Home Gym - What do you consider a necessity?

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selbyhutch
selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
My husband recently turned one of our bedrooms into a home gym for my 40th birthday. Yes, it was the top of my birthday list! I have an elliptical, rower, Wii Fit, incline/decline bench, pull up bar, varity of weights, jump rope & fitness ball. I also have a bunch of neat laminated posters on the walls that tell the proper way to do various exercises, heart rate poster, muscle anatomy poster and a few other goodies. I think I'm pretty set... and I use all the equipment. I especially like the rower.

I just wanted some opinions on what people think are absolute necessities for a home gym.
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Replies

  • BroiledNotFried
    BroiledNotFried Posts: 446 Member
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    A TV with closed captioning and an IPOD

    Comfortable floor or floor mats.

    Yoga mat.

    Homemade ballet bar (PVC pipe) for stretching.

    oh, and P90X DVDs (or some type of fun workout).
  • veggieheadie
    veggieheadie Posts: 79
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    I couldn't live without my tredmill and stairmaster
    :love:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    My husband recently turned one of our bedrooms into a home gym for my 40th birthday. Yes, it was the top of my birthday list! I have an elliptical, rower, Wii Fit, incline/decline bench, pull up bar, varity of weights, jump rope & fitness ball. I also have a bunch of neat laminated posters on the walls that tell the proper way to do various exercises, heart rate poster, muscle anatomy poster and a few other goodies. I think I'm pretty set... and I use all the equipment. I especially like the rower.

    I just wanted some opinions on what people think are absolute necessities for a home gym.

    That is freaking awesome!!
  • ScarletTarah
    ScarletTarah Posts: 117 Member
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    I second that freakin awesome!!!
  • AdymondNtheRuff
    AdymondNtheRuff Posts: 108 Member
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    I have a gym member ship and also an at home gym... my goal for home is a very good treadmill that is what I miss when i am not at the gym, tv with dvd or vhs so you can do cardio on the days you don't want to row and a small weight bench and some light weights... and I also have some jump ropes and arm and leg bands. Hope this helps! :flowerforyou:
  • csingleton24
    csingleton24 Posts: 235 Member
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    Yeah! That's great. When I get my new house in June I am moving all my stuff to my 4th bedroom too! My must haves are definitely dumbbells, treadmill (I'm a runner, though), and pull up bar (Iron gym has one that goes over the door jam). I am looking into getting that tower 200 Randy Couture thingy though. Supposedly you can do tons of workouts with just that one door jam piece of equipment.

    Anyways, congrats on the room and enjoy it!
  • shellshalla
    shellshalla Posts: 263 Member
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    Damn I wish I had that setup! haha I have a good quality treadmill, dumbbells, and some good videos for now :)
  • Johnnyswife
    Johnnyswife Posts: 1,447 Member
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    My husband recently turned one of our bedrooms into a home gym for my 40th birthday. Yes, it was the top of my birthday list! I have an elliptical, rower, Wii Fit, incline/decline bench, pull up bar, varity of weights, jump rope & fitness ball. I also have a bunch of neat laminated posters on the walls that tell the proper way to do various exercises, heart rate poster, muscle anatomy poster and a few other goodies. I think I'm pretty set... and I use all the equipment. I especially like the rower.

    I just wanted some opinions on what people think are absolute necessities for a home gym.
    Did you give him a proper :wink: :smooched: thank you for being so freaking awesome? My hubby got me an elliptical and we can barely fit it in our tiny apartment, but I adore having it! Sounds like your all set up. A tv with close caption sounds good, and a nice fan maybe.
  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
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    Nice! Honestly, all that is "must have" for me is a TV/DVD player with some good DVDs, some handweights, and a chair for helping with some exercises. A yoga mat would be nice, resistance bands, and a jumprope (if you are more coordinated than I am and can jumprope!)
  • questionablemethods
    questionablemethods Posts: 2,174 Member
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    Wow! Some of you have pretty sweet setups!

    My boyfriend and I live in a 1 room condo so all of the equipment needs to fit in the hallway closet. We have:

    - a pull up bar
    - "select tech" dumbbells
    - jump ropes
    - three resistance bands
    - yoga mats
    - an interval timer on my iPhone

    It is amazing what you can do with basically just high intensity bodyweight intervals and a few pieces of equipment. I also run and bike outside for some more steady state cardio.

