Home Gym
Jeff Phillips explains how to set up a simple but effective home gym.
We know that having a home gym saves you money from all the monthly subscriptions, but the more important thing about it is its convenience. You are ready in a familiar environment which makes working out easy. There is less of a hassle, you do not have to gather all your essentials and head to the gym battling traffic, and what is more, you do not have to use the gym showers, not when you are in the comfort of your home.
Practical Steps to Set Up a Gym at Home
Now that we are stuck at home due to the virus outbreak setting up a home gym is one of the safest choices to protect yourself. Here is a step-by-step plan for you to create a home gym in any space within a budget.
Finding the Perfect Space
Before you hit your sweating sessions, you need to figure out space. This will depend on what type of workouts you do. Yoga and stretching will need just a length of space, you set it up on a balcony or in front of the window, Pilates will need a lot more space, and if your workout includes all the bells and whistles, it would require a room of its own.
If you have a spare room, turning it into a gym room will be great. However, you do not necessarily need an entire room, fitting equipment in the corner of a wide space, and you got yourself a workout space, if you have a garage, it is a gym jackpot.
Get the Essential Equipment
You do not need all the bulky, expensive exercise equipment to maintain your workout routine. A lot of the home equipment is quite convenient to set up and does not cost a fortune. Here is a list of affordable home gym equipment you can invest in.
- Adjustable Dumbbells: A full-blown dumbbell rack for a home gym can be more of a hassle; it is heavy to move around and not very feasible. An adjustable dumbbell is a simple setup, you can stack the weights at how much you want, and it gets up to 85 pounds starting from 10.
- Cardio Exercise Equipment: For your cardio, you can either invest in a folding exercise bike to save space or a spin bike, which is excellent for burning fat and cardiovascular health. These are the only machines that require space. You can also get a jumping rope.
- Rubber Flooring: You can get rubber flooring in the form of tiles or mats; I would highly recommend this because it will save your floors from dents or scruffs. It stops slippage and provides more safety.
- Adjustable Weight Bench: You can practically train your entire body on the bench. It is height adjustable and versatile.
- Resistance Bands: Flexible, needs no space, and you will be surprised with how much exercise you can do. You can take it anywhere with you and perform full-body workouts anywhere.
- Foam Roller and Swiss Ball: Great addition to your home gym. You can relax your muscles by kneading them, and toning your body and posture, and the best thing is it does not eat up space.
Design Your Space
Designing your space is an excellent way for you to stay committed to your gym, if it looks nice and clean with everything in place, it will give you peace of mind when you have personalized it to your taste. More importantly, designing where you set the equipment and how much space you will allocate to each of them will help in organization, and will give space to move around it.
Stock it up with towels, and put an icebox nearby for your energy drinks or water. It will be great if you fit a mirror, and place a Bluetooth speaker so that you can jam with your favourite songs while you sweat. Song boosts energy and provides several benefits when exercising.
Plan Out Storage
You do not want all your equipment cluttering your chosen space or room. Design ahead before your equipment arrives - for example, a rack for your dumbbells and a shelf for your yoga mats and resistance bands.
You can even screw in a pullup bar for your pullups on a wall. This kind of storage set-up is way better than just shoving your dumbbells away in a closet or under the bed, which drops the motivation of exercising.
Plan Out a Routine
The final step is where you start exercising. Setting up a pre-planned workout routine is the best you can keep yourself on track. This helps with discipline and consistency. You can get your ex-trainer to help you with the plan, or you can do it yourself by following online classes or videos.
When your home gym is complete, you can carry on your routine at the gym at home, and follow the steps one after the other to maintain your toned body. You can even create a chart and hang it up in your space, keep track of your progress, etc. However, the best bit is you do not have a set limited time like you would when you go to the gym but hit the home gym at the time you set at your convenience.
Conclusion
All in all, is it worth it to invest in a home gym? It is inexpensive, less of a hassle, more convenient for you, and straightforward to set up. Many think the prospect is daunting and time-consuming, but that is not the case, plan and set up a budget to get you started, follow the simple steps above, and you are ready to start training.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- PHILLIPS, J. (2020) Home Gym [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article588.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Jeff Phillips is a UK-based REPS Level 3 Personal Trainer specializing in muscle building and nutrition.