I played soccer for years and then ran track for a couple of years, so I was always very used to a lot of cardio-based exercise early on in my life. When I got pregnant for the first time, my doctor had discussed the importance of exercise during pregnancy, so I would tag along with my mom to the gym during the day to walk on the treadmill. After I gave birth, I continued to work out with my parents when I could. My dad is very active and competitive (I am my father’s daughter), so we would go and compete on who could climb more floors in 30 minutes on the stairmaster. This made working out fun! I did start to branch out during my first postpartum journey with weights. Again, my dad was the one who started showing me the weights and got me more comfortable with them.
When I moved away for college, I had access to the gym that was on campus but this was a whole new gym experience for me. The weight area was a lot more intimidating when college athletes were working out there, so I reverted to mostly cardio-based workouts, which was fine for me because I truly enjoyed it.
A couple of years into college, when I lived further from campus, I got my gym membership. For a while, I was still intimidated by the weights section, so I mainly stuck to cardio. Plus the amount of working out I did in the early years of college was fairly minimal. A couple of years later, a new gym was built in Mankato that was right next to my job, so I ended up getting a membership there. This was right around the time I had declared my major in Foods and Nutrition, so I was starting to focus more on my health than I had been for the past couple of years. This is also when I got more into workouts that both incorporated weight lifting mixed with cardio.
After college, when I moved back near Minneapolis, I always had a gym membership and went consistently about 5 days a week. At this time, I was still incorporating both weight training and cardio. 2020 rolled around, the pandemic hit, and gyms closed. This was the first time in years that I didn’t have access to a gym to work out. We all thought that it would only be a short time until the gyms opened again, so I started walking and running more as a way of working out in the meantime. After it was dragging out for longer than expected, I decided to cancel my membership and start exclusively working out from home.
It’s now been 4 years since I have been exclusively working out from home and honestly can’t picture ever going to a gym again – especially with being a mom now, you have to be very efficient with your time. With that, below are my top recommendations for home workouts. It doesn’t need to be complicated! I have built up what I have over time and my strength levels have changed.
This will always be my #1 recommendation – Maddie has hundreds of free YouTube workout videos and has something for everyone. I originally found her because, in early 2020, I was living in an apartment with neighbors living below us, so I was looking for workouts that didn’t have any jumping involved. She has no jumping, no equipment, dumbbell only, yoga and pilates style videos, and more! She offers many different lengths of workouts as well, so you can find something that fits into your schedule. She is excellent at explaining the proper form for all of the movements she shows you. I have learned so much from just watching her videos. I still structure all my workouts to be 1-2 of her videos every week!
She also has an app where you can get more structured workout programs, additional workouts, recipes, and more! This is a paid subscription and I don’t find it necessary for myself, but if you’re looking for something more structured, I highly recommend anything Maddie does!
To start, I recommend getting a set of 5lb and 10lb dumbbells. This is a great starting place and likely a suitable amount of weight for most beginners. Weights can get expensive when you are buying multiple sets in varying weights, so I recommend waiting until you are comfortable with the lighter weights and able to understand proper form before moving into heavier weights. I now have a set of 5, 10, 15, and 20lb dumbbells and feel I can do a wide variety of workouts with all the different weights. Don’t underestimate the 5s!
I get all my dumbbells from Target. They are reasonably priced, good quality, and go on sale often. What’s not to love?
This a simple item that you can do a lot of different workouts with. The nice thing is a majority of them come with varying resistances on them which increases their uses.
The exact ones I own are no longer on Amazon but I have linked very similar ones with good reviews.
I think a bench is a great staple gym equipment piece. You can get a ton of use out of this and allows a greater range of motion for several exercises.
I honestly do feel like you could stop here if you are just getting started and are just looking for the basics. I have listed a couple of other items below that I have, love, and get a lot of use out of but they are not necessary right out of the gate.
It’s nice to have a good piece of cardio equipment if you have the space for it and living in a state where going outside for a good portion of the year is not enjoyable, this is great to have! Originally I bought a different, cheaper bike, but it had to be assembled, there were so many issues with it and customer service was horrible, so I ended up returning that one and going for a Peloton. This was the best decision! They delivered it fully assembled, went through how to use it, and I have not had a single issue with it. You do have to pay for the subscription to all the classes but if you replace a gym membership with this, you come out about even. I often don’t even pay for the subscription and use the “just ride” feature. It’s just a good stationary bike even if you don’t take the classes.
If you are new to working out and have a good setup at home to allow for this, I recommend getting a large mirror for your workout space. This helped me so much with learning form when I was able to see myself doing the movements.
This is another great piece of equipment to have because they are very versatile, take up very little space, and you get many different resistance weights. I originally got mine because, after my second (recent) postpartum journey, I was having a lot of back and neck pain. I ended up seeing a chiropractor and the x-rays they took revealed that my spine and neck were completely misaligned. These resistance bands were so helpful for the physical therapy exercises I needed to do to correct my alignment issues.
Last but not least should not be surprising. I love my Beats! They are not expensive and will last a long time. I have had mine for 5+ years and they still work perfectly. I am one of those types of people who doesn’t get the newest model of anything, I use what I have up until it no longer works and these headphones are showing no sign of going out anytime soon. Headphones are of course not needed to work out but blasting some of my favorite music while doing my workouts, gives that extra boost of endorphins. I 100% recommend these!
If you want to start working out from home or transition from a gym to home, it can be hard but having a few equipment pieces and a structure to follow helped me start on this journey. Also having a place that is dedicated as your workout space is helpful. It can be easy to talk yourself out of it but having that space for yourself can help. If you are just starting, start small! Do 10 minutes each day then when you feel comfortable, increase it up to 15 minutes, eventually if you’re doing weight training especially, you can even go to 30 minutes every other day. It is really about finding what works for you and fits into your life. Working out should not be a punishment, it’s time for self-care, and it’s about showing up and being consistent!
Stay hungry my friends!
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases when purchasing through my links
I appreciate how you broke down this complex topic into manageable pieces. Your clear explanations and real-life examples made it so much easier to understand.
Keep up the good work!
Incredible! This blog looks exactly like my old one! It’s on a entirely different subject but it has pretty much the same layout and design. Outstanding choice of colors!