Essential Fitness Equipment to Work Out at Home

It can be overwhelming to walk into a fitness store and know what to purchase, especially when you are just starting out. I’ve put together a list of my favourite pieces of fitness equipment to work out at home with. Using just these five things, you can get a solid full-body HIIT or interval workout without leaving the house.

The Home Workout Starter Kit

1. Yoga mat
2. TRX – suspension system
3. Gliders 
4. Mini Bands
5. A variety of Dumbbells

These few items are useful no matter where you are in your fitness journey, because they can be used for a variety of exercises. Most of them also make you use your bodyweight, creating a more complete and challenging workout. 

Using Fitness Equipment At Home

Yoga Mat: A yoga mat is there for your warm up and cool down, extra padding for floor or kneeling exercises, plus for mobility routines like yoga and Pilates (of course).

TRX: I love my TRX! It suits all levels of fitness, because the same exercise can be regressed or progressed by changing your body position. A huge plus is that there are endless options, which is great if you get bored by routine. 

Gliders: These are one of those items that you might not even know exist, but once you try them, they will change your life. Be sure the gliders you buy are for the proper surface, as some are meant to slide on hard floors, while others are meant for carpet. I have rubber flooring in my studio, so I have a rug that I roll out to use the gliders. A few clients just may call it the “Death Rug”! 

Mini Bands: Mini bands are an inexpensive tool for resistance exercises, but they are also great for body awareness. In squats, for example, due to weakness of the glutes and other abductor muscles, our knees will collapse inward as we lower into our squat. This is very hard to notice in yourself. With a mini band around your legs, you will have something to press outward against and guide you to maintain that feeling as you squat. This helps you to build strength in weak areas and avoid injury that could occur from poor squat form. You can purchase single mini bands, but they are also often sold in a set of three or four with varying resistance options. 

Dumbbells: You can easily spend a lot of money on dumbbells if you aren’t sure what to buy. My recommendation would be to have three or four sets of weights, such as 5, 8, 10 and 15lbs or 5, 10, 15 and 20lbs. You can always add additional sets as you get stronger. 

Bonus Item – DVRT Ultimate Sandbags: This is my other absolute favourite piece of fitness equipment to work out at home with. You fill these heavy-duty bags up with rice, sand, or water (great for when you are travelling!). The interesting thing about Ultimate Sandbags is that you need less weight than you would use with a barbell or dumbbell. This is because the filler shifts within the bag as you do the exercises, so our bodies need to figure out how to engage to stabilize the load. The sandbags make you work harder with less weight, and you’ll be waking up muscles in your body that you didn’t know you had – just like in Pilates!

Can I Work Out Without Fitness Equipment?

You absolutely do not need to spend a fortune to get started working out at home! In fact, bodyweight exercises are a huge part of my training repertoire, because it requires you to use more parts of your body together at once. 

I often remind clients that the exercises they complain about most are the ones that involve no equipment at all. Burpees, push ups, and mountain climbers are hard and get the job done. Adding equipment makes sense when you are ready to switch things up or you want to challenge your body in a new way. 

Read: Body Weight Exercises in Pilates

Tell me, what is your favourite piece of fitness equipment to workout at home with?