I received an email advertisement this morning about a fitness equipment special. It made me laugh:
Only $23,100! For 14 pieces of equipment that each only does one thing (poorly at that). Oh and then consider how much space I’d need in my gym to house this $23,100 of almost useless equipment.
I looked around my gym and thought about what I would include in a “14 piece circuit”. This is what I selected:

The 14 piece circuit I selected includes:
- TRX suspension trainer
- Barbell
- 45# plate
- 45# plate
- 25# plate
- 25# plate
- 10# plate
- 10# plate
- Bench
- 20# Kettlebell (KB)
- 30# KB
- 40# KB
- 50# KB
- 12″ plyo box
This was a quick decision and I tried to not include big ticket items like a functional trainer. You can accomplish a whole lot with the 14 items I selected! Oh, and you can buy it all for $1,188 instead of $23,100. I suppose technically I cheated as I didn’t include collars for the barbell. Realistically I would have included a chin up bar instead of the plyo box, but my chin up bars are attached to the power rack so visually I couldn’t swing it. I do love the plyo box though as it can be very helpful as a check for improving quality on things like goblet squats: A bench is generally too high for that.
Foam roll would be the next item I’d add, then a few mini-bands, and if I could expand a bit further I would buy a carabiner and strap to use for adding weight to inverted rows, hip lifts, and chinups. This would add about another $75.
What would you include in a 14 piece circuit, and would it “only” cost $23,100?
Elsbeth Vaino, CSCS, is a personal trainer in Ottawa who is currently shopping for some new equipment for her imminent expansion, but doesn’t intend to spend $23,100.
It is true that lots of equipment is peddled that no one really needs. Because i travel quite a bit i am always far away from a home gymn. I’ve taken up calisthenics but i’m sure my gains are slower than they would be if i was using the right equipment