Great Fitness Gear & Equipment Ideas For Building A Home Gym From Amazon.com
Are you trying to build the best home gym to workout anytime you want? We at Peek At This have been getting a lot of requests lately asking us what fitness gear and equipment we bought at the start to build a proper home gym.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, many of us have been looking for ways to stay healthy and improve our fitness while being isolated at home. While many gyms across the nation have been opening up again, some of you might not be ready to go back to the gym, pay monthly membership fees again, and wasting time commuting to the gym.
That’s why we decided to create a list of home gym essential equipment that we all purchased on Amazon, with our Amazon Prime membership for free two-day delivery.
While some of us have turned a small spare room into a functioning home gym, others decided to leave our cars in the driveway and turn our garages into home gyms, but the equipment stayed the same for all of us.
If you are looking to build your very own home gym sanctuary where you can hop on a treadmill for cardio training, grab some free weights to tone your body, or a large mat to do some floor work, we have you covered.
Are you ready to build your home gym with great fitness gear and equipment? Here is the fitness gear list that team here at Peek At This pretty much ordered from Amazon and set it up in a day!
Related Article: 10 Best CrossFit Equipment For A Home Garage Gym
20 Fitness Gear Items To Start With In Building A Home Gym
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Amazon Echo
Since you will be working out at home, you will need music to motivate you in your home gym. A great piece of fitness gear and equipment to have is an Amazon Echo device. Why? Because with Alexa, there is so much more Alexa can do than just playing music. Here are some benefits of having an Amazon Echo in your home gym:
- If you have an idea of the theme or genre you want to workout to, ask, “Alexa, play disco workout music“. Or, if you really aren’t sure, but you just want to get the body moving, simply say, “Alexa, play motivational music“. Alexa will play the music that will get you pumped for your fitness program ahead.
- Now that you’ve got your music set up, it’s time to get ready with a quick warm-up. Ask Alexa, “Alexa, set a 10-minute timer for stretching.” Alexa will start a timer for 10 minutes, which allows you to get your body fully ready for the main event.
- Now you are motivated and you are ready to work out. You just need to make sure Alexa is armed with the skills to be your personal trainer. On Amazon’s Alexa Skills page there are plenty of different workouts for you to choose from.
Setting up your Echo with a fitness skill only takes a couple of minutes.
Once you have navigated to the health and fitness skills page choose the type of workout skill you think will help you achieve your goals the best and Alexa can help you along your fitness journey.
Dumbbells & Weight Rack
Dumbbells are the best home weights to have in any home gym. You can work out your whole body with just a pair of dumbbells, and they take up less space than any other type of workout equipment, besides resistance bands.
A good set of dumbbells is at the center of any muscle-building, fat-shredding, sweat-inducing workout, and can be used for numerous different exercises to achieve any number of fitness goals. Dumbbells can help with basic weight loss programs to fat-shredding High-Intensity Interval Training.
Plus, if you buy a dumbbell set with a dumbbell storage rack, you can always make sure your fitness gear will be stored away neatly for your next workout.
Wall Mirror
One of the important benefits of gym mirrors is that it helps you observe yourself from different angles when lifting heavy weights or stretching after a long workout.
When you are working out at home, your goal is to stay in shape, and having a workout mirror installed in your home gym is a great way to keep a check on your fitness progress. It also helps you find the best posture for different exercises to reduce injuries.
Using the mirror in the home-based gym will encourage you to lift more weights in better postures.
A mirror can help you in technique improvement while doing exercise. A home gym mirror is a significant fitness gear component to be installed in your home gym area so that you can stay focused while exercising in the gym.
Resistance Bands
One of the easiest to find fitness gear accessories that don’t take up storage space that enhances a home gym workout is resistance bands.
While dumbbells and weight machines are fantastic for strength training, neither offer the versatility of resistance bands. You can perform exercises like band squats and immediately add a bicep curl to the move. Or you can easily use a resistance band to perform lunges and then add an overhead press. The opportunities are endless.
Due to the versatility of resistance bands, they are also more efficient. A bicep curl with a dumbbell is a fixed motion and the muscles used are predictable. Add the instability of the band, and muscle fibers all over your arms and shoulders kick in to keep the band stable.
Plus, resistance bands are relatively inexpensive even the good ones! Some are less than $20. You can buy multiple bands with varying resistance levels and still keep your costs low.
