Starting a Home Gym?

Practical advice for those looking to train at home:

Start small. All you need – initially – is your bodyweight, effort, a little creativity, and a can-do attitude.

A pullup bar or gymnastics rings will take you far.

Later, add resistance bands along with some kettlebells and/or a pair of adjustable dumbbells.

Honestly, most people would do great with a pullup bar, pushup handles, a cheap set of resistance bands, and adjustable dumbbells.

If you want more toys later on, then by all means buy more gym toys. At the beginning, though, start small and see how little you need to make the most gains. Add on slowly. You'll likely find – after you inevitably buy more equipment – that you're no better off with the fancier, space inefficient options than you were with the simple, small footprint of bands, bells (dumb or kettle variety), and pullup bar.

_

“But what about leg training?!”

Unilateral leg exercises are elite and if you have a pair of adjustable dumbbells that go up to 90 lbs each (or even a few moderate to heavy kettlebells), you won't have to worry about your legs being too strong for your equipment. 

Standard split squats, Bulgarian split squats, pistol squat variations, lunges, step ups, single leg RDLs, 1 hand swings or hand-to-hand kettlebell swings, snatches, single leg glute bridges, jump squats, 1½ rep squats or 1½ rep unilateral squat variations, etc. The options are plentiful. I cannot preach the benefits of unilateral leg training enough, but I'll refrain from getting carried away on that topic…for now.

If you're a specific, niche lifter – like powerlifter or Olympic lifter – then, yeah, you'll need to buy a good squat rack, build a platform, buy a stout bench, clear out some space, and get some barbells and plates. But for most of the population looking to enjoy training, build muscle, get pretty strong, and look good –> calisthenics, kettlebells and/or dumbbells, and resistance bands will provide all you need to make great gains for the rest of your life. An adjustable bench is a nice bonus and they’re pretty cheap.

You can also buy a cheap pulley attachment to loop over your pullup bar for cable tricep work, along with other cable exercises. For the most part I think cables stand out best for tricep extension variations. If you have a solid variety of resistance bands, though, I don't see the need for an additional cable pulley setup.

Don't think you have to buy the farm before training at home. 

I began working out – almost exclusively – at home in 2018 with a simple door frame pullup bar, resistance bands, and 3 kettlebells (16kg/35lb, 24kg/53lb, 32kg/70lb). I built up over the years and now have way more than I need – but I also have trained clients and pairs of clients out of my garage – some of which wanted barbell specific training. I recently began downsizing again, though, because I train clients 35+ hours per week in a gym setting and my wife and I don't need as much variety of equipment as we have.

We're prioritizing equipment that offers good bang for our buck and is also mobile – as in, capable of being taken on the road. This is important for us when taking road trips and, more urgently, as we will soon be embarking on another cross-country move. 

But, as I said, I built up my own home gym slowly at first. Initially I just wanted some simple equipment at home so I could train/be motivated to train even on days that I wouldn't be able to make it to the gym. I think starting out with a small home gym as a backup plan option works well, and allows you to slowly adapt your approach to training at home and discovering if it's even something you enjoy – or if you conclude that you really need a separate space, away from home, to do your training. That's an individual feeling you'll learn for yourself.

I didn't even have a garage at the house where I was living when I first went exclusively home gym bro mode! I was training on my back patio or in the spare bedroom with those few kettlebells, bands, and pullup bar. But, man! I created some great training routines with that minimalist setup and had more fun lifting than I had experienced in years at the gym. 

At that time, the physical gym space – as far as traditional gym environments go – had become a bit of a bore for me and the gym members had slowly become an annoying distraction. I stopped having fun doing the traditional commercial gym routines and while I never lost my discipline to train, I began to lose motivation as the enjoyment slowly slipped away. Injuries were adding up. Something was missing in my training – a holistic grassroots approach, maybe? I don't know. But when I began training in my backyard (in southern Louisiana at the time) I found that missing feeling and wanted to hold onto it.

