Workout at Home: Home Gym Ideas for Every Budget

Stick to your fitness goals this year by building your own gym to workout at home! If you have trouble finding time to exercise, this list of ideas to help you workout at home is for you! If you are tired of paying money for a gym membership, this home gym guide is for you! If you need a kick in the booty to get motivated to take charge of your personal health, this is for you!

In this article, we’ll explain how to build a home gym for every budget for an effective workout at home. We’ve got you covered with ideas from a bare-bones set up that will get the job done to a multi-faceted gym that will rival those you see in a hotel.

I’ve worked at many gyms over the years – from on-site corporate fitness centers to hotel gyms and chain centers. I find that the biggest excuse people have for not working out is lack of time. Even if you have a gym right at your workplace, you still have to pack all your gear and either extend your workday or cram your sweat session in during your lunch hour.

I used to be at the gym all the time, but once I had kids, it was a much more difficult task! Having the ability to workout at home allows you to get a quick workout in when you only have a few minutes, multi-task if you are busy with your kids or stuck on a boring conference call, and avoid the hassles of bad weather, crowds, expenses, and traffic that come with going to a physical location to exercise.

THE BASIC HOME GYM – $100+

This is a good way to go with a home gym design if you are just starting out with building a basic home gym and it is perfect for small spaces too! These are the basic elements you need for a safe and effective in-home workout:

Flooring

For your home gym flooring, you can buy interlocking foam tiles from Amazon or at many retailers from Walmart to Home Depot. This is how I started my very first home gym. One trick to keep the tiles together and in good shape is to use packing tape to seal all the seams. The least expensive version is ½-inch thick foam. See below for upgraded flooring options!

Once I upgraded my basement gym over 10 years ago, I brought my interlocking tile mat to my parents’ house and still use it when I visit them. It works like a charm on their thin carpet over concrete in the basement!

Strength Training

For strength training, there are tons of no-equipment moves you can do with just bodyweight training! A staircase or a sturdy chair works well for performing tricep dips, incline push-ups, and step-ups.

If you’re short on space or funds, another great home workout option is to buy a few fitness bands. These are inexpensive, plus you can easily throw them in your bag and take them with you wherever you go! Not sure what to do? Head to YouTube for dozens of free resistance training workouts for any level of fitness.

Cardio Training

All you need is internet access to stream the best in free – that is right – FREE workouts. YouTube has a ton of great workouts. Check out our personally curated collection of YouTube fitness playlists.

Shape and Muscle & Fitness Hers have good workouts to follow online as well as in their hard copy magazines. You can even get a workout book or DVD from your local library.

Essential Workout Gear

Next up, get some cushiony cross-training sneakers. I have wide feet so I prefer Ryka, but go with what you love best! Ryka sneakers and shoes are made just for women’s unique foot structure and have been consistently recognized as a top training shoe.

Sorry, guys! I don’t have the experience to make a recommendation for you! But these sneakers do make great gifts too. Hint! Hint!

Click here to get 20% off your first Ryka purchase!

Extras

A jump rope is a great add-on to enhance your home exercise options. Jump roping can allow you to burn over 10 calories a minute. You can incorporate bouts of jumping with strength training intervals or other cardio moves. You can also put the jump rope on the floor and jump over it laterally as well as forward and back.

THE MID-TIER HOME GYM – $300+

If you have a little more money to spend on a home gym, here are some upgraded options for a comfortable sweat space! You should also incorporate the workouts and extras above to have plenty of variety to keep from getting bored.

Flooring

For a nicer looking floor than interlocking foam tiles, get 3/8-inch thick wood-style interlocking gym floor tiles. You can choose from 7 different colors to match your décor and build a floor from 24 square feet starting at just $60.

Strength Training

For strength training, you can buy a few sets of dumbbells at a retail store or online on Amazon. Target also has ProForm space saver dumbbells that are adjustable up to 25 pounds. These are a great choice if you need to build your home gym in a small space.

A set of workout bars is also a great choice! These weighted strength training bars come in a set of 10, 15, and 20 pounds. They make for a compact strength training system and store easily in a corner or closet.

Cardio Training

An agility ladder is a great add-on because it is compact and quite inexpensive. Both of these are great workout options for your kids too!

Extras

For just $10, you can transform your fitness bands into a complete strength training system with this resistance band door anchoring attachment. Mimic cable tricep pushdowns, perform rows, work your shoulders from all angles….the possibilities are endless!

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If you want to get more of a challenge, a TRX Suspension Training System is a fun and challenging way to strength train. This multi-tasking wonder can be mounted or attached to a door frame and is ready to go in minutes! It is lightweight and portable so you can even take it along when you travel.

The TRX is a portable fitness system that supports up to 350 pounds, comes with two workout guides, and six months of free access to their app that offers over 1,000 digital workouts! Plus, there are dozens of totally free TRX workouts on their YouTube channel!

