Choosing to make a home gym can be a worthwhile investment over paying for ongoing memberships and workout classes. There’ll be no more waiting for equipment and it’ll be less of a struggle to make your way from the sofa to the gym when everything you need is inside your home. But, what is everything you need? What are the essentials that every home gym needs? Here are our five pieces of equipment we feel every home gym should have.
Squat Rack
Squatting is the king of exercises and engages nearly all your muscles and multiple joints at once. It’s a complex movement that burns calories and increases strength. To do this important exercise you’re going to need a squat rack!
Free weights are much more effective and much cheaper than resistance machines. Unlike such machines, free weights rely on you to control the range and motion of movement which builds muscle faster. The variation of exercises completed with dumbbells is extensive, so you’ll never get bored or reach a plateau with these in your home gym.
Adjustable Workout Bench
To compliment your free weights, it’s best to have an adjustable workout bench. Some exercises are safer when sat down and different muscle groups can be targeted when lying vertically that cannot be activated in other positions. To complete these you’ll need a quality workout bench.
Barbells
You’re going to need a barbell to attach to your squat rack and you’ll need one for other important exercises such as deadlifts, bicep curls and if you’re an advanced weightlifter, maybe even Olympic lifts.
Exercise Ball
The strength of our core can determine how strong we can actually get in other areas. An exercise ball is key in developing your core strength and engaging your abdominals. They can also be paired up with other equipment to complete other exercises.A Final WordThese items are great additions to any gym and can be used to target specific muscle groups on their own. However, we didn’t just pick five we liked the most. These five can be combined to offer much more exercise options. Combine the squat rack, barbell and workout bench to do chest presses or use the workout ball with your free weights to focus on controlled strength and balance? The exercise options are exhaustive. Thinking about a home gym or a garage gym? Get our help here!