Last Updated on September 28, 2022 by Sam Corbin
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Looking for the best fitness apps and equipment for home? Well, the coronavirus may have shut down your favorite gym, but it doesn’t need to be an excuse to abandon exercise for the next month or two.
There are a lot of at-home exercise options you can use to stay fit despite this pandemic.
These at-home workout options mean you can avoid people entirely, stay within the safety of your own home, and still get your body in shape before this virus goes away and beach season rolls around.
In the following guide, we’re going to take a look at some of your best and most reliable ways to get exercise at home while gyms are shut down.
Let’s start with some of the best, albeit more expensive, options.
Live & On-Demand Workout Equipment
If you want to recreate the gym experience inside of your home, then it doesn’t get any better than live & on-demand workout equipment sold on the market today. These are pieces of workout equipment that can be synced an app streaming a real fitness class.
In some cases, the equipment will track your stats and allow you to compare them with stats from the app.
1. Echelon
The biggest name in the industry right now is Echleon. Some of their latest equipment can connect with on-demand classes. Some of this equipment can also sync together to create a larger snapshot of your overall fitness progress.
Chances are, you’ll want to keep using this equipment even after the lockdown has ended. Their three best products include their:
Each of these items can sync with the Echleon FitPass app, which provides live and on-demand fitness classes.
The Reflect is a home fitness mirror and offers the largest variety of workout options. The fitness mirror shows your reflection atop the streaming fitness class. It allows you to easily compare your movements with the instructor.
There are plenty of classes that only rely on bodyweight, but if you have dumbbells or resistance bands, then you can utilize an even larger selection of classes.
Echleon isn’t the only brand to break into the industry.
A lot of the same companies that manufacture fitness equipment now make apps that provide live or on-demand classes. The information shared between the equipment and the apps is usually minimal, but you still have the advantage of following along with a professional instructor from within your home.
A few of the big brands that equipment that connects with their apps include:
- Bowflex – Check latest prices
- Peloton – Check latest prices
- Nordictrack – Check latest prices on Amazon
These are three well-known fitness brands that sell above-average equipment. The new indoor exercise bike from Bowflex is designed to connect with several different fitness apps.
One app provides the on-demand classes, another allows you to train against others around the world, and a third app creates virtual courses to view during your training.
It’s a good all-around bike with some noteworthy features.
Peloton really shines when it comes to cardio equipment. They sell a smart bike and a treadmill. Both of these can connect to their Peloton app, which includes a large library of live and on-demand fitness classes. It’s actually the same that the Bowflex bike uses.
Both bikes are great, but we still believe that Echleon steals the show with its smart connect bike and home fitness mirror.
Traditional Exercise Equipment
If you’re not particularly interested in the gym scene or instructor-led classes, then there’s no need in an investing in the more expensive “smart” equipment.
Shopping for traditional exercise equipment will cut the price significantly and allow you to invest in a more diverse collection of equipment. We recommend looking for a:
- Treadmill
- Exercise bike
- Barbell/Dumbbell with weights
These three pieces of equipment will keep the entire body in shape without requiring you to step foot outdoors. The barbell and the exercise bike aren’t mandatory, but they deliver such noticeable results that they deserve serious consideration.
With dumbbells, a treadmill, and a few bodyweight exercises you can target all of the important muscles in the body and also have a strong cardio routine for burning fat.
The treadmill might be the most important machine on this list. It is going to help replicate a lot of the physical movement you’ll be missing if you’re stuck at home during the virus outbreak.
Your body will be missing out on that simple physical activity like walking into the store, walking to the neighbors, or just taking a stroll through the neighborhood. Investing in a treadmill will prevent fat buildup caused by missing out on those simple activities.
An exercise bike offers many of the same physical benefits as the treadmill but to a lesser degree. It can help burn a lot of calories. It is just not as effective at burning calories as a treadmill is.
The advantage of the exercise bike is that is places less impact on the body and has a lower potential for injury. If you already suffer from serious muscle or joint pain, then a stationary bike may be a safer option.
Weights are a necessary piece of equipment if building muscle mass is part of your fitness goal. Barbells and dumbbells are a great combination because they work separate muscle groups. You can also dumbbells or the free weights to increase the intensity of an existing workout routine. This prevents your muscles from getting too used to your routine while you’re stuck at home.
When it comes to a variety of high-quality exercise equipment options, Bowflex is my favorite place to go. They even have an exercise bike that works with the Peloton app:
Workout Apps
These types of apps were mentioned earlier alongside equipment that was designed to connect with them. However, these apps can still be useful without additional equipment.
