Best Home Gym Reviews and Tips for Your Home Gym
The easiest way to build a home gym is to buy some all-in-one home gym machine and done with it. However, it may not be an easy task if your budget is limited, as some home gym stations can be very expensive. They do have their benefits and advantages, but the basics for an effective home gym are those pieces of equipment, which are enough for toning, trimming and shaping your body when used alone.
That means that you can build multifunctional home gym by combining several cheaper home gym machines and tools. You should know there are a few features and devices that are considered mandatory for any home gym.
Therefore, if you’re just starting to build your home gym room and want to know what you should consider when choosing home gym equipment, here are some suggestions that you might find useful.
Versatility of the home gym equipment
Wait, versatility when you’re on a budget? As impossible as it seems, you can actually build a versatile and multifunctional home gym without spending a fortune on high-end equipment. The key is to get exactly those machine or devices that can be used for performing multiple exercises, with or without additional tools.
Simply said, you should look for the simplest pieces of equipment that allow the widest number of exercises. And these are the exercise mat, the bench, the dumbbells and the jumping rope. Not exactly your idea of home gym, is it? That doesn’t matter. What matter the most is the number of routines – both cardio and strength that you can perform using only these tools.
Is the exercise mat a versatile product? Should it be considered a must for home gyms? It should if you want to avoid injuries while doing your Yoga or Pilates routines. It protects your body during workouts, ensuring a comfortable contact with the ground, minimal cushion and a non-slip surface for safe training.
Even if you are not Yoga and Pilates fan, you can use an exercise mat for crunches, planks, leg lifts and push-ups, lunges, donkey kicks, the bridge, bicycle, fire hydrants and hamstring curls. All these exercises are easy to perform and provide a good workout for the entire body or isolated muscle groups. Buying an exercise mat can be a great starting point for building a home gym.
Another exceptionally versatile tool for a workout room is the adjustable bench, which can be flat, incline, decline or multi-purpose. You can use it to perform exercises for the upper body, core area and legs at the same time. This simple yet so complex tool can serve for doing ab crunches, leg raises, chest press, push-ups, triceps extensions, dips, side step-ups, pullovers and one-arm rows.
Regarding jumping rope, it’s not a tool for everyone. Many people don’t like them. Although not the right tool for exercising in the apartment, there are many benefits of jumping rope exercises. Jumping rope can help you to burn calories, improve your lower body muscles, agility and coordination. They are great for both strength and cardio training. Moreover, the best thing, they cost about 10$!
Adaptability of the home gym equipment
Another necessary feature to look for in the tools you plan to buy for home workouts is flexibility or adjustability. You don’t have to invest in the most complex or the best home gym equipment to be able to achieve great results – it’s enough to get a quality set of adjustable dumbbells, a barbell and some kettlebells. I suggest buying dumbbells regardless of your budget, as they can help you to achieve great results.
These products are much more affordable than regular gym machines and they have the advantage of being suitable for a wide range of exercises. You can use it from chest press and deadlifts to squats and bent over rows. Overhead presses, arms curls, walking lunges, triceps extensions, front raises, concentration curls, shoulder squats, calf raises, two arms rows and lateral raises can be all performed using these simple tools for fitness workouts.
Although different from one manufacturer to another, dumbbells and barbells often allow you to adjust resistance by just adding some more weights. Therefore, whether you only want to tone your muscles and gain a little definition in your arms, hips, thighs and buttocks, or you want to achieve massively pumped muscles through home workouts, there’s always the possibility of adjusting the tools’ weight to your needs and exercises.
This aspect is very important when it comes to avoiding injuries and performing effective workouts that will boost your metabolism and kick it into high gear for several hours after the training session. Also, it’s important because it gives you the opportunity of controlling your workouts’ intensity so that you can reach precise fitness goals at the right moments!
Although safety, price, maintenance and appearance do matter as well, versatility and adaptability are surely two most important features for home gym equipment. Regardless of your budget, they should be the first characteristics to analyze before buying any tool or machine for your home gym.
