Essential Functional Fitness Equipment for Home Workouts
Exercising at the gym isn’t necessary to achieve your fitness goals. At-home workouts are more accessible than ever with online personal trainers and excellent exercise equipment. Here’s a list of essential functional fitness equipment for home workouts.
Medicine Ball
A medicine ball is a weighted ball used for strength training. It’s a staple for home workouts because of its versatility. Medicine balls are helpful for improving strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, core stability, mobility, and coordination.
You can choose from various weights based on your desired level of challenge. Medicine balls are perfect for exercises such as wall throws, Russian twists, and ball slams.
- Wall throws activate upper body muscles as you repeatedly throw the ball upward.
- Russian twists engage your core as you twist your torso in a seated position and hold the ball.
- Ball slams provide a full-body workout that targets your arms, core, and legs.
Plyo Box
Plyo boxes are platforms used in plyometric exercises to improve explosive power, strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, core stability, mobility, and coordination. These boxes typically come in heights ranging from 6 to 30 inches, so users can customize their training intensity appropriately.
Plyo boxes transform your workouts by challenging your muscles in new ways, promoting overall athleticism and endurance. They’re popular for movements like box jumps, step-ups, and depth jumps.
Box Jumps
Start in a standing position. Bend your knees, push your hips backward, and launch yourself onto the box. This type of exercise emphasizes leg strength and explosiveness.
Step-Ups
Instead of hopping onto the plyo box, you’ll step onto the box one leg at a time. Pull your body onto the box using your legs, and plant both feet on the box. The action simulates a stair-climbing motion.
Depth Jumps
Depth jumps involve stepping off the box and immediately jumping upward upon landing. It targets your lower body’s reactive strength.
TRX Suspension Training Equipment
TRX suspension trainers leverage gravity and body weight to activate the core, lower body, and upper body. By adjusting the angle of their bodies and the orientation of the straps, users can modify the resistance and effectively challenge different muscle groups. Here are several examples of exercises to try with TRX suspension equipment.
TRX Suspension Rows
Perform rows by grabbing onto the straps, leaning back, and pulling your body toward the anchor point, engaging your back, biceps, and core simultaneously. Increase the intensity by positioning your body to be more perpendicular to the ground at the start of each rep.
TRX Suspension Push-Ups
Suspension push-ups require maintaining balance while performing push-ups, intensifying the chest and core engagement. Users face the floor while supporting their weight with the suspension straps, performing the push-up motion to complete each rep.
TRX Suspension Lunges
For lower body strength, try suspension lunges. Hook one foot into the stirrup of the suspension strap and engage the leg on the floor to complete a lunge.
Jump Rope
Cardio exercises are important to incorporate into your fitness routine. Jumping rope increases your heart rate to improve cardiovascular health, strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, core stability, mobility, and coordination. You can easily jump rope no matter where you are for a dynamic functional fitness workout.
Battle Ropes
Battle ropes are large, heavy ropes perfect to include in your at-home gym. The full-body workout they provide creates a constant motion that engages your arms, shoulders, back, and core. It’s an efficient way to build cardiovascular health, strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, core stability, mobility, and coordination.
Anchor the center of the rope to a sturdy object, grab an end in each hand, and start moving your arms in various patterns. The waves you create with the ropes provide resistance and keep your heart rate up. Try alternating waves, where you move each arm up and down independently, or do double waves. These variations help keep your workouts continually unique and challenging.
Dumbbells
Dumbbells are a staple in most fitness routines. There are many opportunities for exercises that will tone your muscles and strengthen your core. With their ranging weights and practical shape, dumbbells are essential pieces of functional fitness equipment for home workouts.
Arm Exercises
Bicep curls are a classic dumbbell exercise targeting the biceps brachii, brachialis, and brachioradialis. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hold one dumbbell in each hand. Keep your elbows close to your body and curl the weights toward your shoulders, then slowly lower them back down.
Another great exercise for the arms is the tricep extension to strengthen and tone the back of your arms. Hold a dumbbell with both hands over your head. Keep your elbows close to your head as you lower the weight behind your neck, then extend your arms back up to the starting position.
Core Exercises
The Russian twist is an excellent exercise to engage your oblique muscles and strengthen your core. Sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat. Hold a dumbbell with both hands and lean back slightly while keeping your back straight. Rotate your torso to the right, bringing the dumbbell beside your hip, then switch to the left.
Another effective core exercise is the dumbbell plank row. Start in a plank position, with a dumbbell in each hand. While keeping your body straight and core engaged, lift one dumbbell toward your rib cage, then lower it back down. This exercise works your core and engages your upper back and shoulders.
Kettlebells
Kettlebells are another fundamental piece of equipment for functional training. Their unique shape and handle make them ideal for dynamic movements that build strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, core stability, mobility, and coordination.
- Kettlebell swings engage the hips, glutes, hamstrings, and core as you hinge at your hips, swing the kettlebell between your legs, then thrust your hips forward.
- Kettlebell cleans target the legs, core, shoulders, and arms as you pull the weight from the ground up to your shoulder in a smooth motion.
- Goblet squats using kettlebells activate the quads, glutes, and core while holding the kettlebell to your chest.
Pull-Up Bar
Pull-ups are one of the most effective bodyweight exercises. They target the muscles in your upper body, including the lats, traps, and biceps. When you perform a pull-up, you lift your entire body weight using these muscles. It’s great for building strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, core stability, mobility, and coordination.
Selecting high-quality home functional fitness equipment is the beginning of mastering at-home workouts. Sign up with Zavala Fitness to receive online instructions, learn how to properly use each piece of equipment, and begin achieving your fitness goals!
