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Regular exercise is very important and one of the best ways to ensure you get a quality workout is to build a home gym. Once you have a gym at home, you can work out anytime you want and you don’t have to drive to a commercial gym or spend time in traffic. Now, it can be quite expensive to set up your own home gym, but it doesn’t have to be. We will cover how to set up your home gym on a budget so that you get the most value for your money.
Related: Read our review of the Vigbody Indoor Exercise Bike
DumbbellsA staple of any home gym is dumbbells. Free weights should be a core part of your home gym simply because they are so effective at building muscle. Also, with dumbbells, you can do a wide range of exercises such as bicep curls, chest press, squats, rows, shoulder press, lunges, calf raises, deadlifts, etc. It is possible to use dumbbells alone to get a fantastic workout. Due to their versatility and low cost, they should definitely be one of the first things you think about including in your home gym.
Once you’re committed to free weights, you shouldn’t just use dumbbells alone. Definitely add at least one or two Olympic barbells along with Olympic weight plates. These will allow you to lift much heavier weights than just using dumbbells alone and will ensure you’re always able to achieve a progressive workout.
Since you’ll be using a lot of weights, you need to ensure that your floors can handle all the extra load. So, you definitely need to invest in some high-quality gym mats to cover the floor of your home gym. It is highly recommended that you cover the entire home gym floor so that it is well protected against the heavy weights. After all, with all the heavy training you’ll do, you will eventually drop a plate or a few dumbbells.
Next, a workout bench is an absolute necessity in any gym. Thankfully, you can get many affordable workout benches that are adjustable. You should get one that allows you to change the position from flat, to an incline, decline, or 90 degrees. This will enable you to do a wide range of exercises using both dumbbells and barbells.
A pull sled offers a fantastic whole-body exercise that is not only cardio-based but also weight-based. You can easily stack weights such as your plates on it and push and pull it around your gym. However, be sure to leave enough space around the perimeter of your gym so that you can enjoy pulling or pushing the sled. This particular workout machine will not only improve your physique but also drastically improve your stamina and work capacity. Depending on the layout and size of your home gym, this may not be a feasible workout.
Plyometric BoxPlyometric boxes are exactly what they sound like, boxes that you can jump on and off of. Box jumps are a great cardiovascular exercise that will help increase your power and explosiveness.
Pull-ups are a great exercise that will definitely help you to make some quick back, bicep, shoulder, and lat gains. So, installing a pull-up bar in your home gym is highly recommended. They are also quite cheap and you can easily attach them to any available doorway. You can use this bar to do pull-ups as well as chin-ups, kipping pull-ups as well as weighted pull-ups, and chin-ups.
One of the cheapest pieces of gym equipment on this list is the jump rope. You can easily get one of these for under $15. However, don’t mistake the low price for being low value! The humble jump rope can help you to drastically improve your cardiovascular health and torch thousands of calories. You can even buy speed ropes or even weighted jump ropes to make your workouts more challenging.
In the event that you can’t buy as many weights as you want, you should definitely get some resistance bands. These are very affordable and allow you to do resistance training without dumbbells or other free weights. In addition to resistance training, they can also help to improve your mobility and balance.
To wrap things up, we have just covered some of our top home gym essentials while on a budget. The great thing about this list is that you can start with just one or two and then slowly add more as your budget allows. Other equipment, such as an exercise bike (see how much exercise bikes cost) or treadmill (find the perfect time to buy a treadmill), could be added for a cost-effective price, provided you do your research. Also, don’t forget to add a stereo or music system since music is necessary for motivation and will help you keep focused during every gym session.
