Home Gyms: How to Set Up The Best Home Gym to Get a Lean, Toned Body, Fast!

by John Carter
Filed under Featured Exercise Equipment, Most Popular Featured Articles

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Needs

If You Have The Space & Budget, Your Luxury Home Gym Awaits! If You Have The Space & Budget, Your Luxury Home Gym Awaits!

The first step to creating the ideal in home gym is to evaluate two things:

What you need
What you have to work with

Exercise goals are as many and varied as exercisers themselves so if you clearly define yours, they’ll help you to plan your workout strategies and ultimately achieve faster & higher levels of health and fitness. Vaguely outlined, they too often set us up for disappointment.

When considering what you have to work with, we mean that you should consider your available space, your budget, and your own physical limitations (for example, if you have joint problems, you’ll want to consider low-impact equipment to minimize the stress on your joints).

For Beginners

Maybe you have just recently decided to start working out with the goal of “getting in shape.” Well, kudos to you on making this positive life decision; but now it’s time to more clearly define what achieving your goal will actually mean.

How do you go about “getting in shape”? What shape are you getting in to? A better defined goal for beginners might go something like this: “I want to lose 15 pounds by the beginning of August, see definition and tone in my arms and legs and butt, and fit into a size x waist trousers or size x dress.

The essentials in your home gym should include a cardio machine (which we’ll discuss in more detail later on), and a strength/resistance training setup. If you’re looking for something that is compact and fairly easy to use, a multi-gym will be a great choice for your strength training workouts or a simple bench and a set of dumbbells is a great starting point.

One of the great benefits of starting (or improving) your own home gym now is that there is always room to build and expand in the future, when space and budget allow it.

For Experienced Exercisers

For those of you who already have strength training and cardio exercise experience under your belts, now is an equally good time to set new goals and redefine existing ones. Your goals should reflect your better understanding of training and focus more on body fat loss, body fat percentage, physical measurements and maybe weight lifted (if you are going for strength in particular).

One of the great benefits for you of starting (or improving) your home gym is that you have some knowledge of what works for you and what you need to work on to hit your fitness goals. A home gym is a great boost for breaking out of that plateau you’ve probably hit.

As you’ll no doubt be exercising more frequently, it’s a good time to look for more robust exercise equipment to help you meet those goals.

A Quality Weights, Bench & Power Rack Will Deliver Fast Results

A Quality Weights, Bench & Power Rack Will Deliver Fast Results

For Serious Lifters & Bodybuilders

Serious lifters will want as close to a full free weights setup as possible. This will include dumbbells, adjustable barbells—for combined mass and versatility— a bench, and a power rack. Higher level options and upgrades can include heavier weights or weight plates. If strength and size are your major weight room goals, free weights will offer unlimited and unparalleled opportunity for growth and progression.

However, there are also some heavy-hitting multi-gyms available for extreme users and bodybuilders and if you have the space for these, they could be a good choice. This is especialy so if you have joint problems as a multigym will help guide the heavier weight through a correct range of motion. This avoids putting extra strain on your joints as they try to stabilize the weight during the exercise. Something to consider.

As a serious lifter, you’ll also want to consider some more specialized accessories such as lifting gloves & straps, mats, and specialized bars etc. Have a look at our feature article on choosing the best weights setup for more details.

Step 1 Summary

Your goals, and what you have to work with, will help you decide how best to equip your home gym, which exercise equipment will fit your space & budget and will help you achieve those goals.

For 99.9% of people, it will come down to 2 major things:

Equipment which will give you a strength/resistance/weights workout with the flexibility to grow with you as you get fitter or stronger
Equipment which will give you a good cardio/aerobic fat-burning workout

We’ll go over the options to consider later in this article, and we’ll go into much more detail about the different equipment choices in our feature articles. But, if you already know pretty much what you want and just want a shortcut straight to the details and our recommendations, here’s where to find them:

Treadmills: How to choose the best treadmill to blast calories fast

Exercise Bikes: How to choose the best exercise bike for fat blasting leg ripping cardio workouts

Elliptical Trainer: How to choose the best elliptical trainer for fat blasting cardio workouts

Rowing Machines: How to choose the best rowing machine for intense full body cardio and strength training

Multi Gyms: How to choose the best multi gym for a ripped toned body

Weights, Bench, Power Racks: How to choose the best Weights, Bench, & Power Rack for the lean ripped body you’ve always wanted

Step 2: Choose Your Space

The Room

Choosing the specific location of your home gym is one of the most important parts of this process, as the space you have to work with may dictate, to a large degree, what your gym will look like. If you have an extra bedroom in the house, unused garage space or basement, the decision may be an easy one. If your options are a bit more limited, you may need to spend more time to create the space you need.

