There’s no need to wait until New Year’s to start working toward a new fitness goal. If you’ve been aiming to start working out, practicing Yoga or otherwise increasing your fitness levels, but you just haven’t started yet, now’s the time. And you can get all of the fitness gear and home workout essentials you need from Gaiam. 

Here’s how to fully outfit your home workout space with all the essentials. 

Why Gaiam?

First up — why Gaiam? Why should you trust this brand that you maybe have never heard about for all your fitness needs? 

The Gaiam name (pronounced “GUY-um”) is a combination of the word “Gaia,” a name for a Greek Mother Earth goddess, and the phrase “I am.” The name is meant to portray the connectivity between us, the Earth and all living creatures and how that plays into our wellness journeys. 

Based on this ideology, you can probably assume that the Gaiam brand focuses pretty heavily on yoga and meditation products. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is some hippy-esque brand that demands yogi-like perfection from its practitioners. Instead, Gaiam knows that a need for perfection can often act as a hurdle, preventing many people from exploring the benefits of yoga, meditation and other wellness exercises, so the brand embraces the imperfect self with products designed with the imperfect beginner in mind. In other words, Gaiam is the perfect brand to kickstart your wellness journey.

You can currently find Gaiam products in nearly 40,000 retail stores and nearly 20,000 stores-within-stores, but you can also, of course, purchase all the brand’s products online. 

Gaiam Home Workout Essentials

Ready to start outfitting your home with everything you need for a complete wellness and fitness experience? Here are our nine Gaiam home workout essentials.

A Gaiam Yoga Kit 

Of course, it just makes sense to start with a Gaiam OG — a yoga mat. The brand that started with a focus on yoga clearly knows how to outfit you for the perfect yoga flow. The brand will even help you find the best yoga mat for you via its handy mat guide. Just pick the size you need, the thickness level you prefer, the material you prefer and the style you like, and you’ll be pointed in the right direction. 

However, if you’re a yoga newb, you probably need more than just a yoga mat, and that’s why Gaiam offers its yoga kit. The yoga kit includes everything you need to get started with the most basic poses, as well as tools that will help you better expand your flexibility and increase your skill. The kit includes a PVC, latex-free, printed yoga mat, a yoga block and a yoga strap. 

Related: Practicing Yoga At Home: A Beginner’s Guide [With Pictures]

Meditation Basics

Meditation is just as important to the Gaiam brand as yoga, but meditation may seem even more intimidating and unfamiliar to newcomers. However, meditation has been proven to offer a range of benefits, including improved immunity, lower stress and anxiety, better focus and better sleep. Plus, for beginners, meditation hardly takes any time out of your day at all, only up to approximately five minutes.

Gaiam offers a few meditation basics to help you get started.

A meditation cushion will help you more comfortably sit on bare floors for your meditation sessions without wreaking havoc on your lower back, hips or ankles. 

Aromatherapy is often incorporated into meditation practices, and Gaiam offers a chic aromatherapy diffuser for use with all your favorite essential oils. The brand also offers an aromatherapy kit that’s even easier to use, thanks to the unique design that allows you to add a few drops of oil to a small diffuser that plugs into any USB port. The kit comes with the diffuser and four aromatherapy essential oil blends, including a stress-relieving lavender blend, rejuvenating peppermint blend, energizing citrus blend and immunity-boosting tea tree blend. 

Need even more help getting started with meditation? Check out Gaiam’s downloadable meditation guides. 

An Active Balance Solution

Gaiam also offers active balance solutions, which, when you think about it, falls in line with the brand’s ethos quite well. Active balance solutions are more commonly known as balance balls, balance boards, exercise balls or balance ball chairs. Opting for an active balance solution over a traditional chair can help relieve your body of some of the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, which range from weight gain to reduced circulation, muscle tension to decreased focus, muscle pain to increased stress. 

To get you started, Gaiam provides a total body balance ball kit, which includes a high-quality, anti-burst balance ball, pump and digital workouts. You can use the ball at the office or while at home for all the benefits of active balancing, but then also incorporate it into your normal workouts for a new addition to your pilates or yoga routine. 

Free Weights

Strength training is an incredibly important part of an all-encompassing workout routine. While you might prefer aerobics or yoga, strength training can help build up muscle mass that you’ll need as you age (muscle mass deteriorates quickly over time, limiting your mobility and independence), increase your balance and stability, and improve bone density. 

One of the easiest ways to get started with strength training is with free weights and exercises that include free weights. Gaiam offers affordable hand weights ranging from 3 pounds to 15 pounds. 

Related: The Urikar AT1 Massage Gun [Our Experience With This New Massager]

A Resistance Kit

Along the same lines, resistance bands can help with strength training your arms and legs. You can even find full-body workouts that include just resistance bands, as they’re a great tool for toning and strengthening. Plus, resistance bands are often affordable, portable and easy to use. 

