Home Gym – Introduction
There are a lot of things to consider if you are thinking about building a home gym but perhaps one of the most important things is safety, particularly if you are going to train on your own. If you do not have anyone to spot for you, you need to make sure that the equipment you buy has spotter bars, such as those on the Powertec Half Rack.
How Much Will I Have To Spend?
A simple bench and some weights are probably enough to get you started but lower cost equipment may not have spotter bars and you could be risking injury. Furthermore, cheap kit will often not last the distance. That does not mean you need to break the bank to set up a useful home gym but you are probably looking at close to $500.
Space Required
You can use a small garage, a basement or a spare room for your home gym, although obviously the more space you have the better. Avoid putting your gym on an upper floor though unless the floor is reinforced – dropping a heavily loaded barbell onto a thin floor could end up in disaster.
Essential Equipment
Minimally, you need a bench, a barbell, a rack with spotter bars and some free weights. A good rack will allow you to squat, bench press and shoulder press in safety and free weights give you the flexibility to use them in many different ways.
As for your free weights, you need to think about whether to buy Olympic weights or standard weights. A lot of good quality racks will only take Olympic weights, so this might be the deciding factor. Olympic kit is sometimes a touch more expensive than non-Olympic kit but you can still get dumbbells and such to take Olympic weights, so it does not limit you in any way.
You might also consider putting some sort of cheap underlay on the floor if you are for example training in a garage with a concrete floor.
Expanding
If you have the essential equipment you will be able to have perfectly good workouts but if you have the space and money you might also consider expanding your gym at some point. A Smith machine might be a useful addition for someone training alone and you might also consider a leg press machine, a calf machine and – if it did not come with your rack – a pulley system for pull-downs, rows and such.
Always Consider …
Always think about your safety. If you are training without a partner make sure you get the right equipment to allow you to train to failure without injuring yourself! It is a good idea for absolute beginners to start off by going to a gym regardless of any plans they may have to train at home. This is because it is important to learn how to perform the various exercises correctly, which is not always as easy as it sounds.
Something like the Powertec Workbench Half Rack and some free weights is a good combination to get your home gym started with.
You need to be quite self-motivated to train on your own at home – so it is not without its challenges – but it is very convenient to be able to train when you like and get to your gym in seconds.
Mail this post
