According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some of the most common barriers to regular physical activity are lack of time, lack of motivation and weather conditions. These are barriers that everyone has encountered at one point or another when trying to establish a regular exercise routine, and finding a solution is easier said than done!
After having my first baby, ending my soccer career after tearing my ACL (for the fourth time!), moving to Colorado (a state that has cooler weather for half of the year), and facing the new challenges associated with coronavirus, I was determined to establish a workout routine that meshed well with my lifestyle. I am happy to report I have found a routine that is efficient, fun and keeps me in shape! The key to this routine is simple: create a home gym.
It sounds intimidating and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be either! In this post I will outline 5 steps for bringing the gym to your living space.
How to Create a Home Gym
Step #1: Identify Where You Plan to do Your Workouts
The first step to creating a home gym is identifying your space. This can be the most limiting factor, so you want to do this first.
Maybe you have a lot of available space, and maybe you live in a shoebox in San Francisco! Think about the types of exercises you want to be able to do and where you have the proper space to do those activities. Note: You may have to get creative and modify your activities based on space available.
Fortunately for me, I had 800 sq ft of basement storage space that was only partially being used. My husband and I decided to section off 300 sq ft for storage and use the remaining 500 sq ft of empty, concrete space to build out our home gym.
Step #2: Decide What Types of Exercises you Want to do and the Equipment Needed
In order to decide what exercises you plan to do, it’s a good idea to outline your exercise goals – a step within a step! The home exercises you identify should be aligned with your workout goals, and they will vary significantly from individual to individual.
My main workout goals, for example, are to maintain my cardiovascular fitness with middle-distance interval training (2x per week), build/tone my muscles (3x per week) and have fun. Based on my goals, I identified running, biking, weightlifting and freeweight/bodyweight (circuit-style) exercises as workout activities I wanted to be able to do from home. With that in mind, I came up with a list of exercise equipment that would enable me to do my desired workout activities in my home: a treadmill, a spin bike, a lifting machine (e.g., Bowflex, folding squat rack), free weights, a suspension band, an aerobic stepper, medicine balls, and a stability disc/ball.
Nearly all of my workout goals can be achieved using this lifting cage and free weights, and it doesn’t take up too much space! Though I did have to be willing to pay for it.
Your home gym doesn’t need to have as much equipment as mine. For example, you may not need both a spin bike and a treadmill, and free weights may be all you need (so no lifting machine) – it all comes down to what you want and what you can work into your space.
Step #3: Get the Equipment You Need
Before you grab your phone and start tapping the “Buy Now” button on Amazon, determine a budget for getting your home gym started. Once you have a general budget in mind, you can start prioritizing what equipment you want to get first based on factors like price, size and what is most important for helping you achieve your fitness goals.
My first purchases were a treadmill and an exercise bike since I heavily prioritize my cardiovascular fitness and sometimes I need to switch between high impact and low impact exercises to give my knee a break. I was able to get a very lightly used Bowflex BXT216 Treadmill on Offer Up for $500 (I won’t mention that I had to rent a U-Haul truck and drive through snowy roads to pick it up!). I purchased MEVEM Indoor Cycling Bike, since I only wanted a basic bike that had a display monitor and could “do the job.”
I love being able to model healthy behavior for my son!
The next purchase was a TRX Home2 System. I had not done any weightlifting in a long time and I wanted to progress back into it, so I figured a TRX band would be great. The suspension band can be used anywhere, doesn’t take up much space, and it utilizes body weight to give the user a total-body workout. It proved to be an excellent way for me to progress back into weightlifting.
The moment you begin researching weightlifting equipment, you’ll notice some of the machines are very expensive and there are endless machines that serve different purposes. My husband and I spent multiple weeks looking at different options, mostly the more all-inclusive options to save on space. We started looking at the Bowflex Xtreme 2 SE Home Gym, but then we decided we wanted to be able to do more than resistance training. Next we had our eyes on a PRO Squat Rack with Kipping Bar and other add ons because it would help conserve space yet provide the flexibility to do cross-functional fitness exercises, Olympic Weights, MMA etc. The PRO Squat Rack and other add ons ended up being on backorder, and it still didn’t seem like the one-stop-shop we were looking for.
My husband and I the night we had our fully-loaded Tuff Stuff Smith Machine Half Cage Ensemble installed. We were so excited to get in our first workout in our home gym!
Alas, we decided to take a trip to a fitness warehouse where we could get a more comprehensive idea of the gamut of fitness equipment and speak with people who know fitness equipment. If you’ve never done this, I highly recommend it! My husband and I made a trip to the Fitness Gallery (a.k.a. Disneyland of fitness equipment) in Denver, CO. We left with a big hit to our bank account, but we ended up getting equipment (i.e., TuffStuff Smith Machine Half Cage Ensemble with all the add ons, Aerobics Stepper, Bosu ball, Medicine Balls, and free weights 5-25 pounds) that will help us maintain our health for years to come.
As mentioned, the equipment you get will depend on a variety of factors, but I recommend you spend time doing your research!
Step #4: Build the Gym!
The “If You Build It, They Will Come” line from the Field of Dreams movie actually applied in this case. Though it took a number of weeks before we had a usable gym.
In addition to getting all the exercise equipment, we had to buy cases and cases of ½ EVA Foam Interlocking Tiles to put on top of the concrete surface of our designated gym area. In certain areas my husband used a circular saw and some cardboard boxes to cut the tiles so they would fit tightly against the walls.
The interval training side of our gym! Note: the TV is always on during treadmill runs and biking workouts.
Earlier I mentioned having fun as being one of my exercise goals. To make exercise more enjoyable, I like distracting myself by watching TV with subtitles and listening to good music. We found a 43” Roku TV and a SANUS Full-Motion TV Mount at a very affordable price from Costco.
To get the beats bumping in the gym, we installed Polk speakers and play music through our 7-channel receiver. Of course RockMyRun is our music app of choice!
A nice-to-have we added is a divider curtain to section off our storage space from our gym.
Step #5: Come up with a Program and Stick to It. Change it up When it Makes Sense!
It has been three months since my husband and I set up our home gym, and we have been consistently using the gym 3-4 times per week. How did we create this habit, you ask?
We designed an A-B-A lifting program based on this core program with some additional exercises added, printed out workout log sheets, and we have stuck to it! One of the biggest motivators has been being able to visualize our progress week over week. We also add new exercises and swap out exercises from time-to-time, plus alternate our strength days with cardio days. Two tips I highly recommend!
Hers and his workout logs. Yes, we intentionally bought pens that matched our clipboards!
Hopefully these tips have given you some ideas about how you can incorporate workouts into your living space to help you combat some of the most common barriers to physical activity. If you have a gym in your home, you have no excuse for not working out! You can’t say you don’t have time or it’s too cold outside. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you live in a small apartment with a minimal budget or a palace with no budget, you can still get creative and design something that works for you!
About the Author
Katie Addison is the Chief Operating Officer for Rock My World, Inc. and oversees the RockMyRun product. She lives a very active lifestyle, having played soccer since she was six. Due to experiencing multiple ACL tears while playing college soccer at Stanford University and Florida State University, Katie has had to modify some of her exercise activities. Katie, her husband, and her 1-yr-old son enjoy hikes in the scenic Denver area along with bumping RockMyRun beats while they work out in their home gym.