Barbell + weights

The barbell will be used for all of our big compound lifts at our home gym. This means primarily the bench press, the squat, the deadlift, and the barbell rows.

The barbell is a low-cost, versatile training tool that is a must-have item for training at home. If you have the space to spare, I would recommend buying an Olympic barbell. These are about 2.2 m long.

If you don’t have enough space to fit those though, you can get by with a decent powerlifting barbell, which is what I have done for my whole life. Just make sure to check beforehand how much space you have and how much weight the barbell can hold, so you don’t break it and injure yourself while you are lifting.

You have a lot of options regarding weight plates. The cheapest ones will be the full iron plates, while the most expensive ones will be bumper plates.

The advantage of bumper plates is that the floor won’t break when the weights need to be dropped fast, or they drop by accident.

Bumper plates may be worth it while training at home because there will most likely be nobody around to help you when your lift fails. So if the necessity should arise when you need to drop the weights fast or from a higher distance, your floor remains undamaged.

Power Rack

A power rack is one of our most important pieces of training equipment in our home gym. It provides utility and safety. It’s especially essential when you are planning to lift heavy without the luxury of having a spotter!

Furthermore, it allows us to lift safely without the risk of getting stuck under the barbell and the weights. There’s a wide range of weight-lifting exercises that can be performed with a power rack. Popular compound exercises done with a power rack are bench presses and squats.

A power rack is shaped as a box with 2 horizontal bars. There are 4 uprights posts (these are your box design) and there are two adjustable horizontal bars. These horizontal bars are your safety net. They allow you to catch and rest the weights when you can’t complete the lift or lose your balance and let the barbell fall. This way, you can never get stuck underneath the barbell.

Bench

A bench is, you guessed it right, designed kind of like a park bench. However, this bench is used and designed specifically for lifting weights.

There are several different bench types. Mainly fixed benches and adjustable benches.

Fixed benches are flat and fixed. Meaning, you can’t alter the inclination. The other type is the adjustable bench. An adjustable bench can be put in a flat, incline, or decline position. This is the bench type I would recommend buying if you’re interested in a home gym because it allows you to put your focus on different parts of the muscle you’re working out. Meaning it’s more versatile than a fixed bench.

Dumbbells

A very versatile training tool, which is especially great when you are just starting your weight-lifting journey because the weights you’re able to lift as a beginner are lower. This makes dumbbells the perfect training tool for beginners since the weights you can lift with dumbbells are lower than with a barbell.

This makes it an excellent entry equipment tool for working out. Even advanced lifters will make use of it frequently when doing accessory exercises. Just remember that there are dumbbells with a fixed weight (fixed dumbbells) and adjustable dumbbells that are not fixed in weight (adjustable dumbbells.)

I recommend buying the adjustable dumbbells because they allow you to stack more weights as you get stronger without needing to buy countless other dumbbell sets. This will reduce the cost in your lifting future as well.

Treadmill/home trainer 

Of course, cardio workouts must be performed in addition to weight lifting to get a full-body workout that’s based on shaping a healthy body.

The easiest way to get your cardio workouts in at home with equipment is by either walking/running or riding a bike. Either of those (or both) will do. Younger people are often more into jogging on a treadmill (or outside). This is however more stressful on the joints and so is potentially less suited for people at an advanced age. A home trainer might be a better option for people who are not youngsters anymore.

There are other, less, or non-expensive alternatives for cardio workouts if you want to reduce the cost of your home gym. For example, by doing cardio kickboxing, rope jumping, or simply put walking/running outside on the streets or in the woods.

Rubber flooring 

Especially important if you have a fragile floor or live in an apartment where you need to keep the noise down.

Rubber flooring is easy to install. It is strong, sturdy, soundproof if your barbell falls on it, and waterproof. It comes in the form of tiles or mats. Tiles are better for a bigger room because they can be fitted into each other. Mats might be more useful and easier to use for smaller rooms.

The disadvantages of rubber flooring are that it’s fairly expensive and quite heavy. Luckily, the surface for most home gyms is quite small, which makes the cost manageable. The weight of the rubber tiles is almost a nonissue since once in place, they are often not moved anymore. Or at the very least not frequently.