Ventilation

You’ll want a space that can be easily cooled and ventilated: rooms with fans and opening windows make great workout spaces. Not only will these features prevent your workout area from getting overly hot and stuffy when you’re working, but the fresh air and sunlight they let in will actually make you more alert and
focused;leading to better workouts.

Beneath Your Feet

Gym Mats Can Protect You And Your Equipment Gym Mats Can Protect You And Your Equipment

The floor in your workout space is also an important consideration. Concrete is generally fine for weight lifting although we’d recommend covering this with shock absorbing mats, especially as it can do a number on your knees even on a treadmill.

Carpet will do if you’re on a budget although this may get slippy when damp (and who wants to work out on a sweaty carpet!). Specially designed gym mats are available at reasonable prices. You can buy various sizes to fit just the area you need and you can always add to them as your gym expands in size and you add more equipment. Some come with interlocking edges, like a giant puzzle piece, and a vast array of colours!

Also, by using good quality floor mats, you’ll reduce the risk of damaging your equipment and it will be far more pleasant for those exercises which involve lying on the floor!

Space Saving Options

Many people think they simply don’t have enough room in their living space to allow for a home gym. With modern workout equipment, however, space limitations are much less of a consideration than they once were. If “nowhere to put it” is your primary reason for not investing in home workout equipment, it’s time to realize that you are only making excuses. And excuses never produce results. There are fold-up & fold-away options for both multi-gyms and for cardio equipment.

Step 3: Choosing Your Equipment

Helping You To Make Simple Decisions

Once you’ve evaluated your needs and space. You can then decide what types of equipment you really want, and choose the pieces that make sense. To help you, we’ve outlined the main pieces of equipment below and, once you’ve decided what you want, you can get more detail in our feature articles where we even make recommendations for you. How much easier could it be?

Shop for Value

Whilst you may be tempted to buy second hand equipment, purchasing new equipment for your home gym has a number of advantages. The most important reason is safety. How do you know if second-hand pre-owned equipment hasn’t been abused? How can you be sure it is safe to use?

Weight-lifting equipment can easily get almost invisible metal fractures if thrown around or mistreated and the last thing you need is tens of pounds of metal dropping on you in mid exercise!

Cardio equipment can become worn, bearings can break, and motors can burn out. In short, you just don’t know what you might be buying. Is it really worth risking your safety for the sake of a few bucks?

Buying new means you know your equipment hasn’t been mistreated by anyone else and you are the first person to use it. Peace of mind in anyone’s book.

Warranties, financing, and payment plans are some of the other positive reasons to buy new. Then, of course, there is the benefit of getting exactly what you want. You can order the exercise equipment of your dreams on-line today, and have it delivered to your door—and be working out— tomorrow!

So, let’s start by considering which cardio equipment would suit you best.

Step 4: Choose Your Cardio Equipment

In shopping for a cardio machine, you have a simple range to choose from: treadmill, bike, elliptical trainer, and rower. Whether you’re looking for a low impact workout or a machine capable of pushing your body to its limits with high intensity interval training, there is a cardio machine out there for you.

Read our overview here to get a feeling for which cardio exercise equipment you think suits you and then go to the feature article for that machine to read more and get our recommendations.

Treadmills

Treadmills Are The Most Popular Piece of Home Gym Equipment in the United States

It’s no surprise that the treadmill is the most popular piece of home gym equipment in the United States according to the National Sporting Goods Association.

For absolute beginners, treadmills can be used for walking instead of running so you can easily get a great workout, and as there are options to increase both speed and incline very gradually, you can create a great workout program to get fitter with ease.

Of course, running on a treadmill is a fantastic cardio workout and whether you’re a seasoned runner or a rookie with a dream of completing the Boston Marathon (or anywhere in between, for that matter), nothing gives you true-to-life running experience like a treadmill.

If you’re a bodybuilder, a treadmill is a great way to get that all essential cardio in – maybe whilst reading the latest copy of your favourite bodybuilding magazine!

If space is an issue for you, many home treadmills have a foldaway option and can easily be wheeled to a discreet location for storage between workouts. Non-folding treadmills, however, tend to be sturdier and better suited to larger users or higher intensity workouts.

Walking or running on a treadmill is recognized as an extremely effective cardio workout with the advantage that the treadmill track is slightly cushioned so is less wearing on your joints than pounding the pavement outside.

Easy to use and very effective, no wonder they are so popular. Is this the machine for you? If it is, click here to read our detailed treadmill guide and our recommended treadmill review.
Elliptical Trainers

Elliptical Trainers Offer Low Impact Highly Effective Workouts

For many people with knee or ankle problems, the elliptical trainer is a godsend. And add in the arm exercise that the better devices give you and you move much closer to a full body workout – all with low impact on your joints.

