The right equipment for your home gym can be tough to find and deciding what’s right for you can be even tougher. There are so many options out there that it can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. There’s a simple method that I use to decide if something is a good fit for my home gym. Let’s get into what it is.
Three Step Method for Picking the Right Equipment for Your Home Gym
- Does it match my current and future goals?
- Does it fit my budget?
- Does it fit in my workout space?
- Is made by a company with a reputation for good customer service, that honors product warranties and that will be around if I need them?
Why Is My Way The Right Way?
To be fair there are other ways to pick equipment for your home gym but each has it’s pros and cons. Some people buy what their favorite influencer recommends, some people only buy what they need to compete in their sport, some buy stuff to display it on social media based on what’s popular in the home gym collector community and then there’s the way I do it. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.
Influencer Recommendations
I’m not a huge fan of this. Yes, I do reviews on YouTube and in those reviews I sometimes recommend equipment as the best option for your home gym. This entire Shopify store is populated with products my wife and I have reviewed. But you shouldn’t build your garage gym, basement gym or any other kind of home gym based only on recommendations from someone who doesn’t know you.
For one thing influencers are often paid to review products and in fact some even get paid an affiliate commission every time you click the links sending you to the product manufacturer’s website. We've transitioned away from being paid for reviews to the curated model that includes what's in this Shopify store because we don't want to muddy the waters or raise questions about our ability to be completely unbiased. Not everyone makes that choice.
So you have to take influencer opinions with a grain of salt. Besides, they don’t know you and your training history or goals so it’s advice in a vacuum. On the other hand, influencers often find out about products before the general public so they can be a huge help in finding deals or new products that can be of value to you before those products become popular.
Picking Equipment That You Need for Your Sport or Hobby
That’s actually not a bad approach because it’s tied to your goals. But this limits you in terms of enjoyment. Say you compete in powerlifting, you technically only need a bar that matches the specifications of your particular federation, plates that are similar to what you’ll use on the day of your meet, plus some sort of squat and bench set up that is as close to the competition platform setup as possible. Great. But what if you decide that you’d really enjoy doing some sandbag training for cardio? Or maybe you watch a strongman competition on television and you think doing some Circus dumbbell pressing might be a nice change of pace? You don’t want to compete but it looks like fun? I think you should leave room in your home gym for stuff that keeps training fun.
Buying What’s Popular
This is honestly my least favorite way to find home gym equipment. For one thing, I’m a bit contrarian and just buying what other people think is popular runs counter to my independent nature. I also don’t like the idea of having home gym equipment as conversation pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I want my home gym to look good! But I buy home gym equipment to use it not to just admire it and I would much rather have an impressive physique than shiny equipment that looks like it never gets used.
The Best Way To Set Up A Home Gym
When you first decided to start working out at home, you did that with a goal in mind. So I think it’s best to buy equipment that keeps you moving towards that goal and keeps you safe in the process. My way takes a little more time, but I promise that it’s worth it in the end.
Still looking for guidance? Check out our Home Gym Setup Guide on YouTube.