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Strong Home Gym Recommendations

Mike Beatty — Founder of Strong Home Gym, qualified PE teacher.

By Mike Beatty · Founder & Qualified PE Teacher

Updated 27 May 2026

There are 3 items I would recommend everyone have access to when aiming for a fitness goal:

We’ve compiled thousands of hours of research and testing into one place with no fluff.

Commercial gym owners, personal trainers and even an engineer at Strong Home Gym have tested and compared hundreds of different gym equipment.

After all of this research and testing here are the results:

Strong Home Gym’s Best Picks ~$3,000

After all of this research here is where the best overall value (for most people) lies in our opinion. It’ll end up looking something like this…

Strong Home Gym Home Gym Set Up Recommendation

We’ve polled over 1,000 people to find out that the average home gym costs $3,141. And our recommendations here come in right in line with this average.

This setup will give you a solid power rack that can evolve with you, an epic barbell and bumper plates. This allows you to do powerlifting, CrossFit or Olympic lifts in one space.

The dumbbells and the cable pulley are perfect for isolation lifts, lat pulldowns, rows, face pulls etc.

The jump rope adds a cardio item which is super affordable.

The quality of this gym will last you a lifetime! And all of these items will also have a high resale value.

This is a home gym to be proud of and will help you make serious gains!

$500 Home Gym Build

When you have this budget we would recommend NOT getting a power rack and barbell. You won’t be able to get many plates and at some stage you’ll want to replace it all.

Instead, we recommend a set of adjustable dumbbells and bench. You can then add to these items over time rather than needing to sell them.

USA $500 Home Gym

Other dumbbells options:

UK $500 Home Gym

A Premium Home Gym For ~$1,500

If you are on a tight budget this is exactly what I would recommend:

You still get an adjustable bench and a very good power rack.

There really aren’t many barbells that exist that are better than the Rogue Ohio and the price is a bit of a steal compared to alternatives.

The collars are top class and currently, there aren’t any weight plates that you can get cheaper than the PRx option (plates are the ideal place to save money in my eyes!)

A Home Gym For Under $1,000

I would highly recommend the above option for 99% of people on a tight budget. However, I know some people just want a decent enough gym for as cheap as possible.

Here are the items I’d recommend to build a home gym for under $1,000:

There really aren’t many ways you can save much more money than this option. But the majority is still good enough to have a decent workout.

See how I did this in under 24 hours here:

A Space Saving/ Folding Home Gym ~$2,500

If you’re tight on space or want to use your gym space for something else then here is what I’d recommend:

Money No Object Home Gym ~$8,500

Here are the recommendations for you if money isn’t a concern:

There are a lot of extra items of equipment you can get but these are the basics that will be more than enough for 99% of home gym owners.

When you get a very good power rack, cable machine, dumbbells and bumper plates you can do almost any movement in a gym.

Add a great suspension trainer and some cardio machines like a rower and you have enough versatility to avoid getting bored after 12 weeks!

The One Thing Most People Get Wrong When Building a Home Gym They’ll Actually Use!

There are tons of mistakes I’ve seen people make when building a home gym such as:

  • Thinking short term (buying cheap stuff)
  • Not having a plan
  • Buying things you don’t need
  • Not sorting out the flooring first
  • Having poor ventilation (too hot or cold)
  • Choosing style or brands over function

But the main issue that prevents people from actually using their home gym is this…

Procrastinating.

Here’s what I mean…

You have an idea of what equipment you use to reach your goals. You do a quick search (obviously on Strong Home Gym) to find what equipment you’d like.

Then you close your laptop and go about your day.

Three months later you figure, ‘oh yeah… I should look in that squat rack again.’

Then you realize you’re hungry and go look in the fridge.

Three months later, the cycle continues.

It’s far better to just look on Craigslist or FB marketplace and get something… anything.

A set of adjustable dumbbells is infinitely better than nothing. A cheap second-hand barbell and chipped plates will help you gain strength if you use them.

The key here is to start.

You can always sell things on and replace them as you go. And if you follow our advice on how to build a home gym then you’ll be sure to get equipment that holds its value anyway.

Other Strong Home Gym Buying Guides

You can find out a ton more about our testing process in our epic guides here:

For most people, these are the essential 4 items that you will need in a home gym to see serious gains. These 4 items increase the versatility and reduce the amount of equipment you need, which saves money and space!

This is the 80/20 principle at its finest!

You can read more about why we think this suits most people in our how to build a home gym guide. There are some useful tips about setting up your home gym in there too, which can save you $1,000’s and a lot of wasted time.

Some close additional items are:

Other people prefer just to get an all-in-one machine:

If you want to check out more of our guides then you can here:

Barbells

Squat racks

Home gym machines

Strength accessories

Storage/ gym decor

Free PDF

The Strong Home Gym Build Guide.

Five complete kit-lists, $500 to $8,500. Every rack, bar, bench and plate researched, ranked and budgeted by the people who actually train at home. No filler. No upsell.

  • Five tiered kit-lists ranked slot-by-slot
  • Real product picks at every budget
  • Space-saving setups for any garage or spare room

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