Tips To Build Your Own Home Gym

Building a Home gym can be costly, but they don’t have to be.

In addition, once you’ve got it all set up, you’ll save a fortune in gym fees, not to mention the time you’ve been spending to get there and back again.

Just because some people spend thousands of dollars on setting up a home gym doesn’t mean you have to – although you certainly can if you wish.

You can build your own gym at home for under $1,000 – and here’s how.

There are building blocks for any home gym that won’t cost you the earth. We’ll look at the benefits of each one, whether you want to build muscle, lose weight, or tone up.

Here’s our list of essentials:

A set of resistance bands

An Olympic barbell

A squat rack (including a pull-up bar)

Rubber or iron weight plates

A skipping rope

A flat bench

A mat

A set of resistance bands

Resistance bands are one of the easiest and cheapest pieces of equipment, yet they will provide you with countless benefits. Greater flexibility, improved muscle tone, more strength, and better balance are just some of the advantages of having resistance bands as part of your home gym.

Best of all, you can integrate resistance bands into existing pieces of gym equipment to get inventive with your workouts for added variety.

There are various sizes and strengths, but a good place to start is with some hip circle bands like these at https://victoremgear.com/products/hip-circle for squats and leg lifts.

An Olympic barbell

An Olympic barbell is where you’ll want to spend your money on quality. As these bars are thicker and heavier on the ends than standard bars, they are more stable. Olympic bars are also built to fit perfectly on your weight training equipment.

A squat rack

A squat rack is where you’ll do the most basic exercises in your workout, such as pull-ups, squats, presses, and so on. You want a rack that includes a pull-up bar for maximum versatility. Look for a rack that comes with attachments to enable you to do a wide variety of exercises.

Weight plates

Weight plates can be rubber or iron. You want to get iron weight plates if your budget permits it, although rubber plates will do the job.

Have a look at online commerce sites for second-hand plates, as you can often pick up an excellent set for less money than buying new.

You may want to get bumper plates, which are more expensive. Bumper plates are quite useful if you’re doing Olympic lifts (clean and jerk or the snatch lifts). You can buy what you need for the lifts and then use iron plates for everything else.

A jump rope

A jumping rope is a perfect low-budget yet effective option for cardio training. You’ll also improve your coordination, and you can use jumping as an easy way to warm up and increase your endurance.

A flat bench

Most people think a flat bench is only useful to use with a bench press, but actually, it can be very versatile. You can use a flat bench for split squats, rows, box squats or box jumps, support for workouts with free weights, and more.

Choose a flat bench with firm padding (typically of foam) around 17 inches above the ground.

A mat

This may sound obvious, but a mat is essential for stretching and floor exercises that you might not want to do on a flat bench, such as abdominals.

You may also want to get some mats to put underneath your equipment to protect your flooring. Some people use horse stall mats for this purpose.

Optional extras

Once you get started with these basic pieces of equipment, you can add on other items. Some examples are kettlebells, exercise balls, plyo-boxes, etc.

You could give yourself an incentive such as rewarding yourself with a new piece of equipment every three months of working out consistently.

Other advantages of a home gym

In addition to saving money with no gym membership fee, you can wear whatever you want in your home gym. The only person in your gym will be you and whoever you want to work out with.

You also won’t need to bring supplements or energy foods with you, as you’ll have everything you need at home.

If you are after nutrition or training advice, you can use the money you save on enlisting the help of someone online.

You’ll also be helping the environment, as you won’t be driving to the gym!