USE TRX PROMO CODE TRXAMB10V2AC7X FOR 10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE TRX STORE PURCHASE INCLUDING ACCESSORIES, MEDICINE BALLS, RESISTANCE TUBING & MORE!

THE PREMIUM HOME GYM – $1,200+

If money and space are not an issue, here are some ideas to create the home gym of your dreams! As stated in the mid-tier section, I recommend that you add in the options above as well to prevent boredom.

Flooring

You can either get a large cardio floor mat that is made for impact training or if you have a really big room, you can buy a remnant Impact Roll in a wood look. These floor coverings are perfect for cardio and dance exercises, especially if you are converting a basement with a cement floor into a gym. This type of workout room flooring is the ideal way to protect yourself from impact because they include a layer of vinyl over a layer of recycled rubber. It looks seamless and is very durable.

I’ve had my remnant floor in place for over 12 years and it is as good as new! Plus it is easy to wipe the sweat off and keep clean! Sometimes you can find a good deal, but these tend to retail for several hundred dollars.

Equipment

One of the best bets for strength training at home is a set of adjustable dumbbells. Adjustable dumbbells take up minimal space and offer up to 55 pounds of resistance.

If you really want to get a gym-quality workout at home, the Bowflex Home Gym Series is an excellent option! We have one of the first Bowflex models similar in size to the Bowflex Xceed along with dumbbells so we can do pretty much every type of strength training routine that we could do in a gym.

The Bowflex Xceed is an Amazon Exclusive that comes in at just under $600 including shipping. An annual gym membership costs well over that amount and you won’t even have to worry about wiping anyone’s germs off the equipment after you use it!

The Bowflex Xceed offers 210 pounds of resistance, which can be upgraded to as much as 410 pounds! With this mighty machine you can do over 65 exercises for every muscle group. Plus, it comes with 7 workout routines suitable for beginners to advanced bodybuilders.

For those of you serious about getting a top-notch home workout, I cannot recommend Bowflex enough. Bowflex quality simply cannot be beaten! We inherited our Bowflex from my father-in-law. After 40 years, it is still in mint condition.

Cardio Training

A treadmill is the most versatile piece of cardio equipment you can have for a great workout at home. Similar to the Bowflex, this investment pays for itself in just a year or two over the time and money you’d spend hustling to the gym and fighting for equipment.

There are dozens of workout possibilities! You can do interval training by getting your heart rate up with a few minutes on the machine and then hop off and hit up some weights. Then, repeat it several more times. Do an active rest day and walk while you catch up on Netflix. If you’re training for a race, you won’t skip a beat on your routine if it is raining, snowing, or too hot.

Most treadmills also come with pre-programmed cardio, incline, and strength training options. Some even have technology to simulate travel environments from hiking up a mountain or running through a quaint European town.

Forget about all those fancy ads and claims for spinning bikes and the Peleton. Nothing beats boots on the ground! I had a spinning bike and then once I started tracking my calories, I realized that I didn’t burn nearly as many calories as when I went out running or power walking on an incline. A seated workout simply does not compare.

Our favorite home gym equipment cardio brand is NordicTrack. Their equipment is top-notch. Plus, they have an excellent warranty that allows you to pay a small fee for annual maintenance and protection. The NordicTrack T Series Treadmill starts off at under $1,000 for its lower-end treadmill model. The price includes shipping as well as one year of access to iFit, an interactive program that offers over 16,000 live workout programs!

If you want to go over the top with the best and have space, check out the NordicTrack Incline Trainer Series. These go up to a 40% incline for a real challenge! We have had our NordicTrack x9i Incline Trainer for five years and we absolutely love it!

Extras

My favorite new home gym addition is the YogaBody Trapeze. This versatile piece of equipment is great for strength training, stretching, yoga, acrobatics, and even suspended cardio. Our kids love to swing on it too!

You can hang it on a chin-up bar or outside on a sturdy tree. Alternatively, you can buy low profile ceiling hooks for it, which is how we arranged ours in our basement gym. Use TRX coupon code TRXAMB10V2AC7X for 10% off accessories!

The kit comes with a video tutorial and a pose chart. Plus, you can search YouTube for aerial yoga and TRX-style workout ideas.

Speaking of the TRX, as I mentioned above, the TRX Training line of products is another great strength training option. Their most versatile and newest product release is the TRX Pro4 Suspension Training System. The TRX Pro4 comes with one year of free access to the training app.

USE TRX PROMO CODE TRXAMB10V2AC7X FOR 10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE TRX STORE PURCHASE INCLUDING ACCESSORIES, MEDICINE BALLS, RESISTANCE TUBING & MORE!

Workout at Home – Get Started Now

We hope that these ideas are an inspiration for you to start building your dream home gym and workout at home. You can start with a few pieces of equipment and grow from there or enhance the home gym you already have.

We’d love to hear from you to find out how this article helped you. Was there anything we missed? What is your favorite must-have to workout at home?

Worried about staying motivated if you’re not in the gym? Check out our 11 Fitness Strategies for staying on track!