    I would like to get a TRX system since I think that would fit nicely. It is very easy to store and fits with the type of training that I like to do.
  • asm2260
    asm2260 Posts: 81 Member
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    What a nice gift...and a Wonderful Hubby!

    I would need a TV for my Insanity tapes...and a stereo for those sassy moments.....close the door and let loose....lol heck throw on the heals to...good for the calves...and rock on lady....Maybe a nice mirror to...to check out all those muscles....
  • gecallo
    gecallo Posts: 135
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    "...absolute necessities..." Well, how about a strong will, motivation, and determination. But above all, THE MOST important equipment in any gym is your body.
  • mabear74
    mabear74 Posts: 248
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    Yeah! That's great. When I get my new house in June I am moving all my stuff to my 4th bedroom too! My must haves are definitely dumbbells, treadmill (I'm a runner, though), and pull up bar (Iron gym has one that goes over the door jam). I am looking into getting that tower 200 Randy Couture thingy though. Supposedly you can do tons of workouts with just that one door jam piece of equipment.

    Anyways, congrats on the room and enjoy it!

    My husband wanted the Door thing, so we went ahead and bought. He loves it! He even uses it while doing P90X. It scares me a little, but a couple of my kids use it too. They really like it also. They all like how smoothly it moves.
  • Lisa0711
    Lisa0711 Posts: 1,405 Member
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    Your home gym sounds awesome!

    I have a treadmill and an elliptical. But I've found my favorites are TV, DVD player, some workout DVDs, and a variety of hand weights and I'm good to go! I've been working out steadily at home for over 2 years now, and using DVDs is what has helped me lose over 50 pounds. :happy:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    OOH I just thought of something I had in my gym (before my son moved back home for a spell)

    A clip board with a print out of each days workout.

    I did a spread sheet (hmm, wonder if that is in the computer that crashed??)

    It included my workouts for m-w-fr-sat for upper and lower and a box to check for cardio.

    There is something great about seeing my progress on that sheet. started with 20 min on ellip, burned 250 calories going pretty slow, just enough to keep the machine one lol. by the time I moved to the gym I was at 45 min, level 9 and still burning 250! That means my body was more efficient and healthy!

    Good luck with the new gym!!
  • LilMissAngi
    LilMissAngi Posts: 127
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    I don't have a damn thing :-(
  • selbyhutch
    selbyhutch Posts: 531 Member
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    My husband is fabulous! He even painted the room a pretty bright blue. My thought process was 1 piece of cardio... I knew I wanted an elliptical, but at first I really wanted a bike too. At the last minute, I changed my mind & got the rower... so glad I did!! It's a nice cross between cardio & strength.

    We have mats on the floor, but not everywhere... just half of the room where the equipment is. I've been thinking about putting mats down everywhere. I do have a yoga mat as well... I can't live without yoga. We also have a TV & a variety of fitness DVD's.

    This last weekend, I bought a whiteboard calendar, 2 colored boards to write on that are magnetic & a cork board. I do need to get a second iPod dock for the room. The Tower 200 door frame piece might be an interesting add also... sounds like something hubby would enjoy.

    And yes, I thanked him "properly" - LOL :blushing:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    I don't have a damn thing :-(

    You have your body!!

    I was amazed that when I hired a trainer she used MY body to do most of the work:tongue: I thold her she should give me a discount!!:laugh: :laugh:

    squats
    lunges
    push ups
    step ups

    she uses all of these as basics, then hands me a medicine ball (gallon of water) or 2 1 lb weights (2 cans of green beans) and has me do the leg work.

    Amazing!!

    You can do this!:glasses:
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    And yes, I thanked him "properly" - LOL :blushing:

    Good wifey!:flowerforyou:
  • BR1986FB
    BR1986FB Posts: 1,515 Member
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    I have mostly Body Solid products in my garage which include:

    Smith Machine with lat pulldown/ low row apparatus with selectorized plates that go up to 200 lbs

    Leg press/ sled/ hack squat

    Leverage squat machine

    Seated leg extension/ leg curl

    Seated calf machine

    Seated plate loaded row machine

    Seated tricep pushdown machine

    Pec Dec machine

    Free standing pullup/ dip tree

    Angled ab bench

    Two adjustable benches

    Curl/ straight and deadlift bar

    1000+ lbs of free weights

    130 lb set of Powerblock dumbbells

    Commercial grade elliptical machine


    It's funny because now that I've been doing P90X I use the dumbbells and the pullup tree.

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