Top 5 hardware you will need for your home indoor gym

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More and more people are considering working out at home nowadays. Due to the coronavirus, many regular gyms were closed for many weeks. Now they are open again, but for how long? A good option to ensure you can still work out, no matter what, is building your own home indoor gym. Many people think this will cost a lot, but in reality, you can save a lot of money by looking on second hand websites. In this blog, we will dive in the top 5 hardware you will need for your home indoor gym. As you can only spend your money once, it is wise to buy the best and most versatile equipment you can.

Why would you want to have your own home gym? There are actually quite a few benefits to owning a home indoor gym.

The first and best benefit is the threshold to work out is almost non-existent. You can train whenever you want and all you have to do is change into your training outfit and start with your warmup. I’ve seen it a lot: excuses to not go to the gym. And let’s be honest, after a day’s work or in the early morning, you might not want to waste 20 minutes by driving to your gym (and 20 minutes back). That time is better spent in your home indoor gym.

The second benefit is total privacy. You can wear whatever you want and you don’t have to make sure your make-up or hair is in shape. Do you want to work out naked? Not a problem. Also you can use your own shower afterwards, so you don’t have to mingle with other sporters. Many people think this is a big advantage.

A third benefit is the fact that your home gym is completely set up for you and your work out. This means you don’t have to wait to get going and every piece of hardware in your home gym is adjusted to your needs. No need to move or adjust a chair or weight at all if you don’t want to. Furthermore this is obviously more hygienic, as you are the only person (besides from maybe some friends and family) that uses your home gym.

Don’t want to buy a home gym, but still work out at home? Here is a great ab workout routine for you.

We have covered the great benefits of a home indoor gym. However, there are a few cons as well.

The first one is the cost of buying the hardware to set up your own gym. We will discuss this further in this blog, but obviously, you will have to spend some money to get started. This is not the case when training at a regular gym, where you have a monthly plan and thus low expenses. On the upside, once you have bought your equipment, you will have no costs anymore. So no returning monthly plan anymore.

The second con is the motivation dip. Many people who are training at home will be able to tell you about this; it’s hard to stay motivated when you work out all alone. In a regular gym, you will encounter other people, that will help you stay motivated more easily. When you are doing everything yourself, you will find this a bit more challenging.

Last, but not least, you will need to have a spare room, or some space in or around the house. Working out at home can be done in many ways, but if you really want a home indoor gym, you will need to have some room to put the hardware in.

A power rack is one of the best things you can buy for your own home indoor gym. You can buy a lot of different brands and variations, but I believe this is one of the main pieces of hardware you will need. The reason is simple: it is a complete and save workout station. Made out of solid steel, it’s strong and will last a lifetime. Furthermore it has several safety options, so you can train safely by yourself. A basic power rack by itself is a nice start, but once you start adding some options to it, it will quickly become a one-stop workout station that will help you push your body to the limit. It offers the opportunity to do many exercises for your chest, back, arms, legs and core.

Options to add are:

• Lat pull and low pulley attachment. This will offer you the option to do a complete back workout with your power rack.
• Pull up bar; for all your pullups and chin-ups.
• Dip handles, to be able to do dips on the power rack.
• Cable crossover attachment. If you don’t want to invest in a separate cable crossover, you can add one to the power rack. This will open up unlimited options for exercises.
• A bench. See below for more information on a bench.

We mentioned it as an attachment for a power rack, but you can buy a standalone version as well. Cables are simply awesome and can be used for so many exercises. You can do a chest workout, arms and abs. There are a great number of workouts to be done and you can change the angle and weight of the cable. The downside of a cable crossover is its size. You will need room to place the piece of hardware itself, but also some space in front to do the exercises.

Alternatively, you can buy a smaller cable machine, which offers the same functionality, but has a smaller footprint. Depending on how it is made, you can still use its arms to get a wide grip exercise, which is great for your chest.

An adjustable bench is a versatile piece of hardware for any indoor home gym and one of the first things to buy if you want to exercise at home. It will offer you a lot of options for various muscle groups and is one of the few necessities to combine with a power rack.

An adjustable bench has – like the name suggests – an adjustable back and sometimes seat. This will allow you to do flat, incline and decline workouts at home. Get a solid steel one, so you won’t have to worry about breaking while you work on your benchpress. It can also be used for back, abs, arms and leg exercises.

Most benches offer the option to add attachments, like a leg extension or biceps curl. These are great to increase the number of exercises you can do at home.

A rowing machine is an indoor rowing device, that offers a great way of training most of your body’s muscles and increase your stamina. You can only do only one exercise with it, but that is enough for a great workout. I love to use my rowing machine for a warmup, or for cardio training on resting days.

A cross trainer is piece of fitness hardware, meant to let you increase your stamina. It offers a compact and solid way of working out at home. It is perfect for warming up, or cooling down, for a tough workout. You can adjust the resistance and thus the amount of calories you will burn while exercising. I really love mine and can fully recommend getting one. Read more about the benefits of a cross trainer here.

Now that you have an idea on the top 5 hardware you will need for your home indoor gym, we also need to tell you about some extra equipment you will need. The hardware mentioned above are the start of your own gym, but you will need a few more things to actually work out.

The most important things are weights, a barbell and dumbbells.

The first and most important thing to mention here is the fact that weights – the actual plates – come in different types. You will have the standard ones, which are smaller and have a 1” hole in the centre. There is also Olympic weights, which are bigger and have a 2” diameter hole in the centre.

Make sure you buy the correct weights for your power rack attachment (the pulley)and the barbell and dumbbells.

When buying dumbbells, I recommend getting adjustable spinlock dumbbell handles and some separate weight plates. This will allow you to increase or decrease the weight according to your needs. This will make sure you will not have to buy new ones after a few months and you will be able to increase the load of tour training to your liking.

The great thing about weights is that you can always get more. They are widely available and are not super expensive, especially when you buy them second hand.

Other important things to buy are grips for your pulley and cable crossover.

There are many options, but you will definitely need some variation to make the most of your home workout.

I recommend getting a triceps rope, to blast your triceps. Some singe hand grips are great for a wide variation of exercises. A double grip is very useful for close grip pulldowns. The opposite is a wide lat bar, which is super useful for working your lats. There are many more grips, but with these ones, you are able to start working out at your home indoor gym and do a wide variety of exercises.

Furthermore, another important thing to buy is a large mirror.

This will help you greatly in perfecting the way you do your exercises. Shape and performance are very important for a good workout and reduce the risk of injuries. Being able to see what you are doing and make adjustments accordingly, is something everybody should be doing while working out at home.

So how much does it actually cost to build your own home indoor gym? This question is not easy to answer, as it depends on your wishes and the brands you want to buy. Also, are you going to buy your hardware new in a shop, or will you look for second hand equipment?

When buying new hardware of a decent brand and quality, you are probably looking at around 3000 – 3500 USD for a complete setup. However, when buying second hand, you can save a huge amount of money and probably spend around 1/3 of that amount. A big plus of buying new equipment is the warranty, something many people love whilst buying more expensive items.

It really is very satisfying to have your own home gym and work out at home. You can put up your favourite music and do whatever you want at your own house. If you feel like it, you can always invite a friend over to work out together and keep each other motivated.

If you think a indoor home gym is not for you, read here to see what kind of fitness does suit you.

We will go in depth on how to perform exercises and offer you full workout plans in the near future. So stay connected and be the first to hear about our new blogs by filling in the newsletter form.