What type of home gym equipment should a beginner buy?
After conducting extensive research which included live interviews with experienced gym instructors and average gym enthusiasts, we came up with reliable information on the best type of gym equipment suited for beginners.
If you’re just starting with the gym and you wish to take your workout training home, you might want to consider a few important factors first, before going to that fitness store or hitting that “BUY NOW” button.
That said, a beginner-level gym user should consider workout equipment that meets the following requirements:
- Affordable
- Easy to use
- Convenient to handle
- Smooth performance
- Gives results faster
- Easy to maintain
- Safe to use
For this review, we have carefully picked out the best fitness accessories that will not only fulfill the above criteria but also give you well-rounded workout experience.
What’s your fitness goal—strength, endurance, aerobics, balance, or flexibility? You can expect each of our listed gym equipment to meet, at least, three or more combinations of that goal. Also, we have factored in your possible need for either full-body workout or isolation exercises (come on, you will need both!).
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10 Home Gym Equipment for Beginners
For isolation workouts, particularly, we have made sure all the listed items can single out large individual muscle groups.
Do you want broader shoulders, bigger arms, more chiseled pecs, firmer abs, or stronger legs? We’ve featured machines that will give you those while providing total body workout at the same time.
Evaluate your unique, personal situation and workout targets, then select accordingly.
Without further ado, let’s jump in!
1.TREADMILL — Goplus Foldable Treadmill
Pros
- For strength, endurance, and balance training
- Full body workout
- Burns more calories than any other machine
- Improve fitness and heart rate
- Control your workout
- Multi-person use
Cons
- Needs space
A treadmill is used for running, jogging, or walking. It helps you burn calories, increase fitness, and improve your heart and lung conditions. If your workout tends toward strength endurance and aerobics, this is the equipment to go for, as no other machine does it better.
Check out these stats on a 30 minutes treadmill workout:
- Walking at 3 miles per hour burns about 8 kilojoules/2 calories per kilo of body weight. This means that if a person weighs kg, he burns 800 kilojoules or 200 calories every 30 minutes.
- Jogging at 6 miles per hour burns about 21 kilojoules/5 calories per kilo of body weight. This means that if a person weighs 100 kg, he burns 2100 kilojoules or 500 calories every 30 minutes.
- Running at 9 miles per hour burns about 30 kilojoules/7 calories per kilo of body weight. This means that if a person weighs 100 kg, he burns 3000 kilojoules or 700 calories every 30 minutes.
The above stats on the treadmill workout is just too impressive. No other workout will give you a well-rounded body workout like running—and that’s where the treadmill comes in.
Another benefit of using a treadmill is being able to control your workout with intensity adjustment options. If you wish to own your treadmill, the benefits are even more: train anytime, no gym charges, and family members can benefit.
We Recommend: Goplus Foldable Treadmill
The Goplus Foldable Treadmill is a beginner-level treadmill. It is small and light, which makes it suitable for small space, ideally in your home or office. This also makes it convenient to handle.
It is simple, easy to use, and convenient to handle with fewer tech features, narrowed down to the essentials, compared to advance level treadmills. This helps you stay focused and get faster results as opposed to an overwhelming avalanche of workout programs from high-end treadmills, which can confuse and slow you down.
With a speed of 12 km/h, this machine is ideal for light training like jogging and walking, which helps you get used to treadmill workouts at an easy and safe pace while giving desired results.
It has a noiseless motor, effective shock absorber, non-slip deck, foldable frame, sturdy frame, durable motor, considerable tech, and smooth performance.
( You can check our selected best treadmills for home running)
When you compare these amazing features with the well below $500 price range, you will see why you should grab this treadmill while stock lasts on Amazon.
2.EXERCISE BIKE — XTERRA Fitness Folding Exercise Bike
Pros
- Aerobic, balance, and endurance training
- Improves lower body strength
- Can burn up to 600 calories per hour
- Easy to use
- Doesn’t require electricity
- Affordable
Cons
- Decreased sexual function (with extended use)
- Focus on the lower body
The stationary bike is great fitness equipment, much like the treadmill. Riding a stationary bike can help you burn calories and body fat, boost your cardio fitness and strengthen your entire body. The physical results are a slimmer, fitter, stronger, and more toned body.
