Create a space in your home where you can get effective workouts.
The home gym setup depends on your space, your goals, motivations, and your budget. I’ll tell you what I think the most effective things are, but it’s up to you to figure out if it’ll work in your situation.
There’s sliding scale here. Some people have a ton of cash to burn and a big house and can create a big space for a home gym. Others might not even have the space and have to use the garage, or just move some equipment out of storage for the workout.
True story: when I was living in an apartment, I worked out in the storage basement, assembling my bench and moving all my weights before each workout. It can be done.
I think the minimal home gym consists of just two things:
- A kettlebell or a barbell
- A pull up bar
Kettlebells
If you’re just hearing of kettlebells, check out Why Kettlebells? where I explain all the benefits of this great tool.
You only need a couple kettlebells. For guys, a 36 and 53 pound kettlebell, used properly, will give you all the strength you could ever possibly need in life. Women can get away with an 18 and 26 pound bell or a 26 and 36 pound bell. (Some guys might need to start with 26 pounds, too.)
Kettlebells, and proper kettlebell exercise will develop your heart and lungs as well as your muscles, tendons, and ligaments. They are incredibly versatile, extremely fun, and very useful. The type of all-round strength you can develop with kettlebells, along with the variety they offer, is just not matched by other training tools that I have experience with.
Barbells
Bench presses, military presses, squats, bent over rows, and deadlifts are all great exercises with a barbell. These exercises will build strength all over your body.
Perfecting the deadlift at a decent weight is a good idea for bone density and overall bodily strength. If you have athletes in the house, or are one yourself, many sports benefit from the increased limit strength that barbell deadlifts help produce.
Barbells take up some space and can run into some money once you start adding more weight to your lifts. If I had a choice of a few kettlebells or one barbell, I would pick the kettlebells because they are way more versatile and useful. But the barbell can’t be beat for progressively adding weight to your lifts. So, pick both if you can!
A good place to start with barbells is a 300 pound set, available from most sporting goods stores or Craigslist.
The Bench
Now that you have the barbell, you need a bench. Two reasons for the bench: squat stands and bench presses. Ideally, you’ll buy a bench that lets you perform both squats and bench presses. Otherwise, you’ll need a separate squat stand (or a power rack) and the bench.
A power rack might not be a bad idea if you want to go for max effort squats and need some safety in case you collapse under the weight. I’ve never needed that in all these years and I’d suggest that pushing yourself to that point is not required.
The pull up bar
For a small amount of money, you can buy a doorframe pull up bar. I’ve used the Iron Gym door frame pull up bar. It works great. For twenty bucks, you have a spot to do pull ups and it supports up to 300 pounds so you can do weighted pull ups. See Qualler’s Product Review for the Door Frame Pull Up Bar.
For a little over $200 you can buy a Trapeze Rigging Pull Up bar. At one point I used this for over half a year and had no issues with it. It’s a solid unit and it assembles and disassembles quickly–this makes it perfect for a home where you don’t have a spot to have a pull up bar set up permanently.
But the joist mounted pull up bar is my favorite by far. It’s super solid and perfect for my basement home gym. Hence, this one deserves the affiliate link treatment: MS Sports Joist Mounted Pull Up Bar
Jungle Gym XT
The Lifeline Jungle Gym XT enables powerful exercises, like the leg curl, the atomic push up, and the bodyweight row. You can wrap it around the pull up bar and do dips or push ups from the handles. Additionally, if you travel, this is a great piece to have with you to get a great workout. I love wrapping it around a tree branch and doing pull ups. Check out Qualler’s Product Review for the Jungle Gym.
Weighted Jump Rope
Jumping rope is a great exercise. It strengthens the feet, angles, and calves–and of course the heart and lungs. I like this weighted rope because it also strengthens the wrist, forearms, shoulders, and, it makes the exercise more difficult from a cardio perspective.
Swiss Ball
The Swiss ball can make stomach exercises more difficult, it can be used for leg curls, for chest presses, and it can be used for postural exercises. Some people sit on them at their desk, too. My primary reason for owning one is for postural work. Here’s a general review of Swiss Balls.
Grippers
Iron Gym Hand Grippers are a great addition to home gym, or, more specifically, to your desk gym. Squeeze these suckers five times a day, 5 days a week, and you’ll develop a pair of hands strong enough to open any jar. See my post about Captains of Crush training at your desk.
Shoes
I usually just have on slippers or barefoot. Makes things really easy. The cushy shoes limit your nervous system interaction with the floor and I think are a detriment to productive training. Thin and flat soles are best.
Iron Mind Dip / Chin Belt
Buy one of Iron Mind’s Dip and Chin belts
Timer
Your phone. Siri or other virtual assistants can easily set the timer for you.
Gymnastic mats
It’s not a bad idea to do some ground-based movement work. The best place to do that type of thing is on a mat. I have two from We Sell Mats and they are durable and serve the purpose well. They also connect to each other so I have a nice 8×8 foot space in the basement that’s matted up.