Home Gym Details
6 Factors to Keep in Mind When Designing Your Home Gym Environment
After (or while) you have invested into starting your home gym, there are secondary factors worth considering that can make a difference in how much you enjoy your space when training.
We will cover 6 influential factors that can improve how much you enjoy your home gym.
Some of these considerations you may already have in your house, and some you may think won’t matter to you. However, just keep them in mind as possible factors to address if you find yourself not loving your home training space as much as you thought you would.
1. Flooring
WHY: You want to feel confident in what’s under your feet to allow you to give a full effort when training.
You shouldn’t have to worry about your safety or the safety of your foundation (under your floor) when training. This could impact the quality of your sessions.
I use 3 distinct surfaces in my gym:
Turf with Shock Pad (attached under it) for sled and athletic movements
Rubber Stall Mats for heavier equipment and loaded movements
DIY Platform with Wood and Stall Mats for dedicated space to lift heavy and perform Olympic Lifting Movements
If you’re on a budget, the stall mats are the cheapest most dependable surface I’ve seen. They will fully protect your foundation and each 4’x6’ weighs 94 lbs (so it’s not going anywhere).
When you’re deciding on what dependable surface(s) to use for flooring, also keep in mind how easy it would be to clean (you will sweat and track dirt in overtime).
I’ve found the turf and rubber is easy to run a vacuum over, and then the rubber and wood can also easily be mopped when needed.
2. Music
WHY: Music you enjoy can improve your mood and/or motivation to train.
The less steps to starting your music the better. If possible, dedicate a speaker that stays in your home gym space (plugged in) for you to easily connect to and start jamming.
You add more starting friction if you have to go find your speaker or forget to charge a portable one and it’s dead when you need it.
I like the Amazon Echo in my gym (the blue sphere pointed out by the green arrow), but I know there are a lot of good speaker options out there.
3. Lighting
WHY: Lighting can impact our mood/energy and motivation to train.
Unless you just thrive with dim lighting, most will enjoy a brighter space when trying to get into the training spirit. Generally brighter white light will help you feel more awake and happy (think about the impact a bright sunny day has on your mentality).
My dad and I installed 4 LED Flat Lights to brighten up the space. Thankfully he knows how to do electric work. In most cases, you’ll want to seek out an electrician or get lights that only need to be plugged in to brighten up your space.
4. Storage and Wall Utility
WHY: Space is like gold for a home gym. You want to have all the training items for great sessions, but you also don’t want to feel cramped, stressed, or miss out on the movements you can train that require a bit of open space.
In my case, I dedicated my entire garage to building a full training studio.
However, I would imagine there will be many of you who use this home gym space (whether a garage, basement, or other room) as more than just your gym. The space saving decisions can be even more important if this is your situation.
In a home gym, walls are not just walls. They are opportunity! Opportunity to position storage racks up against, hang items from, write on (with a white board), and even anchor equipment or perform exercises from.
I use a heavy duty storage rack to store a ton of items (storing them vertically instead of spread out on the floor) while keeping them visible and easily grabable.
I added a white board for quick access to keep track of anything or communicate something with clients.
I also added frameless wall mirrors to be able to watch technique and provide a more visually spacious feel to the room (plus reflects the lights helping with brightness).
And on the picture to the right (to the left of the white board) you can see I have my Ancore Cable system with various wall attachment options using the Ancore wall mounts. This is probably my favorite space saving piece of equipment.
5. Temperature
WHY: You don’t want to be miserable training in a space that is too hot or too cold - this consequently will make training less enjoyable and harder to motivate yourself to go do.
It doesn’t have to be the most comfortable room either, but the goal should be that it's good enough that you don’t dread training in it.
I use two of the most basic strategies:
Floor Fan for cooling and air circulation
Utility Electric Heater for warming up the gym
I’m able to get away with these items because we insulated around and above the garage, added an air duct for some house air and heat to flow into, and got a highly insulated garage door to keep as much of the temperature inside as possible.
Depending on the space you use (and where you live), temperature may be more or less of a factor for you to deal with.
With the highly varied temperatures that Indiana brings (easily spanning from single digits to 90’s over the year) I’m able to keep my gym between 55 and 75 degrees, which for me and those I work with is perfectly fine to train in.
If you need more heavy duty temperature regulators, there are nice heating and air units that I’ve seen many home gym owners utilize.
6. Expressive (fun details that make it yours)
WHY: One of the best parts about having a home gym is that IT'S YOURS. You can make it feel even more like your space with details that make you happy.
Since there is less utility in this factor, don’t feel like you have to rush to fill your space up with expressive ideas. Just naturally add as you go and ideas come to mind.
Have fun with it, and realize the value of this factor is that the space has the potential to make you a little happier to be there. The more you enjoy the space the less motivation you’ll need to spend time in there improving your health and physical abilities!
Some fun expressive details I’ve chosen to add are:
My World Cup Balls I started collecting since heavily watching in 2010
TV that I usually turn on soccer games while training
My Sheer Training HQ banner that makes me happy to see
Anatomy Posters and Helpful Information Papers that I like to see and refresh on from time to time
A special Manchester United picture that my father-in-law gave me
Bumper Plate Coasters because any other type of coaters seemed inappropriate
Multi Color Setting LED Lights around the top of the gym (you can’t see from the pictures) that is fun to change colors with the seasons
None of it is necessary, but I genuinely enjoy just walking into my gym. And for many of us out there, consistently walking into the gym can be the biggest challenge.
To summarize, keep these 6 factors in mind for improving the utility and enjoyment of your home gym space:
Flooring
Music
Lighting
Storage and Wall Utility
Temperature
Expressive (fun details that make it yours)
Thanks for reading!
Brian