Home gym - build your own gym at home

10 / 10 / 2022

NOTHING MAKES YOU HAPPIER THAN AN EMPTY GYM. ALL TRAINING EQUIPMENT IS YOURS. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR ANYTHING. A home gym will give you it all, plus it's an excellent investment that can pay for itself very quickly.

The Home Gym not only saves you money on a gym pass for everyone in your household. It also saves you time commuting or investing in your own health and fitness.

The most important benefit of a home gym, which is complete independence and freedom, was evident during Pandemic Covid-19, when only home gyms were legal to exercise in.

How to create your own gym

When creating a home gym, there are three factors to consider:

Dimensions of the room intended for the gym

This is an incredibly important factor - perhaps the most important due to the fact that the budget can be increased, our form and skills will grow and the garage will not suddenly become larger. The smaller the size, the more you should focus on versatile equipment and limit dynamic and space expansive exercises. Larger spaces allow for a greater variety of equipment and exercises. In small spaces, it is worth thinking about equipment that is foldable and easy to carry, while in large spaces you may want to look at choosing equipment that allows two or three people to train at the same time.

Length of training and current physical form

Again, a key factor in equipment selection - ill-fitting kit to our needs will mean that we will have to go to a commercial gym anyway, meaning all our effort in building a home gym will be unnecessary. Regular gym-goers have it easy - they know what equipment they are working with and they know what they are missing at commercial gyms. Beginners to training have a tougher challenge ahead of them and they should bet on equipment with a wide range of uses with adjustable weights that will allow them to safely explore their favourite exercises and beat their personal records.

Assumed budget

The last and perhaps most obvious factor affecting our home gym. Fortunately, it is also the easiest factor to bypass. The gym can be expanded over time, adding another component every month. The overhead lift from the atlas can be replaced with a strut bar. A substitute for additional plates can be resistance bands.

The optimal set for our home gym will be the resultant of these three factors. If we have a huge gym experience, a practically unlimited budget and a 3mx3m room, we will still have to make some compromises and give up the least necessary accessories. If we have too much space and a big budget but lack experience, we can bet on a wide range so we can discover what makes us most happy.

Proposed sets

Below are suggested kits for home gyms.

Minimalist set

Such a kit should include products with the widest possible range of uses, which will allow basic training to be carried out in as small a space as possible. A well-composed minimalist set will not only allow us to start our adventure with sport, but will also help sports enthusiasts to stay in shape. In addition, if we choose high-quality equipment in this set, it will also serve us in later years - when we expand the set.

Set SGZ

The basic one in such a set can be the SGZ230, which will successfully replace a light barbell (30kg), two dumbbells, a Kettlebell and push-up supports. Thanks to this, we can easily perform chest, arms, biceps, back, triceps or even leg training. An additional advantage of this set is that it is easy to take with you on holiday, for example, so that you can get in shape even by the sea.

L8015

Another element of the minimalist set should be a bench with an adjustable incline. Such a bench will provide comfort for horizontal pressing, give you the opportunity to work on oblique pressing, enable you to row a barbell in a lying position, and successfully replace boxes in many exercises (e.g. push-ups with legs elevated, Bulgarian squat or climbing onto a bench with a weight).

MFK01

An important accessory in the home gym is an exercise mat, which will allow us to train comfortably and safely on the floor. A good fitness mat will allow you to stand in a planch without bruising your elbows, do tummy tucks in comfort or stretch comfortably after a workout. In addition, the mat will help to protect the floor by preventing metal dumbbells or weights from being deposited directly onto the floorboards.

DD200

An important part of any home gym is also a bar, whether mounted or strut bar. With a bar, you can perform an effective workout for your back, biceps, shoulders and abdominals. At the beginning of your adventure with the home gym, it is worth betting on an extension bar, which will allow you to perform a really solid workout without the need for drilling and assembly. In addition, the bar in combination with rubber bands can replace the overhead lift.

GU05 SET

The last underestimated piece of training equipment with practically endless applications is resistance bands. Rubber bands can increase the load when working with barbells, they can replace or supplement dumbbells, they can be used for mobility training, and they can also make it easier for us to pull up on a bar. As rubbers are cheap - and in the price/capacity ratio even extremely cheap - it is worth buying the whole set.

