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Health & Fitness

Fitness Tools for the Home

Whether you want to exercise in the comfort of your own home for convenience, privacy, or to supplement your gym workouts, you don't need to spend a fortune on fitness gear.

Christine St. Laurent, Neighbor

As the owner of a local fitness studio, our members are frequently asking my opinion about various home exercise tools and programs. Of course, my first response is there is no one piece of equipment or one program that is appropriate for everybody. Here are some suggestions on selecting the right tools to build your home gym. Before deciding what exercise pieces you want to purchase, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What are my health, fitness, or performance goals?
  2. How much space do I have for fitness equipment? 
  3. How much do I want to spend? 

After answering these questions, consider the following suggestions.
  1. Try equipment out before you make a purchase. Just as you would test drive a car, complete a workout on a piece of exercise equipment to see if it is easy to use, provides comfortable movement, feels like the construction is sturdy, and will help you meet your exercise needs. Try out demo pieces at the store, use a friend’s or visit a local gym as a guest to try out a particular piece. 
  2. Remember – one product can’t do it all. Be wary of extreme claims such as easy or quick results. A strength machine is not going to melt away fat. Walking 10 minutes a day on a treadmill, (while a great start) is not going to drastically improve your cardiovascular fitness. 
  3. Shop around and read reviews. A local retailer may be willing to negotiate the price if you are able to find a better deal online or elsewhere. But, don’t forget to consider the warranty and return/refund policy. 

These tips are helpful for all kinds of fitness equipment, but you don’t have to break the bank to exercise at home. If you’re just starting off, walking is a good choice of aerobic activity and you can do many strength exercises with just your body weight. Elastic resistance bands or tubing, stability balls, and light dumbbells are relatively inexpensive and can offer you a diversity of exercises.  If you’re willing to spend a little bit more, kettlebells or suspension trainers can be extremely versatile strength training tools and take up little space.

  1. There is also the option of utilizing exercise videos. When selecting a workout to stream online or play in your DVD player, consider these factors and suggestions. Is the instructor qualified, experienced, and certified? Don’t rely on the celebrity status of a trainer to select your workout – they may have no background in exercise science.  
  2. Preview the workout first. If possible, borrow or rent it before buying a copy. Your local library probably has a great selection of fitness DVDs. 
  3. Does the workout require equipment? 
To wrap up, here are some helpful links:


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