Gaiam offers a full resistance band kit with three 60-inch, multi-level resistance bands, so you can switch out the bands to better fit your particular exercise or fitness goals. For a total body workout with a little more resistance, you can check out the SPRI Total Body Resistance Kit, which includes five resistance cords of varying weights, two resistance cord handles, an ankle strap, door attachment and storage bag. 

Related: How To Build A Home Gym [13 Things You Can’t Live Without]

A Cardio Speed Rope

Using a cardio speed rope (aka, a jump rope) is an easy, fun form of aerobic exercise that doesn’t require any setup, learning curve or guidebooks. Just take it out of the packaging and go. So long as you have the space, you can start jumping rope immediately and even take your rope with you on the go if you prefer to work out in the park, at a friend’s house or anywhere else. 

A Step Deck

A step deck is another awesome piece of cardio equipment, as it’s likewise portable, affordable and easy to use. Simply a wide step stool that adjusts to two different heights, this non-slip, non-skid and durable step deck from Gaiam helps you get in a quick cardio workout with very little space needed. Just pop on your headphones, start stepping and get in a quick workout with no need to run to the gym. 

A Recovery Solution

Don’t just focus on working out your muscles and increasing your flexibility, or whatever your fitness goal might be — you also need to focus on recovery, so you can be ready for the next workout. This Gaiam foam roller is intended for use with your entire body and can help to relieve muscle soreness and tightness. 

The Gaiam App

Lastly, you’re going to need the Gaiam app. Look for Yoga Studio: Mind & Body in the app store, or check it out online. The app provides premium yoga and meditation classes that you can enjoy on the go. The app features HD video classes (with more than 25 hours of content), with instructors that move slowly and explain things in ways that even total yoga newbs can understand. 

Specific classes target specific needs, with classes such as yoga for runners class, yoga for back pain class and prenatal yoga class. You can choose the difficulty level that’s right for you — beginner to advanced — as well as the duration, 15 to 60 minutes, and the focus, whether that be greater strength, flexibility, relaxation, balance or all of the above. You can even combine poses and moves to create your own class.

But Don’t Forget the Rest of the Family!

While you’re busy working on your own fitness goals and needs, don’t forget your favorite furry family member. Gaiam also offers a line of PetWell products to keep your pet feeling their best. The line includes a series of massagers that can be used on both cats and dogs. Pet massages can help reduce anxiety, strengthen immunity and aid in digestion. 

Kids can get into the exercise fun, too, with Gaiam’s line of kid-friendly products. These range from balance balls and balance seats that help children work out their excess energy to fun game-like fitness activities that make working out with mom or dad just a little more enjoyable. 

And Don’t Forget to Check Out the Gaiam Wellness Rewards Program

Of course, with all that shopping, you might as well get some reward points out of it, right? Sign up for the Gaiam Wellness Rewards program before you start shopping to receive points for every dollar you spend. 

Beginner members receive 3 points for every $1 spent, but after you earn 500 or more points, you’re moved up to Elite status, after which you receive 4 points for every $1 spent. After 2,000 points earned, you’re moved to Wellness Warrior status, earning 5 points for every $1 spent. 

Benefits beyond points (which you can use to pay for purchases) include early access to sales, free products, early access to new products and free gift cards. 

A Few Tips for Building Out Your Home Workout Space

Picked out all the great Gaiam gear you want for your new home workout space? Here are a few tips to help you get things set up and ready for action once those packages arrive at your door.

Work With Your Space

Not everyone has a full extra room to create the perfect home gym setup, and that’s okay. That definitely shouldn’t hinder you from creating a space for your fitness goals. Just work with whatever space you have.

Maybe you’re limited to your bedroom. Look for gear that you can store beneath your bed or tuck away in a closet, and that takes up limited space while in use. For example, you might want to choose a step-deck over a speed rope for your aerobic exercise.  

Start Slow

Don’t feel like you need to equip your home with absolutely every piece of workout equipment you could need, all at once. Start with one or two pieces and see how you like them, then expand your equipment collection from there. You might find that you prefer one type of equipment or one type of exercise over another, so save your money for equipment you are going to actually use and enjoy. 

Actually Use It

It can be all too easy to get excited over a new workout goal, buy all of your gear and equipment… and then let it gather dust in the corner of your guest bedroom or garage. Make an effort to actually use your equipment on a regular basis, even if it means pulling out the step deck for use while you’re watching your favorite show or breaking out the free weights while you’re catching up on your fav podcast. 

Ready to Get Started?

Whatever your fitness goals, Gaiam can help — and our list of must-have home workout gear only scratched the surface of all the brand offers. 

You might also be interested in: Zero-Cost, Zero-Equipment At-Home Workouts [Complete Guide]

Gaiam Home Workout Equipment: 

1. Yoga Kit
2. Meditation Cushion
3. Aromatherapy Diffuser
4. Balance Balls
5. Hand Weights
6. SPRI Total Body Resistance Kit
7. Cardio Speed Rope
8. Step Deck
9. Gaiam Foam Roller
10. Gaiam App
11. Pet Massagers
12. Kid Friendly Line