With elliptical machines, also known as cross-trainers or orbital trainers, you do need to look for quality. There is nothing worse than trying to use a machine with foot rests which are too small or one with flimsy handles. And trying to use an elliptical trainer where the resistance control is in the wrong place is a complete waste of time – probably why so many of these stand in a corner draped with drying washing!

Some elliptical machines have programs which makes the resistance increase as your legs pick up speed or on a timed basis, so that you can focus on getting a workout, rather than adjusting speed and resistance settings all the time. Additionally, elliptical machines are easy enough to use and can be powerful enough to provide a terrific workout for any fitness level.

Easy to use, low impact, and a very effective total body (almost) workout – is this the machine for you? If it is, click here to read our detailed elliptical trainer guide and our recommended elliptical trainer review.

Stationary Bikes

Elliptical Trainers Offer Low Impact Highly Effective Workouts

Riding a stationary bike is very low impact, which can save weaker joints, but also has huge potential for building muscle size and strength in the lower body. This in turn can result in great long-term weight reduction as you target some of the biggest muscles in the body and turn them into fat burning machines. Bill Thomas of Body-for-Life fame describes how he used his exercise bike for his cardio workouts with outstanding results!

Let’s face it, if you’ve ever watched cyclists on the TV (Lance Armstrong springs to mind), when was the last time you saw a fat one? Bike workouts obviously work!

And with the advent of ‘spinning’ (a type of high intensity interval training for bikes) the exercise bike has once again become a popular piece of exercise equipment.

If a stationary bike is your choice for cardio, you’ll want to check out user height specifications to make sure that you’ll be able to comfortably reach the controls and handle bars. However, most exercise bikes have seats and handlebars that are adjustable to accommodate different leg lengths and body sizes.

The key to choosing a good exercise bike is again in the quality. Cheap options have poor resistance mechanisms which can be difficult to use and can damage the smooth operation of the wheel. But it is possible to get a quality bike at a reasonable price and in our feature article, we’ve picked the best & most popular exercise bikes with features which make them our choice.

So, if you like the idea of an exercise bike as your choice for cardio then click here to read our detailed exercise bike article and our recommended exercise bike review.

Rowing Machines

A Rowing Machine Offers an Excellent Full Body Strength and Cardio Workout.

A rowing machine (also known as an erg) allows for an excellent full body strength and cardio workout. Adding a rowing machine to your home gym can be a strategic move if you’re looking to tone arms and legs and increase back and core strength; all while working your heart and lungs at maximum capacity.

Take a look at professional rowers (for example in the Olympics) and you’ll see that rowing really targets those big muscle groups giving you a tremendous fat burning workout whilst developing a great lean body shape.

Rowing machines tend to be long and low to the ground; and are a great choice if you have floor space to spare. Most rowing machines have adjustable footrests, but the distance on which the seat can slide will also be a consideration for taller users. Be sure to take size and weight restrictions into account when shopping for your rowing machine to find the best fit. Quality matters here.

Resistance in rowing machines is provided by air, water, magnets, or pistons, and is easily adjustable. Even if you’ve never used a rowing machine before, a couple of workouts will show you how great they are for intense cardio and all over strengthening effects.

If you want a rowing machine as your cardio machine, there’s a bit more to consider due to the types of resistance so we’ve explained this in more detail in our detailed rowing machine article where we also make our recommendations to help you choose the best rower for you. Click here to read our rowing machine feature article.

Step 5: Choose Your Weights, Strength and Resistance Equipment

When it comes to setting up a gym that will really deliver fast results, quality strength training equipment is an absolute key to your success. If you’re a beginner, did you know that adding weight lifting or other resistance training exercises to your workout regimen can help you burn far more calories than cardio alone? It can even increase bone density: a big plus for both men and women at almost any age. So let’s help you decide what will work best for you, and get working.

The Basics

Weights strengthen your muscles by making them move a set mass against the force of gravity (hmm, don’t worry, we’re not going to get all scientific on you!). Your main choice is between free weights or a multi-gym setup. A multi-gym can come with weight stacks, cable & pulleys or lever-based workstations, or even allow you to use weight plates with the basic frame on each workstation. A big benefit of multi-gyms is that they help you to control the weight when you are lifting heavier weights and often require little time & effort when changing between exercises.

Free Weights

A Basic Weights Setup Is All You Need To Get Started

Free weights— the dumbbells and barbells you find in most gyms—give you much greater flexibility in the exercises you can perform but you may be limited in the maximum weight you can manage safely, especially if you are training alone. An important benefit of buying weights for home use is that they come in a range of sizes for different levels of strength and lifting experience and allow you to increase weights in small increments which help you to get faster results.