They still contain a massive library or live or on-demand fitness classes.
Some of them also allow you to manually input your workout results to help track your progress. Some of the classes on these apps are designed to be used with certain equipment like a stationary bike or treadmill. Many of them rely simply on bodyweight.
We believe these are three of the best workout apps available:
- Echleon FitPass Plus – Check Prices
- Beachbody On Demand – Check Prices
- Gymondo – Check Prices
The Echleon FitPass Plus is first on the list and it’s one of the most popular. There’s a one-time payment to purchase the hardware and then a monthly subscription payment of around $20.
The hardware includes a heartrate monitor, an HDMI adapter for your phone, and a fitness band uses to mirror your movements on TV. Echleon has one of the largest libraries of classes and videos. That makes it a great deal and a smart choice during a government lockdown.
The diversity of the videos will keep you from getting bored too quickly.
Beachbody was already well-known for their fitness videos, but they made a big splash when they jumped into the on-demand market.
Their library is surprisingly large with more than 60 fitness programs, 700 workout videos, and several comprehensive meal plans.
These videos can be streamed from your smartphone wherever you are at. This means you need absolutely no extra equipment to do many of the workouts. You don’t even need to connect your phone to your television if you don’t want to (It’s still recommended).
Finally, there is Gymondo. There relatively new to the scene and have already earned a spot at the top. Their library is somewhat smaller than the previous options. They have around 20 fitness programs and more than 200 workout videos.
They are also growing at a healthy rate and will undoubtedly have much more content available in the future. For now, 200 workout videos is enough to survive a lockdown and stay in shape.
One of the major advantages of Gymondo, aside from the pricing, is how it lets you build your weekly workout schedule. You choose specific fitness goals and can then blend more than one fitness program to create the ideal routine for you. In this regard, Gymondo clearly delivers the most personalized results.
Free At Home Workout Options
We understand that the coronavirus pandemic and the various shutdowns are having a huge impact on the workforce. You may not have the extra funds to invest in high-end exercise equipment if your job is one of the places temporarily shut down.
Luckily, there are quite a few free sources of exercise routines and videos. You can find content that matches the equipment you have available or rely entirely on bodyweight.
1. YouTube
Who isn’t familiar with YouTube? They have videos for anything that you can imagine. But it’s not the funny cats or makeup tutorials that we are after.
It’s their massive selection of workout videos and fitness classes. Some of these are instructor-led classes similar to what you would find with the on-demand workout apps. There are also specific instructional videos for just about any type of exercise known to man.
The instructional quality of the content and the sheer quantity of videos available makes this an incredible free tool.
2. Aaptiv
This is currently the number one audio fitness app around. The audio content includes more than 2,500 trainer-led fitness classes with a music theme.
It might feel like a downgrade from the live video classes, but it’s ideal for people who want to learn at their own pace and enjoy listening to music while they work out. The number of classes available is impressive as well. They add dozens of new workouts every week so that number is growing quickly.
3. FitOn
FitOn doesn’t have a library of on-demand classes or audio classes.
However, it does over some really excellent fitness plans that are designed by the best personal trainers in the business. Many of these personal trainers have worked with celebrities and specialize in delivering specific results in short time frames.
You can find a perfectly constructed workout plan and you’ll have nothing stopping you from making a lot of progress while the country is on lockdown.
Summary
As of this wiring, the country is gradually moving into lockdown because of concerns raised by the coronavirus. People are advised to avoid large groups and remain at home when possible. Many businesses are closing their doors entirely and gyms are among those businesses.
But with the large selection of workout videos, fitness routines, and exercise equipment covered in this guide you can stay fit during the outbreak.
It’s also a great time to start a new fitness regimen if you don’t already have one. You can emerge from the lockdown stronger and healthier than you were before. The best way of doing this is with the “smart” equipment that connects with workout apps.
You can also use those apps to get good results alongside your existing equipment.
And if you’d like to save even more money you can rely on the free apps mentioned here or the many others available in the app marketplace.
Exactly which solution you use isn’t really important. Whether it’s the Echleon Reflect or just a collection of YouTube videos; the important thing is you stay physically active and healthy while indoors.
Cited Sources
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html
- Harry Lang, Industries need to innovate to survive the coronavirus lockdown, MarketingWeek. Retrieved from https://www.marketingweek.com/harry-lang-innovate-coronavirus/
