Designing your own custom home gym is one of the best ways to start taking training seriously, allowing you to set up a space that fits in with your goals and lifestyle.
The more accessible exercise is, the more likely you are to stick with it, pushing yourself harder to make the gains you want to see.
But where to begin with such a project? It’s never as simple as buying gym equipment and just putting it in a room. Careful planning, flooring choice, smart storage and practical layout consideration are all essential areas of focus.
To that end, here’s a step-by-step guide to home gym design and installation, with a professional finish.
Step 1: Assess your space
Before you invest in gym equipment, you need to know what your chosen space can accommodate, while ensuring that you achieve your training goals.
Start by measuring the room properly, including the floor area, ceiling height, door access and any awkward corners or low points.
As a guide, approximately 10m2 should be sufficient for a compact strength training zone. If you have more room to play around with, you can enjoy greater flexibility with racks, benches, cardio machines, storage and functional training areas.
Ceiling height is also important. Exercises like overhead presses, pull-ups, medicine ball work will need sufficient clearance to train safely and comfortably, while larger pieces of equipment will need space at the top, as well.
Step 2: Assess the subfloor
It’s easy to overlook the flooring, but dropping heavy weights, standing machines and repeated impact can damage both the floor and subfloor without proper protection in place.
Commercial-grade rubber gym flooring, rubber tiles, lifting platforms or shock-absorbent flooring can help protect the subfloor, reduce noise and create a professional training environment.
The right flooring also depends on how you plan to train. A free weights area, cardio zone, sled track or functional training space may all need slightly different flooring solutions.
Step 3: Choose your equipment
Decide how you want to train and what equipment you’ll need for you to meet and exceed your goals. Don’t just fill the room with what you think you should have. The benefit of having your own gym is that you can tailor it to suit your exact requirements.
For strength training, investing in a modular power rack is a great choice, as it’s versatile and can be used for a variety of exercises. Other key pieces of equipment include cable machines, cardio equipment and functional trainers for a more complete set-up.
For smaller gyms, consider adjustable dumbbells, a well-designed rack and wall-mounted storage solutions are ways in which you can support your training programme without taking up too much valuable floor space.
Step 4: Plan the gym layout
Before equipment starts to arrive, decide where you want everything to go and how you want to lay the floor plan out. Prioritise safety and ease of use from the outset.
Remember that you’ll need to allow sufficient space around weight benches and racks, so you can easily load and unload weight plates, as well as perform exercises like supine chest flies without feeling restricted.
Flow should also be considered at this point. By planning out carefully now you can ensure that your home gym is enjoyable to use with an intuitive layout that supports your training programmes.
Step 5: Consider utilities
Another factor often neglected is heating, ventilation and air conditioning. This is particularly important if your gym is going to be separate from the main house, whether that’s in a converted garage, garden room or elsewhere.
Good airflow is also a must for training environments when you’re working hard physically and appropriate heating should be available for colder months of the year, allowing you to exercise without interruption.
Sorting this early on means you can start to train quickly once your powered machines like treadmills and other smart equipment arrive.
Step 6: Add in the finishing touches
Once you’ve sorted out all the must-have essentials for your at-home gym, your thoughts can turn to the finishing touches.
This could include feature lighting, strategically placed mirrors for visual cues as you train, motivational wall graphics and murals, a shower room and so on.
Wellness features like saunas and cold plunge pools are also becoming increasingly popular features in at-home gyms.
For training, hot and cold therapy can potentially yield positive results, with a growing body of research suggesting that it may be able to reduce inflammation, support circulation, help to support muscle recovery and repair, reduce delayed onset muscle soreness and improve cardiovascular health.
As such, if you’re keen to exceed your gym goals this year, introducing these facilities could make a significant difference to gym performance… and, of course, your general health and wellbeing, as well.
If you’re thinking about creating your own home gym, get in touch with the OOSH team and we can help bring your ideas to life.
Bring the gym home!