7 Tips for Building a Cheap Home Gym

The home gym is arguably an important area to have in the house if you want to have a better and more convenient time staying fit and healthy. But, getting the pieces of equipment needed for the home gym is sometimes expensive, which is why you will have to save money to get a sufficient budget to buy exercise machines and gym accessories.

Fortunately, there are ways you can spend less money on building a home gym. So, if you don’t have the budget to buy fancy machines and items for a home gym, you can still get a workout at a much more affordable price point. Here are the tips for building a cheap home gym.

Know the Essential Pieces of Gym Equipment

It is a dream for many fitness fans to have every piece of equipment in their home gym, but if you are on a budget, you have to limit the number of items in your home gym to just the bare essentials first, such as cheap kettlebells, yoga mats, and others. Here are the essential pieces of gym equipment that you will need to buy to have a proper home gym:

  • Yoga mat
  • Kettlebells
  • Adjustable bench
  • Resistance bands
  • Medicine ball
  • Dumbbells

These items are generally multi-purpose in nature, as you can use them for various exercise routines. Once you have all of these gym essentials, you can then consider buying bigger equipment, like exercise bikes, treadmills, or barbells.

Purchase Affordable but High-Quality Equipment

The first step in saving more money for a home gym is to buy affordable but high-quality pieces of equipment. Finding cheap but great exercise machines can be difficult at first, but through proper research, you may be able to find one conveniently in stores near you or in online shops.

You can consult the internet for the best affordable gym equipment, and then you can watch or read reviews about specific machines that you want for your home gym. It would be great to try them out first at a sporting goods store, but as long as it has good reviews, you can buy them online.

Buy Used Equipment

Buying used gym equipment is one of the best ways to set up a home gym, as you will be able to get high-quality machines at a much affordable price since they are secondhand. Of course, buying used equipment can feel dodgy since there is a stigma associated with secondhand items, as some people describe them to be faulty or dangerous to use since they are already used by another person. However, by inspecting numerous areas of the equipment you will be buying, you can gauge whether the item would still be great to use or not.

There are many websites that can help you in finding used gym equipment, so you wouldn’t have trouble finding the best one for your gym. But, be sure to ask for a lot of pictures or to see the equipment in person first before purchasing. Check that everything works properly so that you don’t have to fix anything, or nothing can go wrong while you are using the equipment.

Look Out for Sales or Discounts

To save more money, you can also wait for sales or discounts before you buy equipment for your home gym. Most sporting goods stores would have big sales on gym equipment, so it would be better to buy whenever they put out sales instead of purchasing equipment on a regular day.

But, you will need to be fast in buying, as there will be times that other people are also waiting on sales to buy gym equipment. In order to be one of the first that will purchase items during sales, you would need to know when nearby stores usually organize sales. In addition, the stores would also announce the sale days before it, so you may need to follow the stores through social media or their mailing list.

Learn Simple Exercise Routines

Not all forms of exercise require gym equipment, and if you want to stay fit on a budget, you should learn simple exercise routines that are effective even without the use of resistance bands and other fitness items.

Yoga is regarded by many people to be one of the best forms of exercise that you can perform without the need to use exercise machines. But, to make your yoga experience more comfortable, you do need to get a yoga mat, which is relatively affordable depending on the brand or model you will be buying.

Keep the Home Gym Small

If you don’t want to be tempted to constantly buy gym equipment, you may have to keep the home gym small so that you can fill it up faster with just the essential items. If you set up your home gym in a large room, you will always be tempted to fill up empty spaces with exercise machines and other pieces of equipment.

So, if you truly want to minimize your budget for the home gym, the best thing to do is to make the home gym as small as possible, but not too small that you won’t have space to maneuver around the room.

Don’t Forget to Get a Mirror

Besides getting the essential pieces of equipment for your home gym, you should also get a mirror, which is essential if you want to know if you are following or doing specific exercise routines or yoga forms correctly.

In addition, a mirror can also let you have a better look at the improvements in your body after a few weeks or months of exercise. So, the mirror motivates you to continue working out since you can see your progress fully. Full-body mirrors are usually very affordable, but the one you will need for your home gym to save space is the mirror that can be wall-mounted.

And, these are the tips you can follow to build an affordable gym at home. You can save a little bit more money to buy expensive gym equipment, but for now, getting the essentials is enough for you to have a better time and experience working out.