Buying guide
Building a home gym when there is not a spare metre
The piece of equipment that works best is not the most complete one: it is the one you get out without thinking about it. If setting it up takes five minutes, it does not get used. This guide orders the buying by how much room each thing asks for.
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The right order to buy in
Almost everyone starts with the biggest machine they can afford and almost everyone regrets it. A machine you stand on is furniture: it lives in the room permanently, and the effort of working around it every day is exactly what makes it stop being used.
The order that works in a small flat is the other way round, from least room to most:
1. What never touches the floor. A pull-up bar lives in a door frame and takes nothing at all. For what it trains against what it costs you in room, nothing in this section comes close.
2. What fits in a box. A set of adjustable plates replaces a rack of fixed dumbbells and goes under the bed. If you are only going to buy one thing, this is probably it.
3. What fits under a desk. A pedal unit or a mini stepper takes less room than a cabin bag and comes out with one hand.
4. What takes floor. Steppers, bikes, benches and rowers. They are worth it, but only once you already know you will train.
Our picks
Best overall
FitBeast Doorway Pull-Up Bar
The one that best balances what it lets you train, how little room it takes and what buyers say about it.
A doorway bar that takes 200 kg and fixes with no screws and no drilling, for doorways between 70 and 92 cm. 1,101 ratings averaging 4.4.
Takes the least room
himaly Mini Pedal Exerciser
When the flat has no room for a machine that stands on the floor, this is the one that asks for least.
A 2.5 kg pedal unit that fits under a desk, folds for storage and adjusts its resistance by a knob. 6,302 ratings averaging 4.0.
Where to start
SONGMICS Adjustable Dumbbell Set 20 kg
At £28.99 it is the cheapest way to find out whether you will train at home before spending three hundred discovering that you will not.
Twenty kilos of plates and three bars that make two 10 kg dumbbells or one 20 kg barbell, and go back in a box under the bed. 2,411 ratings averaging 4.4.
The two figures that decide
The maximum weight it takes. It is the number most people find out about too late. Among the four here it runs from 160 kg on the stepper to 200 kg of static load on the doorway bar, and two of the four publish nothing at all. Over the limit a machine neither trains well nor lasts, and when the figure is missing you are being told something.
How long it takes to be ready. Equipment you pull out and use gets used; equipment you have to assemble each time does not. It is a question of consistency rather than comfort, and it is why a pedal unit that costs under thirty pounds can beat a machine costing ten times as much in practice.
What a small flat will not forgive: the noise
Living in a flat means having people underneath. Impact equipment is heard downstairs; hydraulic or magnetic resistance is much quieter. If you train at odd hours, a stepper or a set of weights will cause you fewer problems than anything you run or jump on, whatever the measurements say.
And a note about mats: a thick mat under the machine does two jobs at once, deadening the noise and protecting the floor. It costs little and prevents arguments.
Frequently asked questions
If I can only buy one thing, what should it be?
A set of adjustable plates. It replaces a whole rack of fixed dumbbells, fits in a box under the bed and works the whole body. It is also the cheapest way to find out whether you are really going to train at home, which is a question worth answering before buying anything larger.
Do doorway pull-up bars damage the frame?
The tension kind rest against the frame and drill nothing, but they need a solid frame and a doorway inside the stated range, which for the one here is 70 to 92 cm. If the frame is a hollow partition or the opening is out of range, do not use one: the problem there is not the bar, it is the wall.
How much room does a machine you stand on really take?
More than the box suggests, and permanently if it does not fold. The one here occupies 48 by 50 cm and stays there: half a square metre of your flat, every day, whether you train or not. Measure that patch before you buy, the same way you would for a folding desk, and be honest about whether you will walk round it for a year.
Is a mini pedal unit actually worth anything?
For daily movement and gentle cardio, yes, and its virtue is that there is nothing to assemble and nowhere to put it: it fits under a desk. It does not replace a bike or a rower for intensity, but a machine you use for twenty minutes a day beats a better one you never get out.
What user weight do these take?
Where it is published, it runs from 160 kg on the stepper to 200 kg of static load on the doorway bar. Floor machines with a steel frame declare the most; small pedal units usually declare nothing, and two of the four here publish no figure at all. Check it before buying if you are anywhere near the limit.
Compare them yourself
The products in this section set against each other, with the charts overlaid and the best value in each row marked.
Open the comparison toolSee the 4 products in compact exercise equipment · All the guides