How to Build a Home Gym You’ll Actually Use
A home gym can be anything you want it to be—even a yoga mat in the corner of your bedroom makes a difference. But if you’re looking to build a fully functional home gym, here are some tips (and my equipment picks) to get you started. Because ultimately, while fancy equipment is great, you need a home gym that you’ll actually use .
Start slow rather than buying everything at once
First, don’t feel like you have to buy everything at once. If you’re on a budget, just buy the essentials rather than trying to hunt down every component of your dream gym right now at the lowest prices. You can always add to it as you go.
If that means you’ll have to go without a certain item for a while, that’s okay: Cheap gym equipment isn’t always a bad thing, but there are plenty of items that are poorly made or so useless that they’re not worth it. , and you’d better wait until your budget allows you to buy the item you need. For example, you’re much more likely to use a regular spin bike like the $369 Sunny than this $58 folding gadget that doesn’t have a comfortable seat or offer much resistance.
So unless you have a huge budget, build your home gym piece by piece. Maybe buy a barbell and kettlebells now, a squat rack and bench later, and a cardio machine next year. This allows you to choose better items at each stage, and also gives you time to look for sales and find great deals on used gear.
Define your space and choose the right flooring
Your home gym can be part of one room, or it can take up an entire basement or garage. Outdoor gyms are also a great option if you’re confident your items will withstand the elements. (Consider a roof for your outdoor space and/or storing items indoors when not in use.)
In a typical garage gym, you’ll want a durable floor that won’t dent if you deadlift . A platform made of plywood of varying thicknesses is a great idea; the wood distributes the impact over a larger area than just where the weight hits.
Whether you use a wooden platform or not, you will likely need a rubber floor. Skip the cheap foam tiles sometimes marketed as home gym flooring (they don’t last long and are better suited for your kids’ playroom) and treat yourself to stable mats . Yes, the classic choice here is literally the same thing they use in the stables. You can buy them at places like Tractor Supply for about $50 for a 4′ x 6′ mat. Here’s what I have in my home gym: several in the garage covering the floor wall to wall, and two more in the driveway when I do lifting exercises outdoors. I even drive over them and they are fine.
Buy a good squat rack
If you’re training with barbells, don’t cut corners: get yourself a good squat rack , not just one of those bench press stations with a bench. (You won’t be able to safely use it for squats or overhead presses, no matter how hard you try. Sorry.)
Make sure your rack has actual safeties or adjustment levers . Many budget squat racks ( like this one ) have a tiny protrusion that the manufacturer suggests can be used to lower the bar… someday, someday. It’s not good enough. The squat rack is designed so that when you have 300 pounds of weight on your back, you can’t get it back after the last rep and you need to get out from under the bar as quickly as possible. You wouldn’t carefully place a barbell on a six-inch shelf, even if the manufacturer calls it something like a “safety structure.”
(However, you can simply lower the bar to the floor if your space and equipment allows, and if you are comfortable with this maneuver . I do this all the time in my weightlifting gym. But in the limited space of a garage gym, I prefer to have a rack with good fuses.)
For large quantities of racks, safety or correction brackets are sold separately. Be sure to budget for this if necessary.
Get a real barbell
Many dumbbell sets sold for home gyms are too small, too fragile, too tiring to use, or cannot be extended beyond the weights that come with them. For example, technically it’s a barbell, but once you can lift more than 54 pounds, it becomes completely useless to you and suddenly you’re out of $129 and have to go barbell shopping again.
Instead, look for bars that are listed as “Olympic” (meaning they have a regular two-inch bushing that fits a two-inch hole in the plates). Take a regular barbell that is seven feet long and weighs 20 kg (or 45 pounds). If you need an ez-curl rod or some other special bar , this will be available for purchase later.
The only time I would recommend getting something other than a regular 20kg barbell as a workhorse is if you do a lot of snatching (hello weightlifters and CrossFitters) and prefer a women’s 15kg barbell .
Make sure you have enough plates
When it comes to loading the barbell, you will need a reasonable weight. I would say that a basic starter kit should include:
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At least one pair of 45 pound plates (you can buy more later when you get stronger)
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A pair of 25 pound plates
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A pair of 10 pound plates
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Two pairs of 5 pound plates
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A pair of 2.5 pound plates
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Optional pair of 1.25 lb. plates.
Two pairs of 5-pound plates are designed to allow you to jump any reasonable weight from 45 pounds and up. If you only had one, you wouldn’t be able to load 85 pounds. In fact, you can take either two pairs of 5-pound plates or two pairs of 10-pound plates; The calculation for the plates is the same, but the 5 pound ones are usually cheaper.
By the way, don’t worry about the 35 pound plates. You can just load 25 and 10.
If you want to do Olympic lifts or move away from deadlifting, consider buying bumpers rather than iron ones. They are the same diameter regardless of weight and can be dropped safely (even from a height) as long as your floor is strong enough.
Buy enough dumbbells
You can ditch the barbell (at least for now) and build a home gym with dumbbells. Just make sure you gain enough weight. For example, you’ll outgrow a pair of 25-pound dumbbells pretty quickly. If you are a beginner or a small person, dumbbells up to 50 pounds will be enough for you for a while. If you are larger or more experienced, you should take a closer look at the sets, the number of which reaches somewhere around 100 pieces each.
Adjustable dumbbells are a popular space-saving option, but good ones are often expensive. Keep an eye out for sales—on big sales days like Black Friday, they’re often available at deep discounts.
If you’re building your gym piece by piece, you may prefer traditional rubber dumbbells; buy now those that meet your current needs, then add to your collection as you get stronger. Whatever you choose, do yourself a favor and invest in a nice dumbbell rack .
Finally, there is another type of adjustment – the old school method of simply loading barbell weights onto a set of handles. If you choose this option, you’ll need a decent-sized set of five- and 10-pound weights (in multiples of four), and you probably won’t want to load anything larger in diameter than a 25-pound iron plate. This is the cheapest and most versatile option, but probably the least enjoyable to use.
Consider a cardio machine
If you can’t afford a cardio machine just yet, lace up your shoes and go for a run (or turn on some music and dance). But pretty soon you find yourself wondering if you could just stay inside on rainy, cold or muggy days. If this option works for you, treat yourself to some good cardio.
I’d go with a spin bike, but if you’re a runner, you can get more mileage (metaphorically speaking) from a decent treadmill. Be sure to check the specs: Some cheap treadmills don’t have a powerful enough motor to allow you to run at a reasonable speed, and are really only designed for walking.
Here are a few options to get you started:
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For the bike, here’s the solid Sunny ($369) or fork out for the Peloton ($1,200 currently).
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If you’re looking for a treadmill: try the NordicTrack T Series ($599).
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For the rower, you can’t beat the Concept2 ($1,299).
Choose extras you’ll actually use
When it comes to bonus items like bands, weights, sliders, etc., keep the same strategies in mind. Buy things that you know you’ll use (or that you’re willing to put the energy into learning), and go for things that are decent quality, not something that looks like it offers the coolest trick or something , what can be folded by the smallest.
If you enjoy calisthenics and bodyweight exercises, you’ll definitely want a pull-up bar, whether you’re mounting it to a wall, hanging it on a door frame, or mounting it on a squat rack. Another good purchase would be gymnastic rings. A bench (adjustable or flat) is a natural choice for anyone who loves to bench press.
One final thought about these small items: They will often be the first things you pick up when you get to the gym. I like to warm up with a kettlebell and do a few band stretches before starting my barbell workout. Having some things you can start using right away, without having to download or set up anything, can make a home gym feel a lot more welcoming.