We share the best tools for high-end home workouts – from hand-carved pull-up bars to cashmere dumbbells, to yoga mats
The home gym is here to stay, so why not invest in an exercise kit that’s as easy on your eyes as it is tough on your muscles? Below we’ve rounded up the best design-minded workout equipment for transforming your living room into a stylish fitness centre in no time.
H-o-tt workout furniture
When it comes to exercising from home, the very act of manoeuvring a yoga mat around your furniture can be its own form of gymnastics, one that’s even more exhausting than your actual workout. In response to this dilemma, Amsterdam-based design studio H-o-tt has developed a line of workout equipment that doubles as stylish home furniture. Called ‘Furfit,’ the range includes dumbbells that are also coffee table legs, push-up bars that can be used as stools, lightweight dumbbells that can be turned into a coat hanger, a curl bar that’s also a high stool, and a kettlebell that creates a side-table.
‘Frufit’ is still in prototype stages but H-o-tt is hoping to launch purchasable versions of the line at Salone del Mobile next year.
Forme mirror
Leave it to Swiss designer Yves Béhar to rethink the home gym. Two years in the making, Forme Life is a stylishly integrated piece of equipment that takes the eyesore out of the typical home gym. Comprised of a single six-foot mirror with touchscreen capabilities, Forme transforms into an intelligent gym portal that comes with its own exclusive programming, ranging from interval training and boxing to meditation, stretching, and barre. It also tracks all movements and collects data with every use to encourage progress.
Pulleys and adjustable cast-aluminium arms for resistance exercises can be deployed or retracted from behind the mirror at will, while integrated speakers, camera, and microphones enable users to be guided through their workout interactively by instructors. Any additional attachments and accessories are neatly stored behind the elegant piece, ensuring that it never takes up too much space.
‘Forme sets itself apart from competing systems by not being a single sport or single-use product,’ says Behar. ‘It was developed thoroughly to be a beautiful functional solution that encompasses many wellbeing activities with great on-screen user experience, as well as an industrial design that makes Forme disappear in the home when not in use. It’s the first multi-activity home wellbeing system that can provide a single user or an entire family with the full gamut of activities and world-class trainers.’
Saint Laurent yoga mat
Given how many ways the humble yoga mat can be used, we’re all for this joint effort from Saint Laurent and the Italian activewear label No Ka’Oi. Made using No Ka’Oi’s signature quilted polyurethane and spongy gummed trimming to prevent any slipping, while embracing Saint Laurent’s sharp and glamorous aesthetic, the mat is available as a textured all-black version or in an extroverted leopard print to provide the perfect foundation for your exercising needs.
Loro Piana wellbeing kits
Italian textiles brand Loro Piana has elevated workout gear to the luxury realm with it’s new ‘Art of Wellbeing’ collection. Comprised of a mindfulness kit for low-impact yoga and mediation, a shape kit for more dynamic cardio workouts, and an exploration kit for outdoor activity, the collection sees the brand applying its signature, superlative cashmere to all manner of exercise equipment. Items like weights padded with cashmere, a leather-handled jump rope, and a cashmere covered fitness ball are so soft to the touch that, maybe for the first time ever, you’ll actually want to pick up your workout gear.