Specifically, though, the exercise bike focuses more on your lower body. It tones and strengthens your thighs, legs, hips, and stomach muscles. It also strengthens the joints in those areas. The benefits are HUGE.
Depending on the intensity of your workout and your body weight, you can burn up to 600 calories and more in one hour on a stationary bike. In this regard, only the treadmill does better.
The stationary bike great indoor workout equipment. With it, you can work from the comfort and safety of your home or at the gym, unlike cycling outside. Built to mimic outdoor riding experience, the stationary bike can also be enjoyed in your balcony, verandah, garden, or just about any place where you can enjoy open fresh air.
We Recommend: XTERRA Fitness Folding Exercise Bike
The XTERRA Fitness Folding Exercise Bike is a very small, foldable, and lightweight gym equipment which makes it suitable for small space and easy to handle. Used only for lower body workouts, it doesn’t incorporate a multitude of swarming functions, which makes it easy to use and ideal for beginners.
It has friction-free magnetic resistance, which makes it smooth and silent; an easy-to-use console that displays distance, time, speed, calories and pulse; transport wheels for easy moving and storage; cushioned large seat for the comfort of all user type; and 8 resistance levels. All these and MORE for an affordable price.
( You can check our selected best exercise bikes for home exercise)
It comes with a guarantee of 1 year on frame and 3 months on parts, making you have good peace of mind as a new user or beginner.
3. Barbells / Dumbells
Pros
- Strength, endurance, aerobics, balance, and flexibility training
- For total body workout
- Flexible and multipurpose equipment
- Saves time
- For HIIT (high-intensity interval training)
- Great muscle builder
- Improves athletic performance
- Cheap
- Easily available
- Easy to use
- Durable
Cons
- Requires proper technique
The barbell and dumbbells perform the same basic functions. The main difference has to do with technique and form adjustments to suit the intended program. For instance, dumbbells are more suitable for flexibility and variations of workout programs, while barbells are more ideal for heavyweight training. Most times, dumbbells are used in a pair for balance.
Both equipment are great for strength, endurance, aerobics, balance, and flexibility training, which makes them great equipment for total body workout.
They are affordable and easily available.
We Recommend: Synergee Regional Olympic Barbell & Yes4All Adjustable Dumbbells
Barbell
Don’t let the name scare or confuse you. The Synergee Regional Olympic Barbell is a normal, classic old-school barbell for everyday use by the average person.
They come in two weight types, 20 kg and 15 kg for men and women, respectively. Multipurpose in nature, they allow a diverse range of programs which include weightlifting, powerlifting, and CrossFit.
Dumbbells
Yes4All Adjustable Dumbbells are your usual but classic and modern adjustable iron-cast dumbbells that use a lock to fasten the weights securely in place. These dumbbells are adjustable and come with several plates of varying weights, making it cost-effective and flexible for different workout styles.
One of the most impressive features of these dumbbells is that they can be transformed into a barbell. This adds flexibility and diversity to your workout routine.
Both the Synergee Regional Barbell and the Yes4All Adjustable Dumbbells are ruggedly constructed, durable, and affordable.
For maximum workout gains, both can be incorporated into your workout routine.
4. AB TONER — Core Max Smart Home Gym
Pros
- Endurance, aerobic, flexibility (upper body) training
- Strengthens and tones your abdominal muscles
- Strengthens and tones your arms, shoulders, and waist
- Helps reduce extra weight
- Light machine
- Easy to use and convenient to handle
- Doesn’t require electricity
- Affordable
Cons
- No significant demerits
Ab Toning Machines are great fitness equipment for strengthening and toning the muscles on your stomach. They also work on your waist, hips, arms, and shoulders.
Beginner or advanced level, most ab toning machines are small and light, which allows for easy handling. You can enjoy most ab machines from anywhere in your house or store it out of sight without needing an extra pair of hands to help you move it around.
