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The Best Home Workout Equipment, Plans And Apps
From top-quality yoga mats to personal trainers, we've got you covered
We’ll let you in on a little secret (this one weird trick, PTs hate us etc): fitness is free. You don’t need home workout equipment, nutritional supplements or specialist apparel. Some form of clothing is probably a good idea, although the Ancient Greeks trained without it: the word gymnasion literally means “school for naked exercise”. But the point is that you can get in incredible shape with just basic bodyweight moves and determination.
Getting fit is a lot harder than trying to buy it though. So you may still want some gear to give you more options of what to do, or a workout to give you more of an idea of what to do, or an enthusiastic trainer to give you more motivation to do it. Some of the below apps, books, programmes and assorted pieces of paraphernalia for getting fit at home cost money, some are free. All come with Esquire’s approval, but none with determination.
The Peloton
Now’s the time to invest: the “Netflix of fitness”, while no longer industry’s biggest disruptor, has seen its share price jump like that of its nickname-sake. But you don’t have to sink two grand into one of the cult connected bikes that messrs David Beckham and Hugh Jackman have bought into: Peloton’s award-winning app offers a 30-day free trial, giving you you gratis access to thousands of high-production-value workouts encompassing strength, cardio, bootcamp, stretch, yoga and meditation.
Free for 30 days (£12.99 a month thereafter), onepeloton.co.uk
Auster Master suspension trainer
A bone-shaped anchor that doesn’t trash your doors. A patented dual carabiner so you don’t tip over on one-sided moves, made from aerospace-grade aluminium that won’t rust if in the garden. Power straps tested to 550kg - each - with handles that slide to reveal foot stirrups. Detachable Olympic rings that, like the proper ones, don’t slide. Dynamic Bands for warming up or training, resisting punches, kicks and bear crawls or assisting handstands, planches and (with the rings) iron crosses. Oh, and a backpack.
£340, austerfit.com
GMB Fitness
Do you want one-off workouts randomly generated by influencers with as many qualifications as clothes, or programmes devised by gymnasts and martial artists? GMB Fitness’s Vitamin course is “specifically designed to build body control through mindful exploration of novel movement patterns”. Translation: transferrable ninja skills that you won’t get from reps in the gym. And it’s as flexible as you’ll be, with the option to explore for 15 or 30 minutes each time, and as your main training or alongside it.
$95, gmb.io
Arnie’s Bodyweight Workout
Harking back to his early bodybuilding days when he personally fulfilled mail orders for his training booklets from a converted closet in his apartment, the seven-time Mr Olympia posted his old home workout routine to Reddit. The nine moves are basic but ingeniously executed: dips on the backs of two chairs, inverted rows on a broom handle suspended between them. Of course, Arnie didn’t build his iconic physique just doing this - but if he’d applied his even more enviable mental muscle, he probably could’ve.
Fiit
The fitness app marketplace is more crowded than the bench on Monday before every gym closed and pivoted to home workouts. Fiit differentiates itself via its name-instructor roster and chest-strap device that tracks your heart rate, calories and reps, so you can see your live leaderboard position and progress over time. (You can also connect your Apple Watch and other trackers.) Fiit’s not all HIIT either: alternate going hard at home with Richie Norton’s mobilising yoga flows and Richie Bostock’s breathwork sessions.
Free (£10 a month for Premium membership and device), fiit.tv
Wolverson MK2 competition kettlebell
If you only buy one piece of home fitness equipment, lots of people who you wouldn’t want to argue with will insist on a simple, sinister and versatile kettlebell: strength, power, cardio, doorstop, paperweight… Wolverson’s bells meet the standards for official contests, as will you by the time the lockdown is lifted, and are cast from one piece, so no seams to split your hands. Fun fact: kettlebells are also measured in poods, a Russian unit of measurement roughly equivalent to 16kg, which is a good place to start.
From £37.50, wolverson-fitness.co.uk
Velites 2.0 Fire Speed Rope
You could just go for a run. But skipping confers the same cardio benefits in less time, ropes in your arms and shoulders, pulls you out of the WFH laptop hunch, challenges your balance and coordination and goes easier on your joints - if you float like a butterfly on the balls of your feet, that is. A basic rope will suffice but it’s worth springing for a smooth-turning speed variety. Velites’ version allows you to add handle weights for a more intense turn-and-burn - once you’ve stopped whipping your shins every other spin.
£37 (£63 with weights), wit-fitness.com
Cell Workout
Exercising in a small space with no kit? Fighting the physiological and psychological effects of confinement? Forget the disturbing Charles Bronson’s Solitary Fitness - if you can - and buy Cell Workout by LJ Flanders, who came up with the concept while in Pentonville. The reformed Flanders now runs workshops in prisons, collaborates with former inmates now in the fitness industry and is crowdfunding to launch a literally Made In HMP athleisure brand. (Bronson star Tom Hardy has been pictured in Cell Workout merch.)
£14.99, amazon.co.uk
Liforme yoga mat
You definitely don’t need to spend three figures on a mat. But you may want to for Liforme’s, which are best-in-yoga-class. They’re longer and wider than standard, with an alignment guide that’s even more helpful now you don’t have a teacher to correct you, while the GripForMe retains its stickiness even if you’re sweating more than disgraced guru Bikram Choudhury. Even more importantly for your spiritual wellbeing, they’re made from sustainable rubber, with no PVC or toxic glue, and are biodegradable in landfill.
£104.95, liforme.com
PE With Joe Wicks
It’s easy to be snobby about Wicks, the Jamie Oliver of fitness whose ubiquity breeds contempt. And yes, his free twenty-minute sessions on YouTube at 9am may not be the greatest workouts ever, or advisable for everybody every weekday. But treat them as bonus movement: a bit of physically active fun that gets the whole family off the sofa. Think you’re a gun? Hold a small child to increase the difficulty, then do your big-boy workout in the evening. Worried about overstimulation? Downregulate with Cosmic Kids Yoga.
Free, youtube.com/
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