2022 Top 7 Best Home Gym Equipment For Small Home Gyms

Covid-19 took the world by storm in 2020, and no one expected that by 2022 Covid would still be a topic of discussion. The pandemic of 2020 forced the whole world indoors. With gyms closed and everyone home, home gyms and home workouts became trending topics. Now 2022 is here with new Covid variants popping up and lockdowns being imposed once again, home gyms and home workouts are seemingly here to stay.  So if you haven't yet, the time is now to start investing in home gym equipment. Keep reading to find out the best home gym equipment for your small home gym.

Best Gym Equipment For Small Home Gyms

1. Smart Home Gyms

Smart home gyms essentially look like sleek mirrors or TVs with embedded fitness technology within. They are wired with interactive workouts so you can be led through 1000s of different workouts by real personal trainers. Some of them come with dumbbells and attachable pulley cable systems while some look just like mirrors. Check out by blog post here to learn more about the different types of smart home gyms. The most popular smart home gym brands include Echelon, The Mirror, Tempo, Tonal, and Peloton.

 If you are really quite clueless on where to start with working out and need outside motivation to get through workouts these smart home gym mirrors may be a good choice for you. They are extremely space saving for your home and essentially just look like a piece of furniture in your home. The only con is that they come at price most costing close to $2,000 or even more. Personally I think you would be just fine subscribing to fitness Youtubers like Madfit or Me😉 for free to get the same experience without spending the cash.

2. Cardio Equipment

Cardio equipment can often times be quite bulky but there are some decent brands that make more compact equipment to help you save space for your small home gym. Particularly if you have an extra room or garage that you will be dedicating to you home gym then I think a piece of cardio equipment is a must. One quality brand with space saving cardio equipment is Sunny Health & Fitness. 

They sell high quality treadmills, ellipticals, rowers, bikes, and steppers at affordable prices many even under $500. I personally bought my home treadmill from them. The exact treadmill I bought is the SF-T7515 Smart Treadmill. And I will say having it in my home has been a life saver. I haven't been this consistent in working out in a long time.

3. Squat Racks For Home Gyms

Just like with cardio equipment, if you have a separate room or garage designated for your gym and are into weight lifting, there are several affordable and compact squat racks that you can use in your home. I'd recommend one that can be folded up and mounted on the wall. So when it's not in use then I will not be in the way. The best mountable folding squat rack on amazon is from Hulk Fit. 

I personally had planned on buying a mountable folding squat rack for my gym, but decided against it only because I did not want to hire someone to mount it as neither my husband or I are handy. So instead I bought a compact squat rack from  Sunny Health & Fitness. It was the most compact one I could find that looked strong and sturdy with good reviews. 

Sunny Health Compact Squat Rack

But with buying a squat rack comes the necessity to buy accessories for lifting weights you will also need to by a 7ft olympic barbell, rubberized weights for the barbell, and clips for the weights. The barbell I bought for my home gym actually came with clips which was nice. I think the best barbell weights for a home gym are rubberized to prevent any sort of damage to floors. I bought some from amazon as well. 

4. Dumbbells For Home Gyms

Dumbbells are a must for any home gyms, particularly small home gyms. Dumbbells can be kept in any room of your house if you don't have a separate gym space as well without taking up any space. 

To save even more space you can get adjustable dumbbells which are just one pair that adjust from 10-55lbs. So adjustable dumbbell sets are truly space saving, as there is no need to buy an entire rack of several different weight dumbbells. But if you opt for a rack of dumbbells, try and get a pyramid rack to save space instead of the traditional horizontal rack of dumbbells. I personally have a rack of light weight dumbbells, and another with heavier weights you can see in the picture below.

5. Gym Mats For Home Gyms

If you are not designating a separate  room for you home gym, then you really don't have to think much I but flooring for your gym space. Simply buy a yoga mat for your workouts. I recommend a yoga mat with a strap so it will stay nicely rolled up when not in use, and provide a means for easy carry when transporting. 

If you are using a separate space for you gym, I like to use foam puzzle tiles for the flooring. These tiles are inexpensive and provide great cushion on you joints when working out. The also provide a good surface for under cardio and weight equipment as well. In fact if you are worried about a treadmill causing too much noise, placing these foam tiles underneath them will significantly reduce the noise it makes when running on the treadmill. Rubberized foam tiles are actually recommended for under weight equipment for heavy weight lifters as they provide more protection for you floors.  These rubber tiles are quite a bit more expensive than the foam tiles however. 

6. Resistance Bands

Resistance bands like weights add more resistance to your workouts helping you build stronger muscles and increasing your intensity of your workouts. So if you don't have cash to initially invest in dumbbells and bigger weights resistance bands are a good choice to start with.  There are several different types of resistance bands. Plastic resistance bands are the cheapest. Fabric bands shown below don't roll up and move as much when place around the body. Cable resistance bands look like long cords and often have handles to be used for upper body exercises. 

7. Jump Ropes

Last but not least, a jump rope. Jumping rope is one of the oldest forms of cardio and is quite effective in burning calories. You can jump rope literally anywhere and they are cheap. Now you can even buy jump ropes with skip counters to better plan workouts and increase consistency.

Conclusion

Investing in a home gym is almost essential nowadays to maintain consistency with workouts. If you don't have much space or a lot of cash to spend there are simple items like gym mats and resistance bands, and jump ropes to start with, which you can still get a good workout from using. But if you have the space to accommodate more equipment than there are some quality pieces of weight equipment and cardio you can buy for your home. Just be sure to measure properly before buying anything large. If you need help figuring how to get in a good workout at home, check out my other blog post HERE. 

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