One of the main benefits of using resistance bands is increasing and strengthening natural movement patterns used in daily activities such as following through on a golf swing, throwing a football, lifting something up high, or even opening a door.
Try adding a few resistance bands to your home gym to achieve results you never thought were possible.
Aerobic Step
Step aerobics is a simple and fun way of staying fit and getting the heart pumping. Studies have shown that one hour of step aerobics offers the same cardiovascular benefits to the body as running flat out for 7 miles.
Even if you have no experience, you can easily pick up step aerobics and start an effective exercise plan in no time. You don’t need to spend much money on equipment, and one of the biggest benefits of step aerobics is that you can do it from the comfort of your own home, so it doesn’t require a gym membership.
Apart from some decent workout gear, all you need to get your hands on is an aerobic stepper. If you want to increase the intensity of your workout, you can also invest in risers, although you will find that the best exercise step usually comes with two or four for this very purpose.
An aerobic stepper is a great fitness gear gadget for those wanting a cardio blasting workout without investing in cardio equipment.
Sandbell SandBag Workout
Sandbag training is a form of resistance training featuring a shifting load. Traditional workout tools such as a barbell have a fixed load, meaning that the weight’s center of mass will stay in one place. Due to the center of mass shifting in a SandBell, muscles are forced to adapt to new stimuli.
A huge reason for purchasing a Sandbag is the wide array of movements that can be performed with it. You can use it to perform sandbag squats or for curls, or push presses and lunges. With a sandbag, you can perform the same lifts you would with a barbell or dumbbell, in addition to many more.
Traditional weights are great for loading the body but terrible for your floors. No matter what type of weight plate you use, your floors will be scratched to pieces by a weight plate. SandBells however, are made with neoprene material, meaning that your floors are safe. You can drag them for prone exercises and even perform slams with them.
Another fantastic fitness gear item that you should have in your home gym.
Large Exercise Mat
Larger Gym Floor Mats is a fitness gear essential that has many benefits for a home gym. Apart from protecting the floor, they are there to assist in a majority of exercises.
For example, if you are training yourself to fatigue your muscles, it is sometimes required to drop weights at times to avoid injuries. Therefore, if you will be doing dumbbell bench press, overhead press, barbell, or dumbbell deadlifts, at the maximal level or near that, make sure that there’s a mat beneath you.
Because if you don’t have an exercise mat that is large enough, you are at a high risk of being injured.
If you are doing floor exercises in your home gym, you will need to use an exercise or workout mat.
Why? Because when you place your hips, knees, tailbone, or spine on a hard floor without using a mat, it may cause you pain, which might keep you from pushing through a difficult part of your workout routine.
KettleBells
Kettlebell sets are now one of the most popular pieces of fitness equipment in the fitness industry today.
A kettlebell typically is a cast iron or cast steel cannonball-shaped with a handle attached to the top. It is perfectly used to perform ballistic exercises that combine cardiovascular, strength, and flexibility.
Like the other kinds of free weights, one of the most significant benefits of kettlebells is building strength and muscle.
If you are new to kettlebell training and wonder how many kettlebells are enough, then the answer depends on your fitness goal.
You only need one kettlebell to start with, then get more to alternate between weights once you go further into the routine. But for beginners, one kettlebell is enough to complete most workouts.
However, the benefit of building a home gym is that you can make your own decision. Therefore, go ahead and purchase more if you want to be creative with your workout.
Beverage Cooler
It’s your home gym, so do what you need to do to make it your own. One of the best fitness gear and equipment ideas is by stocking a small fridge with a favorite cool-down snack or beverage. Fill it up with everything from kombucha to protein bars that you love.
Having a beverage center in your home gym will give you the incentive to slip on your sneakers and head into your home gym studio for a great workout, and rewarding yourself afterward with a tasty healthy snack and beverage.
Weight Bench
If you are serious about lifting weights in your home gym, then you are going to need a weight bench. A weight bench allows you to do a greater combination of exercises than you then can do in a standing or static position. It also provides a larger range of motion in lying positions.
Other benefits of adding bench presses to your weight-training regimen include increasing upper body strength, improving muscular endurance, and even preparing your upper body to do movements like pushups. They also can be an effective strengthening exercise for sports like sprinting, hockey, and football.
You can use dumbells for free weight exercises like dumbbell chest fly’s and arm curls on a weight bench, or add some fitness gear equipment like a squat rack with an Olympic barbell and weight plates for press exercises like chest press and shoulder presses without a spotter.
