At-home workouts are such a great option on so many levels. Time-efficient and just as effective as a gym workout, there are so many options to mix them up and progress towards your health and fitness goals. But what is the best home exercise equipment? What home exercise equipment is most effective? What home gym equipment is best for losing weight? Which home gym equipment is best for general strength improvement?
The answer is kind of like the answer to the question “what’s the best type of exercise to do?” The best home exercise equipment is the equipment that you’re actually going to use on a regular basis and is not going to sit around gathering dust! Most types of fitness equipment for the home are great, as long as you’ll use them often enough to get a result.
My fellow health and fitness professionals have a few ideas on what they think are the best home exercise equipment options. I’m super excited to share with their ideas with you. Each (qualified) industry professional sent in a blurb about their favorite, and I was pretty stoked to see that they were all pieces that I either use myself, or am on board with completely.
What home gym equipment should I buy?
The best thing is that the suggestions we are about to share with you are all small and lightweight, and take up little room in the home. Some of them…well they may not even require you to buy anything at all! A couple of them are simply common household or hobby type items that you will likely already own.
Some of these home exercise kit suggestions also include links to posts that offer you an in depth guide on how to use them.
Before we get into our best home exercise equipment suggestions, perhaps you want to go even more minimalist and you’re looking to do home exercise without equipment? In that case make sure you grab my free bodyweight exercise pdf, for anytime, anywhere fitness. It includes seven great exercises and offers three progression levels for each exercise.
The best home fitness equipment as recommended by the professionals
[Elly: In addition to this post, you can jump straight to my personally recommended exercise kit below].
Allie Edwards: Resistance Exercise Bands
My favorite piece of home workout equipment is an exercise resistance band. The sheer versatility of resistance bands is astonishing. Because of the nature of using a band and creating your own resistance by pulling (as opposed to using the force of gravity with traditional free weights) you can actually perform many more exercises with resistance bands!
Resistance bands are available in different levels of resistance to mimic any dumbbell weight. There are phenomenal exercises for your entire body utilizing only resistance bands! Easily strengthen your core, legs, glutes, and arms with much less impact on your joints than traditional free weights.
Some of my other favorite features of resistance bands for at-home workouts are that they are compact and can be brought with you almost anywhere. You can even double up your resistance band, or loop it to increase the “weight” while using the same band. This is so helpful when switching between muscle groups and for when your strength increases.

My favorite way to use my resistance bands is for a full fast arm workout. You can easily work out every major muscle in your arms quickly anywhere! Begin by either placing the band under one foot, two feet or looping around your feet for whatever level of resistance you require. In this stance you can perform bicep curls, overhead tricep extensions, bent over lat pulls, overhead press, reverse flyes, and more!
[Find out more in this resistance band workout guide and in “Resistance Bands versus Dumbbells | 9 Surprising Reasons to Choose Elastic Bands”].
I am Allie of Vigor it Out: a certified personal fitness trainer specializing in postpartum fitness with an additional certification in child nutrition and cooking from Stanford University. I am currently a work-at-home mom blogger helping guide women to master motherhood through nutrition, health and fitness.
Check out latest prices for resistance bands on Amazon
Marita Dortins: Yoga Wheel
My recommendation for the best home exercise equipment is a yoga wheel. I was a slow adopter with the yoga wheel. When it first found its way into my Instagram feed I thought it was just another gimmick; another way for someone to make money selling me something I don’t need. But after borrowing a friend’s, I was a convert and bought my own.
What I love the most about my yoga wheel is its versatility: it’s a beautiful piece of equipment for stretching (I use it to open my chest, shoulders, hip flexors and quads) but it can also be used to build strength and stability. Simple standing balancing postures such as Vrksasana (Tree pose) become challenging, and I find I’m recruiting my core and deep stabiliser muscles in order to maintain balance. Practicing arm balances on my yoga wheel has helped me build further core and upper body strength.

