4 Things To Do When Planning Your Home Gym

Home gym equipment is awesome. And I’ve almost across the board been happy every time I got a new piece in the garage. But occasionally something falls flat. Sometimes it takes a few months, sometimes days, sometimes you know right away. Today we are going to share the advice of real home gym owners, and what their biggest regrets were so you know how to NAIL Planning Your Home Gym.

Buy Once, Cry Once

This is a very common comment in the home gym world. I think budget equipment has a place, and sometimes we oversell the need for high end stuff. I ran a full experiment about budget barbells a few years back to prove this exact point. But there is definitely a piece to the puzzle here about buying the right thing, not the thing you can afford right now.

Often times, if we’ve done our research, we’ve narrowed down our ideal purchases based on the equipment we want, the features, you name it. But sometimes we choose to buy that other thing “for now” in the hopes that we’ll save some cash. But spending money on something you will eventually upgrade, is a waste of money. So my advice, and the advice of others, is to either bite the bullet now, or save up and get the thing you want. Just make sure you actually NEED it, or at the very least, REALLY want it.

Space Is King

I’ve written entire articles on space and storage in the home gym. So this one jives with me. Sometimes the best option, isn’t the best option, because of space. Bench attachments are a fantastic example of this. We’ve owned almost every single leg developer attachment for adjustable benches over the years, including preacher curl attachments as well, even belt squats and more. The best ones are still far from perfect.

And a good dedicated piece would kick their butt any day of the week. But my garage has absolutely no space for a dedicated leg machine, preacher curl, decline sit up, GHD, you get it. But I can have all the attachments stored easily away, have machines like the Hyper Pro that fold up and out of the way. Have multi faceted benches that do a lot. And otherwise plan out my space so that I’m not making bad decisions.

Don’t settle for mediocre, but also don’t squander the most precious resource you have, space.

Ease Of Use Matters

Some equipment, like the Bulletproof Isolator, is a wonder of design and development. They did a fantastic job with all the twists, turns, finishing touches, and more. But the set up time is abysmal. And you need specific layouts in your gym to make it work consistently. And theyve added about 406 different attachments to make it better, which all take up space, time, and… you get it.

Sometimes the best things are the simplest. If something takes more than a few seconds to get into place, set up, and used correctly, it probably just won’t get used past that first honeymoon period.

Buy The Right Fit For YOUR Home Gym

My gym has me at 6ft 250lbs, my wife who is 6 inches and 100lbs lighter, my daughter, her friends, their parents, and my mom regularly lifting in it. We have enough equipment to accommodate all of them at their different sizes, shapes, and experience levels. So our gym has a few options for most things. Yours doesn’t need that. If you have one athlete, your gym can be a lot more streamlined. Make sure when you check reviews, when you look at products, you understand their intended use, how you plan to use it, and how it would function in your gym.

There are a number of awesome pieces that I have no way of adding to my space due to my platform, my rack, parking my car in the garage, etc.

Planning Your Home Gym Wrap Up

There are a lot of things to consider, but the above will help you make some solid decisions.