Fast forward 2 years, when I wanted to do more barbell training again, and was working with clients who wanted barbell training, I purchased a barbell, a safety squat bar, and a trap bar. They're fun to have and I have the space to have them, but I don't use them anymore. I get by better with the bodyweight exercises, the dumbbell exercises, the kettlebell exercises, and my resistance bands. That's what works best for me, nowadays and my training has become more streamlined – more time efficient, fast paced, and more fun.

It's funny. In my own experience, the personal fitness arc went from bodyweight and band workouts —> commercial gym workouts —> barbell-focused workouts (insert acute injuries becoming chronic injuries during this period – not necessarily the fault of the barbell, though) —> bodyweight + kettlebells + bands workouts —> bodyweight + kettlebells + dumbbells + bands workouts. I've basically come full circle, but with the addition of kettlebell training, which I began adding in as a serious tool in my routine during 2018. 

Again, a lot of this comes down to personal preference, but, if you're considering a home gym, don't follow the advice of influencers trying to get you to buy fancy expensive machines, smith machines, cable towers, and power racks using their specific discount codes. You shouldn't spend much money up-front before figuring out if training at home is even a good fit for you!

Odds are, you're interested in a home gym because you want to remove friction and simplify your life (and your training). And I've got news: having many options (equipment options in this case) increases the amount of friction you have to overcome to get great results!

There are exceptions, of course, to this simple, small home gym (then building out later, if desired) approach.

If you're goal is to do CrossFit workouts (which require the same basic equipment mentioned along with a barbell, bumper plates, and a decent platform) or you want to become a competitive strongman, powerlifter, or a competitive bodybuilder (like one who actually gets on stage), you will need some extra, bigger, more specific equipment. 

Although, in the case of CrossFit and bodybuilding, I think you can use the basic equipment I mentioned above and do CrossFit style workouts (many of which don't require barbells) with kettlebells or dumbbells in place of the barbell exercises (kettlebells and dumbbells allow you to do cleans, jerks, clean & jerks, and snatches like barbells, and are even better suited for the higher reps that often accompany popular CrossFit WODs, in my opinion). 

With bodybuilding, you just need to adhere to specific hypertrophy principles which can be used, successfully, with heavy dumbbells, heavy kettlebells, and weighted calisthenic exercises. But, again, I understand these specific goals – especially at the competitive level – may lead you to want a little more than a pullup bar/rings, kettlebells, and dumbbells. 

 A minimal home gym set up is plenty enough to get you naturally jacked [enough], strong [enough], healthy, and athletic. Most average people can build as much muscle and relative strength – naturally – possible with this simple home gym setup. Seriously. 

Over time, you may expand your kettlebell collection and you may add a bench. Currently, my go-to home gym equipment for my wife and I is as follows:

1. Pullup bar

2. Pushup handles

3. Adjustable bench

4. Plyo box (12 inch/14 inch/16 inch)

5. Adjustable dumbbells from 10-90 lbs (Bowflex 1090s)

6. Kettlebells from 8kg/18lbs up to 48kg/106lbs (doubles of 16kg/35lb, 20kg/44lb, 24kg/53lb, 28kg/62lb. Single bells for 8kg, 12kg, 32kg, 36kg, 40kg, and 48kg)

7. Resistance bands and glute loops

8. Cable pulley that loops over my pullup bar

9. Jump ropes (I keep one in my truck and one in the house at all times)

_

This is way more than most people need, but compared to the "Home Gym Necessities" articles being pumped out by influencers (many of which don't even train at home), it's minimal. And this covers myself, my wife, and my past and future clients (when I move, I won't be going back to working in a gym. I'll be running a training studio out of my garage...again).

I still have a barbell, trap bar, and plates. I may have clients that would like to do barbell and trap bar work at my next location (which is a location I lived for 5 years before). Right now I find the barbell useful for inverted rows and pullups regressions. But who knows? I may see it as not worth the space, make a little extra money, and sell those things and pick up some gymnastics rings instead.

I also have some Indian clubs and a mace bell/club that I swing around for fun upper body mobility work and for feeling cool. Mostly for the cool factor, if I'm being totally honest.

