The most common New Year’s resolution – to join the gym and lose weight, often wanes sooner than later for most. There’s no good or bad time to get back on an exercise machine, especially the best exercise equipment to lose weight.
Remember, weight loss is a balance of moving your body more and eating less, but eating right. You don’t necessarily have to hit the gym and get overwhelmed by all the equipment; you can also set up a personal gym at home.
Here’s a list of the best exercise equipment for weight loss.
Losing Weight Made Easier With the 10 Best Exercise Equipment
Good cardio exercise helps get your heart pumping, boosts your metabolism, and burns calories. This is why most weight loss equipment are cardio machines.
While each piece of equipment listed here will help you shed those extra pounds when used consistently and correctly, the best exercise machine is one you’ll enjoy using. So, go with the ones you see yourself using happily and with satisfaction.
1. Treadmill (With Incline)
The convenience of walking or running indoors to burn calories is made easier with a treadmill. This is one of the best exercise machines for a high-impact cardio workout.
Apart from intense running, walking, or jogging on the spot, you can also engage in comprehensive treadmill workouts. Make your workout more challenging by exercising on a treadmill with an incline!
Working out on the treadmill is a great cardio workout for weight loss and cardiovascular endurance. You can strengthen your abdominal muscles, glutes, calves, hamstrings, and quadriceps with consistent use of a treadmill.
Here are some challenging workouts you could try on a treadmill, especially with an incline:
- Interval running – Try walking for a minute and then running at a challenging pace for 30 seconds. Go back to a walk after the 30-second interval. Repeat this cycle.
- Walking lunges – Set the treadmill to a high incline (around 15) and set the speed to a safe yet challenging level. Deep walking lunges in this setup will result in more calories burned.
As far as the benefits of having a treadmill in your gym at home go, here are a few:
- A treadmill is great for a full-body workout; you can burn 500-1,000 calories per hour.
- You can multitask while on the treadmill, like watching TV, talking on the phone, reading a book, or listening to your favorite podcast or tunes.
- While a treadmill can be fairly bulky, you can fold most for easier storage.
- You can change the incline and speed on it and choose from different types of workouts.
- Some models offer an outdoor simulation feature and stimulate outdoor sceneries on the machine.
Best running machine: NordicTrack T series treadmill + 30-day iFIT membership
2. Rowing Machine
Yet another exercise machine that’s great for weight loss and cardio workouts, as well as increasing your stamina and building and toning your muscles, is the rowing machine (indoor rower or ergometer).
This is an often overlooked machine to lose weight since most people consider rowing an upper-body exercise, and it provides a full-body and low-impact cardio workout.
You can burn about 480-720 calories per hour with this machine.
While exercising with a rowing machine, you engage your back muscles, arms, core, calves, glutes, hamstrings, and quads. A single stroke helps work a variety of muscles helping you burn more body fat.
The risk of injury with a rowing machine is minimal since you don’t put a lot of tension on your body. It’s great for people struggling with knee or hip problems.
Rowing machines come in four different types based on the resistance mechanism: hydraulic, water, air, and magnetic resistance. Some machines might also have a combination (mostly magnetic and air).
A good rowing machine will have a backlit LCD screen and built-in workouts to help you track your progress (like long slow duration cardio (LSD), high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and time trials).
Useful tip: Maintain a tall, upright posture to keep your airways open for an effective workout; avoid hunching over or rounding your back.
Best rowing machine: Hydrow Wave
3. Stair Climber/Stair Stepper
Stair climbing has remained a popular and effective way to burn calories. However, you don’t need to find a tall building with several flights of stairs; the stair stepper (or stair climber) helps you do this safely and easily.
It’s a low-impact cardio workout that helps you burn fat, tone muscles, and work on your lower body. You’ll engage your core, calves, hamstrings, glutes, and quads.
There are two types of stair steppers – pedal stair climbers and step mills. The step mill is a treadmill with stairs; bigger and more expensive than a pedal stair climber, yet, more robust.
With a step mill, you can do varied exercises like side hops, single foot push, lunges, jumps, and more. You can burn about 450-650 calories per hour, even while watching TV and exercising.
Many steppers have handles on the side for support; these kinds don’t provide a full-body workout as the ones with moving handles.
Make your stair climbing more effective with the following:
- Increase the speed of the stair climber.
- Walk two steps at a time (works up your glutes and quads).
Best stair climber: Aspen Stair Climb
4. Stationary Exercise Bike/Cycle Machine
The stationary bike is safer than riding on the road and makes for great cardio and lower-body workout. While it doesn’t engage your entire body, it’s great to build your quads and glutes.
Stationary bikes come in upright or reclined models. The different styles include recumbent bikes, upright bikes, spin bikes, and dual-action bikes. A recumbent bike is an excellent option for those with limited capacity or who’re injured and want to stay active.
