Starting a home gym has great benefits and, depending on your fitness goals, it can be very affordable.
Before you start – What are your fitness goals?
There are two ways to look at the pros and cons of building your own fitness centre at home. Let’s get the negative out of the way. Psychologists suggest that creating a workout regimen at home, an environment associated with relaxation, may be difficult to adjust to.
Therefore, there’s a high likelihood that money will be wasted setting up a home gym you may end up not using effectively. The other perspective is, burning cash on home training equipment is less of an accountability factor than committing to a 12-month contract with a reputable gym.
All of this is true and should weigh heavily on your decision-making process. However, there are great positives to starting a home gym as well. For one, having workout equipment within arm’s reach could increase your motivation to keep training.
This removes obstacles that may have been hindering your progress all along. As James Clear, author of the best-selling book Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results, says, the only way to break down bad habits to pave the way for new ones is to prime your environment “to make future actions easier.”
“Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: ‘How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?’ Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do,” he writes.
The starting point to a lifelong commitment to your health and fitness is finding out what your goals are. You may only want to tone down and not gain in mass. Or, you may want to grow and chisel your muscles.
Either way, a crucial consideration would be to determine what it is you want to achieve before investing money into it. Sure, muscle recovery hurts but nothing is more painful than wasted expenditure — if you’re a cheapskate like me, anyway.
What you need to start a home gym
So, you have come this far into the article. Therefore, it is reasonable to presume that you are ready to find out what exactly it is you need to start your own home gym.
Well, first and foremost, the most crucial must-have is… space.
There are many ways to approach home training but, we are specifically talking about a home gym, where you will need a dedicated area in your property where your workout equipment will be situated.
Back to psychology, creating a space reserved for specific activity plays a huge role in keeping you motivated and consistent. Clear would agree that placing your equipment in the same room you sleep in may not produce wanted results.
If space allows, try to find an area on your property where you will start your home gym. While there are countless options to try based on your fitness goals, here is a list of the basic equipment you will need to get started:
- Bench: A multi-faceted piece of equipment that is essential for strength and cardio training
- Jump rope: If you can afford it, then replace this with a treadmill, but a jump rope will provide the same, if not greater, results
- Kettlebell: Essential for strength and advanced cardio training
- Dumbbells: Start out with two or three weight classes and add more as your fitness improves
- Barbell: This is not essential as a beginner but can go a long way in improving your strength training
It’s important to note that this list is for beginners who want to limit their risk of investing in a home gym. The fitness market has an exhaustive list of advanced equipment. Our recommendation, however, is to start small and work your way up. You are not only building a new body, but new habits as well and the latter is a much harder challenge.
How much will it cost to start a home gym?
Now, let’s talk numbers. How much it will cost you to start a home gym depends entirely on your fitness goals. There is more than one way to approach the project.
If, for example, your goal is to lose weight first and thereafter start building muscle, then you would invest in cardio-intensive equipment first, before throwing your money into the serious stuff.
Fitness outlets have made it easier for customers to purchase gym equipment. These days, you will most likely come across ‘starter kits’ with a selection of workout equipment that meets your specific need.
Strength trainers, for example, are targeted with barbell starter kits that include the weight bar, a bench and weight plates for as little as R5 000. In comparison, cardio enthusiasts can find a starter kit that includes a foldable yoga mat, weighted jump rope, pull-up bars and a slam ball for a minimum of R6 000.
Here is a list of items you can source individually to start your home gym:
Strength training
- Adjustable weight bench
- Weight plates set
- Barbell bars
- Dumbbells
Cardio training
- Foldable yoga mat
- Slam ball
- Weighted jump rope
- Fitness sandbag
- Mounted pull-up bar
- Situp bench
DISCLAIMER: Always consult your medical doctor or physician before you take on any new training regimen. Swisher Post News, its parent company and partners accept no responsibility or liability for any consequence that results from attempting the tips and suggestions listed in this article.
