My love-hate relationship with working out is a well-documented affair. From yoga, weight-lifting to even skipping or going for a pure cardio-based workout, I have tried quite a few exercise routines in my life and it’s a constant tug of war between the money I spend on joining any of these places and the amount of time I spend actually working out. Being a blogger who works from home, time is surprisingly the one thing I fall short on – you see, there is no end to publishing content, and it’s always an exciting day. What I do need is a home gym that won’t stare at me while I walk across the room and take up half of my precious floor space – I have enough guilt about late-night binging as it is! That’s when I began looking into these home gym designs and I must say – a gym that hides in a bench sounds like a great design. It keeps me working out any time of the day while doubling as furniture or at least remains a real space saver on the off days when I can only manage to crawl to my bed at the end of the day!

Oliver Perretta’s Kondition was inspired by a piece of furniture that actually resembles a standard workout bench, IKEA’s BEKANT series. Both IKEA’s BEKANT and Perretta’s Kondition have similar personalities as they appear as modest, simple furniture designs whose true essence shines through in their ability to blend into any given room. At first, an unassuming side bench or low-rise table during living room hours, and then, an adjustable home workout with a sliding bench come gym time. Perretta was certain to make bullnose corners for Kondition’s workout station in order to enhance both the piece’s adaptive nature and its approachability in its inherent baby-proof design. Additionally, Perretta plans to utilize aluminum extrusion in any eventual construction process as that would ensure a high strength to weight ratio for more intense workouts. Stamped panels also make for easy and deep cleaning so that job won’t ever feel stressful after a good sweat.

The Tempo Studio is a gym-set that comes complete with a display and a motion-tracking camera that actively scans and monitors your exercise in 3D. With built-in exercise routines that are guided by expert trainers performing live exercise sessions, the Tempo is the equivalent of going on a Zoom video call with your gym trainer. Hop onto a personalized live session with a gym trainer of your choice and the trainer on the other side of the screen guides you through your workout. The Tempo Studio comes built-in with a workout mat as well as all the training gear you’d need, and Tempo’s AI-enabled camera module captures and tracks your body’s movement as you work out, allowing the trainer to remotely know where you’re going wrong.

Instead of answering the unanswerable (really, who can say what’s up next for 2020), the team behind G-Wall designed their home gym specifically so that it could be stored behind a closet or armoire cabinet’s door. That way the time that you would have spent making room for your home fitness system, instead is spent actually putting it to use. G-Wall’s Home Fitness System has several standout features: variable modules, user-adjustability, and compatibility, to name a few. Each user decides on which modules they want to comprise the larger system. This means that despite the amount of space in your home, G-Wall’s design makes it possible to incorporate a home gym anywhere. The different modules that users can decide on range from cardiovascular equipment, to free weights and even heavy training. The gear that comes with each module is stored in cabinets or racks that easily hang behind doors or however the user deems appropriate for their personal space.

Designed to adapt to your flexible lifestyle, the NOVA by Paul Francis lets you transform your health and body no matter where you are without needing to go to a gym. The single exercise device is a heavy-duty portable gym that uses high resistance to provide total body strength training at home, office, or on the go. “The NOVA Gym provides up to 40lbs (18kg) of resistance in each hand in all planes of movement, yet only weighs 2.5lbs (1.12Kg) and folds up to go anywhere,” says Paul Francis who created the design and is also an architect, industrial designer, and inventor. The team uses their patented SpiraFlex technology that provides weightless resistance and was actually the first resistive exercise device used in space (NASA iRED) – Francis is truly an inventor because his technology is ‘out of this world’! SpiraFlex feels smooth and linear like free-weights, without the weight or momentum. The stainless steel cables have been coated with nylon to remain durable for long-term use with high resistance.

With Dan Vinson & David Hunt’s POCKET MONKII, you won’t have any more excuses not to work out (and you’ll probably enjoy it a whole lot more than the gym). This unique training system packs everything you need to do a full bodyweight training program in one compact kit. You can get a total body workout using the incredibly durable cables and handles as well as other workout tools like a ladder and an isometric tool. The all-new package also includes unlimited access to the MONKII app which gives you workout instructionals, progress comparisons, and more. Additionally, when you order, you can score the 21-Day Habit guide to maximize this unique workout style and push beyond your fitness expectations all from the comfort of home.