Adjustable dumbbells or are another option. These include dumbbell sets that adjust easily from within a rack (generally just by moving a lever).

Weight plates are versatile: if you pay attention to bar size you can start with a single bar and bench, and use the same weights to load a power rack a little further down the road.

For Beginners

An exercise bench, a simple set of dumbbells and a basic barbell with weight plates is a great basis on which to build your gym.
For Experienced Exercisers, Serious Lifters & Bodybuilders

Your weight room setup should be able to grow as necessary, to accommodate strength gains and tougher workouts. Heavier weight plates and a fully adjustable bench and power rack will be important in continuing to make size and strength gains at a steady pace. Even with a relatively small startup budget, you’ll want to invest in a good, solid set of bars and weights; and a sturdy, fully adjustable bench. This way you will be able to easily add components to your gym when space and funds allow.

If you are serious about long term fitness or you are a more advanced lifter, you really should consider a sturdy power rack which will take your weight training to a whole new level. These are available with benches and other accessories to enable you to create a professional standard gym with relative ease and for surprisingly less cost than you might think.

Multi-Gyms

For Beginners

Multi Gyms Offer Multiple Exercises on One Machine

If you think that free weights are too complicated or intimidating, or if you just prefer the feel of machines for strength training, a multi-gym may be your best option. There are models that use bands, flexing bars, weights, and cables to allow a number of exercises and resistance levels with a single piece of equipment. Some multi-gyms even allow multiple users to work out at once: a fantastic feature if you’re planning to share your home gym with someone else.

If you’re just beginning a strength training program, look for something that is easy to set up, adjust, and on which you can easily perform basic exercises. Many multi-gyms even come with workout videos to help you get started!

Important considerations when shopping for a multi-gym will include floor space available, as well as possible adjustments for user height and range of motion. Many multi-gyms are fairly solid and free standing, but some fold or collapse for easier storage.

For General Fitness

The absolute greatest benefit of a multi-gym is that with a single machine you can do everything from assisted pull ups and dips, to leg presses, biceps curls, chest presses, and more! Though multi-gyms tend to offer dozens of different exercise options, don’t get carried away by sheer numbers.

If you’re a more advanced lifter, chances are good that you already have an idea of what you want from a multi-gym. If you really like using a bench or a leg press, for example, make sure that you find a good machine that includes those options. Also, be sure to pay attention to the resistance range available for each exercise, and whether increased resistance or other expansion options will be available in the future.

For Experienced Exercisers, Serious Lifters & Bodybuilders

Serious Bodybuilders Need a Serious Multi Gym! Serious Bodybuilders Need a Serious Multi Gym!

Make no mistake: multi-gyms are not only for beginners and those with no greater physical aspirations than to fit into the same sized pants next year. A top end multi-gym will be sturdy enough, include enough exercise options, and provide enough resistance to challenge even the biggest, strongest iron-pumping muscles.

Whether you are already ripped and want to continue to make muscle gains or whether it’s your goal to get and maintain a body builder’s physique: you will need a fully loaded multi-gym. A setup with a fully adjustable bench is a must. Add-ons like a pull up bar and lat pull down mechanism will give your upper body a full-on, compound movement challenge. You can even opt for a leg press for a challenging, true-to-the-weight-room lower body workout.

Keep in mind that any workout you can get in the gym, you can get with your own multi-gym: provided that you invest in the right machine for the job.

Weights: Strength and Resistance Equipment Feature Article

We’ve tried to give you a quick but focused overview of your options for strength and resistance equipment but we know this can still be confusing.

So, click here to read our feature article on choosing the best weights setup for your home gym. We’ve taken all our research and shrunk it down to our best recommendations on which equipment you should choose.

Step 6: Wrap up & next steps

Whatever your reasons for setting up a home gym, choosing the right equipment and getting it set up correctly will determine whether or not you use it, and whether you’ll get the results you want.

Having spoken to a lot of people, the choice of equipment is huge and can be overwhelming. So, we’ve taken the pain away and done that research and thinking for you!

We’ve crammed all our knowledge and the advice of a load of people into our feature articles where you’ll discover what you need to look for and we’ll even give you our recommendations for the equipment that’s best for you . Heck, we’ve even put links in to the articles to take you to the best places to buy from so you don’t have to spend hours on that either!

We really hope you’ll get your home gym set up, and we’d love to hear from you when you do. You could even send us a picture and we may do a feature article on the best ones! You can reach us via the contact us page.

Now, go check out our recommendations and build a home gym that will give you fast results and the body you really want!