I use my wheel for this simple stretch almost every day. If, like me, you get tight through the chest (a symptom of our modern lifestyle – too much time in front of our computers) you’ll benefit from this: sit on the floor with the wheel lengthwise a few inches behind your butt. Use your hands to hold the wheel steady as you gently lower your spine down along the wheel. You can fold your arms overhead for a deeper stretch, or rest your palms on the floor as you gently roll back and forward, working into the sticky spots in your back as you open your heart. Enjoy!
Marita Dortins began teaching yoga in 2002 after apprenticing with her first teacher. Since then she has completed around 2000 hours of training, and teaches alignment-based vinyasa, acroyoga, yin, and restorative yoga. She leads yoga workshops, retreats and teacher training courses.
Check out latest prices for yoga wheels on Amazon
Jane Adams: Tennis Ball
My recommendation for the best home exercise equipment to add to your home fitness kit is a tennis ball.
Cheap to buy, easy to find (I picked up three in a discount store) and really easy to use. Let me introduce you to your new best friend – the humble tennis ball.
I run, and I can honestly say it has become my go-to bit of kit for self-massage after a long run. It’s the one thing I recommend to other runners starting out on their running adventure.
While seated I roll it under my foot to loosen the plantar fascia – the fibrous tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot connecting your heel to your toes. I find that being seated gives you more control over the pressure you put through your foot while rolling the ball from heal to forefoot and back in long careful strokes.
I’ve also used it to massage my calves and thighs whilst I’ve been sat watching the TV – by just rolling it over areas that feel tight or sore. I also use it for hard to reach areas (such as neck and shoulders) by placing it between me and a wall and moving from left to right and up and down. I suggest doing this last one where no one can see you, as wall-dancing seems to particularly amuse onlookers!
I’m Jane, 50-something with a late-in-life urge to get fit, stay healthy, and feel well. I run beginners running groups for women of all ages and am Leadership in Running Fitness (England Athletics) qualified.
[Note from Elly: If you love using your tennis ball for massage and want to take it to the next level, try a spikey massage ball. It works as a trigger point ball that gets even deeper into your niggly bits! Also, find out how to use a trigger point ball effectively and what trigger point therapy exercises you can try].
Check out latest prices on amazon for spikey massage balls and other trigger point balls
Nicole Young: Eco Yoga Mats
My recommendation for the best home exercise equipment is an eco-friendly yoga mat. As a conscious yoga teacher, I really care about my health, my students, and the environment as well so it’s important to me that I use and recommend a yoga mat that is free from nasty toxic chemicals and is also biodegradable. Studies show that these chemicals are linked to cancer, reproductive, developmental and immune problems. And these types of plastic yoga mats take many years to break down in landfill which does enormous damage to the soil and air during the process, in turn having a huge negative impact on the environment.
There are so many eco yoga mats available now that are made from sustainable fibers such as natural rubber, organic cotton, jute, hemp, and cork. And even better is that some yoga mat companies are involved in environmental activities that actually give back to the community such as planting a tree for every eco yoga mat they sell.

So if you’re wanting to make a more ethical choice that is in line with yoga itself and are looking for an all-natural, eco-friendly yoga mat, then make sure you do some research online before you buy. I wouldn’t go anywhere without my own eco yoga mat!
Nicole Young is a Melbourne-based Ayurvedic consultant, Yoga teacher, writer, and online educator. She is deeply passionate about traditional medicine and self-healing with Ayurveda and Yoga.
Check out latest prices for eco-friendly yoga mats on amazon
Karen Laing: Cushions
One of my recommendations for the best home exercise equipment is a cushion. You can use a cushion as a prop, as a support or as something to squeeze to get more from an exercise.
Take squats for example. If you drop a cushion between your legs and then pick it up (as in a squat). Suddenly the exercise is functional and you don’t need to think about it. As a coach I can quickly pick up on tight or rigid joints by watching a client move instinctively.

I also love to add it to the Pilates shoulder bridge. If you pop a folded cushion between your thighs before rolling into a bridge you’ll need to squeeze it to hold it in place. You’ll feel more stretch in your hips and more connection through the inner thighs (and therefore pelvic floor). Squeezing a cushion during the hundred is another brilliant way of adding that inner thigh connection many women often lack, particularly after pregnancy.
If mid-back mobility is an issue, pop a cushion under your rib cage (like a rucksack). You’ll find it easier to support your head and neck with the abdominals in a raised position without straining.
I’m Karen Laing. A Pilates Instructor, writer, and consultant. I run the Fit School community in Essex with my husband Chris. Fit School is about helping brains as well as bodies. We cut through fitness and diet fads to give you a simple, achievable way of getting you to your fitness goals through in-person classes and workshops and our growing online hub.
Tara Vongdouthdy: TRX
The TRX is one of the best home exercise equipment options because you can do so much with it. The TRX is a suspension training system that uses your own bodyweight for the load. It’s so simple to use at home because you can literally use it anywhere! It’s super easy to set up and you can just hang it in the door, and workout anywhere! Any movement or exercises you can do at the gym, you can basically do on the TRX straps, like rows, push-ups, squats, and even ab exercises. I love the knee tucks because you really have to keep your abs engaged to stabilize yourself.

I am Tarah and am a full-time personal trainer for the last 8 years. You can check out this bodyweight workout I like to do while travelling.
[Note from Elly: Check out these 8 effective TRX back exercises and also these awesome TRX chest exercises that you can do at home or anywhere!].
Check out latest prices on suspension trainers such as the TRX on amazon
We hope you’ve enjoyed our professional take on the best home exercise equipment. Which piece are you going to add to your home fitness kit? Which is your favorite out of the ones we’ve mentioned above, or do you have another one to add? Please leave a comment in the box below to let us know!
If you are into a minimalist home exercise equipment set up, you may also be interested in finding out about these minimalist sandals, which are super versatile and are designed to help your feet function like feet should.
Even though we didn’t cover it in this post, a skipping rope makes a fantastic addition to your home exercise equipment list. They’re cheap, lightweight, and offer an amazing time-effective workout that can be done in as little as 5 minutes! I also own voodoo bands for muscle flossing as a mobility-specific training tool. They are another cheap and lightweight option that I really value as part of my home exercise kit.
[Elly: In addition to this post, you can jump straight to my personally recommended exercise kit below].
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these recommended service provider links, like an insurance broker, or a travel agent, I may earn a commission – at no extra cost to you. [For my full disclosure, please see my DISCLAIMER page).
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