Over the years I have built up my stock of home gym equipment. While I currently have a gym membership, I find having a variety of home gym equipment helps to add more choices to my workouts, especially during the winter months when I can't make it to the gym due to bad road conditions. I'll share with you some of my favorite pieces of home gym equipment.
 Bender Ball ($12.98 and up. Price varies according to which DVD collection you purchase.) The Bender Ball is a small and simple piece of equipment, but I find it very effective. I like the fact that it is simple and you don't have to do a long workout with it in order to see its benefits. Other reasons why I like the Bender Ball are that it is inexpensive, takes up very little space in my house, can be purchased on Bender Ball's website or can be found at your local Target store. Who else likes the Bender Ball? Coach Nicole, of course! Click here to see Coach Nicole's review about the Bender Ball.  SparkPeople Stability Ball ($20) I had to replace my stability ball a little over a year ago when one of my cats popped it. I had that one for several years, but wanted to make sure I replaced it with a quality stability ball. I purchased one from the SparkPeople Store and am happy that I did! This stability ball is high quality, made from a tough, non-toxic PVC material, is anti-burst, and has a weight limit of around 250 pounds. It has survived being around my cats, along with me using it for many stability ball exercises. The stability ball is a great piece of equipment because it is so versatile!  Embark Triple Stepper Resistance Bands ($19.99) Resistance Bands are a wonderful piece of equipment. They are perfect to take while traveling since they are light and don't take much room at all. Just throw them in your bag or suitcase and you have multiple strength training workouts waiting for you when you get to your destination! What I like about the Triple Stepper Bands is that there are multiple bands to increase the difficulty. It comes with 3 bands, light, medium, and heavy. You can choose which bands you would like to use. If you only want to use 1 band at a time, just quickly unsnap the other 2 bands. Need to add some more resistance? Just snap on another band. Easy and quick solutions with this product!  Weider 5 Position Step Bench ($49) This is one of my oldest pieces of home gym equipment, but it has lasted through many uses! When I was looking for a step bench to use at home, I didn't have much space to store it. The traditional step benches come with pieces that you can add to the bottom of the step bench, but that requires a lot of space to store them. The solution for me was this 5 Position Step Bench by Weider! It is a step bench that has 5 notches (1 inch difference between each notch) that you can use to raise it, so there is no need to store extra pieces. If you are looking for a step bench that doesn't need extra space for storage and that will stand the test of time, this might be the step bench for you!  Century Wavemaster XXL Training Bag ($281.49) This is a piece of equipment that I love using for kickboxing workouts. While you don't need this to do kickboxing, I really enjoy the fact that you actually get to kick and punch something. It gives a great overall workout each and every time! This has withheld over several years, many kickboxing workouts, and is perfect for those days that you need to let out frustration!  Everlast Training Gloves ($29.99) I use these for my kickboxing workouts to help protect my hands. While there are other types of training gloves, I like these because they are comfortable, keep my fingers together, and none of my skin is exposed. These help pad my hands a great deal and I never have any problems of having sore hands after my kickboxing workouts. Those are all great features, but I also like that these training gloves have breathable fabric and don't irritate my skin at all.  Xerball Medicine Ball ($22 and up. Price varies according to the weight of the ball.) The medicine ball helps add variety to my home workouts. It allows for me to add new exercises to my strength training program when I don't want to use the usual dumbbell and/or resistance band exercises. For me, I love to have many options available for my workouts. You can find medicine balls in any sporting good store, and usually you can also find them in your local Target or Walmart stores. Not sure what kinds of exercises you can do with a medicine ball? Check out examples here!  Go Fit Foam Roller ($24.99) The foam roller is a great addition to any workout! I mostly use my foam roller for releasing tightness in my muscles, but you can use it in a variety of ways. I purchased my Go Fit Foam Roller in my local Target store a couple years ago and am still using it. There are many other types of foam rollers out there, but this is a good one to start with that I have found to hold up over time.  Go Fit Kettlebell ($24.99 and up. Price varies according to the weight of the ball.) Kettlebell workouts are becoming more popular and I didn't jump on the kettlebell wagon until last year. If you want a great strength training and cardio workout all-in-one, you might want to give these a try. Again, these can be purchased at most sporting goods stores or your local Target or Walmart stores. I found the Go Fit Kettlebell at Target and have been happy about that purchase! Click here to see SparkPeople employees doing their first kettlebell workout.  Powerblock Dumbbells ($279/pair and up. Price varies according to the set.) These dumbbells are the latest addition to my home gym. While these may sound expensive for dumbbells, they are worth it! They come as one pair of dumbbells, but you can change the amount of weight that you want to lift, which is quick and easy. Another bonus to this type of dumbbell set is that they don't take up much space. In order to get the variety of weights that you get with this set, you would need a lot of space to store them. These are also great if you have multiple people using them. My husband can use the much heavier options (ours go up to 90 pounds for each hand) and we didn't have to invest in multiple sets of dumbbells. There are other dumbbells similar to this style, which you may find as a less expensive option for your home gym.  Netflix ($7.99 and up. Price varies according to the subscription plan chosen.) I have always enjoyed doing workout videos at home! Having a Netflix subscription allows me to try out various workout videos before purchasing them. I can't tell you how many times I have purchased a workout video only to be disappointed once I tried it out. With Netfix, it's easy to return the duds and I don't waste any money on them! The fun part is when Netflix adds videos to their instantly streamed collection so that I don't even have to wait for the actual DVD to come in the mail. When instantly streamed, I can watch it using my Wii console. How much easier can that be? For those of you that like to use workout videos, you may want to consider trying Netflix. (Currently, they have a free trial for one month.) Do you have any of the items listed here? What is your favorite piece of home gym equipment? |
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