At-Home Gym Built to Fit You
Want your own at-home gym built just for you? It doesn’t require huge floor space, an elaborate setup, or a boat-load of cash! Our guest author breaks down how finding the right equipment can make all the difference when it comes to your at-home gym!
What You Need For The Perfect Setup
When it comes to creating your own at home gym, you probably have some idea of what you want to accomplish.
For example, some people like to lift weights or bodybuild primarily, while others are more suited towards lean endurance training.
You should also keep in mind that exploring your abilities as an athlete can often be dynamic, meaning what you’re interested in RIGHT NOW, might not be what you’re interested in LATER ON.
Some athletes find that trying to improve upon the weak points in their fitness regimen leads them to brand new fitness challenges and goals they want to accomplish, and thus completely different gym needs.
1. Understand and Meet Your Basic Fitness Needs
Not every athlete is the same, and almost every athlete has needs that differ from everyone else, but the most very basic fitness needs are the same for everyone. You can feel financially safe purchasing the following items without feeling unsure or guilty about buying them.
These items serve to improve 99 percent of athletes out there, and it’s smart to buy these items in advance before you decide what additional home gym items fit you best as an individual.
Dumbbells
Dumbbells are another fitness item that’s in nearly every gym. A plate-loaded dumbbell rack and weights allow you to increase, decrease, or stay the same with your lifting regimen once you’ve found the perfect weight for you.
And beginner fitness enthusiasts should be careful, as muscle tends to stay on your frame for a long time once you’ve built it.
Power Rack
You frequently see power racks in a gym setting because they’re such a versatile piece of equipment. You can perform nearly any free weight exercise with a power rack, and that alone can revolutionize your fitness.
Without one, you’re missing out on one of the best pieces of equipment a home gym can contain.
A proper power rack will include a pull-up bar, dip bars, and adjustable spotter arms/hooks that are adjustable. The power rack is especially good for multi-joint lifts that require a “spotter”.
Weight Bench, Barbell, and Weight Plates
You see the classic “bench and barbell” setup at nearly every gym location in existence.
And for good reason! A bench, barbell, and the accompanying doughnut/plate weights provide you with one of the only ways to achieve an ergonomically correct lifting position for chest exercises.
If you try to achieve chest-based lifting on the cheap, and without a barbell, bench, and weights, you’re risking your own safety.
Platform (Rubber Mat) For Free Weights
Many beginner weight lifters have made the mistake of dropping their dumbbells or other heavyweights on the ground and actually damaging the floor of their homes.
It makes the most sense to protect your floor with a simple rubber mat. This way, if you do drop weight, it won’t scathe your flooring.
2. Add Only the Equipment That is Right For You
You’ve probably heard the saying, “don’t bite off more than you can chew!” It’s a saying that can save you from wasting money, self-esteem discouragement, and frustration.
Once your basic gym equipment needs are met, the next logical step is to make ONLY A FEW specialty home gym additions to start with. Blowing a ton of money on equipment right away doesn’t make sense.
Why? Because the outcome of what you’ll be needing the equipment for depends entirely on what path in life you take.
It helps a lot to make a pen and paper list of pre-defined goals. For example, if you’re wanting to get a job in a grain elevator, you’re going to have to be able to lift heavy things.
So, achieving a “stocky build”, along with all-day stamina/endurance is crucial. And be strategic about what might happen AFTER you get the job at the grain elevator, and try to make future plans that directly coincide with your newfound success in life.
Example? Achieving a strong, healthy body for grain elevator work is great, you get the job, and start saving a good amount of money.
But, then you realize THE UPSTAIRS ROOM you chose to make into your at-home gym isn’t the room you should have chosen at all.
Because you’ve made enough money with your grain elevator job to achieve a goal you’ve wanted for a long time, and that’s home renovation and additions to add resale value to the home.
Now, because you decided to strategically plan ahead, you won’t have to take the time to move all of your weight equipment out of the “wrong” room upstairs and all the way downstairs, because you thought it through and installed the gym equipment in a room set apart from your home renovation/room additions, to begin with.
Another example is, a cross-country runner in the off-season would obviously want to stay in the best shape they can and be ready for the next season of running.
So, in order to save the most money and not be wasteful, the cross country runner would need the most basic at-home gym items, yes, but only a treadmill and strap-on ankle/arm weights to fuel the off-season training in addition to that.
Wasting money on gym equipment you won’t use, wastes resources and the extra time it takes to resell it!
Wrap-Up
And remember, with any of these scalable weights, where you can customize your workout routine by adding/removing weights, be sure to read the reviews about which weights are performing the best.
You can also get valuable insight from people who have used the weights, learn from their experiences, and help make yourself into a better athlete.
- How to Build the Best Home Gym - December 16, 2015
