Regardless of your fitness goal, your doctor will probably tell you to need to work out and get some sort of exercise if you want to remain healthy.

Working out is crucial for weight loss. The weight loss formula is simple—you have to make sure you burn off more calories than you consume. So, while you go on a diet and reduce the calorie intake, you can also burn a lot more calories through working out. Some workouts can get use up 500 calories or more.

You definitely need to work out if you’re planning to build bigger muscles and get stronger. Usually, you’ll need to lift weights for strength training.

Of course, there’s the cardio exercises you need so you can maintain your heart health. Considering that heart disease is among the top causes of death in the world, you definitely should do some cardio regularly.

All these reasons are why gyms are so popular. Some gyms, such as Workout Anytime, even offer 24/7 access to their studios. It’s a clever move, being open all the time—just like fast-food joints.

But if you feel better working out at home, you may want to consider buying your own workout equipment. And this is where this guide comes in.

Things to Consider Before Buying

Before you start going crazy creating your own gym with lots of workout equipment, you need to think about some considerations first.

How Committed Are You?

This is the first thing you need to do. If you’re not sure, you can still do plenty of exercises that don’t require any sort of specialized equipment. You can run around the block for your cardio. You can fill up your backpack with books or cans of food for weight lifting. You can go up and down the stairs.

What you don’t want to do is to buy expensive equipment if you’re just going to quit a few months later. Even a monthly gym membership makes more sense than buying workout equipment that you won’t actually use.

So, be honest with yourself. Do you see yourself sticking to working out for years? Will it be part of your lifestyle from now on? Continue on, if your answer is yes.

Do You Have Enough Room?

Some machines, like rowing machines and treadmills, occupy quite a lot of space. You have to make sure that you have enough room in your home to place the equipment. Measure the space where you plan to put the machine, so you can check that the dimensions of the machine will fit. You also need to account for space around the machine, so you can move around it comfortably.

Make sure you prepare the floor where you’ll put the machine. That way, the floor won’t get damaged and you also won’t make a lot of noise.

What Are Your Fitness Goals?

If you’re just aiming to boost your cardio health, then you’ll want a machine for cardio. For bigger muscles, you’ll need weights and tension machines instead. You must pick the equipment to match your fitness goals.  

How Much Can You Afford?

You better save up, since an exercise machine can cost a lot of money. It usually costs a lot more than an annual membership to a gym. That’s just a single machine—it’ll cost a fortune to equip an entire gym with lots of different machines.

The good news is that if you limit yourself to a single machine, you only need a few years to recover your investment. Maybe in 3 or 4 years, you’d have covered the price of the total cost of the gym membership for that period. You can then make a “profit”, since you can still sell the machine as second-hand equipment—or you can continue to use it.

What Kind of Exercise Do You Like?

If you’re going for cardio, for example, you still need to figure out whether you want to run on a treadmill, use an indoor bike, or go with a rowing machine. You should go with the exercise that you actually enjoy doing, so you can look forward to your workout. If you don’t like the exercise, then eventually you’ll just dislike exercising.

Final Words

If you’re sure you’re committed and you know what kind of equipment to buy at what price, then you can go ahead. But which particular brand should you go for?

First, you should limit yourself to buying only from the reputable brands. These brands have built their reputation by making high quality machines, usually at prices that consumers don’t mind. If they build low-quality machines or they’re too expensive, they won’t have gained such a good reputation.

Read the reviews as well, and pay attention to the features and quality. You want something worthwhile that you can use safely. It should last a good long while as well. And of course, it should actually help you achieve your fitness goals for years to come.