Building Your Home Gym - What to Prioritize
At CFLC, we always prioritize lifting weights over doing cardio. Resistance training will not only help you build a beautiful, curvy, and toned physique, but it also helps you build metabolically active muscle tissue. In fact, if someone were to tell us they had only 3 hours per week to dedicate to working out, we would recommend they fill almost all of this 3 hours with resistance training. That is how strongly we feel about resistance training being far superior to cardio. (Hint – If you are lifting heavy enough, your heart should be pumping enough that you are still exercising your heart, so don’t try to tell us that a plan that consists of purely lifting isn’t healthy! Plus, if you follow our CFLC principles, you know you should be getting in lots of NEAT - non-exercise activity thermogenesis - too).
If you belong to a commercial gym, you should have access to as much equipment as you will need to get in an effective weight lifting working. But where does that leave the rest of us? What if you are just getting started on your fitness journey and have NEVER lifted weights before? What if you don’t have the time to drive to the gym, work out, and come back home? For those of you who are lucky enough to have a full home gym, you get the best of both worlds. You don’t have to waste time driving to and from a gym and you still have access to enough equipment to get in a great workout. What about those of us who aren’t ready or able to invest in a home gym? Or maybe you want to start working out at home but aren’t sure what equipment to prioritize. Here, we lay out in priority order what equipment you should purchase first if you want to start building your own home gym. If you need holiday gift ideas to provide to friends and family, this list should give you some great ideas.
Building Your Home Gym - Necessities for Beginning Lifters
If you are starting with zero equipment, I would recommend starting with a set of bands. Bands are lightweight, take up very little space, and you can work every single body party using them. One body part that is difficult to find exercises for when someone has access to very little equipment are the lats. However, purchasing a set of bands allows you to work the lats in a variety of ways. Bonus – growing your lats helps to give you a curvier look and the appearance of a smaller waist.
If you already have a set of bands, we would suggest a set of adjustable weight dumbbells next. These take up very little space (although they are MUCH heavier than the bands). These allow you to really take the intensity up a notch with many of the exercises you were previously doing with bands or your own bodyweight (ex. Lunges, step-ups, curls, etc.). If you are a beginner or even intermediate weight lifter, you can continue to progress for many months with just bands and dumbbells.
A smaller purchase (in both price and size) is a set of loop bands to use for glute exercises. Although we tend to only prescribe glute exercises with these bands, their size, weight, and price make then another easy addition to your home gym. Glute work is not only important for building a nice round booty, but also for preventing injuries that can arise from weakened glutes (it is very likely that if you are not specifically targeting your glute muscles that you have weakened glutes). Many lower body injuries can be prevented or corrected simply by strengthening and learning to engage the glute muscles in your workouts.
Building Your Home Gym – Necessities for Intermediate to Advanced Lifters
If you are an intermediate to advanced lifter (someone who has been lifting consistently for 6 months or more), you can continue to progress and take your fitness to the next level by purchasing a few additional pieces of equipment.
We would recommend a flat or incline bench as a next purchase if you already have the items mentioned above. This will allow you to incorporate things like step-ups, Bulgarian squats, chest presses, etc. Although you can do these exercises using a chair or (for some) on the floor, a bench will give you more stability and comfort for many of those exercises.
Another piece of equipment that has a very low price point is a pullup bar . This, along with a set of larger loop bands , allow you to perform some of our very favorite exercises at CFLC – assisted pullups and chin-ups and unassisted pullups and chin-ups. The pullup/chinup works not only your lats but also your biceps and abs. Pullups are just HARD and mastering an unassisted pullup is a common non-physique goal that many of our clients set for themselves! Because a pullup bar and large loop bands are light weight, cheap, and take up very little room, this is another simple combination of equipment that you can add to your gym and get a very big bang for your buck.
Finally, if you have been lifting for a year or more and want to continue to progress, it may be time to invest in the holy grail of weight lifting equipment – a squat rack . While these definitely take up more space than everything else mentioned here, it will allow you to perform more advanced, compound lifts that will take your physique to the next level. This is definitely an investment in both money and space, but if you are serious about lifting and have room, you will not regret this purchase. (PS – You will also need an Olympic sized barbell and plates to go with your squat rack). I personally use my squat rack every single time I lift weights. This piece of equipment allows you to perform (obviously) squats, but also many other beneficial lifts for both lower body (barbell lunges, deadlifts, glute bridges) and upper body (shoulder presses, barbell rows, bench press). Plus, if you own a squat rack and master the “big lifts” (bench press, squat, deadlift, bent over row), you can officially consider yourself an “advanced” weight lifter!
So there is our list, in priority order, of how we recommend you begin to build your home gym. If you have any questions, we would love to hear from you! Reach out to us at info@couturefitnesscoaching.com.
Let us help you boost your metabolism! Book a free strategy call —or email We’ll set up a 15 minute call to discuss your goals and dieting history and help develop a customized plan that allows you to eat more (really!). We’ll also talk about how you can exercise to build calorie-burning muscle. The Couture Coaching Team wants to help you create a body you love—for life!
Want more metabolism-boosting ideas?
*Join our private Facebook Group (Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30)
*Listen to our podcast
*Follow us on Instagram
*Get our free video on how you can increase your metabolism
Click the links below to learn more about our programs:
*self-paced Master Your Metabolism Online Course.