10 Top Fitness Items for Your Home Gym

For those of you choosing to workout at home….whether out of necessity or preference, here is my list of favourite fitness items! Plus, they’re affordable and don’t take up a ton of space….because lets face it…most of us are working out in the living room, bedroom, or corner of the basement! haha

I like to support my local mom & pop fitness stores when possible, but I’ve also included links to my favourite amazon items in the description below.

TRX

Hands down the TRX is my favourite piece of equipment. You can do exercises that strengthen every muscle of the body and it’s fantastic for working core strength and stability. It leverages your body weight against gravity so you can make exercises easier or harder simply by adjusting your angle. Anchor the TRX to a secure spot on the ceiling or wall or purchase a door anchor. Just take it down when not in use!

Dumbbells

Dumbbells are pretty standard, but it’s not hard to see why. There are endless possibilities for using and incorporating dumbbells into a workout. You can get away with having 2-3 pairs of different weights: a light set, medium set and heavy. I especially like vinyl coated dumbbells for at home use, and this set is great for starting out.

Kettlebell

Kettlebells offer a phenomenal workout. The swinging movements you can perform with a kettlebell really step things up a notch by offering not only strength and endurance but cardio as well! You get awesome bang for your workout buck! I suggest buying 1 or 2 kettlebells and choosing weights that you don’t have for the dumbbells.

Regular Resistance Bands

Resistance bands are great for warm ups and working on flexibility. They also help to build strength, challenging the muscles in a completely different way than weights, and are awesome for super sets. Bonus, they take up no space at all and are very affordable! This is a great set of “tube” resistance bands which includes handles, ankle straps, even a door anchor. But I also like these “therabands” in either a heavy set or light set.

Bosu Ball

The Bosu is a fantastic piece of equipment for developing better balance, strengthening the core and working all those little stabilizer muscles. Plus you can use it for lots of cool cardio moves such as burpees, skater jumps, jump squats to name a few. Slightly larger in size but you can definitely still store this under the bed or in a closet. ( I would spend the extra money and buy the original Bosu Brand. Really good quality and I find you don’t slip around as much as you do on others)

Exercise Ball

This is one of my favourite pieces of equipment for working core. There are so many fun and innovative exercises to try! You can also incorporate into regular movements such as chest flys or chest press, pullovers and tricep extensions to name a few. And have tried hamstring curls on the ball?? HELLOOOOO Hammy’s! You can purchase small size ball that won’t take up AS much space.

Loop Resistance Bands

Also known as “booty bands” these are great for working your tushy and legs and are awesome for all the little muscles that help to support the knees and hips! They might be small in size but boy oh boy…you’ll be feeling the burn in no time! I like these!

Gliders

Gliders are little discs that slide across the floor and usually have an option for carpeted or hard-surface flooring. One look and you’d think….how the heck is that going to get me fit? But there are soooo many cool exercises you can do! They’re especially good at strengthening your inner and outer thigh muscles and core.

Skip Rope

A skipping rope is one of the best little pieces of cardio equipment. Fantastic to use between sets, or as part of a warm up. There’s a reason Boxers jump rope……it gets your heart pumpin’ in no time! And lets face it, not all of us have space for a treadmill, elliptical, rower etc. Just make sure to protect your floors if needed, that your ceiling is high enough and that you wont whip a piece of furniture….or family member!

Workout Bench or Box or Stepper

A workout bench or stepper is not a total “must have” but it can offer a lot of support and variation to your exercises. Plus you can add in cardio moves such as “box jumps”, “step-ups” and “hop-overs” to name a few. If you decide to go with a workout bench, choose one that is adjustable so that you can do exercises with an incline or decline if you so desire!

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