Fitness Equipment

By far one of the most versatile pieces of gym equipment, the treadmill allows you to run or walk from the comfort of your home. As simple as that may sound, modern treadmills have a wide range of programs that can alternate your running or walking speeds to increase your heart rate and fitness levels. Depending on the model, you can also buy treadmills with auto-incline, or incline treadmills, as they’re commonly known. Incline treadmills can elevate the front of the treadmill to mimic walking or running up a hill. 

Whether you’re just starting out exercising or you’re a seasoned pro, an exercise bike at home can make an enormous difference to your cardiovascular health. With a range of upright bikes, recumbent bikes, and more, you can enjoy a vigorous cardio workout without undue stress on your joints. With a range of adjustable settings, such as speed and resistance, exercise bikes allow you to workout in a range of ways. If you’re going for strength, you can adjust the resistance or friction level of the bike to make pedaling a bit harder, or if you’re endurance building, a lower resistance will get you to your goal over a period of time. Most exercise bikes have water holders and heart rate monitors built in, which makes it easy to track your performance levels against your exercising heart rate. And if it’s calorie counting you're after, the built in calorie counter will let you keep an eye on your goal as you work out. 

Cross trainers are an ideal piece of home gym equipment for those looking to shape and sculpt their legs. Similar to exercise bikes, ellipticals (as they’re also known) allow you to train for either strength, cardio, endurance or more. One core advantage of ellipticals is that you’re not limited to leg day. Thanks to the handle bars that can be used as you pedal, you can get an upper body workout and a lower body workout at the same time. This will help to strengthen your core and will increase your heart rate as you train.

Whether you’re strength training, burning fat, or weight lifting to add mass, weights are an excellent and highly versatile home gym addition. Designed to be modular, a home weight kit allows you to work a variety of your muscle groups. Dumbbells or barbells are commonly used for arm workouts, shoulder workouts, and more. Apart from the general strength gains you can experience by weight lifting, you’re also likely to burn fat and speed up weight loss as well - depending on your workout. Medicine balls can also assist in strength training, with exercises such as squats and wall balls. You could even increase the difficulty of certain exercises or stretches with a set of resistance bands, aiding in building your strength or resistance.

Offering a full body workout, rowing machines mimic the natural movements of rowers in water. Ideally suited for cardio training, rowing with a rower is a great way to strengthen your legs, core and arms. Just like most home gym equipment, you can easily adjust the levels of your home rowing machine to suit your fitness level - making a rowing machine a great first time fitness tool. When it comes to the different styles of home gym rowing machines, there are a few options and styles for different rowers. Magnetic rowing machines use the resistance of magnets to increase or decrease the level of friction, depending on the speed of your row or pull.

Water rowing machines use the density of water to increase your friction level. The harder and faster you pull a water rower, the greater the resistance, which makes for a harder, more intense workout. And the final type is the air rower. The air rowing machine uses the force of your row to spin a flywheel that sucks up air and causes resistance. Again, the faster you row, the faster the flywheel spins and the greater the resistance. 

Smith machines can be found in any respectable gym. Typically used for squatting or for bench presses, a smith machine allows you to fix your weights to a bar with limited motion. Should you fail in the middle of a rep, you can easily lock the bar against the smith machine to protect yourself. The smith machine is a favourite amongst those who don’t use a spotter.

Power racks are a gym-favourite for serious squatter and powerlifters alike. When it comes to squatting or deadlifting, a power rack gives you a simple platform for adding and removing weights. Also commonly used for lat pull-ups, pull-ups and other pull up and chin up exercises, a power rack is simple in design but powerful in function. It’s worth noting that a lot of power racks can be bolted to the ground for stability, which might be worth considering if you’re going to use your power rack for pull ups.

The bench press is a popular piece of gym equipment, that’s designed to work out your pectoral muscles, your triceps and your shoulders. Designed to be used lying down, bench press is a simple exercise, and the only limitation is how much you want to lift and in what position. It’s advised that you use a ‘spotter’ when benching. A spotter is someone who can assist you with the weight should you not be able to lift it at the end of your set. Depending on what you’re looking to achieve, a bench press is a versatile activity that can build muscle, increase endurance, increase strength, and can tone your chest for size. The bench press is a must-have piece of strength training equipment in any home gym setup that’s focused on muscle gain. The flat benches of bench presses allow for the full motion and movement of your pecs. Adjustable benches allow you to a range of different pec exercises, such incline bench press and decline bench press. 

The absolute ultimate in high quality home exercise equipment, a multi-gym or power tower is designed to offer you a complete body workout in almost every imaginable way. Built with weight lifters and strength trainers in mind, the multi-gym relies on clever engineering to move fixed weight plates. So whether you’re doing lat pulldowns or you’re doing leg curls, adjusting your resistance level is as simple as adjusting the weight pin to a comfortable weight.

One of the core advantages of a multi gym, and fixed weights in general, is that you’ll never have to worry about dropping weights on yourself. Should you max out at a certain rep, you can slowly let go of the equiptmnent to return it to its stationary position. And because most multi station gyms have cable attachments, you can use one mechanism for different exercises. Keep in mind that Multi-gyms or home gyms as they’re also known, can take up a bit of room. Keep in mind that most home gym equipment can come in different sizes, from functional trainers to mammoth multi-gyms.