The Ultimate Guide to Building a Home Gym for your Training Needs

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The Ultimate Guide to Building a Home Gym for your Training Needs
15 January 2019 7 min read
The Ultimate Guide to Building a Home Gym for your Training Needs

Reading Time: 5 Minutes

What does a Home Gym Mean to You?

Whilst some might prefer training with others as a break from other aspects of life, there are a number of people choosing to invest in a home gym.

Nothing says convenience more than being able to step straight from the dinner table to your own personalized training space.

To start off with, you may want to build yourself a workout wishlist, what do you want to be able to achieve and what equipment do you need to get it done? The answers to this question will define your next steps when creating the perfect home gym for you.

Home Gym Equipment Considerations

When selecting gym equipment or looking for garage gym ideas, it's crucial to run through a couple of considerations to ensure your gym space is tailored to you and your preferred workouts.

Budget

This is perhaps the first thing you will consider. Once you have built your workout wishlist, narrow it down to your 'must-haves' and build up equipment over time. Consider using personal finance as a way to get the gym equipment you need without the initial cost.

Space Requirements

Is the space around you big enough to do the workouts you want? If you have a garage, can you fit a barbell lengthways plus a meter on each side if you are wanting to perform clean and jerks etc? If you're looking to create a small home gym, you may need to get a little creative with your space, wood rings can be hung from pull up bars for bodyweight training, but some moves may not be possible.

Structure

Is the building strong enough for the equipment you need, both around and above you and is the space free from damp? When purchasing items such as a pull up bar or wall-mounted rack, we would recommend speaking to your local hardware store or builder to ensure the equipment is securely fastened to the type of floor or ceiling that you have in place.

Safety

As home gym workouts are typically performed alone, safety is a big one. Squat racks are the ideal training partner, with attachments to help with your lifting, but other things to consider is what else will be stored in your training space? If you have the room for a gym to exist on its own, then great. If you also need to keep your tools or gardening equipment in this space, then planning out your space is imperative.

What do I Need for an At-Home Gym?

We've put together this handy list of essential home gym equipment helping to build out your home or garage gym with a maximum range of workouts in mind. Regardless of your preferred workout training, our listed items are regarded as foundational to every home gym:

Squat Rack

Training at home means less chance of a training partner or someone to spot your heavier lifts, a good quality squat rack will not only aid your practice but also serve to maintain your safety so you can still strive for those PRs. It's important to choose a squat rack or a cage with good quality steel tubing that can support your heavy lifting workouts.

Bench

Versatile and sturdy with a range to choose from including an adjustable, wide pad and our IPF standard flat bench. Having a home workout bench will serve as your swiss army knife of training equipment.

Pull Up Bar

Our home pull up bar can be mounted to the wall or ceiling, and with a variable depth of 14" & 26", you won't be limited for a range of movements. Our home pull up bar can also be paired with our wood rings for your choice of callisthenics workout.

Barbell and Bumper Plates

You don't need to be a pro weightlifter to own your own set or bar and bumper plates, we offer a range of options for those starting out as well as anyone looking to reach competition standard. The barbell is the foundational piece of equipment you need in your home gym, investing in a good quality bar will be a great training partner.

Resistance Bands

Using resistance bands, you can accomplish a wide variety of stretches that would otherwise require a partner, including the couch stretch, dynamic hamstring stretching, and PNF. Used as dynamic resistance on a barbell, these can also be used in powerlifting, building speed and power throughout the range of motion during squats and deadlifts.

Kettle Bells

Simple and functional, the kettlebell is a popular piece of home gym equipment for a reason. They are one of the simplest and yet most broadly functional pieces of equipment out there. Perfect for cultivating strength, stability, and explosiveness, kettlebell movements train core-to-extremity motor patterns that are universally applicable.

Slam Ball

Slam Balls are incredibly versatile and can be implemented into any type of training. Our slam balls come in a range of weights and have been designed with a tough PVC rubber shell allowing you to give it your hardest go as you work out, without worrying about the impacts.

CV Equipment

Add cardio into the mix with a bike, rower or simply a lap around the block if you have the surroundings available! 

Wood Rings

Wood rings are flexible and a great piece of equipment to take on the road for those on-the-move workouts. Improve your bodyweight training with minimal space requirements!

What is the Best Gym Flooring?

Flooring is an important consideration for a home gym set up for a number of reasons: firstly to protect the existing setup, to minimise noise disturbance and most importantly for safety.

We would recommend our 43mm tiles for home use. These tiles are designed to keep sound levels down, whilst protecting your range of equipment.

What are the Benefits of having a Gym Training Space at Home?

You probably know the answer to this one already, and these are the reasons you are considering the investment. Modern life has us running around all over the place with an unspoken rule to always be available, phones must always be charged and provide a constant stream of notifications. We must always be on.

Having your own training space is a great way to create the environment you need to take some time to work on yourself, without the commute to the local gym. Ultimately, a way to claim some time back in your day.

Longer-term, a home gym is a good investment in your training. No longer are you spending £30-£150 per month on a gym membership that perhaps doesn't quite satisfy everything you need. No restrictions on what equipment you can use (other than space), and no obnoxious signs or glares from the staff when you try to PB your clean and jerk.

Being able to work out in a home gym that has been bespokely created with a comfortable atmosphere can help to continue to motivate you each time you train.

What are some Tips to Keep you Motivated?

Make the space your own. Invest in a Bluetooth speaker or other sound set up and build yourself the ultimate workout playlist, gone are the days of finding the perfect headphones to take to the gym, or indeed losing them. It's your gym and you can party if you want to.

Set yourself some clear goals and write them down in big letters, so that when you walk into the room it's right there in front of you, and all you need to do is set the wall timer and get on with it.

Finally, just because you're not going to a commercial gym packed with people, doesn’t mean you can't meet like-minded people! With a whole host of fitness apps available to track your workouts, this can help connect you with people with similar interests and also motivate you to keep progressing.


If you are in the process of setting up a home or garage gym, we'd love to help. Drop us a message via social media or email and our team will assist with anything you need.

If you need some more advice on what equipment to buy, take a look at our Barbell Guide & Bumper Plate Guide.

That's it from us, let us know in the comments below if you have any suggestions and send us your pictures to be featured on our website!

Happy lifting! #StrongAF

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