5 Pieces of Necessary Exercise Equipment to build your home gym for Under $30
You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to build your home gym. If you want to, and if you can, that’s fine. For most regular people looking to lose weight and tone up, a gym membership and the open road is pretty much all we have. But there are a few inexpensive pieces of exercise equipment out there that should be a staple of any home gym. They’re simple and relatively cheap, but they get the job done. For the most part, if all you had was the following 5 pieces of exercise equipment, you could build yourself into quite a hardcore animal.
The Ab Wheel – $7.75
Providing the most bang for the buck out of all these items, the ab wheel will build core strength unlike anything you will every come across. Surprisingly, every gym I have ever been to does not have an ab wheel lying around. The principle is simple: a handle bar attached to a wheel. For beginners, you get on your knees and roll out slowly. If you collapse on the floor, well you got some work to do. If you can make it back to your starting position, repeat until you can repeat no more.
People with greater core strength will be able to do it from their feet. Bend over like you’re touching your toes and extend all the way out. If you can recover from the repletion back to your starting position, then you’ve got more core strength that 95% of Americans. That isn’t a true statistic, but I’ve only seen two people in my life pull off an ab wheel repetition from their feet.
Ab Ball - $21.49
The ab ball looks like a piece of exercise equipment geared towards women and yoga instructors, but don’t be fooled. When it comes to ab exercises such as crunches and weighted crunches, you’re going to get a far better range of motion than lying on the floor. You’ll stretch your abdominal to the extreme and keep your bones intact without the pain and discomfort that you’ll experience on the floor.
And it’s not just for crunches. You can use the ab ball to build core stability by sitting on it to do dumbbell shoulder presses, regular dumbbell presses, chest-flies, and so on. You can even try using the ab ball as a place to put your feet for push-ups. Or you can be a complete asshole in the office.
Pull-Up / Chin-Up Bar - $20.98
We all know that the pull-up is essential to your weight training foundation. Unfortunately I can’t do one unless it’s a reverse grip chin up. But my goal is to do a few by the time summer rolls around. I used to be able to do them, and that came after many months of trying everyday.
So rather than doing pull-ups every once in a while when you’re in the gym, you can do that at home every morning. You don’t have to exert yourself to failure every time, but you can get away with doing a few during the day. You’ll be doing pull-ups before you know it.
Push-Up bars - $29.99
I know it seems ridiculous to get a bar for push-ups. You just put your hands on the ground and go right? Or change up where you place your hands to target different muscle groups, such as the diamond push-up for a strictly triceps exercise.
But the Push-Up bars do have their advantages. Sometimes it’s very uncomfortable to place your hands in awkward positions for the more advanced push-ups. Having a grip on those bars feels a whole lot better than pressing your palms against the pavement. And they offer you a chance to do exercises that you can’t do without them. How about using just one and crossing over while you’re at the top of your push up?
Ankle Weights 10lbs - $16.79 
The things you can do with ankle weights are pretty much limitless. Once you have them on, you can go about your daily business while putting resistance on the muscles in your legs that you’re not used to. They add another challenging level to running and jogging if you’re the kind of person that thinks 5 miles isn’t that far.
A gym doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars
State of the art fitness equipment doesn’t mean you’re going to get stronger or leaner any faster than the next guy, or girl. A person who has never seen a gym can get a better body than someone who spends every day in one. When it comes to fitness, the best piece of exercise equipment you have is your heart. And everyone gets one of those for free.
July 26th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Another piece of relatively cheap, but nice equipment is dumbells. For the best deals, consider garage sales or even Craigslist. My neighbor found a very nice set at Play It Again Sports. Usually they’re in good shape, it’s pretty easy to tell if they’re dented or dinged up.
There’s tons of great workouts that you can complete with dumbells. Just be creative and don’t use too much weight.
December 8th, 2007 at 1:39 am
I usually order from bodybuilding.com and also some of my equipments are from ebay.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:09 am
My home gym is very simple. Besides the Ab wheel i have two kettlebells.
In my opinion, kettlebells are the single most effective tools for full body workout.
Using them you can combine cardio and strength training anywhere, indoor or outdoor.
And the best part is the fun, you can have with them
December 15th, 2007 at 11:03 am
“The ab ball looks like a piece of exercise equipment geared towards women and yoga instructors, but don’t be fooled. ”
This is good advice most people dismiss the ab ball as a great bit of exercise equipment.
@Doug: Dumbbells are a amazing way of training. Good tip!
December 16th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
The exercise balls are fabulous. Even just sitting on one to watch tv will constantly work out your abs. Every little wobble of the ball causes your abs, obliques and lower back muscles to work in turn to keep you in an upright position! Used for exercises the effects are even more extreme.
February 24th, 2008 at 3:55 am
I use the ball and the chin up bar and they are great!! Excellent for toning…definetely worth the buy…
March 3rd, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I prefer the Perfect Pushup to those pushup bars.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Hi - just wanted to say good design and blog -
April 24th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I love reading opinions about exercise. I coached athletics for my career and appreciate different thoughts and types of exercises to use. Keep it up. Dave