We Recommend: Core Max Smart Home Gym
If you want to reduce belly fat—fast and easy—the Core Max Smart Home Gym is a great choice.
With the Core Max Smart Home Gym, you can get burn extra fat off your midsection in only 8 minutes a day in one consistent month. It has 8 exercise programs and 3 customizable resistance levels for more workout gains.
Purchase EXTRAS includes a nutritional guide, online workout videos, and workout chart guide. It has a compact, lightweight, and portable design that makes it easy to use and store away.
Another BIG upside: Core Max Smart Home Gym is super cheap and durable, which makes it a good buy for long-term home use.
5. RESISTANCE BAND — TRX Suspension Training Kit
Pros
- Improve strength and mobility
- For rehabilitation
- For weight lifting and pull-ups
- Improve exercise quality
- Help to focus your control
- A great alternative to machines
- Lightweight and small
- Promotes better form
- Cheap
Cons
- It’s an only a complimentary gym gear
Another small-but-mighty gym accessory, the resistance band does more than looking like car seat belts. They help improve the quality of your exercise sessions by engaging your muscles better, improving, strength, mobility, and conditioning. They also strengthen and loosen up the joints, and improving form. This makes them ideal for rehabilitation.
For extra workout gains, you can use them in weight lifting and pull-ups to add more resistance and intensity.
Resistance bands are small, light, and portable, which makes them as easy to carry around as you can wear a belt all day without consciousness. This, along with the fact that they’re super easy to use makes them a flexible piece to use anywhere, anytime.
We Recommend: TRX Go Suspension Training Kit
The TRX Go Suspension Training Kit is not your usual resistance band. It is used in suspension training to give your bodyweight workout a challenging dimension. It’s highly optimized for a fast but effective workout. It has a weight resistance holding capacity of 350 lbs, anchors for indoor soccer and outdoor, well-cushioned foam handles and foot cradles for user comfort, and a carrying case.
If find yourself not usually having the time or convenience of leaving your house to the gym, having this gear in your home allows you to still have a full rewarding workout indoors. And we haven’t even mentioned the near-endless functionalities the TRX Suspension Trainer bears.
Small, light, and portable, it can be used anywhere, anytime. It offers great value for money, and we recommend it very strongly to anyone regardless of gym experience, age, or any other factor.
6. GYM BALL — URBNFIT Exercise Ball
Pros
- Flexibility and balance training
- Strengthens, relax and stretches your muscles
- Improves your posture
- Tones muscles and improves the figure
- Flat tummy
- Easily available for purchase
- Easy to use
- Doesn’t require electricity
- Affordable
Cons
- No significant demerits
Don’t judge a book by its cover.
To most people, the Gym Ball doesn’t fit the picture of what gym equipment would look like. Looking at it you just wonder what exactly it is that it does in the gym.
Well, a lot!
Why is there a Gym Ball in almost every gym? This simply emphasizes its importance in the gym. The Gym Ball is used mainly in flexibility and balance training. But it does more.
Working on your flexibility with the Gym Ball stretches your muscles and joints, helping you achieve better posture, relaxed muscles, and strengthened body.
All exercises with the Gym Ball require body balance. Without a steady and firm control on the ball, you cannot effectively carry out any workout program using it. Trying to keep yourself balanced on the Gym Ball engages your entire body, muscles, and brain, helping you achieve the following simultaneously:
- A total body workout
- Firm and tones body
- Calories burn
- Core workout
- Balance training
It’s amazing gym equipment that offers a light yet effective workout session. The Gym Ball is cheap and easily available for purchase.
Simple as it looks, it also comes in different qualities, sizes, textures, colors; and for varying purposes.
We Recommend: URBNFIT Exercise Ball
The URBNFIT Exercise Ball is for fitness, stability, balance, and yoga. It comes in different sizes, several colors, and varying textures.
Sizes range from 45 cm to 85 cm and colors include black, blue, red, pink, purple, green, and silver. The design texture is pro-quality PVC material.
The URBNFIT Exercise Ball is highly durable and has an anti-burst weight resistance of 2000 lbs. This makes it ideal for workouts of every Intensity and a good save on money when you consider that it is less than $40.