Resistance Bands With Handles
If you are looking for effective ways to improve your workouts without having to spend a small fortune on gym memberships or machines, then adding exercise bands with handles will handle all your workout needs and allow you to enjoy your fitness routines like never before!
Suitable for both men and women who love intense or low-impact workouts.
Find ones that are made with Rubber Latex material and designed for some heavy-duty workouts either at home or at the gym. You can take them along during Cross Training, Yoga, Pilates, and bodyweight sessions. Ideal for physical therapy and rehabilitation from injuries as well.
They will help you increase strength, reduce joint pains, treat chronic pain, tone, and shape your whole body from scratch! For a great selection of resistance bands, check out WODfitters.
Exercise Ball
Stability balls should be a part of everyone’s home gym as they are one of the most versatile pieces of fitness gear equipment used today.
Also known as exercise balls, therapy balls, fitness balls, yoga balls, swiss balls, physioballs, and balance balls, stability balls are an excellent way to strengthen core muscles and improve balance.
Workout buffs use stability balls in a variety of different ways. They can be used to improve core strength, as well as for bodyweight workouts, cardio workouts, resistance training, and are often even used for yoga and pilates.
Some even use these balls to improve concentration and strengthen core muscles while sitting during everyday activities, such as studying or working at a desk.
A home gym setup doesn’t have to cost a lot of money neither should it take up too much space. Whether you have a spare room to use for working out or you’re converting your living space into a workout space as needed, a stability ball is a low-cost and compact must-have piece of equipment.
Ankle Weights
Ankle weights are one of the most essential fitness gear tools in creating toned, lean legs and a toned butt. The added weight allows the muscles to activate and work just hard enough to become prominent without breaking down and bulking, allowing you to feel muscles that you normally don’t work out.
Ankle weights help the legs work hard enough without breaking down or enlarging muscles as most weighted exercises do. You can also move around in ankle weights, letting you walk and move from floor work to standing throughout the workout.
Home Gym Organizer
When building a home gym, you will begin to collect valuable fitness gear and equipment to help you with your fitness.
But storing all that equipment around your home gym can be tricky because you don’t want the workout equipment to take over your whole space, but you still want to have it accessible. Our team came up with some tips for storing exercise equipment around your home gym that we would like to share with you for a tidy home gym.
Both your ceiling and wall space can be underutilized when storing exercise equipment. Using I love hanging bikes from the ceiling as it takes up less space on the floor. Adding a Wall-Mount Yoga Mat Rack to store your yoga exercise mats horizontally keeps your equipment off the floor.
With Jump ropes, resistance bands, and hand weights, bring order to your home gym and free up your exercise space with a heavy-duty wall-mounted storage rack.
Or give your home gym an old-school locker room look with an industrial bin storage cabinet. This locker storage option is ideal for storing miscellaneous gear, grab-and-go drinks, and sweat towels.
Leg Resistance Bands With Handles
Leg resistance bands are a unique rubber resistance tool for lower body toning and strengthening. They are designed to allow you to go multiple directions (forward, backward, side-to-side, diagonal) during your workouts and allow for a full range of motion for targeted training.
Perfect for conditioning hips, thighs, and glutes. Soft padded ankle cuffs stay firmly in one place without hurting during exercise.
The ankle grips are essential for doing your resistance band leg curls, leg extensions, and abductors/adductors. Strap them onto your wrists for a series of upper body exercises, too.
Slam Ball
What is a slam ball? A slam ball is a weighted, rubber-coated ball that can be used in a range of exercises to condition and define your muscles.
Slam balls are similar to medicine balls, but slam balls have thicker surfaces, which makes them ideal for high-impact throwing exercises.
What are the benefits of working out with slam balls? Slam balls are extremely popular with athletes worldwide, as they’re both simple to train with and can greatly improve your muscle mass.
Depending on which exercises you do, a slam ball works your shoulders, triceps, pecs, calves, back, and core for strength or conditioning training. They make for the perfect fitness gear for a home gym because, they can be incorporated into a jam-packed fitness schedule, involving free weights or cardio exercises, supporting a range of muscle strengths and capabilities.
Cooling Fan
Having an instant cool breeze from a ceiling fan or portable standing fan during a particularly sweaty workout makes you want to workout more in your home gym.
