I canceled my gym membership during the pandemic and never went back. Not because I stopped working out — because I figured out I didn’t need ninety percent of the equipment I thought I needed. My entire setup now fits in the bottom of a hallway closet.

The key realization: resistance is resistance. Your muscles don’t know if it’s coming from a $2,000 cable machine or a rubber band. What matters is that you can load the movement progressively and do it consistently.

The non-negotiables

Resistance bands (with door anchor): A set of loop bands — the long flat kind, not the mini loops — covers pulling exercises (rows, pull-aparts, face pulls) that are hard to replicate without a cable machine. Get a set with varying resistance levels. The door anchor lets you attach them at different heights for different angles. About $25 for a good set.

Adjustable dumbbells: The kind where you twist a dial to change weight. They replace an entire rack of fixed dumbbells in the space of two shoeboxes. Expensive but worth it — a good pair runs $200-400 and lasts forever.

Worth the space

Yoga mat: Obvious for floor work, but also protects your floor from dropped weights and provides grip for lunges and planks. A thick one — 6mm or more — makes a real difference on hard floors.

Suspension trainer (TRX or knockoff): Hooks over any door. Unlocks rows, chest presses, hamstring curls, and about fifty variations of core work. Rolls up to the size of a water bottle. The knockoff versions on Amazon work fine for home use.

Kettlebell (one, medium weight): A single 35-pound kettlebell can anchor an entire workout: swings, goblet squats, Turkish get-ups, rows, carries. If I could only keep one piece of equipment, it’d be this.

Skip these

Bench — takes up too much floor space and you can do floor presses instead. Pull-up bar that mounts in a doorway — most rental agreements forbid them and they can damage the frame. Ab rollers and other single-purpose gadgets — every one of them is a movement you can do with bodyweight plus a small weight plate.