7. JUMP ROPE — SPORTBIT Jump Rope
Pros
- Strength, endurance, aerobics, balance and flexibility training
- Full body workout
- Improves coordination
- Perfect for HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training)
- Calories burned
- Tones the body
- Improves breathing efficiency
- Completely portable and fun
- Cheap
Cons
- Not for muscle building
With rope exercises, the more you look the less you see. They are simple yet offer tremendous benefits for body workouts. Rope exercises are one of the few workouts that meet all five exercise goal categories: strength, endurance, aerobics, balance, and flexibility training.
Ropes training is ideal for a full-body workout. They allow you to burn calories, tone the body, improve coordination, boost agility, and raise breathing capacity.
There are different types of ropes for training in the gym. We especially like the jump rope and the battle rope. They are easy to use, convenient to handle, flexible for variety, and, ultimately, available and affordable to buy. However, while both offer the same benefits, the battle rope offers more workout intensity. It’s more suited for HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training).
Rope training offers one advantage over most other workout types: they are suitable for everybody and fun to do. That explains why even school kids catch so much excitement doing them.
Simple as they are, rope exercises have been tested and proven to burn more calories than the treadmill in workouts with the same time frame.
If you want to lose bodyweight faster, improve cardiovascular health, raise your fitness level, and add spice to your workout routine, then you should consider throwing rope training into the mix.
Lest we forget, training ropes are affordable.
Before you buy an exercise rope, you should consider things like durability, texture, and feel.
We Recommend: SPORTBIT Jump Rope
Jump ropes are one of the cheapest, yet most rewarding exercise gears on our list. The SPORTBIT Jump Rope is a unisex jump rope suitable for speed skipping. It comes with an adjustable 10 ft. or 300 cm long cable which makes it perfect for persons of any height. The 0.41 ft. or 12.5 cm long handle and foam material cord make it heavy enough to feel the rope in your grips, which gives you extra control.
The jump rope package includes an exercise e-book guide and a bag.
Warranty range from 3-6 months.
8. YOGA SET — Sivan Health and Fitness Yoga Set
Pros
- Aerobics, balance and flexibility training
- Reduce stress, relieves back pain, corrects posture, counters insomnia and helps metabolism
- Cardiovascular and circulatory health
- Improves athletic performance
- Muscle toning
- Versatile and multiple uses
- Safe and easy to use
- Cheap
Cons
- Not for strength and muscle building
The benefits of yoga are tremendous and even too numerous to mention. It improves balance, flexibility, and aerobics, taking your fitness performance to a different height.
Yoga can also be used to reduce stress, relieve body aches, correct posture, counter insomnia, and improve metabolism.
Regardless of what yoga program you’re doing, from simple meditation to aerobics, you can shed some body fat and tone muscles with yoga, making body and mind fitter and better prepared to face life’s challenges.
Still, weighing up your buying options for a good home yoga kit?
We Recommend: Sivan Health and Fitness Yoga Set
The Sivan Health and Fitness Yoga Starter Kit is everything you will want for a yoga set.
It contains a thick 12 mm thick yoga mat that offers superior quality impact cushioning to give user comfort. Made of durable NBR foam and large, the mat is durable and big enough for all types of yoga training and user.
It has 2 yoga blocks that contain durable foam that help you stretch your muscles deeper as a beginner.
Other features include a yoga mat towel for maintenance cleaning, yoga hand towel for keeping yourself dry, and yoga strap for ease of more body extension.
The mat comes with a ribbed surface that grips the floor and prevents movement of the mat as you workout. This helps you stay comfortable, free, and also safe from falls.
The set comes at a great price, with all the items in the package having the Sivan brand emblem on all the product items.
