Profesional Home Gym

Introduction

In this series we will be talking about building home gym, we would like to bring you closer to the process of planning and equipping a place to train. We took our experience during the implementation hundreds of projects, both large commercial gyms, fitness studios and home gyms.

Why a home gym?

Nowadays changes in our lifestyle and work have also affected our physical activity. More and more people are working remotely or in hybrid model, and consequently spend more time at home. So it's no surprise that people want to have their own gym. The advantages of such a solution are obvious:

• ◾ We save time commuting

• ◾ We can train whenever we want

• ◾ We don't have to deal with crowds and don't have to wait in line for equipment.

• ◾ We can adapt the equipment based on our needs

Up to this point, we probably all agree. The staircase comes next, and this is where we want to help you consider the key elements that not everyone may be aware of!

At this stage, you might want to read the articles: Home Gym vs Fitness Club. Which is better?

Home gym equipment - where to start?

In the first place you should take into consideration of your needs. The arrangement of a space being a target workout place looks completely different than a zone that is for complementing workouts in a fitness club. Let's call this stage of planning the "Goal" of our project which is a dream home gym 😊.

For the purposes of this article, let's highlight 3 example goals:

• ◾ Functional training/cross

• ◾ Bodybuilding training

• ◾ Cardio training

You can of course highlight more of them, but we want to show you the whole process with concrete examples. Which we will further expand on in a separate article.

Functional training/cross

The functional area should provide us with full complexity and training opportunities similar to those we get when coming to the Cross Box. The list of equipment depends mainly on the budget, training experience of the investor and the space available to create the zone.

The minimum plan should include one HIIT Cardio piece of equipment - Air bike, Air runner treadmill, Air bike rowing machine, Skierg and a pull-up and squat station - Wall Rig or Squat Rack.

The amount and tonnage of free weights should be considered under big considerations. Typically, trainers operate within certain weight ranges. We suggest getting only those weights that you will realistically use. Most people will only need 170-200kg barbells, dumbbells in the 7.5-22.5kg range, and kettlebells 8kg-28kg (the last two items should be double counted).

Accessories such as a timer, weight vest, elastic bands, mats, rollers, abwheel, wooden boxes and plyo boxes will certainly add variety to your future workouts.

If your workout includes elements of the Olympic double sculls, it is worth buying special mats to lose weight on.

Bodybuilding training

When the basic home gym training is focused on bodybuilding, equipment selection should be based mainly on elements strictly dedicated to it.

The investor should base his choice on machines in which a given muscle part can be trained from many different angles.

In a small area it will be great to construct gates or racks with lifts - Dual Pulley or Smitch machine. The possibility to adjust the height of the lifts and the multitude of handles make these machines extremely functional in a relatively small size.

It is also worth getting a adjustable bench.

If your secondary goal is to beat strength records you should consider choosing more specialized equipment. A good choice may be to purchase plates and barbells for powerlifting.

Plates of fractional type will be useful for all who exercise for a long time and the progress in weight gradually slows down. Small load, allows for steady progress.

Bodybuilding training is not only about weights. Increase of endurance impacts on general training results. In this case, CARDIO HIIT machines will be a great choice. The best recommendation will be the Air bike. It is capable of metabolic fatigue in a very short period of time without much damage to the musclular and nervous system.

Cardio training

If your goal is a good result in a marathon or triathlon, you should think about a place to polish your form. In preparing training zone, it is worth taking into account three subsections - cardio, core and mobility.

Depending on your budget and the surface capabilities of your gym, the cardio section should have 1-3 of these types of equipment. You should choose them, like any other equipment in your gym, according to your preferences and the type of sport you practice.

Cardio training always should be supported with general body strengthening training. Building strength has a positive effect on sports performance, but mainly prevent injuries. Cardio gym should

be also equipped in resistance bands, a set of weights - kettle or dumbbells and other accessories such as abwheel, gymnastic ladder, pull-up bar, TRX bands.

Stretching and self-massage before and after the workout have already become a standard, so a good idea when arranging the zone may be to create a mobility corner lined with soft puzzles and equipped with self-massage equipment - rollers, balls, etc.

Next step - Place for home gym

It can be said that besides the purpose of our gym, the place is an equally important point. Usually, this element will force us to make some compromises, but there are solutions for that!

