Create Your Ultimate Home Gym and Workouts For Under $200!

Exercising at three to five times each week on a home gym is a super way to stay fit. It’s great to have a gym membership but it’s also nice to have a back up plan. Having a home gym can be an ideal option, especially on those days when it’s tough to make it to the gym or the weather doesn’t make it ideal to exercise outside.  Here are some advantages to having a home gym.

Advantages of having a home gym:

• Accessibility/Convenience
• Cost effectiveness
• Health
• Privacy
• Motivation to exercise regularly

Although having a home gym has its advantages, it can also have its drawbacks. It requires discipline and self-motivation. In and out of the gym, it will be important to stay true to your fitness goals.
Having a home gym can help you remain consistent and focused. It’s an affordable exercise route with lots of bells and whistles. See all of our faves below. We’ve  also included  links to great online workout videos that spotlight each piece of equipment. Have fun!

Jump rope is an ideal method of burning calories in a short burst of time. Jump ropes are affordable, portable and quick. It’s also great calorie-burner.  Did you know you’d have to run an eight-minute mile to work off more calories than you’d burn jumping rope. It definitely makes a perfect piece to add to your home gym.

Choose a Cardio machine that you’ll want to use for more than a dust collector. Exercise bikes are a popular choice.Beginners can easily manage moderate activity on a stationary bike and the more experienced can easily increase the intensity to achieve a solid workout. It’s great for burning calories and joint friendly. According to the Mayo Clinic, regularly riding a stationary bike helps your heart become more efficient at pumping blood. It’s cardio benefits have been proven to add years to ones’ life.

A workout with an exercise ball can be a beneficial way to help improve muscle tone and balance. They are excellent for abdominal work because they support the spine and isolate the stomach muscles. A stability ball reportedly works the abs more than crunches or sit-ups. Great for all skill levels, but not recommended for people seeking muscular strength and CNS improvements because the can be unstable.
Our favorite stability ball pick also includes total-body DVD with 3 targeted workouts (60 minutes total),complete second workout included on bonus DVD (50 minutes), resistance workout band and a blaster pump.

Studies have proven that swinging a kettlebell for 10 minutes burns nearly as many calories as running on a treadmill for the same duration of time.  It’s proven to strengthen your back, legs and glutes as well as boost physical endurance.It helps strengthen your arms and pecs, but also works your core, heart, and lungs. According to Laura Alton a certified trainer and Russian kettlebells instructor, kettlebells offset the center of gravity. That means the body has to work harder to maintain balance and as a result it works many different muscle groups. It’s a great way to get the heart rate up too!

Buying a complete set of dumbbells is a relatively inexpensive way of building a sound home gym, and will allow you to organize your living space efficiently, compared to bulkier machines on the market. Dumbbells also give you a greater range of motion in comparison to barbells or machines.They are much smaller than large home gym machines and much cheaper. The luxury of free weights is that you can start off with 1 or 2 sets and move up to higher weight as you become stronger .Dumbbells are extremely versatile as well. Click here for more information about strength training.

Resistance bands are great for those who want to exercise at home, or who like to take their workouts along when they travel. TheGoFit Ultimate ProGym is a home gym winner! It’s the perfect on the go anywhere, train anytime home gym that comes complete with its own personal trainer on DVD.  There are many benefits to exercising with bands, including versatility, convenience, safety and effectiveness. You can obtain 7 levels of resistance by creating different combinations of the tube strengths. The GoFit Flat Band Kit includes three bands of varying resistance — light (equivalent to a 5-pound dumbbell), medium (10-pound), and heavy (15-pound) — as well as a clip to attach, lengthen, or shorten them, so you can sculpt at every level.