9. VIBRATION MACHINE — LifePro Waver Vibration Plate Machine
Pros
- Strengthen muscles and improve cardiovascular health
- Weight loss
- Massaging effect that relieves joints and back pain
- Relives stress
- Improves circulation
- Improves bone density
- Fair price range
Cons
- Requires electricity or battery
The Vibration Exercise Machine is a recent weight loss device. Unlike most exercise machines that require muscle contractions, this one uses vibrations which are generated by the machine. It transfers it to your whole body, working out your muscles and joints. Women often have to battle cellulite in the laps, thighs, and buttocks regions. The LifePro Waver Vibration Machine can facilitate cellulite reduction, helping you lose extra weight in the process.
The generated vibrations give a soothing tingling sensation in the body and a massaging effect that relieves the stress, aches, and pain in the back, joints, muscles, and other parts of the body. With loosened up muscle fibers and veins, blood flows easier round the body.
We Recommend: LifePro Waver Vibration Plate Machine
The LifePro Waver Plate Machine offers full-body wellness with vibrating oscillation movements that activate all muscle fibers in your body. Perfect for home use, this equipment gives fast and effective workouts with low-impact.
Special features include video library & guardian angels, easy storage with handle & wheel features, 99 adjustable intensity modes ranging from low to high, remote control device for easy access, anti-slip rubber on top & stabilization suction under for steady and safe workout.
The device weighs 31 lbs. and supports a user weight of 330 lbs. This makes it a super durable device and a long term investment.
10. Multi Gym — Gold’s Gym XR 55
Pros
- Multipurpose capacity
- Flexible and versatile for multiple programs
- For arm, chest, shoulders, pecs, and legs workout
- Saves more money
- Saves more time
- Gives faster result
Cons
- Needs space
- Requires maintenance
A home gym or multi-gym features several work stations assembled into one compact design. The engineering and health intentions behind this machine are to provide a well-rounded workout experience that meets the five standard exercise benefits: strength, endurance, aerobics, balance, and flexibility.
Most home gyms will not satisfy all five categories, especially those in the low-budget spectrum. However, regardless of your budget, you should be able to find a quality multi gym that can offer balanced workout benefits.
If you find a multi gym that can isolate large muscle groups: arms, shoulders, chest, abs, legs; as well as offer full-body cardio, you shouldn’t grab it. The logic behind this is that, in fitness training, strength muscle isolation workouts and cardio exercises are two ends of the workout spectrum. A fitness machine that offers both will automatically incorporate the other fitness goal categories: endurance, and balance and flexibility.
We Recommend: Gold’s Gym XR 55
Gold’s Gym XR 55 is an excellent weight training home gym system that comes with an impressive 135 lbs. weight stack and 330 lbs. of resistance— upgrades on the XR 50. These high weight capacities add to the machine’s sturdiness and durability, which means users can be engaged in more intense workouts.
It’s a versatile, multipurpose fitness machine that features chest press and pec fly stations, arms developers with adjustable preacher pads, legs developers with foam roller pads, pulleys with upper and lower handles, vinyl seats that can be adjusted.
It’s small, simple, and lightweight which makes it easy to handle and store away.
For a machine that offers great value, the Gold’s Gym XR 55 is a super cost-effective home gym.
( You can check our selected best home gym machines)
We highly recommend this model, if a home multi gym appeals to you.
Final thoughts
We have come to the end of our review and on the best home gym equipment for beginners. We hope you liked them. Our selections have been made with the beginner in focus.
That means finding a machine that features the best combination of at least three of the following: affordable, easy to use, convenient to handle, smooth performance, gives results faster, easy to maintain, and safe to use.
Determine what your fitness priorities are and how they measure up with your budget. Don’t hesitate when you find an intersection—SHOOT.
Daniel Amankwah is a fitness expert for 4EvaFit Lifestyle, personal fitness coach, personal trainer, blogger, and a motivational speaker living in Acton, Massachusetts. His affection for a healthy lifestyle has penetrated through the noise in the health, fitness industry and empowers people to create sustainable prescriptions for lasting health, happiness, and confidence.
A background as a business researcher coupled with a personal passion for fitness help brings our readership a thoughtful curation fitness guide and fitness product review. His burning desire is to share his fitness experience and offer some encouragement to anyone that is working to better themselves physically through healthy eating habits and being active.
As a visionary, his vision is a world where daily acts of self-love and care are a regular part of life.
