10 Home Gym Gear Must-Haves For Moms

I go over 10 basic home gym gear must-haves that you’re going to want to have in your home gym whether it is inside your home or in your garage!

If you are a stay at home mom or a working mom, fitting time to workout can be pretty challenging. That is why creating a home gym or a small space in your home to get your exercise in is the perfect way for moms to get their workout in.

My husband and I put together our first home gym in February 2019. We started with a few mats, a squat rack, a barbell, two workout benches, and some bumper plates for the squat rack.

Then soon decided we needed more mats, mirrors, an EZ curl bar, and more dumbbells.

Needless to say, it got expensive pretty quickly.

Here is our 2024 home gym in our new home.

But don’t let this intimidate you because I promise you, you do not need all of this to have a killer workout in your home.

Having a home gym was one of the best things we could have done during the time. I was pregnant back to back to back, commuting to and from nursing school an hour and a half away from home, and we didn’t live an easy drive to the gym.

But after having all of this home gym gear, I realized the essentials I would need to have a good workout at home without spending thousands of dollars.

Home Gym Benefits

Let’s just briefly go over some of the benefits of having a home gym.

• It’s super convenient. I can’t even tell you how many days I lacked the motivation to work out especially during an accelerated nursing program AND being pregnant. I couldn’t picture myself driving to the gym and having any motivation left to get through a workout.
• You not only save time but you also save gas money! Some people drive a good distance to go to a gym.
• You know your home gym is going to be empty. There’s nothing like a packed gym. Why not create a peaceful workout environment in your own home.
• Your home gym is going to be as clean as you make it. You get to disinfect everything after you use it and you know it’s been done (and done well). But at the gym, you don’t know when the last time that equipment was last cleaned.

10 Home Gym Gear Must-Haves

1. Mat

I highly suggest you don’t cheap out on mats because you’ll be on them nonstop. You don’t want your bench sliding and your dumbbells destroying the mats.

This mat is a great one with lots of good reviews. If you’re more of a store stopper, Dick’s Sporting Goods has some good mats.

2. Dumbbells

Some of my favorite type of dumbbells for inside the house or in the garage are the neoprene dumbbells.

My husband is not a fan of them which is why I only have the neoprene dumbbells in 10lb, 12lb, and 15lbs.

Typically dumbbells are about $1 per pound. Therefore the heavier you go, the more expensive it’ll be. I recommend getting at least two sets of dumbbells.

3. Bands

Bands is a MUST-HAVE for your home gym! The bands you want are the ones that have 3 different types of resistance. This means that one is going to be relatively looser, the middle one is going to be semi-difficult, and the last one is going to be the hardest resistance out of the three.

There are other resistance bands that are long and hook up to your squat rack or wherever you can hook it up to. Then you can connect pieces like an ankle strap to perform kick-backs for glute activation. But I would not worry about those.

4. Bench

Who said a workout bench had to be expensive? There are some good ones for under $100! One of ours was about $80. It just lacks the ability to incline and decline.

A bench is awesome especially the adjustable benches because you can do so many different exercises on it. For example, incline, decline chest presses, bicep curls, incline split squats, bulgarian split squats, shoulder press, and ab exercises.

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5. Mirror

Of course a mirror is a must-have. How else would we be able to check our progress?

If you are on a strict budget, a mirror might be one of the last things on the list. But I wanted to include this because I think it is so important to take progress pictures and videos and look back at how far you have come.

6. Music

Music is a great way to motivate you and keep you motivated. All you need is to be able to access music on your phone.

You can use a speaker or headphones to get you pumped up.

We have two different speakers. One of them is the JBL speaker which is very portable and useful for other outdoor activities.. The other one is the ECOXGEAR which we use this for our home gym.

7. Yoga ball

A yoga ball is one of my favorite home gym gear because I can stretch with it and perform variety of ab exercises.

Yoga balls can improve your balance, stability, posture, flexibility, and muscle tone!

8. Jump rope

Jump ropes are some of the best ways to optimize your workouts by sweating more and burning a lot of calories in a short period of time.

Read more about how I used a jump rope to burn fat instead of running.

Being a mom gives you very limited time to do things sometimes. If you want to burn fat quickly and efficiently, jump ropes or other HIIT (high intensity interval training) is the way to go.

9. Kettlebell

A kettlebell is not most people’s essential home gym gear. But it can transform your workouts.

Some of my favorite exercises include kettlebell swings, kettlebell squats, and kettlebell stiff leg deadlifts. Kettlebell swings is another good HIIT exercise you can incorporate into your daily workouts.

10. Motivation

This one is a no brainer. You need motivation whether you have motivational quotes on your home gym wall. Or you can put your fitspiration as your phone saver.

One way I stay motivated is by having a set workout each day of the week and repeating it week after week. It motivates me to stay on top of my workouts so I don’t miss one and get behind.

You can also treat yourself to some cute workout outfits that can either jumpstart your new workout journey or keep you going!

Final Thoughts

I hope this blog post on 10 home gym gear must-haves for moms was insightful and helpful in your home gym endeavors. Check out this other post about home gyms for moms! Let me know what you thought in the comments below!