How to Plan a Home Workout Gym

Choosing equipment carefully is important in setting up a home gym.

Exercise has many benefits: it can help you lose weight, gain strength and endurance, increase muscle tone, even improve your mood and ability to deal with stress. For many people, getting regular exercise means joining a gym. However, if you have room in your house and have the time, energy and money to do it, you can design your own home workout gym and get in shape at home. Home gyms are convenient, private, and best of all, they're always open.

Things You'll Need

• Tape measure
• Paper
• Pen or pencil

Instructions

Determining Your Fitness Goals

1. Meet with a personal trainer or your doctor, or both, to determine your current level of fitness. These people will work with you to determine what your fitness path should be. If you have any injuries or medical conditions that may affect your ability to do certain exercises, discuss these with them.

2. Write your personal training plan out on paper. Include specific exercises that you will be completing.

3. Use your list of exercises to determine which pieces of equipment are vital to your fitness goals. This list will become your buying guide for supplying your home gym. Some staples are weights, cardio machines, and a bench of some kind.

Selecting and Preparing the Room

1. Decide which room in your house you will be using. Ideally, a home workout gym will be on the ground floor or in the basement. People sometimes build home workout gyms in their garages as well. Choose a room that can be accessed conveniently. Workout equipment is heavy. Make sure that you will be able to get your equipment into that room with relative ease.

2. Measure the room using the tape measure. Make sure that it has enough space to house the equipment on your list. Also make sure that there is enough room for you to do all the activities that you want to do. Write down the dimensions of the room and the door to the room on your paper. Also note the dimensions of any hallways or other rooms leading the gym room.

3. Empty the room. Your home workout gym will function best if it is dedicated solely to your fitness goals and is not cluttered by excess junk. This will also give you the space you need to keep your home workout gym organized.

4. Clear the floor. Most gyms have hard flooring of some kind. Concrete (painted or bare) or some kind of poured flooring is preferable to tile or hardwood, as it is easier to clean, harder to damage and resists stains. You may wish to protect the floor with "gym flooring mats." Gym flooring mats are interlocking foam squares that protect your floor and provide padding for your weights and your body. They are also easy to clean.

5. Inspect the walls. If you want to paint them, do it before you bring in any gym mat flooring or make any changes to the floor.

Setting Up the Gym

1. Acquire your home workout gym equipment. Amazon.com and eBay both have extensive offerings of new and used equipment. Craigslist can also be a good place to find used exercise equipment. The drawback to using Craigslist is that there is no guarantee of what condition the equipment will be in and you will most likely need to transport the equipment to your house yourself. One major advantage of ordering directly from a supplier is that when the equipment is delivered, the delivery agent will usually bring it directly into the home workout gym. Use the dimensions that you wrote down to make sure that all equipment that you buy will actually fit in your gym room and be able to make it through all hallways and doorways along the route.

2. Arrange the equipment. Choose a layout that makes sense to you. Keep dumbbells together in ordered pairs. Keep the barbell and all associated weights together near the rack or bench that they are associated with. Make ample room for any floor exercises that you intend to do.

3. Add accessories. If having a TV or radio in your home workout gym will enhance your experience and make your more likely to work out on a regular basis, then add one. You may also wish to add motivational posters or a white board to track your progress and plan out new routines.

Tips & Warnings

• Give yourself plenty of time to hunt for workout equipment and get the best deal and the best quality that you can afford. Don't buy something you are not sure of just because you are in a rush to get set up.

• Make your home workout gym as inviting as possible to encourage yourself to exercise more regularly. Your home workout gym should be a fun place that you want to go to, not a torture chamber that you dread.

• Weight-bearing exercises and high-intensity cardiovascular exercises both carry inherent risks. Always follow a doctor's advice and heed all warnings on all exercise equipment when training.

References

• "The Men's Health Home Workout Bible"; Lou Schuler, Michael Mejia; 2002