Putting together your own home gym is a great idea, as it puts the equipment you need right in your home and saves a lot of gym membership money in the long run.
The question is, what equipment do you need in your own home gym?
The following items are the things that are essential for most people.
Some Of The Big Things You May Need For Your Home Gym
Elliptical Machine
If you get the right kind, this will exercise your arms as well as your legs. It also attacks different muscles than the treadmill, and if nothing else it gives you a change of pace between treadmill jogging days. Oh, and they are also way easier on the body. They’ve also been proven to be quite an effective workout tool, so the fact that it’s also relatively quiet is just a perk!
Rowing Machine
These are a great way to give the arms a good workout and that’s something you shouldn’t neglect. Ideally your gym experience will be a varied one, one that doesn’t involve working on the same muscles every single day. That’s another reason why you want a nice upper body machine. It lets you keep exercising without putting your body through too much.
The Smaller Things You Will Need For Your Home Gym
Exercise Ball
These are becoming more popular because they help a lot with stretching. The fact that they are fun to use is just a bonus. Get one that’s the right size for you and keep it inflated, then have it on hand so that you can use it during each workout regiment you have. It’s not the only stretching you should do, but it’s an important part of the process nonetheless.
Will You Be Using Free Weights In Your Home Gym
If you have the space in your newly created home gym, the need and the money for a full set of weights or a weight machine, feel free to move this up to the prior category. Some form of weights is important either way because it allows you to do all sorts of other exercises and focus your workout on a single muscle set.
Free weights can be quite inexpensive, just make sure you buy something of quality and learn how to use them.
Knowing How Much Space You Will Need For Your Home Gym
Space isn’t exactly equipment but it’s where you’re going to put it. The big stuff obviously has a home, but in your planning did you remember to leave room for stretches, jump rope and other things?
If not, get back to the drawing board. Planning your gym so that there is adequate space is important because doing the stretches elsewhere leads to bad habits.
Non Exercise Essentials For Your Home Gym
Television
Get a nice television for your gym. You’ll use it a lot and it will keep you from telling yourself lies like “I’ll workout when the show is over.”
A Mirror
A wall mirror will come in handy a lot of times. First of all it does some people a lot of good to watch themselves exercising. For another, it’s important to be able to watch what you’re doing during certain stretches.
Once you have all of those things together, your home gym will serve you well. From there onward, you’ll no doubt come up with other things to add and perhaps take away.