How to Build a Home Gym That's Perfect for Your Needs

How to Build a Home Gym That’s Perfect for Your Needs : Living a healthier life is typically one of the most common things on most peoples’ goals lists. One of the best ways to do this is to exercise on a consistent basis. However, many individuals don’t prefer to go to the gym for a number of reasons.

The good news is that a home gym can offer some of the same advantages if you have the right setup. If you want to learn how to build a home gym that works best for your needs, keep reading this quick guide.

Assess and Identify Your Needs

Before you start buying equipment for your home gym, you should know exactly what you’ll need for yourself. Everyone is at a different fitness level and requires specific things for their health. This is something to take into consideration for yourself.

You’ll probably want to start with your goals. Are you just trying to be a little more in shape or are you aiming for athlete level? Answering questions like this will help you to determine what exactly you need later on.

Also, think about how often you’d like to work out and whether or not you prefer a certain type of exercise. You may be more of a calisthenics type person than you are a bodybuilder. Either of these choices would be fine but what you choose could affect the items that you’ll need to buy.

Consider if you’ll need any special customized equipment for health or physical limitations. Do a thorough and honest analysis of where you are and where you’d like to be.

Create a Budget

When you decide to build a home gym you’ll need to set some money aside to make sure you can get everything that you need for the best workouts. Creating a solid budget is the way to go.

A great way to start is by writing down all of your expenses and income. Subtract all necessities and miscellaneous to see how much you have leftover. Take some of the excess money and put it in your home gym savings.

If you want to get your workout setup going sooner than later, it might be best to cut out some non-essential expenses (at least temporarily). The money saved from these can go towards more equipment.

Consider Space

Setting up a gym in your home will require a significant amount of space depending on how elaborate you want your exercise zone to be. Start by taking measurements of the area that you plan to use so that you can order the right size and amount of equipment.

It might help to have an overall vision of what you want to create beforehand. Make sure that space is in a spot that is sturdy and well-built since a lot of the supplies and equipment will be heavy.

Clean Out Designated Area

Once you’ve got the perfect spot in your home, start by cleaning out the area thoroughly. You’ll need as much space available as you can get so remove anything that you don’t need to use.

Research and Buy Equipment

Here’s where the fun part of how to build a home gym comes in. It’s finally time to start researching and ordering any equipment that you’ll need. Firstly decide on which types of supplies and equipment will serve you best.

Below are some ideas of what you’ll need:

Benches (flat benches, adjustable benches, upright benches, etc.) NOTE: some of these come with overhead racks for presses
Squat racks
Cable and pulley machines (cable crossover machine, lat pulldowns, pulley towers, etc.)
Isolation machines (leg press, leg curls, shoulder press, etc.) NOTE: these typically take up a little more room but they do have machines with a combination so you can work out multiple muscle groups with one piece of equipment
Cardio machines (treadmills, bikes, row machines, etc.)
Barbells and weighted plates (will need rack)
Dumbbells (will need shelf)
Pull-up bars
Resistance bands
Kettlebells
Stability and medicine balls
Plyometric and step-up boxes
Floor mats
Miscellaneous (jump ropes, battle ropes, sliders, agility ladders, mirrors, etc.)

You probably won’t need to get all of these items, especially when you’re first starting. Yet, you should try to get the essentials that will help you complete a solid workout session. Also, consider the smaller details to help you out like some of these pieces of equipment can be mounted to the wall or placed above door entries to save space.

If you’re looking to save money then only buy what you need. For instance, skip out on the heavier dumbbells if you aren’t prepared for them yet. You can also buy pre-owned items, such as a used treadmill or cable attachments.

Some of the equipment will take up more space than others so be smart about the essentials if you’re limited in exercise space.

Setup for Safety

Again, a lot of this equipment will be heavy and if you want good quality, it’ll be quite durable. This means that in the event of an incident, the equipment will probably do more harm than anything else.

To avoid any type of accidents, make sure your setup is optimized for safety. Be sure that everything is flat on the ground, put together properly and out of the way of anything that could potentially break if something falls on it.

You may want to put heavier things closer to the walls for more stability. If you are mounting anything to the walls, be certain that it’s firmly in place. You might want to hire a professional to assure this.

Build a Home Gym Today

If you’re been thinking about how you can build a home gym then now is a perfect time. There’s no need to push off becoming the best version of yourself any longer when you can do it right from the comfort of your home. Create a budget and figure out what you need so that you can start purchasing the right equipment for you.

For more tips and advice on fitness and exercise, check out our blog.