If you are looking to buy an exercise machine for your home, or are looking to set up your own home gym and want to know which product(s) to buy, you have come to the right place because we continue to review all of the best home fitness equipment on this website.
This includes the popular cardio machines such as exercise bikes, treadmills, elliptical trainers and rowing machines, as well as strength training equipment such as benches, home gyms, pull-up bars, dumbbells and barbells.
Plus if you enjoy performing high intensity workouts at home that don’t require any equipment, we also review many of the most popular fitness DVDs that are being released each year because these are ideal if you want to lose weight and improve your overall fitness level.
You can find reviews of all of these products and see which ones we most recommend by clicking on one of the drop-down menus at the top of this page.
However here is a quick guide to all of these products, and why you should consider using them:
Exercise Bikes
Exercise bikes are widely considered to be the most popular exercise machine, and it is easy to see why because they provide a low impact workout that is easy on the joints and are very easy for anyone to use, whilst offering a range of health and fitness benefits.
Each 25-30 minute workout can burn upwards of 250 calories, so they are great for those people who want to lose weight, but they also offer a good cardiovascular workout that will help improve your overall fitness levels and help lower blood pressure, regulate blood sugar and prevent any heart problems.
If you would like to buy one of these machines, you can choose from a traditional upright bike, a recumbent bike or an indoor cycling / spin bike.
→ Click here to read our exercise bike buyer’s guide
Rowing Machines
Another machine that offers a really good cardiovascular workout, and is also easy on the joints, is the rowing machine.
A rowing machine will also help you burn lots of calories (up to 13 per minute), which makes them ideal for weight loss, but unlike an exercise bike that primarily works your leg muscles, this machine will help to tone up and strengthen many different muscle groups, including your arms, shoulders, back and legs, as well as your core muscles.
The cheapest rowing machines will tend to use hydraulic resistance to vary the intensity, but you can also pay a little more for an indoor rower that uses magnetic, wind or water resistance.
→ Click here to read our rowing machine buyer’s guide
Elliptical Trainers
Elliptical trainers are nowhere near as popular as rowing machines or exercise bikes, for example, but lots of people do still buy one of these machines that they can use at home instead of in the gym.
That’s because they offer a total body workout (working the arms, legs, shoulders, chest and back), whilst still offering quite a low impact form of exercise.
So they are great for toning up and improving overall fitness levels, and because you can burn around 400 calories in one 30-minute workout, they are also great for weight loss as well.
→ Click here to read our elliptical trainer buyer’s guide
Treadmills
Treadmills can take up quite a lot of room in your home and can be quite expensive, but they are still worth adding to your home gym if possible because these also offer a range of health and fitness benefits.
These machines allow you to walk or run at your own pace, and will help tone up and strengthen your core abdominal muscles, as well as your calves, glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings.
Treadmills can be a little tougher on your joints than some of the exercise machines listed above if they don’t have a well-cushioned running track, but they can nevertheless help you burn lots of calories, lower cholesterol levels, improve your aerobic capacity and boost your general fitness levels.
→ Click here to read our treadmill buyer’s guide
Strength Training Equipment
Many people like to buy some kind of cardio machine for toning, fitness and weight loss purposes, but if you want to build muscle, then you will require some form of strength training equipment.
The quickest way to get started is to invest in a pair of dumbbells because you can perform a wide range of different muscle building exercises using these dumbbells, and you will start to see results fairly quickly.
Then later on you might want to think about investing in a weights bench and a barbell because this will enable you to perform the bench press, one of the most popular upper body exercises, and a range of other exercises.
Finally, if you are serious about building muscle, you might want to consider buying a professional multi-functional home gym because this will enable you to work your entire body and perform all of the same muscle building exercises that you can do at your local gym without having to set foot outside your front door.
→ Click here to read our strength training equipment buyer’s guide
Fitness DVDs
Workout DVDs have really grown in popularity in recent years, and seem to be particularly popular around Christmas and the New Year, when you will often find new DVDs being released from various different celebrities.
With that being said, they can still be ideal if you want to lose weight and get in shape because these workouts will have been devised by a personal trainer, and will therefore be very effective, and they are generally fairly enjoyable because they are often performed to some high-tempo dance tracks.
If you have ever tried doing one of these workouts, you will know that they are very hard work, but as I say, they are very effective and you will get results from them if you perform them regularly and try to eat sensibly.