Intermediate set

This is a set that will allow athletes to stay in shape and fully meet the needs of most beginners. This set will use almost all the suggestions from the smaller set. However, at this stage, the set of weights will no longer be sufficient. In its place should come an Olympic griffin and plates.

GO205

The Olympic Gryphon is an absolute staple of sports training. The Olympic Gryphon differs from a standard one in that it uses a swivel bearing to keep our wrists safe. It is worth thinking about such a griffin at an early stage of building a gym at home, because over time it will become necessary anyway. For a home gym, a 150cm straight bar is easily enough.

L8015

Another piece of kit should be a bench with adjustable incline. Such a bench will provide comfort during horizontal pressing, will give you the opportunity to work on oblique pressing, will enable you to row a barbell in a lying position, and will successfully replace boxes in many exercises (e.g. push-ups with legs elevated, Bulgarian squat or climbing on a bench with a weight).

STR18

In order to be able to exercise with a barbell you will need a stand. The best choice will be a stand with height adjustment, so that it will serve us both to train on a straight bench and on an incline bench and to do squats. The width adjustment will also be an important factor, so that the width of the chosen barbell does not matter.

TOH

An integral part of barbell training is the plates. They are used to determine the weight of the barbell we will be carrying. But plates are not just a round weight with a hole for the barbell in the middle - plates can also be used like stepping stones for calf training or strengthening in abdominal muscle training. In home gyms, the 'handlebar' shaped plates will work best, as they will be the easiest to carry and with the greatest number of uses beyond their original function. It is worth opting for rubberised plates to take care of the floors in your home.

MFK01

GU05 SET

Another underestimated piece of training equipment with practically endless applications is resistance bands. Rubbers can increase the load when working with barbells, they can replace or supplement dumbbells, we can use them to perform mobility training, they can also make it easier for us to pull up on a bar. Since rubbers are cheap - and in the price/capacity ratio even extremely cheap - it is worth buying a whole set of them.

M6120

In such a gym, it is already worth putting on the first cardio training equipment. A simple bicycle will allow us to improve our condition and take care of our silhouette even in unpleasant weather. The best choice is a magnetic bike, which thanks to its simplicity will serve us for a longer time.

DD200

Professional kit

With this equipment, it is already possible to perform fully professional training, during which professionals will prepare for competition. Of course, it is important to bear in mind that every sport has different characteristics, and thus the necessary equipment will vary - but the equipment completed in this kit should guarantee a sufficiently wide range of possibilities for most sports.

In addition to the equipment suggested in the intermediate kit, you should expand your home set with some additional accessories.

GCFD450

In the first instance, it is worth betting on an extra griffin. A good choice would be a men's Olympic neck grip. Such a two-metre-long wry neck will allow us not only to, for example, train more comfortably on a bench, but also to perform landmine-type training, which perfectly engages the oblique abdominal muscles and is invaluable in such sports as boxing, MMA, karate or javelin throwing.

DSC02

An invaluable piece of equipment to train explosive strength is the plyometric box. Boxes are currently an essential piece of equipment in motor preparation for the vast majority of sports. By jumping onto the box, we train strength, by jumping off the box we train stability, by jumping off and performing a further movement we train fluidity in the kinematic chain, by jumping off with a turn we work on proprioception. In addition, the box can be used for sit-ups or mobility training.

CYCLE 1

A piece of equipment that theoretically does not fit in a home gym - but in fact with its multifunctionality will work perfectly there is the Smith crane. The crane will successfully replace any type of atlas.

KNV

Dumbbells and Kettlebells are another gym must-have. Kettlebells offer a dynamic exercise that strengthens the core muscles. The classic kettle swing is an exercise that is great for strengthening the muscles of the back, abdomen as well as the arms or forearms.

HG PRO

Dumbbells allow you to exercise asymmetrically increasing joint stability. Both dumbbells and kettlebells are useful in a minimum of 3 different weights.

STR09

In home gyms, it is very important to keep things tidy; you don't usually have that much space to afford to get messy. This is where a rack comes in handy, on which we can place all the dumbbells, kettlebells and other training accessories in an orderly manner. This will make training more convenient and it will take much less time to find the right equipment.

FSBM04 SET

Progress in training is not possible without a proper recovery phase. A muscle that is tense and contracted will be less well nourished and therefore slower to grow or gain strength. An excellent solution to this problem will be self-massage equipment to relax muscles and relieve fascial tension.