5 Must-Have Pieces of Exercise Equipment for an Apartment

Unless you’re a trainer or professional athlete, you probably have difficulty finding time to work out in the course of a day. This goes double if the home or apartment building in which you live doesn’t have an attached gym – you’ll need to travel to a gym to work out. Even if your building has a gym, you may find that it’s a better call to use a gym outside of your building; some amenities aren’t worth paying extra for!

Fortunately, you can get a good workout, or even just a good stretch, in your apartment. There are many different exercises you can do with no equipment whatsoever (here and here are especially good – but challenging! – lists). With a little bit of equipment you can do a full regime of stretching, training and cool-down. We’ve put together a short list of relatively inexpensive items that will help you make the most of your time and your small space.

NOTE: Check with your doctor before starting an exercise regimen. We don’t want you to get hurt!

(1) Foamroller – a foamroller is a rigid foam cylinder about six inches in diameter and one to three feet long. Foamrollers come in varying colors and rigidity levels.

There are three main things for which you can use foamrollers: muscle release, stability training and strength training. In our opinion, though, the best use is to give yourself a fantastic self-massage. It’ll work out knots and tame muscle pain like no other. There are lots of videos on how to use them. If you haven’t tried one out, do so – it’s magical.

(2) Yoga mat (or other exercise mat) – if you have hardwood floors, you’ll definitely want something soft on which to lie while you’re stretching or doing floor-based exercises. Even if you have carpeted floors, you’ll want the grip that a yoga mat provides. Of course, if you’re planning to do yoga, this kind of settles itself.

(3) A way to stream on-demand videos to your television – if you don’t have an exercise regimen the Internet will have one (or a gazillion), likely for free or very cheap. A Roku, Chromecast or other device will let you view those videos (or your shows that you DVR’d) without requiring you to awkwardly prop your computer or tablet up on a table.

(4) Resistance bands – great for stretching and for resistance training, these bands come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and resistance levels. You can even put together a pretty intense workout just using these bands. But they’re also really useful for stretching muscles, in particular your lats, which can become extremely tense after sitting in a desk chair at your office.

(5) Exercise ball – obviously useful for yoga, but also really good for stretching and for different kinds of strength training exercises. Try doing a pushup with your hands on the inflated ball – you’ll see what we mean. Not only that, but you can use a yoga ball in lieu of a chair when you’re working or reading. It’ll force you to maintain core stability and sit up straight.

Have any other suggestions? Let us know! We’ll share the good ones on our Facebook page.

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