Adding a smart home ceiling fan that works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomeKit makes it easy to use voice commands to turn the fan on without missing a rep.
Or, adding a Dyson Pure Hot + Cold Air Purifier/Fan that offers a heating function that disperses air across a large area and lets you control the temperature, flow speed, direction, and oscillation.
It can raise the temperature of a gym space by about 6 degrees Fahrenheit in under an hour which is a welcome blast of warmth in the cold Canadian winters.
Plus, it can cool you down in seconds with the cold air function while the sealed HEPA filter captures 99.97% of allergens as small as 0.3 microns making this an ideal air purifier for allergies, pets, dust, smoke, pollen, and mold spores.
Folding Treadmill / Stationary Treadmill
A treadmill is an important part of your fitness gear and equipment list for your home gym because using one will help you lose weight and burn fat, and you can get started at almost any level of fitness.
A treadmill is cheaper than a gym membership for a year and will last longer.
Having a treadmill in your home gym means it’s available all year round 24/7, and there is no need to get changed into gym wear. Just pop on your trainers, grab a bottle of water, and go!
There are different styles of treadmills for a home gym like a folding treadmill and stationary treadmill. Just find the right treadmill that will fit your home gym lifestyle, and when you put your treadmill to good use, along with good eating habits, you will burn fat and get into shape like never before.
Plus, treadmills are an excellent way to de-stress after work or when the kids are finally in bed.
Rowing Machine
In our recent article on the top smart rowing machines available today, we discussed the benefits of adding a rowing machine to a home gym.
Why are rowing machines a great fitness gear addition to a home gym, and how do they complement a treadmill?
Building muscle while you simultaneously do cardio is a great way to ensure that the fat you’ve lost stays away. If you just want to lose fat, then a treadmill is a better choice. However, if you want to burn fat while building muscle and improve your overall fitness, rowing machines are better for losing weight.
But, recently the team tried a session at an Orange Theory location in which they incorporated a treadmill workout and rowing workout in the same routine, and let’s just say that it kicked our butts. If you try this in your home gym you’ll be running back and forth from the treadmill to the rowing machine, so get ready to move.
Here’s a sample of the Run and Row Workout:
- Run: 0.5 miles
- Row: 150 meters
- Run: 0.4 miles
- Row: 150 meters
- Run: 0.3 miles
- Row: 150 meters
- Run: 0.2 miles
- Row: 150 meters
- Run: 1 mile
Why does this workout work? Because you are maintaining a high heart rate throughout the routine for cardio benefits, but also getting the strength training from rowing which makes you stronger and can help you appear leaner. It’s win/win.
WHAT’S A GOOD SIZE FOR A HOME GYM?
A suitable size for your home gym depends on what your living situation is and how much space you have to set aside. But, to discover what best suits your situation, the American Council on Exercise offers some useful square footage estimates for various pieces of exercise equipment:
Exercise Equipment – Square Footage Space Needed
- Treadmill – 30 square feet
- Elliptical – 30 square feet
- Single-station gym – 35 square feet
- Free weights – 20-50 square feet
- Stationary bicycle – 10 square feet
- Rowing machine – 20 square feet
- Stairclimber – 10-20 square feet
- Multi-station gym – 50-200 square feet
MOTIVATIONAL IDEAS FOR YOUR HOME GYM
Ok, so you’ve got the fitness gear and equipment like, music, storage, and mirrors covered, now for the big and little extras that will help you kick workouts into high gear:
Large-screen TV
Say goodbye to useless infomercials, HGTV reruns, or whatever else that seems to be playing on the television at your local gym. Having a big monitor in a home gym is ideal for watching workout videos or catching up on the shows you’re watching — while strengthening your muscles and giving your immune system a boost, too.
Posters and pictures
Whether it’s stenciling a quote that resonates on the wall, hanging up beautiful photos from a favorite vacation or an accent wall painted in a color that energizes you, adorn the space with visuals you’ll love to look at each day.
Chalkboard or whiteboard
Writing a weekly schedule on a large surface is a great way to keep track of your routine. You can buy chalkboard paint or whiteboard contact paper to quickly transform a wall into a giant inspiration board or calendar.
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About the author: Trent (IMDB | Youtube) has spent 10+ years working on an assortment of film and television projects. He writes about his experiences to help (and amuse) others. If he’s not working, he’s either traveling, reading or writing about travel/film, or planning travel/film projects.
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