Home Gyms

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted just how useful a home gym can be when access to the outdoors is limited. This became most evident when people could not access buildings, facilities and destinations outside their homes.

This curfew resulted in more people seeking out home gyms, whether they include a few items or are fully-fledged gym setups with intricate settings and a wide range of equipment.

Many people have since seen the benefits of having some proper gym equipment at home. This makes fitness goals easier and more practical to achieve as it cuts out on the disconnect between being at home and attending the gym.

Here is everything you need to know about home gyms.

What is a home gym?

A home gym is described as a compact set of equipment tailored to help you perform many physical exercises within one station in your home. 

This set of equipment is designed to fit somewhere in your home, such as:

• a garage, 
• a basement, and
• a spare room 

big enough for you to do some weight training and cardio in the comfort of your surroundings.

What equipment is found in a home gym?

Some of the most popular equipment in home gyms include:

• Stacked metal weights fitted with pin selection for different loads
•  Adjustable exercise benches that recline
• Pulldown bars
• Press bars
•  Seated cable row systems
• Treadmills
• Sets of dumbbells
•  Exercise balls
• Exercise mats
• Barbells
• Weight plates

While these are the most common fixtures in a home gym, you can include whatever equipment that fits your physical space, exercise needs, and budget.

Consider your fitness goals and commitment to help you decide what gym equipment you want in your home gym. 

After all, you don’t want to go through the hustle of acquiring many expensive items just to have them lying around unused, do you?

Contact a fitness expert and discuss your fitness goals. You may discover that you only need a few items that can be used in different ways to achieve optimal strength and fitness training.

Suppose your goals involve general fitness levels, muscle tone, and weight management. In that case, you should consider equipment like aerobic steps, dumbbells, an adjustable bench, exercise mats, and a fitness ball.

You can add tubes and resistance bands to guarantee a setup that offers flexibility and variety at a relatively affordable cost.

On the other hand, if you are well-versed in fitness equipment, start by acquiring what you use the most. You can then add the other stuff slowly over time to maintain a budget and arrange all your equipment neatly in your space.

Why should you have a home gym?

Even if you have an active gym membership at an established facility with certified physical trainers, you will undoubtedly find that having some equipment at home offers some significant advantages.

Many circumstances can interfere with consistent access to a conventional gym. This may include rough weather conditions, work commitments, attending to family affairs and any other unavoidable situations that do not grant you the freedom to attend gym sessions.

On those days, you will find a lot of value in maintaining consistency with your workout regimen. Even though you may not work out as comprehensively without your trainer present, having a home gym will allow you to keep working out.

This is important from a physical perspective and applies to fitness psychology. You may feel discouraged or demotivated when you cannot maintain your workout regimen.

Having a home gym will allow you to stay mentally tuned to your physical exercises, mainly because you always have access to some workout equipment as and when needed.

An excellent example of how home gyms contribute to good mental and physical health is seen when looking back at the events that followed the COVID-19 outbreak on a global scale.

Health authorities advised people to stay home, not just for their own good but also for that of others in society. 

The result was that people spent a lot of time at home, which took a huge mental toll on them.

Those with home gyms could keep up their physical exercise regimen, which helped them take their minds away from the numbing monotony of staying in the same restricted environment day after day.

Scientific evidence has proven that physical exercise boosts baseline moods and decreases symptoms of anxiety and depression. Exercise also relieves stress and kicks up endorphin levels, increasing the chances of happiness and euphoria.

Being able to relieve stress and improve your moods while feeling physically healthy is incredible to have within your home. 

Therefore, consider home gyms for their potential benefits to physical and mental health.

How much space do you need?

The last thing you want to do is to go out and buy lots of expensive equipment before returning home to find that your new acquisitions do not fit the available space.

To prevent this from happening, you need to measure the space you have at home. Using these dimensions, you need to compare them to the measurements of any gym equipment you plan to acquire.

This is particularly important with exercise units requiring some assembly and enough space around them when performing specific exercises. 

Factoring in the space you need when working out will prevent any knocks and bruises when a wall or another piece of equipment impedes your range of movement.

Conclusion

A home gym should feature exercise equipment you regularly use to maintain a consistent physical exercise regimen. Home gyms have many benefits, such as physical health and improved mental health status.

Do internet research to determine what you may need and the price margins, and map these out to your available space.