Home Bodybuilding Workout Equipment

Home Workout Equipment

To work out at home you will need some minimal equipment. Your first purchase should be a used dumbbell set. If you have room, a used adjustable bench is a good addition. Don't buy any of these items new, you can get them for pennies on the dollar buy buying them at garage sales or online at a place like craigslist. Many people just want these type of items out of their garage and they don't care how much they get as long as you haul them out of the way for them!
Essential Equipment
			Essential, A pull-up bar. All the time I get emails from people without pullup bars asking for an exercise they can substitute for pullups - there are none! Pullups are an essential upper body exercise and you must have a pullup bar if you are serious about bodybuilding and want to work out at home. Get creative. Look in your basement for a pipe you can do pullups on. Look for a tree with a low branch you can use. Children's playgrounds are a perfect place to do pullups, the steel structure of many of the slides and play houses are perfect for doing pullups. Anything horizontal and strong can be used with a little creativity. Most convenient is having a bar at home. If you have a place to install a bar, go to the hardware store and get some galvanized fence top rail or a closet pole, shouldn't cost more than a few dollars. Put it in your garage, attic, basement or wherever you have room. If none of the above options is possible, then you are going to have to spend some money and buy a no-mar, door mount pullup bar. Make sure and get one that lets you have a wide grip (wider than the doorway).
			Essential, Used dumbbell set. Dumbbells are the ultimate in versatility and convenience, they can be used to exercise every single body part and they can be stored in a small corner of your closet - try that with a rowflexx! Get these used at a garage sale, no need to buy them new - you should be able to find a used set really cheap. Use craigslist.org to locate them, a good price is $0.25/lb to $0.50/lb - that is, a 310lb olympic set should sell for $75 - $155. Best are solid metal plates (not sand or concrete filled) and handles that allow quick plate removal. If you don't want to hunt at garage sales, you can click here to buy a 160 pound weight set, or a 300 lb olympic weight set. An excellent price for a new weight set would be $0.73/lb, if you pay more than $1/lb you are paying too much. If you have lots of money and very little space then consider these adjustable 45 lb Powerblocks/90 lb Powerblocks, but they are really expensive.
			Essential, Chair. An old chair with a back for shoulder exercises if you don't have the above bench
			Essential, cardio equipment. If you want to jog for cardio get a good pair of running shoes. If you want to bike then get an inexpensive bike like this, this one is $215 but you can probably get one for $140 at your local big-box store. Don't get anything with gears, we don't want maintenance problems here as we are trying to save time not add more complications to our life and besides, the idea is to get more exercise and you get more on a one speed bike than a 21speed! Make sure you get one that will let you raise the seat to the proper height. Many have blown out their knees riding on a bike with the seat too low. Jump rope is a good cardio option for those who don't live in a place where its possible to run or bike during the winter.
			Essential, Cushion. A good cushion is needed to protect your knees while doing dumbbell rows and other exercises.
Optional Equipment
			Optional, Lifting straps. Good if your wrists give out before your back does when you are doing pull-ups. Also useful if you are doing lunges with a heavy weight. You can buy inexpensive lifting straps from amazon for $7 or nice padded straps for $18.
			Optional, Footstool for lunges and calf raises, optional. I made this one in 7th grade shop class, make sure yours is very sturdy.
			Optional, Push-up stand. A pushup stand ($13) is great for allowing you to do pushups without damaging your wrists or hands. You can also use a set of octagonal dumbbells. Many people ask about the Perfect Pushup , at $40 I think its overpriced but many swear by them. Personally I don't use either, I do them on my fists (with padding).
,			Optional, Bench. These are handy but take up lots of space. I bought mine used for $60 and it included 120lbs of weights! I use it for doing inclines, preacher curls, leg curls and leg extensions. Flat bench press and flat dumbbell press I still do by laying on the ground directly. Again, you don't really need one of these and I would advise against buying one but if you must have one you can buy a weight bench at amazon.
			Optional, Progress Measurement Devices. A flexible tape measure (about $7) is a cheap, simple and accurate way of measuring progress. A skin fold caliper ($23) is also a vital tool in gauging progress. A professional skin fold caliper ($320)is out of control, don't waste your money for this level of accuracy. Finally, the best form of progress measurement is a digital camera. A cell phone camera can provide this cheaply. Somebody in your family probably has a good digital camera you could borrow once a month. I use the Canon Powershot SD1300IS and love it. I use it to make all my movies and take all my still photos. At $170 its a camera bargain.
			Optional, hanging ab straps. I use them a fair amount to exercise my lats when my elbow tendonitis is flaring up (see the injuries section). These hook onto your pull-up bar and can be used for ab exercises and for lats exercises when you have an injured elbow or hand. Get them at your local sporting good store for about $35 or click here to buy hanging ab straps from amazon.
			Optional, Self spotting rig. If you have a very strong pullup bar in your workout area then it can double as a self-spotting rig. This is very helpful in getting a good workout without risking injury. The weights are secured at the correct height to prevent you from hyper-extending and injuring a joint. Very helpful in chest and shoulder exercises which use a lot of weight.
			The most important thing you need is a place to workout. A garage or spare room is idea so things don't rust. Most of us don't have a room we can dedicate to a weight room which is why dumbbells are perfect. The picture on the left is in weight-room mode with the pullup bar and dumbbells spread out. On the right was taken 5 minutes later after I put everything away because company was coming over.
			Optional, cable apparatus. Nice for abs, triceps and lats. With a little work you can turn your dumbbells into a cable machine:

Important Disclosure: I get a small referral fee from Amazon if you purchase these products. I provide this website, the forum, and my videos completely free of charge, these sales help support my continued fitness work. You know I only rarely recommend the purchase of anything. If you are not 100% convinced you need something, don't buy it! If you find better prices on any of these items anywhere, please buy the cheapest product and send me the link! Just check out the store carefully, 'cheaper' is not always less expensive - only deal with places that have good customer service and 100% satisfaction guarantees. I have always used amazon for my own purchases because I find them to be a great combination of good prices and top notch customer satisfaction which is why I use them here.