Recently, my husband and I have turned a spare part of our basement family room into a home gym. By moving clutter out of half the family room, we’re better utilizing otherwise wasted space and reducing the amount oftime (and money) we have to spend in search of a good daily workout.
Necessary Equipment
Once we decided to make our home gym, we needed to decide what our “must haves” were. Mindful of our budget (modest), we focused on the equipment that we would commonly use. While some things sounded like a “nice to have”, we didn’t want to clutter our floor space (or reduce our bank account) by buying extras that would justcollect dust. We also didn’t have the room to turn our workout room into a world-class gym with every bit of equipment imaginable “just in case”.
We decided the must haves were a treadmill, a stationary bike, a set of free weights and an “aerobic” areawhere both of us could workout to our favorite DVD programs.
Equipment Features
Here are some important features we kept in mind while shopping for equipment:
- Treadmills: We made sure the treadmill was liked would fit in the space we had for it. We also needed to make sure that it fit both of our stride length and that it had the functions we wanted, such as the ability to do inclines.
- Stationary Bike: Making sure the bike would both of us (adjustable seat!) and be comfortable to sit on “for the duration” was really important to us. We didn’t want a wobbly, uncomfortable platform; sturdy was key. We also wanted a built-in heart rate monitor and the ability to customize our workouts and store them individually.
- Free Weights: Because our space was on the smaller side, we opted for a set of dumbbells rather than the classic Olympic weight set. We even found a great wooden rack to store them on, all on Craigslist!
Speaking of Craigslist, it’s a great source to find gently used equipment. A lot of people buy exercise equipment and end up underutilizing them, or turning them into a glorified towel rack. That’s why we made sure we were committed before making the plunge.
For proper floor cushioning, we used interlocking cushion panels on top of the existing floor and set up a wall-mounted, pivoting flat panel TV (another inexpensive Craigslist find!) hooked to a DVD player. A smallradio with an iPod dock lets me make my own workout tunes mix and play it back while I use the machines. It’s great!
With just a small budget and a weekend of elbow grease, plus some careful bargain hunting, we’ve made our own we made a boring storage spot into a great place to work out. Now we’re both meeting our weight loss and fitness goals!
Now it’s your turn. Have you made a home gym? What did you find most challenging about it? Share your story!
About the Author
Melissa Cameron is a married mother of two young children. She enjoys finding new ways to meet her fitness goals for 2011, and is excited to be using her new home gym as well. While pursuing diet options, she looked into Medifast coupons and a Nutrisystem review.
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