What You Need In A Home Gym.

Reading Time: 5 minutes

If you’re like me, owning a home gym has always been a pipe dream.

Something about having to rummage through my dresser to find a matching set of gym clothes, lace up my Nikes, and grab all of the necessary items for having a good workout (my gym bag, a shaker cup, and headphones – if I remember) can get tedious.

I’ve always thought, wouldn’t it just be so much easier to simply walk a couple of feet out of my garage door onto a fresh set of rubber mats and have a private training empire there waiting for me? All of the equipment cleaned, untouched, and at the ready. Beckoning for me to use it to strengthen and challenge my body through training.

After years of having this recurring dream, a week ago I finally pulled the trigger.

I made the leap and placed an order with Rogue Fitness (the creme-de-la-creme of strength training equipment) to transform half of our 20′ x 20′ two-car garage into my own private weight-lifting monastery. Complete with a power rack, 335lbs of plates, kettlebells from 25lbs to 40kg, and enough training tools to keep any iron-junkie salivating at the mouth. It arrived via forklift from a big freighter truck and I excitedly had it assembled in two days.

My investment (notice my choice of words) set me back give or take $3600.

That’s a steep price. But don’t be daunted. I chose only the best equipment and cut no corners with choosing tools that I knew would last and benefit me for years to come.

If you’re wanting to build a home-set up, you really don’t need to drop this amount. Whatsoever. In fact, you can start with a set of resistance bands. Or a single kettlebell.

The equipment that you own doesn’t matter nearly as much as your intention and your proficiency in using it.

Depending on your fitness level, here is what I recommend:

• (Beginner set-up) A sturdy set of resistance bands – light, medium, heavy
• (Average set-up) Bands + adjustable dumbbells OR a kettlebell from 16kg-24kg
• (Advanced set-up) Bands + dumbbells/kettlebell + barbell and plates up to 225+lbs

With just these few things alone and with the right training program in place, I fully believe that you can go much further than the majority of people actually realize.

Enough so that the hectic, crowded, unpredictable nature of a commercial gym seems almost ridiculous based on the level of training that you can get done from the comfort of your own home. I’m a solid believer of home-based training (done the right way).

I’ve had the opportunity to see first-hand the effectiveness of training at home with these tools. For many of my online clients, we work either partially or fully from their homes with the things mentioned above. With the right plan and intention, this is more than enough to lay down a solid foundation of functional strength and muscle mass.

For many of my clients, I’ll even ship them what they need to hit it from home.

Doing this, my clients and I have been able to achieve some incredible outcomes. This was especially the case during the past few years of isolation “stay-at-home” mandates and having to get creative with home training in the absence of open gym facilities.

Put simply, here’s what I really want to convey about home gyms.

An at-home gym at the end of the day is whatever you make it. It can be as big or as small, as expensive or as cost-efficient, as simple or as loaded-out as you want it to be.

What truly matters the most? Your ability to adapt your training and your efforts to what you DO have available and having a plan in place that facilitates progress.