A lot of the articles on this site address the issues of space and budget constraints. Building a great home gym when you are short on space and/or money can be challenging at best. But what if you have both space and the budget? What then?
Even after limited casual shopping, you’ll find more home gym equipment than you could ever possibly use. It’s a big part of why I put this website together.
All home gyms need 3 things: Room to train, resistance to train with, and an indoor cardio option. Resistance is usually a barbell, rack, plates, and dumbbells, but it can be as simple as bands or kettlebells. Indoor cardio includes treadmills, ellipticals, and rowers, but even a jump rope can work great.
I’ve spent a lot of time and money buying equipment I felt was “essential.” Turns out that most of it wasn’t. A lot of it was fun. But I could have done without a lot of it. To hopefully make things easier (and far less expensive) for you, I’ve put together a list of what I feel is essential in any home gym.
What is “essential”?
A good place to start is by telling you what essential doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean useful. Lots of things are useful yet not essential. It doesn’t mean good. Lots of gear is really good, but again, not essential. It doesn’t mean my favorites.
Much of my “favorite” gear will not make this list.
It’s that last point that tends to convolute most compilations like this. One of my favorite articles written about the equipment every gym must have listed a sandbag in the top 5 pieces. A sandbag is useful, a great piece of gear, and even one of my favorites.
But I’m sorry, a sandbag is definitely NOT essential. It’s just something the author of that article really liked.
So what, then, is essential? For me, it’s equipment without which you don’t have a fully functional home gym. Without it, you can’t train effectively. It’s the stuff that can’t be substituted for or done without. I can both substitute for and do without a sandbag.
Essential for what?
If you’ve read many of my articles here on Gym Crafter, you’ll know that I’m a huge proponent of knowing what you are training for before making any other decisions. Determining what is essential in a home gym is no different.
Some training goals will require equipment that I don’t list here. Some sports-specific training will dictate quite a few things that I won’t include.
That’s why I’ve written several articles on creating sports and activity-specific home gyms. In those articles, you’ll find what I feel is essential for those specific activities.
In this article, I’m going to stick to what I feel is the core of a great home gym. I’ll hold to the pieces of equipment I feel everyone should have. These will be the things that I feel are foundational to every home gym.
No matter your sport or activity of choice, the core of a home gym should, in my opinion, be composed of the following items. If you have the room and the budget, these are the must-haves.
Resistance training is king
There are a lot of fads in training. They come and go like the wind. They become fashionable and popular and then die away, only to be replaced by the next one.
What stays true through all that is resistance training. It’s the single most versatile and effective method of building strength, health, skill, power, speed, and overall wellness that ever has been or ever will be.
There is simply no substitute for training with weights!
That’s a strong statement, and I know not everyone agrees. But it’s true nonetheless. When you look at all-cause mortality in elderly people, virtually all causes could be eliminated or improved through resistance training.
Resistance training improves your overall hormonal profile. It builds agility and prevents falls. It builds strength to protect from injury. It slows aging. It boosts mitochondrial function. It aids in the ability to heal from injury and infection. The list of benefits could go on almost forever!
This is why this list is composed of the must-have items you’ll need to do resistance training at home. With the exception of one item, everything else is designed for this goal.
If you have people telling you that you are too old, too injured, too fragile, too weak, or too anything else for resistance training, I would advise you to look elsewhere for advice.
Build your home gym to facilitate a great weight training program, and never look back!!!
Prioritizing your purchases
I’m going to list these essential gym items in the order they should be purchased. I’m sure a case could be made for altering this order, but if you came to me tomorrow and asked me what you should buy, I’d give you this list and tell you to buy it in order from top to bottom.
This is for two reasons. The first is that the items at the top are more versatile than those at the bottom. You can do more with the earlier items on the list than the later ones.
The second reason is that the items at the top of the list will generate more results than those below. You’ll build more muscle, strength, and athletic ability using item number one than you will item number nine.
The big three
If I were to pick the most essential out of this list of 9 must-have items for your home gym, it would be the first three. These three give you the biggest bang for your workout buck. They will provide the most visible and noticeable results of anything on the list.
A quality barbell
As the only thing you actually touch when weight training (outside of dumbbells, which we’ll discuss later), this has to be at the top of the list. Not to mention, you can’t really weight train without it.
I won’t go into how to pick a great barbell here (you can find that info on my recommended barbells page), but I do want to take a moment and discuss the reason I recommend a “quality” barbell.
If you look on Amazon, you will find a plethora of cheap barbells. While I’m not saying you should spend a ton of money, I am saying to avoid the cheapest options.
A cheap barbell will corrode very quickly. The finish will chip and crack. It will not have a quality knurl and will either be hard to grip or tear up your hands. It will squeak and rattle and eventually fall apart under even the lightest use. Some will even bend easily and become totally unusable.
If you just want my quick recommendations, I have two.
For those of you on a budget, there is no better barbell than the Rep Fitness Delta Basic bar. This multi-purpose barbell has the best sleeve spin, knurl, and construction quality of any bar under $200.
If you want the bar I reach for most often when training and the bar ALL of my clients prefer, then look no further than the Rep Fitness Black Diamond power bar.
Always start your home gym with a great barbell. It’s a foundational piece of gear that will allow you to train effectively for years to come.
A squat rack
This will probably be your biggest investment when building a home gym. Item number 3 may come close, but for most, it will be a rack. It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg, but you should budget for something nice. If you do, it will last you forever.
It’s really important not to make a mistake on higher dollar items like this. Because of that, I put a ton of effort into a complete step by step guide to selecting the best squat rack for your needs that you can see here.
A rack is what allows you to get your barbell in position for most lifts. Without it, you will never be able to squat or press meaningful weight. This is especially important when training alone.
Speaking of training alone, your rack is also your spotter. With the inclusion