I’m a fitness writer, and these are my 16 essential home workout solutions, including the cheap way I built muscle and the massage gun I use every day

It’s the middle of February. It’s cold and wet across most of the US, and I am feeling especially reticent to lace up my running shoes and head out into the great outdoors, or even to the gym. Last year, I was in the same position – it was cold and dark – but I didn’t even have a gym membership, having moved house and being between gyms.

As someone who, like a golden retriever, needs a certain amount of exercise once a day, how did I cope? By equipping myself to better do workouts at home, of course, using sales events (like the current Presidents’ Day sales) to do it for less.