Recognizing that most people don’t have the space for gym equipment in their home, or the money for a gym membership, or even the willpower to head to the gym every day, Josh Hume embarked on a journey to bring the gym to the household. The catch? It had to be the smallest, most exhaustive (and exhausting!) gym ever made. After multiple iterations, the FITT Cube was born. With its 450mm edge dimension, the FITT Cube occupies as much space as a footstool, and comes with a mini-stepper (with its own seven-segment LCD display), a rotating seat, gripping handles, a plyometric platform, and even resistance bands. The FITT cube also comes with a user guide, exercise chart, and nutrition guide to keep you on top of your fitness game.

Fulfilling the role of a mat as well as an instructor, the Kyoma Yoga Mat really gives you a neat menu of positions to choose from. The mat’s graphics are split into two distinct categories with 59 stretching exercises and 59 yoga postures, and there’s even a Kamasutra edition with 59 poses, but hey… we’re a family-friendly website. Go look it up on your own if you want. The mat uses a two-layer construction, with a hypoallergenic cork upper, and a TPE base that prevents it from slipping or skidding while you meditate/exercise. The cork’s naturally anti-bacterial too, so all you need to do after a yoga-session is to wipe the sweat down and you’re good to go!

The Germany based wooden sports equipment brand NOHrD has come out with the TriaTrainer 3-in-1 exercise bench! No more dragging yourself or imagining that you will drag yourself to the gym. With the TriaTrainer you can have an endearing workout session in the comfort of your own home. At first glance the TriaTrainer looks like an inconsequential wooden seating stool, however, it’s jampacked with some multi-functionality! The long solid wood bench can be used for a variety of different exercises. It serves as an abdominal trainer, back extension bench, and weight bench.

Yes, a simple web search can lead you to a host of foldable and space-saving exercise bikes but if you do your research, you’ll find there are none that can provide professional quality work out at home and fold up to the size of a carry-on bag when you’re done! This is where the Breakaway Bike by John Stump steps in with its immensely compact size. Made from aerospace-grade aluminum, the bike measures 16 x 23 x 8-inches when packed down and weighs only 35 pounds. The bike boasts of being the world’s first exercise bike that can be conveniently folded down so you can pick it up and store away in a closet at home or under a table in the office until it’s time to get pumping! Get a full-sized workout, close up shop in seconds, and hide it away under the bed – it’s all so easy. Interestingly, you can also load the Breakaway Bike in the boot of your car or can fit in the overhead bin to be carried where your work takes you!

No larger than two shoe-boxes kept end-to-end, the Gym Box by James Wall looks deceptively small for a home gym, however, it transforms into an extensive resistance and box-training kit once opened. Complete with an adjustable bench, a step-up box, a resistance platform, and multiple resistance-bands, the Gym Box can be used in a variety of ways, spanning more than 165 exercises to give you full-body workouts for losing weight, toning up, or building muscle mass. Designed to be two things – Compact and Versatile, the Gym Box allows you to fit all your gym-equipment into something that’s small enough to slide under your bed or into the bottom shelf of your wardrobe. It weighs 28 lbs, and measures not more than 45-inches in length, making it perhaps one of the smallest all-in-one home-gyms. Once it opens up, its parts can be configured into any variety of arrangements, or even used independently. The adjustable bench can be set to a 90° angle, or reclined to a full 180°, with 1¼-inch thick steel tubing to ensure it’s just as robust as the equipment you find in gyms.

The Groove was conceptualized around the efficiency of pilates reformers, resistance training, and gymnastics, integrating an entire gym into one piece of furniture. Hannah Fink reimagined working out at home by merging practicality with style. The Groove mounts three cushioned units onto quiet, rubber wheels and connects them with resistance bands, allowing for a catalog of possible exercises: heel raises, bicep curls, leg presses, sliding planks. Pulling on inspiration from pilates and gymnastics, The Groove incorporates the four pillars of fitness: aerobic, strengthening, stretching, and balance. Since most pieces of home gym equipment focus on only one pillar, users might unknowingly neglect other muscle groups, which can lead to an imbalance that contributes to overuse injuries.