With so many people now working out from home, there has never been a better time to set up your home gym. Whether using a garage gym, spare room or outdoor home gym here are my 6 best home gym items you should include in your home gym set up. It can be a minefield searching through the hundreds of variations on each piece of equipment. With over 10 years of mistakes and successes buying gym equipment for myself and our studio I’ve added links throughout to save you wasting money on the wrong items.
*This page contains some Amazon affiliate links (at no additional cost to you) that allow me to recommend items I have personally purchased and used, as well as some non-affiliate links where Amazon does not stock the products I think are best suited to your home gym set up.
Half Squat Rack
A half rack (or quarter rack) has multiple uses allowing you to squat, bench, pull up and add attachments whilst saving space in your home gym, compared to a full rack. There are 3 main styles of half rack that I would recommend:
FREE STANDING QUARTER RACKThese are very budget friendly and look great in a gym if you like a more minimalist style look with the same functionality.
Great if you are looking for a slightly sturdier design and more secure safety bars, and can also incorporate additional plate storage attachments if you have a reasonable amount of Olympic plates that need a home.
This is the ultimate space saver if you have solid walls to bolt your folding rack into and is surprisingly good value.
Hexagonal Dumbbell Set & Rack
The hexagonal dumbbells allow you to do a few other exercises that are more difficult to do with round dumbbells (devil press, renegade rows, jammer press etc), especially if you are into functional fitness. There is nothing more satisfying than efficient home gym storage and nothing worse than having dumbbells strewn across the floor, so make sure you get yourself a 3 tier dumbbell rack.
Barbell & Olympic Plates
Getting an Olympic barbell straight off the bat will save you having to replace all your 1inch plates and bars later down the line once you realise you want to Deadlift from a standard height, or are fed up trying to squeeze as many plates as you can onto the bar. A good barbell can be relatively cheap however the real cost is the Olympic plates. Make sure the heavier plates you buy have the standard 45cm diameter. When choosing a barbell make sure the shaft of the bar will fit the width of your rack. Here is a 20kg bar that should fit almost all racks (including those linked above).
Adjustable Bench
This opens up so many exercise options and is a must have in your home gym set up! These can be moved into your squat rack allowing for a barbell bench press set up saving space instead of getting a dedicated fixed bench press. They are awesome for dumbbell work and can be wheeled out the way if you want more space.
Cable Pulley System
Cable stack machines can be very expensive and take up a lot of space for a home gym, so if you’re looking for a much more space efficient option then check out a full review on these pulley systems in the video below.
6. Plyo Box
A plyo box is a really useful piece of kit for getting your heart rate up in workouts allowing for some higher intensity exercises such as box jumps and step ups. They are also great for a wide range of Calisthenics exercises. One added bonus is it makes for an ideal laptop, camera or coffee table when not in use!
Looking for inspiration for your home gym workouts try some of my follow along YouTube workouts (with or without equipment) or join us for live interactive classes.