The best way to set up a home gym is to decide what your current goal is, how you want to achieve that goal and identify the equipment that will help you achieve that goal as quickly and efficiently as possible. That’s a long sentence with a lot to unpack so let’s do it.

What’s The Best Way to Set Up a Home Gym?

I think the best way to set up a home gym is to decide on your current goal, pick a space in your home that you will use in your training, then look for equipment that will fit your needs, is safe to train on and that will keep you motivated to train regularly to achieve that goal. Once you know what type of equipment you need, you need to decide which brands will work best for you.

What the Pandemic Taught Us About Setting Up A Home Gym on a Budget

Picking Your Goal

Deciding on your fitness goals can be overwhelming especially if you’re out of shape. We want everything at once. I’m a huge fan of setting smaller goals that add up to a big overall goal. As you check off the small goals, you’re also getting closer to the larger goal. So let’s say your goal is to get in the best shape of your life. That’s way too vague so I would start with something smaller like dropping a pants size or dress size. At the same time, we might say I want to be able to get on the ground and play with the kids or walk down the stairs without knee pain. So for me the smaller temporary goals for that would be working up to walking 10,000 steps a day which is roughly about an hour of walking. You can do this either an hour straight, a thirty minute session in the morning and another in the evening or in six ten minute long sessions throughout the day. And you need to practice getting on the ground and standing up with assistance with the goal to get down and get up unassisted. That’s one example. If you’re already training, your goal can be something like competing in a sport like powerlifting or strongman for the first time or running your first obstacle course race.

I Know My Goal, Now What?

Whatever the goal is, once you know what you want to do and the steps to get there, the next step is to set up a home gym space that will help you stay consistent enough to reach the smaller goals that lead to the larger one so how to pick equipment?

Choosing The Right Equipment

• First measure your space. You need to know the length and width of the room, the height of the ceiling, the width of the doorway. Keep those measurements in mind as you search for equipment. It’s no fun to buy a squat rack and find out when it arrives that it’s too tall for your ceiling! You also don’t want to buy something used that won’t fit through your door or that’s so big that you can’t fit all of the equipment you need in that room. Some websites have virtual products that let you visualize their equipment in your space and they’re fairly easy to use. Use them.
• Kick the tires. Once you’ve identified the products you’re interested in, check the reviews of those products either on this website or others you trust, watch YouTube videos about them and then start checking availability. If possible, find a place that let’s you put your hands on equipment before you buy it so you know if it feels good to train on, equipment that works great for a person who’s over six feet tall may not feel comfortable to someone who’s only 5’5″ and vice versa.
• Finally, check the company reputations of the manufacturers of every product you intend to buy. Ask questions like: Is there a warranty? How long has this brand been around and are they likely to still be around if I have a problem that should be covered under warranty? How have they handled customer service issues? Do they offer setup and installation if you’re not handy? Are there walkthrough tutorials on YouTube if you want to put it together yourself? And this is a big one, ow easy is it to contact them? Do they have a customer service number or do you have to email them and wait? Are they available on the weekends? An easy way to check this is to reach out with product questions during the buying process. If you can’t reach them when they’re trying to get your money, they’ll be REALLY tough to find once they’ve got your money and you have bolts missing from the box they shipped you.

This Seems Like A Lot

This may seem like a lot but remember that this equipment is sometimes going to be the only thing keeping you safe and it really doesn’t take much to seriously injure you especially if you train alone. So do the same due diligence for home gym equipment that you would do for buying a used car.