The question often arises, "What is a basic list of essential home fitness exercise equipment?" What do you just have to have to get started working out at home?
There are hundreds of exercise gadgets to choose from but I'll limit my list to what a basic home gym would need in order to be considered a home gym.
What Are Your Fitness Goals?
My fitness goals are fairly modest: get stronger, maintain my ideal weight and reach a high level of fitness.
According to my studies goals like mine are fairly common and perfectly match up with other home fitness wannabes. Most women fall into this home fitness category too, they don't want to get all bulked up with muscles, but they do want to get stronger and slimmer.
Therefore, the average man or woman who is looking to get into the kind of shape that I'm talking about won't need to spend thousands of dollars on fancy schmancy king-sized weight lifting equipment or expensive "As Seen On TV" body sculpting gadgets.
Here's my minimalist list of essential home gym exercise equipment:
Dumbbells
You can buy fixed weight dumbbells or adjustable dumbbells. Depending on your budget and space constraints adjustable dumbbells is a good place to start.
My wife bought an inexpensive set of fixed weight dumbbells in sizes of 3 pounds, 5 pounds and 8 pounds. Even though they are on the small size I can still use them for a number of exercises that don't require heavy weights.
Pushup Handles
Pushup handles are the poor man's bench press. I use my pushup handles a lot. If you elevate your feet on a chair or flat bench the difficulty level of the pushup goes up substantially.
Push up handles pack small but play big. The are also inexpensive at less than .
Jump Rope
Jump ropes are great for warming up as well as for helping you to increase your coordination. Jump rope for five minutes and you will probably be exhausted.
Skipping rope is difficult to do well but well worth the effort to master.
I also like jump ropes because it helps eliminate the monotony of doing the same cardio exercises over and over again.
Sturdy Chair
I use my chair for doing seated dumbbell presses (a chair really helps your form) and tricep dips. Make sure the chair is sturdy and doesn't wobble.
Chin-up Bar
Chin-up bars are great for increasing upper body strength. You can buy door mounted systems or do like me and build your own wall-mounted one.
Soft Exercise Mat
My basement floor is concrete therefore a soft exercise mat is essential. My daughter bought a large gymnastics floor mat in used condition that works great.
I have also used a pair of soft industrial floor mats that businesses use when their employees have to be on their feet for long periods of time.
Stability Ball
I highly recommend a stability ball or exercise ball for your home gym. It allows you to exercise the core of you body in unique ways. It's great for abdominal workouts but it can also be used for upper body exercises as well.
You can pick up an exercise ball at a discount store for around new.
Conclusion
As you can tell supplying your basement gym with the essential exercise equipment won't break the bank. You will be able to do an amazing amount of exercises with this equipment and get yourself into pretty good shape if you stick to it long enough.
When the urge strikes and you want to expand your home gym beyond the essentials I would recommend investing in an adjustable bench with sit-up capabilities.
My advice is to get the basic home fitness exercise equipment that I recommend and start using it. If you prove to yourself that you will be consistent with it then buying more elaborate equipment later will be a smart move, otherwise it will just sit there and collect dust.