The major benefit of these DVDs is that you don’t generally need any exercise equipment (other than an exercise mat), so this is one of the cheapest ways to get fit.
→ Click here to check out the best fitness DVDs from the US and the UK
Exercises and Workouts
This website features lots of product reviews, but it is not purely a review site. We also have a growing list of articles that have lots of different exercises and workouts for you to try.
For example, we have included some of the most effective 30-day challenges that will help you get in shape in a short space of time, and have a range of workouts that will tone up and strengthen various different parts of your body, including your abs, arms, chest, back and legs, for example.
We also have a number of HIIT workouts that will help you burn fat and lose weight, and explain how to get the most out of your home exercise equipment.
Plus we also have some articles that cover many different aspects of gym life if you are someone who likes to go to the gym on a regular basis.
All of these articles can be found here, and there are links in the sidebar that have the 10 latest articles (and the 10 latest product reviews) that have been posted to this website.
What’s New?
In recent weeks we have posted an article that discusses some of the main benefits of skipping rope workouts. A jump rope can be purchased for around $10-$20, and this article discusses the changes in the body that can arise from working out with this rope regularly, as well as the positive effect that it could have on your posture and your mental health, for example.
We have also featured an article on the notorious businessman, social media star and ex-kickboxer Andrew Tate. More specifically, we look at how he managed to stay in shape and keep his muscles toned while he was confined to prison in Romania.
Finally, we have also been looking into the fitness DVD controversy that made headlines in the UK because it would appear that some celebrities lost weight not because of the workout routines featured on their DVDs, but because they attended intense boot camps beforehand, which is quite a big deception.
Product News
The Keiser M3i Indoor Cycle (reviewed here) is one of the top indoor cycling bikes for gyms and cycling classes, and it now comes with a free floor mat, media tray and stretch pads, as well as an assembly and maintenance kit to help you assemble and take care of your bike.
The Niceday Indoor Recumbent Bike is one of the most popular mid-range models thanks to its strong build quality and its wide range of resistance settings, as described here, and it is currently on sale as part of Amazon’s Lightning Deals at $382.49 (regular price is $459.99) for a very limited time only.
Another popular product is the Redge Fit all-in-one home gym. This has reportedly sold more than 10,000 units, and so we have recently reviewed this product on this website to see if it is as good as it claims.
The latest FitDesk model, which is an exercise bike and a workstation all-in-one, now includes a free desk extension kit that makes the desk twice as big and gives you even more space in which to work.
Schwinn developed a range of new exercise equipment, including the Crewmaster rowing machine and the IC3 indoor cycling bike, both of which have recently been reviewed on this site. However it is the Airdyne AD7 exercise bike that looks most impressive of all because this is a high quality fan bike that delivers a really intense workout and is said to be quieter than many other air bikes. A full review can be found here.
We have just posted a new article that highlights some of the top mini ellipticals that you can use to burn calories and increase your activity level while working at your desk, or watching TV at home, for instance.
We have also updated our list of the best indoor cycling bikes for 2024 to include a few new models that have received a lot of positive customer feedback, and to replace a few of the older models that are no longer available.
The Peloton exercise bike is obviously one of the most popular home exercise bicycles, and we have now taken a closer look at the original Peloton bike with a brand new in-depth review.
This indoor bike is now available from Amazon in several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, which is very welcome news because customers can now purchase this Peloton bike and benefit from fast and convenient home delivery and expert assembly if required.
Workout of the Week
Every week we will be featuring a really effective workout that has recently been posted online, and this week we have found a fun and energetic booty workout that will help to give you a bigger and rounder butt.
This workout is performed by Pamela Reif and is only 10 minutes long, so it should be easy to fit into your day, and the only equipment that you will need is an exercise mat and a single resistance band.
This band will provide additional resistance and make the exercises more effective, but you can perform some of the exercises without it if you find them too difficult at first.
The exercises are performed to four uplifting tracks, and they include fire and leg extensions, straight pulses, hold and crunch ins, fire hydrants, extensions and fires, fire and leg extensions, straight pulses, clamshells, kickbacks, back lifts, glute bridges, wide pulses, pulse and abductors and booty holds.
You can perform this booty workout in isolation, but Pamela recommends that you start your leg day with this routine before moving on to the compound exercises.
Here is the full workout video if you would like to try it out for yourself: