Your Home Gym Shopping List

Having a home gym can be great in terms of convenience. If you’ve been hitting your local public gym for some time, and you’re not intending to quit any time soon, then the idea of having all that equipment in the next room can be very appealing. If this is something you are already in the process of and the only thing left to add is a treadmill, you might want to click here to help you find the right one for your home gym. Whether you’re dead set on setting up your home gym or you’re still on the fence about the whole thing, this post should help you out. Being a fitness fanatic, a friend of mine recently purchased a number of equipment such as thePowerMax treadmills recommended at ProductExpert.in, where his plans are to start a home gym. As with many people, going to the gym may not be for them, so a home gym makes a lot more sense than packing it in altogether. Here are some of the essential pieces of equipment you’ll need, and some of the important considerations surrounding them.

Plate and Barbell Set

From Pixabay

This is probably the most central piece of equipment in anyone’s home gym, being the foundation of pretty much all your workouts. Remember that the workouts that produce real results aren’t dependent on a range of impressive, complex exercises. They’re centred around a small number of core workouts which have been proven to work, and have been taught generation after generation. With a good barbell set, you’ll be able to do lunges, front squats, back squats and deadlifts for your legs, bicep curls, skull crushers, bench presses for your arms, and barbell rows, power cleans, military and behind the neck presses for your back and shoulders. What’s great about a barbell set is that the quality of what you buy really doesn’t matter that much; it’s not exactly a complex mechanism that has to be kept well-maintained to work! You’ll be able to find all kinds of plates and sets for sale on the internet and at local stores, including some great second-hand bargains. If you’re unsure of which pieces of equipment to place in your home gym, you might want to click here to get a better idea of which equipment is worth the expense. You don’t want to be left regretting your purchase, so it’s important to do as much research as possible.

Rack

Although it may not be the most exciting piece of equipment to source, your rack is certainly an important one. This is likely to be the biggest piece of equipment in your set up, as well as the most expensive (excluding cardio machines like treadmills and indoor training bikes). Just like your plate and barbell set, I recommend going for something on the more commercial end of the range. This will ensure that it remains robust enough to survive all the gruelling work you’re going to put it through. If a decent rack is going to be hard to afford on your budget, and you’re relatively new to working out in general, then you can afford to put it off for a while. However, heavier chest, leg and shoulder workouts become almost impossible without one of these in your home gym. There’s also a safety element to consider here. If you’re going to be working out alone in your home gym, you’ll obviously want the reassurance of being able to rack the bar with no trouble. I also recommend finding a model of rack that can be fitted with attachments fairly easily. Pull up bars, for example, are an exceedingly useful addition.

Bench

In order to get the most out of your barbell workouts, you’re going to need a good bench. You may be surprised to hear that I recommend going with a second-hand or otherwise discounted commercial bench rather than one that’s sold specifically for home use. These can take much more of a beating over time. Retail benches, particularly the cheaper ones, are much more delicate, and can be prone to come apart at the bolts or getting rips in their fabric easily. You should also target benches that come with incline and decline functionality. While these may be more expensive, and you may not have much use for them with your current workout regimen, if you switch over to a training phase with a split bodybuilding style it’s certain to come in handy.

Flooring

This is something that a lot of people manage to neglect when they’re setting up their first home gym. However, it’s very important for protecting the flooring of your home, and making your gym equipment last significantly longer. For more information on timber floor sanding, visit this site, as this should likely also be done before any other steps are taken. If you’re planning to set your gym up above another room, it will also help to reduce the noise coming from it. Aim for a high grade of foam flooring, which can usually be bought in a pack of interlocking squares. This will not only last years, but is very affordable. That is, compared to the rest of your home gym equipment! You might look at a few prices for home gym flooring, and feel like the prices for the higher grades are a little too much. However, you really get what you pay for in terms of the flooring’s durability and quality.

Kettlebells

Now, while a lot of people don’t touch kettlebells, and prefer to stick to a rack of dumbbells, I would certainly opt for a pair of relatively heavy kettlebells instead of the other option. Whatever you feel more comfortable using, many trainers will tell you that kettlebells are a much more versatile piece of gym equipment. They can not only replicate most of the exercises that you’d use dumbbells for, but can also add an extra element of functional training and momentum to all of your workouts. This means that you’ll be able to utilize hundreds of variations of your usual exercises, while only taking up a little extra space in your gym.

Punch Bag

Okay, this isn’t really a necessity if you’re looking to work out all of your muscle groups. Having said that, it can still be a great addition to any home gym, and will give you access to more stress-relieving, high-intensity workouts. You’re going to need a decent amount of space in your home gym so that you can weave around it and use it for all it has. Furthermore, installing the hook in the ceiling can be a bit of a hassle. However, if you’re considering getting into combat workouts in the future, I’d recommend making plans for a punching bag.

There you have some of my best tips for sourcing your home gym essentials. If you know you want to start building a home gym, and you’re finding it all a little hard to plan out, I hope that this list has helped you to get more organised.