The Why

I finally decided to invest in my own homegym. I’ve been going to a commercial gym for the past two years but lately have been slacking. I prefer to train in the morning or in the evenings. Unfortunately my gym opens at 8AM and in the evenings it’s very busy. Like queue-up-for-every-rack/bench busy. Being able to workout whenever I want to seemed pretty convenient so I sat down, did some calculations and came to the conclusion that the costs of buying everything for my home gym won’t be so bad.

Of course you also have the added convenience of not having to drive to the gym. This by itself will save me 30 minutes minimum. Don’t forget to take travel expenses into account when calculating the viability of a home gym. I can also play any music that I like

The What

My workout usually revolve around the 3 big lifts so all I really need is

• a barbell
• a bench
• a rack
• some plates

Note: If your workout calls for various specialized machines then a homegym will probably be too expensive and take up too much space.

BUY SECOND HAND! There is so much second hand gear to be found on the internet. The trick is to remain patient and wait a while before buying. First scout the various sites and get a feel for the market value of things. You can then quite easily pick out good deals. For me, interesting deals popped up about once a week and therefore bough most if not all of my stuff online.

Rubber vs. steel

I say go for steel plates. The only exception being for Olympic lifting in which case bumpers are necessary. Steel plates will be cheap, last forever and can be easily sold later on for a decent amount of money. It’s also doable to buy rough and beaten-up looking steel plates and giving them some TLC to return them to their former glory. You can find many guides online but it usually consists of

1. Clean the plates rust/dirt with a cloth and some mineral spirit
2. Apply a coat of primer (optional)
3. Spray on a hammered paint

You can even detail the original lettering with some nail polish.

Expensive barbell

The general advice is to not be cheap on the barbell. This is your main tool and you will be using it a lot. Having a nice knurling, appropriate flexibility and longevity of the bar will make your training much more pleasurable. If you can find a good barbell second hand, first make sure it’s in good condition:

• Is the knurling still in good condition and does it provide enough grip? Check the outer sides of the knurling where the bar usually rests on the j-hooks of the rack. This is usually a good indication on the amount of use the barbell has seen.
• Make sure the sleeves of the barbell still turn smoothly without any severe friction.
• Is the barbell perfectly straight?
• Are the ends of the barbell capped or does it contain a bolt like shown below. Bolts using indicate a cheaper barbell.

Here’s an example of a higher quality barbell which has a cap on the end. This caps makes sure no dirt can enter the inside of the sleeves. High quality barbells rely on bearings for the turning motion and any dirt could prevent these bearings from functioning properly.

All barbells can withstand weights up to a certain, specified limit. If you are just starting out the limits of a cheaper barbell will probably be just fine. If you are a more advanced lifter it might be necessary to check these specifications but if you are an advanced lifter I wouldn’t need to be telling you this :)

The Rack

Probably the most important piece of equipment you can get. Some things to look out for

• Make you the specified weight limit fits your needs
• Test out the hole spacing. If the hole spacing is too big sometimes you will need to unrack/re-rack at a unfortunate position which can be dangerous.
• Does the rack have room for plate storage? If not you might need to buy additional plate storage for convenience.
• Does it have a nice pull up bar?

The Bench

It’s definitely nice to have an adjustable bench as it opens up some exercises. However, I don’t consider it strictly necessary, a flat bench can suffice just fine. I also made sure the bench could handle the weights I was lifting. I obviously don’t want the bench to break while I’m holding a lot of weight. Also make sure the padding is not too soft and that it’s wide enough so it supports your upper back properly.

Floor material

There are many tutorials on building lifting platforms online. This is a good tutorial by Brandon Campbell, if you can stand the sexual puns.

A extra tip I can give is the use of rubber playground tiles for sound dampening. These thick but reasonably soft rubber tiles make great deadlift matting/blocks and they cushion the fall perfectly. I had problems with sound and even vibrations using the traditional stall mats and these tiles (which were dirt cheap second hand) fixed the problem entirely.

Misc

• Don’t underestimate weight storage. Having to pick up plates of the floor starts to get old real fast. Having the plates stored on the rack is super convenient because you can just slide them off and on to the barbell.

• Resistance bands can provide lots of additional exercises and I can highly recommend them. They are awesome for warm-up and stretching/mobility exercises. You can definitely do some tricep or row work but they miss the consistent tension you get with an actual pulley.

My gym

Set up the rack

Got the flooring down. Two layers of MDF and stall mat.

Final product. Notice the use of the playground rubber tiles instead of the stall mat.