyone who wants to train hard in their own space without taking up a ton of square footage.

Bowflex built its brand on the idea that gymgoers would trade in the gym membership for a home gym that was affordable and compact. For an extra charge, you can add a preacher curl and ab crunch attachment, though there are likely cheaper ways to achieve the same effect.

The quick transitions and no-frills setup of this machine make it an excellent choice if you want to get a full-body workout in with limited time and space. Read our full Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE Home Gym Review.

This home gym provides up to pounds of resistance per movement. You may save money in the long run, but a high-quality home gym can cost you a lot upfront. For most day-to-day lifters, it ticks all the boxes, according to one five-star customer review.

There are a range of weightlifting exercises that can be performed with the equipment. You can also purchase more attachments to vary your grips. With a little creativity, you can perform even more exercises, like hamstring curls and triceps pushdowns.

This means you can perform basically a whole-body workout and not even have to purchase a bar or weight plates — great for cost and space savings. By then, you may be ready to upgrade. We also like the small footprint, so you can tuck this machine into the corner of your home and have all you need to develop your muscles.

The TRX Home2 System provides a set of straps that you can incorporate into both strength and cardio training. The TRX system is based around seven classic exercises — the pull-up, push-up, lunge, plank, squat, rotation, and hinge — all of which can be modified to create varied workouts.

There are plenty of portable gym options out there, but we like the TRX Home2 System the best. It only takes about a minute for you to set up this TRX on any tree or door for a full-body bodyweight workout.

The TRX is designed to work with just your body weight though you can throw on a weight vest for an added challenge. It can fit in a mesh bag for easy storage, making this pick our most space-friendly gym by far. We advise letting the system air dry before putting them back in the bag, though, especially after a sweaty session.

The handles and even straps can become somewhat funky smelling if you constantly toss them in the bag right away. We also like this system for frequent flyers. If you prefer bodyweight workouts that you can do anywhere, this is the cheapest and most space-friendly pick on our entire list.

TRX workouts even have a thriving online community, so you can connect with others doing similar exercise routines. Read our full TRX Home2 System Review. The PR comes in two sizes — the Both options fold into the wall when not in use thanks to four heavy-duty pull-pins, which can save users a lot of space.

Truth is, you can have a squat rack without sacrificing a ton of space since this one folds away. For those who dont have a ton of space, the PR folds away neatly and only extends six inches off the wall when folded, so you have plenty of room on rest days. The setup is relatively simple, with just four pull-pins, and only takes about a minute.

We really like the Westside spacing through the bench press area, which lets you dial in the perfect rack height. So, we suggest you recruit a gym buddy to help you out. This power rack is sturdy, can support 2, pounds, and can hold various accessories such as band pegs and dip bars.

You can also add a cable pulley system and lat pulldown machine to really get the most out of your gym. This power rack is constructed of steel, can be bolted to the floor, and is compatible with add-ons to create a complete home gym.

The modular design also allows you to add attachments as you need. MyRack can accommodate up to 20 different attachments like a cable crossover, lat pulldown , and dip handles. The Westside spacing is nice for powerlifters, too.

This basic power rack can be built out to serve as the centerpiece of your home gym, plus, you can add the exact equipment you need for a complete setup based on your personal training goals.

Read our full Force USA MyRack Modular Power Rack Review. The Rep Fitness SR Squat Rack has plenty of depth for all kinds of lifts. Plus you get a built-in pull-up bar that's sturdy and suitable for for all kinds of pull-up variations kipping, included.

If you either have an existing home gym or want a bare-bones setup to squat and perform overhead presses , a simple squat stand will do the trick at a fraction of the cost of a complete home workout machine.

It weighs about pounds, so moving it around with two people is totally doable. It comes equipped with a built-in pull-up bar for extra back work. You can also hang resistance bands for pulldowns and triceps work. The short height 96 inches may be too low for taller people to comfortably perform pull-ups, but you can opt for the inch option instead.

REP Fitness is known for its high-quality manufacturing, and the steel of this rack along with the many five-star reviews is a reflection of that. The questions below will help you decide if investing in home workout machines or building your own gym is a wise, financially savvy choice.

Take time to think about your strength goals, the space you have, and your budget before taking the plunge. You may be better off just finding a local gym with the myriad of equipment you need in this instance.

If you simply want to stay in shape, then a simpler setup will do the trick and might be more feasible from the outset. This question should help guide you to what equipment will be best for not only your goals but your lifestyle, too. On the other hand, a two-car garage or large basement affords you a lot more space to build a complete set-up.

The vertical height is also a big consideration.