Home Gym? Why Not.

A home gym can make smart fitness sense. But if you don’t choose carefully, you run the risk of wasting money on strength-training and aerobic equipment that is poorly designed, difficult to use, or takes up too much space in your home. A lot of these devices end up serving as clothes racks because they were inadequate or did not fit the needs of their owners.

The best home exercise equipment is often expensive — and you should think of it as an investment. You can spend several hundred to several thousand dollars on a treadmill, stationary bicycle, or a home weight machine system. Do keep in mind that quality matters, however — you will likely get a better workout from a more expensive, solidly built, and reliable machine that will hold up through daily use.

If you want to work out at home but price is an issue, look for less expensive alternatives. You might be able to convert a regular bicycle, if you have one, into a stationary unit without spending much cash and still burn fat efficiently. A set of free weights and a bench or a set of resistance bands is a fraction of the cost of a strength training machine and likely will take up less room, too.