_

One thing that's not listed that I've had in the past and I'll probably have again in the future is sand bags. I built a few sandbags with some of my old army duffle and laundry bags years ago. Later, I used the sand for some house projects before moving from Alabama to Idaho and I donated almost all of my Army gear to the Army Navy Surplus store before making that move. 

I think sandbags can be a super cool, unconventional replacement for standard barbells, and I have a feeling I'll be lifting, loading, and carrying sandbags again in the future. We shall see...

_ 

Most people probably don't need adjustable dumbbells up to 90lb pairs and you can save a lot of money if you go for dumbbells that go up to 50-55lb pairs. But I love my dumbbells and they get a ton of use. Honestly, I've debated giving up dumbbells and just leaning into the kettlebells, bodyweight, and band training, but I find dumbbells superior for bicep curls, bench press variations, and lateral raises. (But, writing that down, I realize I could easily just get a much lighter pair of adjustable dumbbells – like the Bowflex 525s, which are a better design than the 1090s – and use those for biceps, triceps, and lateral raises while using kettlebells, bodyweight, and resistance bands for everything else...🤔). 

_

I started with 3 kettlebells and then collected the entire kettlebell family. Again, most people probably don't need 14 kettlebells! But I'm collecting kettlebells for 2 of us and I like getting creative and using kettlebells for exercises that one might traditionally do with dumbbells. (I had more kettlebells at one point but gave them away to clients or sold extras where I already had doubles or singles). 

_

Again, start small, then, if you find you really like something and can justify/sacrifice the dollars to expand with more of that equipment, do so if you wish. I enjoy kettlebells and appreciate having 4kg jumps in weight so I can progress more quickly than if I had 8kg jumps in weight. But I recognize it's probably overkill. What can I say – I'm a kettlebell bro and I'm not ashamed of it!

That's my home gym and it's grown over the course of 8 years. It started small. It compounded. It's still a fairly small foot print and it gives me everything I need with room to grow and progress on all my exercises for as long as I live. Much of it – particularly the kettlebells I have – will outlive me and, hopefully, will be passed down amongst my family members and generations to come (something that I think is pretty cool! Maintaining a family culture of steel, iron, and physical fitness...what a great gift to give future generations).

You may not become jacked enough to win bodybuilding shows but to do that you need a combination of great genetics, super restrictive diet, tons of time to train/sleep/cardio, time and desire to practice a posing routine, and possibly even steroids or hormone replacement therapies. The ROI of trying to look like someone who can win a bodybuilding competition is incredibly low unless all you do or care about – for the rest of your life – is competing for that bodybuilding trophy (or, in many cases, simply trying to achieve a bodybuilding look, without ever even competing). And even then, without the right genetics, posing routine, and drugs, you'll probably struggle to achieve that goal anyway. 

_

Obviously, this simple home gym setup isn't ideal if you want to maximize your performance on squat, deadlift, and bench press, because you wouldn't have access to the equipment to practice those exercises. Similarly to bodybuilding – though not as extreme – the ROI of maximizing those 3 lifts, for most people, is pretty low. 

If you're reading this article, you probably don't fall into either of those camps, though. My content is intentionally geared toward getting as fit as possible, but without being obsessed with optimization and without spending lots of time each day in the gym. I'm a high frequency fan, for sure, but I like workouts that are reasonable, repeatable, and brief – like 20-40 minutes brief. It's why my website is called The 30 Minute Physique (and you can follow along at https://www.30minutephysique.com/).

I am all about building the best physique possible with 30 minute workouts. This probably isn't the best approach to be elite in a specific bodybuilding or strength sport – but I train for health, fitness, aesthetics, athleticism, strength, hypertrophy, and mental sanity....You get it? I'm not a specialist in one quality of fitness and I don't train or encourage others to become specialists (that's not a shot taken at those that do, but it's just not my particular lane). 

I train to look great, feel great, and perform great, but while fitting my training into my life (for the rest of my life) rather than making training [in a particular specialized fashion for a hyper-specific outcome] the center of my life. 

My home gym recommendations support this philosophy. 

Train simply, briefly, and frequently, to build lots of muscle, strength, conditioning, and general health, but without wasting a lot of time.