There are many people who want to start working out but who don't necessarily want to spend a lot of money on equipment or on a monthly gym membership, especially in the beginning. Fortunately, there is a lot of cheap exercise equipment available to help you get a great workout.
Exercise equipment can obviously be very expensive. You could spend well over $1,000 outfitting an entire home gym. Alternatively, you could spend just a couple hundred bucks on a cheap treadmill or elliptical machine. (By the way, we don't recommend going cheap on a home cardio machine, if you want to get something like a treadmill or exercise bike, spend the extra money and get something that will last.)
But for the purposes of this article we are going to consider cheap exercise equipment that you can buy for under $50. With just fifty bucks, there are some great beginner items that can get you on the path to getting in (or staying in) shape. So whether you are wanting to lose weight, tone up, build muscle, or just improve your overall physical condition, using the products below combined with our recommended exercises will help you achieve a simple, fun, and effective full body workout.
First up on our list is the kettlebell. Kettlebells have become extremely popular for conditioning as well as resistance training. Their main appeal is their simplicity. With a single kettlebell you can an amazing workout by performing just a couple basic movements a few times per week. The best overall kettlebell exercise is the kettlebell swing. This works the entire posterior chain, which is comprised of your neck, upper and lower back muscles, buttocks, hamstrings, and calves. The movement also works the front of your thighs as well.
A good weight to start with for women would be from 12-16kg, while men should aim for 16-20kg, really just depending on how strong you already are.
Performing swings are a high intensity exercise which will burn fat and improve your cardiovascular function, as well as provide you with some resistance training for your muscles, particularly along the posterior of your body. We would combine a kettlebell regimen with some other body weight exercises such as pushups and air squats to help build muscle and increase overall strength.
There are, of course, a bunch of other exercises you can do with a kettlebell, but that is a discussion for another article. Just go over to YouTube and type in kettlebell and you can find an endless number of workout routines.
For those more focused on gaining muscle, there are 2 products we recommend that compliment each other perfectly. That is a set of the perfect pushup handles and a iron gym pullup bar. These together get you everything you need for a FANTASTIC home upper body workout. You can really get ripped just using these two products and just your body weight. To round out your resistance training, just add in some air squats and lunges and you can achieve 90% of what you could get from an entire weight room.
We would supplement the above some form of cardio training as well, preferably with some interval training like sprinting. This will give you some conditioning and improve your cardiovascular function while still allowing you to build some solid muscle with the body weight exercise products above.
Another one of the more effective all around pieces of cheap exercise equipment would be a good set of resistance bands. We stress the word good here, because if you skimp on these, you will end up with a useless set of stretched, or worse, snapped bands. Ricpords make a great set of 5, that include a door anchor, workout DVD, and best of all, lifetime warranty. The only downside, is these are a little more than 50 bucks (we think they are well worth the few extra bucks though!).
If you are looking for portable or compact exercise equipment to bring with you when you are on, say, a business trip, then a set of these would work perfectly. They take up virtually no room and weigh only a couple pounds for the whole set. Now you'll have no more excuses to not workout when staying in a hotel!
Now a set of resistance bands won't get you the same results in terms of weight training as the pushup/pullup combo mentioned above, but it is a great overall workout for developing some good muscle tone and strength. They are perfectly paired with a form of cardio training like walking, jogging, swimming, or whatever other moderate cardio you enjoy most. This is a good regimen if you are just looking to shape up a bit and will give you a great overall level of physical fitness.
Our final piece of exercise equipment also happens to be our favorite. Its something probably everyone has done in their lifetime, its fun, and you can get one for less than 10 bucks.......and that is a jump rope.
We love jumping rope because it is a super efficient form of cardio exercise. Once you learn how to jump rope properly, it becomes addicting. It can be difficult at first, but once you get your rhythm, timing, and speed down, it can get really fun. Did I mention addicting? Seriously though, jumping rope is one of the best forms of cardio you can do.
We recommend going with one of 2 types of jump rope, either a weighted rope or what is known as a speed rope. They both give you something a little different. A weighted rope typically has ½ to 2lb weights in the handles, so you get an incredible shoulder workout as well. The speed rope is usually what boxers use, and provide you with a more intense workout because it is made with a thin vinyl cord that allows you to perform faster jumps with double, triple, and even quadruple unders!
Combining a regular jump rope routine with some other form of strength training like body weight exercises or some heavier weight training will give you a simple, cheap, and complete exercise regimen.
So that is our wrap up of the best cheap exercise equipment on the market. There are obviously many other products you can get, but we tried to highlight those products which we found were not only inexpensive but also very effective at providing you with a great way of getting a complete workout.
Find more info and reviews of cheap exercise equipment over at the exercise equipment fanatic. Its your number one resource for new, fun and cheap exercise equipment for home use.
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