Best Home Gym Equipment Guide
Designing a home gym can be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Unlike a commercial gym where things are mostly kept pretty drab and neutral, your home gym can totally reflect your life and your personality, and it should. The fun thing about a home gym is that it can be both functional in its ability to offer a great workout with plenty of open space, and as stylish as you want it to be. Home gyms come in many different shapes and sizes with a lot depending on the square footage that is available, the shape of the room, and whether or not the room serves only as a gym or if the room serves other purposes as well. Whatever space you have to work with, the idea is to make it your own little haven, a place that you will desire to retreat to day after day in an effort to keep your body healthy and fit.
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Plenty of storage
When you have a gym inside your home, it is nice to have it stay as cleaned up as possible in between uses. Having a way to store loose items or individual equipment pieces is a must. This can be done in a number of ways. Shelves or built in cabinets can be used, or special equipment racks can be purchased that can store different types of equipment.
Mirrors
Having mirrors is definitely a personal preference. Some people like them and some people don’t. This may not even be feasible if the home gym room also serves another purpose in the house, but for home gyms where the room is designated solely to being a home gym, mirrors can be a great addition. Not only do they give a feeling of roominess, but they can also offer a way to check technique and lifting form, and provide a little motivation to keep working hard to achieve the fitness goals and objectives that you desire.
Plenty of Open Space
Every home gym should include an adequate amount of open space. Having the freedom to do various exercises standing, sitting, or even laying down and the ability to take the body through a full range of motion is super important. Not only that, but if workout videos are included in your fitness program, you will need a little bit of space to move it, move it!
TV and Music
One of the best things about building your own home gym is that now you have full control of the external stimuli! You can listen to and watch whatever you want. If you feel a TV is a must for you, be sure to place it in a spot that is visible from most pieces of equipment that you have, especially cardio pieces that you are likely to spend large chunks of time on during your workout. Also, be sure that DVD players and any other operating devices are in a convenient, safe, yet easy to access location.
Protect the Floor
Whether your flooring is tile, carpet, wood or whatever, you will want to do your best to protect it and ensure that nothing will compromise the quality with multiple workouts performed day after day. Even more important is finding a type of flooring that will protect YOU through numerous workouts over a long period of time. Flooring that will protect your joints with just the right cushion or firmness can go a long way in keeping you safe and injury free. It is also a good idea to put additional flooring under heavy pieces of equipment where even the slightest shifting could result and damage your permanent flooring. Check out this article with more tips on how to pick the best flooring for your home gym.
Color
This is another one where options may be limited if your designated home gym also serves as another main room in your home, but none the less, color can be comforting and motivating. If you have the option of painting the walls that make up your home gym area, you may want to consider what various colors bring to the table. Sages and greens will bring the outdoors inside to you, black and white provide an urban-type feel, yellows will transform a cold, dark room into a bright and warm place to work out, and blues lend themselves to a beach environment.
Wall Décor
This is where you can really let the creative juices flow and totally interject your personality into the whole setup. Home gym décor will increase determination, motivation, and will provide an environment that you want to be in day after day. Why not decorate walls with favorite athletes, sayings, motivating pictures, pictures from past sporting events and teams, inspiring artwork, and the list goes on and on. Another favorite is hanging a big white board with accompanying dry erase markers. You can list workouts, goals, reminders, and anything else you want to keep you organized, on track, and motivated. You can even incorporate some shelving to house your trophies or other special memorabilia from the present or past. Take the time to decide what gets you excited to get fit, and then put it all around your new home gym!
Convenience
Be sure to keep all equipment easily accessible. Even if some equipment is put away in a closet or on a shelf, it needs to be simple to get out and put to use. If it is a major process each time you get your home gym ready to use, and items are difficult to get set up, chances are you will be less and less in the mood to go through the hassle of getting it all out every day. And if we are talking about convenience, why not add a mini fridge giving super quick access to water, protein shakes, and even sports drinks. You can even keep towels and antibacterial sprays and cleaners close by for an easy way to keep things clean and looking nice.
Space Saving Equipment
There are amazing home gym pieces for rooms of all shapes and sizes. Corner pieces, big home gym systems, small home gym systems, functional trainers, and lots and lots of accessories and training devices to get you in the best shape of your life.
Access to Daylight
Even the most roomy home gyms seem just a little bigger with some sort of view to the outside world, and this can be particularly refreshing with long, slow-go cardio workouts. A workout can seem twice as long if the most interesting thing you have to look at is an empty wall. Something about a view of outdoor scenery can be relaxing, motivating, and rejuvenating all at the same time, especially during a long, boring cardio session.
Creating your home gym can be a fun and absolutely rewarding project. You can design and decorate your home gym to suite you perfectly. For more great home gym ideas and tips on how to set up the best gym in your home, click here.
