Preparing to start a home gym doesn’t have to be a complicated or grueling process. There are a few fundamental steps you can implement in order to ensure a smooth and efficient experience. The following steps helped me complete my family’s starter home garage gym in less than a week. I reference it as a“starter” guide because that’s just what it is as you’ll have the luxury of adding and taking away for years to come.
The final results of my home gym project rendered exactly what our family was in pursuit of: an affordable and fully functional gym. It’s definitely one that I look forward to enhancing In the future.
If you’re trying to get going on an affordable, functional and efficient home gym set up, you’re in the right place. Keep in mind you can easily adapt the following steps to meet the needs of your home gym project. I used my garage, but you may elect to use another space in your home. This is simply a format to help you get started. Here are the 5 simple, quick and hassle-free steps I used with the help of my tribe(family) to complete our home garage gym project in less than a week.
Step 1
Identify a prime space to set up your gym.
You’ll want to scout out a space that can accommodate your starter equipment as well as provide you with the convenience you’ll need to maximize use of your gym or equipment. In my case, I selected the garage. Do you have an idea of what room or space you’d like to use? Handy tip: It might be helpful to pick a space that requires the least amount of changes or renovation. For instance, unless you have a big budget, you’ll probably not want to opt for an area that requires major construction like knocking down a wall or building one versus adding cosmetic touches like painting, or reasonable aesthetic modifications.
Step 2 & 3
Planning & Organizing
Once you’ve narrowed down your ideal location, you’ll want to come up with a plan. I started by jotting down ideas, making a tentative itinerary and creating a timeline. Pinterest was definitely my go-to for creative gym layout options. I found a plethora of design inspiration on this platform by searching “home gym ideas” , garage gym.Embarrassingly enough, my garage had become a catchall for everything from clothes my kids outgrew to obsolete appliances, outdated work stuff and a decade full of holiday decorations. This garage renovation proved to be right on time. It gave us a good reason to clear accumulated useless clutter while creating wonderful space to stay well and fit in the comfort of our home.
One of the biggest feats was figuring out where all of our nonessential gym items were going to go. So, Plan A included figuring out what needed to stay and what needed to be taken or given away. Plan B of this process involved identifying where all of the residual items would go as well as how it was going to get there. At this point, may also want to determine what equipment you’ll need to carry out your plan. We were able to pack up excess items in our car, but that meant making a few trips. If you have a substantial amount to purge and find your vehicle is not large enough to transport it, you might consider renting a truck or utilizing a hauling/moving service. We rented a truck from Home Depot and found it to be an economical option for hourly use.
Additionally, as you free up space, you’ll want to gradually begin brainstorming on what equipment you plan to utilize and where you’d like to position it.
Surprisingly, it didn’t take an eternity to sort through our items. I attribute that in part to my pre-project planning process. Implementing a plan will help you troubleshoot by alleviating potential problems you might have encountered if you hadn’t taking them in consideration.
During this phase, we separated items into two groups: stay and go. We definitely identified more that need to go rather than stay. I can’t tell you what kind of long lost items we found while sorting. Admittedly, it was tough parting with some of these rediscovered treasures, but I quickly faced the fact that it would be necessary to bid them goodbye in order to successfully complete the job. The last thing I wanted to do was accumulate more and lose less by way of space. Having ample space was the key. Purging these unused items proved to be surprisingly cathartic. It was refreshing clearing out space and witness the amazing progression of our “garage to gym”makeover.
Step 4
Relocate/Remove Gym Nonessentials
Orchestrate removal or relocation of your sorted items. At this stage, the ultimate goal will be making sure you have an empty – semi-empty space to work with. This will ensure that you’re on the right track towards the ultimate goal of completing your home gym project.
Once we figured out what we would be sending off and what we planned to keep, the process became simpler. We also started intermittently cleaning and prepping the garage for gym equipment. Oh joy…nothing but sheer exhilaration filled the air when I finally laid my eyes on a clutter-free garage.
We now had ample space to kickstart the grand finale of our home gym project.
Step 5
Finalize your home gym project.
This was most definitely my favorite part. We now had the space we needed to build our gym. At this stage, you should have better idea of what equipment you want to start with. Here are some of the essentials we selected:
–Recumbent Bike
or Portable Bike
You’ll want to select equipment based on your desired fitness goals and budget. Our home gym reflects a compilation of my family’s fitness goals and needs. Thankfully, we already had most of our fitness accessories, however, were in the market for a treadmill (we snagged a great deal on a gently used Sole F63 at Fitness in Motion/Austin). We were also in the market for affordable rubberized gym flooring as well as a weight bench set, both of which we found at Walmart). The flooring and 25 lbs dumbbells were the most challenging items to find. Oddly enough, most stores had limited stock. We were able to find enough flooring to get started. And eventually found enough to finish the job. We also opted for a mirror. Home Depot had a nice selection of budget-friendly options. We decided to by three small mirrors and place them adjacent to each other; this worked great for now. We might get sturdier ones in the future.
As a whole, we were most interested in meeting our strength training and cardio needs as well as having the space to do bodyweight exercises. Eventually we hope to add a television and possibly buy a couple additional pieces of equipment. To date, we have most of the essentials we need to have a a highly productive workout. I hope these quick tips help you nail your ideal home gym, too!
Link to corresponding video: https://youtu.be/yeKygnDQqOE
Are you working on a home gym project or have you completed one? Please share comments/feedback below.
Featured image by: Wall Deco Crafts
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