Depending on where you live, building a home gym with limited space may be a necessity. With the pandemic going on, a lot of gyms aren’t even allowing people in.
Some people have no choice but to workout at home.
That is why I put together this list of the 7 things that you need to build a home gym in a tight space. If you are looking for a list of bigger equipment, check out our list of Amazon home gym equipment.
Lucky for us, innovation in the fitness industry has helped us build epic home gyms in small spaces.
Let’s talk about what we would look for in a home gym. We first need to discuss our goals. If you are looking to put on muscle, we need to get you some weight training equipment. Bench press, squat rack, dumbbells, etc…
If you are looking to lose weight, you need to be thinking about cardio or high intensity interval training. Luckily for us, you don’t even need equipment to do hiit workouts. Here are some at-home beginner HIIT workouts to consider.
Either way you put it, you are trying to improve your physique. Since you want to improve your physique, download our app All Workouts: Personal Trainer (iOS | Google Play). If you are looking to put on muscle or burn fat, we have what you are looking for. There are FREE workout plans that can be used in your own home gym.
Building a home gym with limited space
1. TRX Suspension Trainer
The TRX Suspension Trainer is an incredible piece of home gym equipment. The reason that I put this at number one is because if you had nothing else, you could still hit your goals with this.
The suspension trainer uses your body weight to guide you through exercises, and it is very effective in doing just that.
You can hit nearly every muscle group with the suspension trainer.
2. Weighted Vest
You might be wondering why I chose something so simple in an article about building a home gym in a small space. It adds to your body weight and can help you put on muscle with anything from pushups to the suspension trainer.
Don’t forget about high intensity interval training! Imagine doing burpees while wearing a weighted vest. I know it doesn’t sound like fun, but talk about calorie burn!
This is going to be one of the cheapest pieces of home gym equipment that you can buy.
3. A set of adjustable dumbbells
Now we are going where the muscle gets built. If you have ever been to the gym, you will know that sometimes a whole entire wall can be lined with dumbbells. It can be overwhelming. Where do you even start?
Some genius decided that they were going to invent adjustable dumbbells and changed the whole entire fitness industry.
Adjustable dumbbells have all of the weight on them, you just adjust them with the turn of a knob. You no longer need to add more weights or take them away as needed.
When I was first starting out with working out, I built my own home gym. Unfortunately for me, adjustable dumbbells were not a thing yet, and I ended up buying 450 pounds worth of dumbbells.
Let’s just say that adjustable dumbbells are now significantly cheaper than piecing out each set of dumbbells.
4. A collapsible weight bench
Now that you have your dumbbells, you are going to need something to workout on. Sure, you can do standing dumbbell curls all day, but owning a bench will help you target a lot more muscles.
You can do all sorts of chest exercises like bench press and incline bench press. Dumbbell incline rows and shoulder presses are also more favorites. You can do ab exercises. The list goes on and on. A bench is the staple for building muscle at home.
Once you are done with the weight bench, all you have to do is fold it up and put it in a closet.
5. A door mount pullup bar
If you haven’t used one of these before, you are in for a real treat. Pullups are such a simple exercise to do, they are often overlooked when it comes to building muscle.
Combined with a weighted vest, these 2 items are the cheapest start to building a home gym with limited space.
Door mount pullup bars are so collapsible that you can even put them in your suitcase if necessary.
The thing about pullups, is that you could probably find a local outdoor gym that has a pullup bar. Just go on google maps and search “outdoor gym.” If it’s close enough, maybe you can run to it (cardio), then do some pullups (weight training).
6. Medicine ball set
Medicine balls are great for doing ab exercises, but also plenty of other workouts that can be done with them.
It has been said that medicine balls could date back as far as the early 1700’s. It’s just nice to know that fitness was a priority for some people back then. It is now clearly more mainstream than it was back then.
A set of medicine balls will really help you get more creative with your workouts. You can take it to the next level.
7. Rowing machine
I had to add in a piece of equipment for all of my cardio nuts out there. A treadmill is boring, and it’s too big! If you want to get a run in, just head outside and run to your heart’s content.
Rowing is super fun, and is a great form of high intensity interval training when used properly.
The best part about the rowing machine is that you can easily tilt it up and store it away in a closet or pushed against a back wall.
Main Point: Building a home gym with limited space
As you can see, it is not that hard to build a home gym in a small space. If you are tight on budget, all you really need is the weighted vest and the suspension trainer (or the pullup bar).
When I hear people balk at the price of building their own home gym, I ask them to price out how much it would cost for a gym membership. Also, how much time (and gas) would they save by not having to go to the gym.
Where I live, the average gym membership costs about $50 USD per month. So, after 2 years, you end up spending $1,200 on the gym alone.
Everything on this list costs less than that, so that should help you better understand what is best for you.
Are you thinking about building a home gym with limited space? Let us know in the comments what you think about it.
Related Articles
20 of the Best Exercise Equipment Amazon Has to Offer (Home Gym)
15 Workouts to Build Muscle at Home with No Weights
4 of the Best High Intensity Interval Training Workouts for Beginners at Home
Leave a Reply