Space

The smaller the space, the more difficult it is to arrange it in terms of functionality. When planning a gym in a small room, you should take care of free space and choose the most mobile and easy to store equipment.

A better solution is a set of dumbbells or kettlebells and a few square meters to perform exercises than a multi-station atlas which occupies the whole room.

Tidiness is important in a home workout room, so it's a good idea to think about equipment storage in advance - equipment hangers and racks increase the comfort of your workout, create extra space and ensure the safety of the person exercising. It's easy to forget about this element, and it can really save a lot of space.

Walls and ceilings

The structure of the building largely determines the choice of equipment for the future gym. Some walls of buildings are made of cardboard-plaster, which excludes the options of installing handles or bars. They can also complicate all exercises against the wall.

Poor quality ceilings can prevent the installation of equipment such as gymnastic rings.

The height of the room is also very important when it comes to comfort and exercise selection in your workout. It is worth paying attention to this when planning a gym in a basement, where the ceiling height usually falls below 2.6m.

Conditioning and flooring

The sport you practise determines to a large extent on what level the home gym should be located.

Cross-training, in which there are elements of the Olympic weightlifting and weight throwing from above the head can exclude the gym on higher floors.

However, if there is no other option, it is worth examining the ceiling for load bearing capacity and using a number of safeguards to ensure that your workouts have the least possible impact on the building's structure. To this end, we recommend getting the right platforms and mats for dropping weights, which will effectively absorb vibration and reduce noise.

If the workout will be closer to a bodybuilding/strength approach, the issue of floor selection becomes less important.

However, in each of the cases a very important aspect to consider is floor protection.

Currently, the most popular solution on the market are rubber puzzles. The choice of puzzle thickness should be made depending on the storey and hardness of the floor structure. Rubber laid on the floor also affects the potential soundproofing of the room. The thickness of such flooring ranges between 6-30mm.

You can find out more about how to choose a floor in this article Flooring for your home gym.

Ventilation

The temperature in the room during training significantly affects our performance and motivation. It is worth thinking about devices that can maintain the temperature in the range of 17-24 degrees Celsius. This can be air conditioning or other budget solutions such as air circulators, fans, etc.

What equipment for home gym?

Note that only at this stage, when we already know what space we have and what is the purpose of our home gym, we start choosing equipment. This is very important, because doing it the other way around is easy to overinvest and mess up the whole free space.

On the selection of equipment for the gym you will learn from the article Small home gym - equipment essentials.

Choosing a supplier and payment

Choosing right supplier and equipment is quite challenging task for an investor who wants create their first own home gym. It is worth choosing one big manufacturer for all the equipment. There are many advantages of such a solution.

On average home gym equipment weighs around 1000 kilograms. When buying from one manufacturer, the product will be delivered on pallets as a whole, which will reduce delivery costs.

At large manufacturers, have dedicated advisors who helps you choose the right equipment for your project. They have a wide portfolio of similar projects. They know the advantages and disadvantages of different solutions. They adjust and optimize the offer specifically for the customer. When buying in this way, many mistakes can be avoided.

When equipping the first gym, we often do not know what is the reason for the different prices of seemingly the same equipment. It is worth choosing a manufacturer who has products from different price ranges. There is chance then to reduce the cost of the entire investment.

Some manufacturers have dedicated systems in their equipment. This is especially useful when you buy another machine and want accessories that can work interchangeably with other equipment.

Choosing one manufacturer also affects the overall look of the entire gym. Products are usually created in series and a similar range of colors.

Many manufacturers in addition to sales and consulting also provide additional services. One of them is installation on the customer's site. This is important when the offer includes equipment to be mounted on walls or ceilings and the investor does not have the tools or knowledge about how to do it.

Buying from a manufacturer is associated with the fact that we can count on 1-2 years warranty on equipment. This has become a standard and consumer privilege in the current world. However, there are still many dropshipping sellers who imports products from Asia and having problems with warranty claims.

Equipment manufacturers also allow attractive ways of inestment financing. Providing a consumer lease on equipment is quite simple and will not strain the household budget as much as an one-time purchase.

Summary

There are many factors to consider when building own home gym. To make this task easier, based on the above article, we have created a checklist of the most important points, which will certainly make planning your dream workout space easier. Fill out the form below and we will immediately send it to you via email.