If you’re using a spin or upright bike, turn up the resistance or lift yourself from the seat every once in a while to promote weight loss. While you can increase the resistance in a recumbent bike, you can’t stand and work out.
Taking it up several notches is the dual-action bike (the air bike or assault bike), with longer handles allowing you to use upper body movements in your workout.
With a stationary bike, you can burn as many as 500-800 calories per hour. It’s also great for high-intensity interval training and is suitable for beginners and experts owing to adjustable resistance.
A word of caution: you may hurt your back with the wrong posture on the bike.
Best stationary bike: Yosuda indoor cycling bike
5. Elliptical Machine
The elliptical trainer is a great cardio equipment for weight loss, balance, and coordination. Focusing on burning fat in your lower body, the elliptical makes for an excellent all-body cardio workout.
You can walk, run, or even stair climb on this stationary machine, and the workout doesn’t put as much pressure on your muscles, joints, and bones as on a treadmill.
This low-impact cardio machine works your core, triceps, biceps, back, chest, quads, hamstrings, and glutes and helps burn 550-850 calories in an hour.
With two separate foot pedals, long handles, a flywheel, and a console, this machine is particularly beneficial for those recovering from an injury or surgery.
Make your workout more effective on an elliptical machine by increasing the resistance, elevation, and stride length; it helps burn more calories.
Useful tip: Avoid using the handles to engage your core and work on your abdominal muscles and coordination.
Best elliptical machine: Proform Carbon HIIT H7
6. Kettlebells
Kettlebells are a must-have if you’re looking for a calorie burn combined with building muscle. You can use these to work out most of your muscle groups (quad, glutes, core, and more).
There are several ways to use kettlebells, from ab workouts and kettlebell swings to lunges and squats; you can go for fat burn and add muscle simultaneously.
Exercises using kettlebells can use up to 600 muscles simultaneously; this helps increase the calorie burn and raise your metabolic rate. Additionally, the after-burn effect while training with kettlebells can lead to a further calorie burn for up to 24 hours.
Consider adding kettlebells to your exercise routine, as they also help improve your stability and balance. The best part is they don’t take up much space, and you can store them away in a corner between uses.
7. Kickboxing
A fun workout that’s also a great exercise to improve cardiovascular health, strength and balance, and weight loss, kickboxing is, in fact, a form of martial art.
With some karate moves and some boxing, it involves kicking, punching, and footwork. Cardio kickboxing and noncontact kickboxing are when you use weight bags and hand pads to incorporate these techniques.
While some heavy bags have a fillable base and don’t need to be hung, others must be suspended from the ceiling or on a stand.
This is an aerobic workout that burns calories and helps you lose weight. The amateur and elite kickboxers have lower body fat percentages and more muscle mass.
8. Gym Ball
Something as simple as the wellness or gym ball can help you lose weight while strengthening your back and abdomen. You can do multiple exercises with a gym ball – crunches, plank steps, walkouts, and more.
You can work out comfortably using it and not exert too much pressure on your body since it provides cushion-like support, protecting your body from sudden jerks or sprains.
Also known as a yoga ball, your movements on this majorly engage your waist, back, and abdomen. Use it regularly if you have thick thighs or calves, flabby arms, or fat abdomen.
It also helps reduce lower back pain, strengthen lower back stability, and increase the metabolic rate.
9. Jump Ropes
Using a jump rope is a highly effective weight-loss technique that you can do anywhere. Depending on your intensity, jumping rope can burn up to 25% more calories than running.
The benefits of using one go beyond weight loss; you can also improve your cardio and muscle strength while burning calories.
It makes for fun exercise and helps strengthen your muscles and bones, improve your coordination and balance, and enhance cardiorespiratory fitness.
How many calories you burn while jumping rope will depend on your weight and the duration and intensity of exercise. However, making this a daily routine will contribute to achieving a calorie deficit, aiding in weight loss.
This is one effective workout for burning more calories in a short time frame. You can use a jump rope for warm-up, mid-workout, finishing your workout, or for endurance workout.
10. Resistance Bands
Resistance bands are the way to go when you want to take your workout to the next level. These bands, available as rubber tubes or bands, help improve mobility, build muscle strength, and burn fat.
They’re available in varying resistance and with handles for a sturdy grip.
You can use these elastic bands for shoulder presses, squats, lunges, and deadlift rows. The higher the resistance of the bands, the more calories burned.
Why Wait? Get Started Already!
Now that you know the ten best exercise equipment for weight loss, you’re bound to know which is right for you. While you can start with just one machine, you can gradually try the other ones.
Ensure you use the equipment correctly to avoid unnecessary strain on your body and muscles. Dedication and consistent workouts are crucial to implementing weight loss goals successfully.
