The Workout Gear You Need for At Home Workouts

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When the Pandemic first started I had a LOT of time (like most) to really focus on my mental and physical health. I started meditating for the first time, I began consistently doing yoga, I started cycling, I bought and used several guided journals, and the list goes on. Now, over 2 years later, I am more active than I have ever been in my adult life. My mental and physical health is the best it’s been in years. And I don’t say that to brag, I say it because it’s true.

I didn’t get to this point easily or quickly. It took time and pushing myself to just do it, when I really didn’t want to. If you want to get to this point too then I recommend a few key items I purchased that got me to here. So I present to you, the workout gear that I would purchase all over again:

1. Stationary Bike

It all started with taking daily walks around our neighborhood at lunchtime. Then we decided to invest in a stationary bike. We didn’t want to spend a small fortune on an exercise machine (no Peloton for us) because we weren’t entirely sure we’d actually use it often enough. We settled on the Schwinn Fitness 170 Upright Bike and thankfully we found one in stock–this was May 2020, EVERYONE was purchasing fitness equipment. We purchased it for around $350 and assemble it, without issue, ourselves. I started using it right away, watching Season 1 of Too Hot Too Handle as I cycled. A simple trick to getting yourself to workout: pick a show, or several, and have it be your “cycle show”. You can only watch new episodes if you’re cycling.

2. Apple Watch/Fitness Watch

Around the same time we purchased the bike, I also decided to purchase an Apple Watch. I started with a simple fitness watch from Amazon and decided it was time to upgrade to something a little more complex. Making the move to an Apple Watch was easy because I’ve been #TeamiPhone for the last decade plus. I don’t regret my decision. The way everything integrates is the main reason I’m all Apple now–I purchased a MacBook Air in 2021 which kind of feels like collecting all the Infinity Stones of Apple. The only thing I don’t like about the Apple Watch, similar to any fitness watch, is that I don’t like wearing watches.

Why should you invest in the Apple Watch and add it to your workout gear? Because of the challenges it presents to you from closing your rings everyday to completing your monthly challenge. I love the motivation it gives me!

The Rings

If you don’t know about the rings here’s a quick overview: You have 3 rings you need to close every day. The inner most ring, which is blue, is the Stand ring. To close this ring you must stand 1 minutes for a certain amount of hours a day, mine is set to 12. The middle green ring is the Exercise ring. To close this you must hit your minutes of daily exercise goal, mine is 30 minutes but I typically hit 100 minutes on days I close my rings. The red, outer most ring is the Move ring. To close this ring you need to achieve your daily active calorie goal, mine is 600 active calories. You can adjust all 3 of these rings to suit your own person needs and goals. I like to up my Move goal every so often but I’ve never changed the Stand and Exercise goals that were set for me.

The Awards

Every month you get a new monthly challenge that will tell you anything from close a specific ring a number of times in that month to walk a certain number of miles that month. As you meet these challenges you not only earn an award, but they also get a little harder so you’re never bored. There are a number of other awards you can earn through workouts, challenges, closing your rings, and winning competitions. I love the Limited Edition Awards the most. They randomly pop up on specific days for example, I have the International Women’s Day Challenge Award for working out at least 20 minutes on March 8.

The Competitions

If you have an Apple Watch you can share your activity with anyone else that has an Apple Watch. You can then see their activity for that day and they can see yours. But they take it a step further and let you compete with anyone that you are sharing with. The competition lasts for 7 days and each day you get a certain number of points based on the percentage you add to your rings each day. It is a great motivator especially if you are really competitive.

3. Sweat Towels

My husband wasn’t as quick to use the bike, he got into running first. Unfortunately, running took a toll on his leg and he had to make the switch. When I started cycling we had a collection of 4 or 5 mismatching sweat towels and they worked well enough for just me but it didn’t work for both of us. I ended up purchasing 2 new set of sweat towels; green for him and purple for me. I love these towels so much! They are a must for your at home workout gear. Every week I throw the dirty ones in the wash with the rest of our towels.

4. Good Shoes

Working from home means being in your house like 24/7 and I’ve found myself getting really into walking. It started with just wanting to get out of the house, I would walk around my small neighborhood once a day. Now I take several walks a day, sometimes in the neighborhood and sometimes to a nearby park. I’m walking about 3 miles a day and if you’re going to start walking a lot too, you need to invest in some good shoes. I bought a super cute pair of Asics from Amazon that I absolutely LOVE! They are brightly colored and very comfortable. True Story: a neighbor passed me in her car, when I was out for a walk, and stopped to tell me how much she loved my shoes. I get compliments on them often.

5. Bala Weights

This year I decided it was time to kick it up a notch. Biking and walking wasn’t enough anymore, I wanted to make things a little more difficult and I really needed to start toning my arms. I have no idea where I first saw Bala weights but I loved how cute they were. I purchased the bangles and bars to start and not too long after, I also got the power ring. Every cycle session I do, I wear the Bala Bangles on my ankles and I lift the Bala Bars in 2 minute incriminates. (side note: This is specifically because my cycle sessions are 30 minutes long and every 2 minutes the Schwinn beeps and moves to a new level. So when I hear a beep I pick up the bars, when I hear it again I put them down, and over and over.) Bala exercise equipment is must-have workout gear.

6. Yoga Mat

I started doing yoga in college when I took a class on it for one of my fitness credits; I found it to be very soothing. But like most things, I didn’t get into a habit of doing it. That is, until the Pandemic. Walking and cycling have become my aerobic forms of exercise but I needed to focus on my flexibility and start stretching. Yoga was the perfect answer to that. When I first started yoga, I got a cute mat from Forever 21 for $10-$20 and let me tell you, it is still working for me- it’s easily 8 years old. I did invest in a thicker yoga mat from Amazon recently and I use both of them. I still cycle through the different poses I learned in college as well as ones I’ve saved on Pinterest. I haven’t gotten into following videos yet but I am interested in trying it out in the future.

7. Post Workout Must-Haves

My last 2 must-haves are not so much workout gear but post workout products. Sometimes you have time to get in a full shower after working out but sometimes you don’t. You might also not like washing your hair every single day but you don’t know what else to do with the sweaty mess. Bumble and bumble Pret-a-Powder Post Workout Dry Shampoo Mist solves both the issue of not having enough time to wash your hair and not wanting to over wash it. I like to spray it in my hair then tie it up and hop in the shower avoiding getting it wet. After showering I massage my scalp, to be sure the product is spread around then I brush.

You might find after brushing that you’ve solved the problem of dirty hair but now you’ve got frizzy hair. Your problem is easily solved with dry conditioner. My absolute favorite is drybar’s Detox Dry Conditioner in the Lush scent. No joke, my husband goes weak in the knees when he smells drybar products with the Lush scent in my hair. He’s just as obsessed as me. Spray dry conditioner in your hair from the middle down to the ends and brush through it. Now you can style your hair as you’d like. These products are also great to throw in your gym bag for a workout away from home.

What Do You Think?

So there you have all the at-home workout gear I recommend checking out. Did I leave anything out? Let me know your must-have’s for working out at home in the comments. I’m always looking for ways to add variation and increase the intensity of my workouts.