6 Home Gym Must-Haves
June 1, 2021If you like to work out at home, a home gym can be a great space to include in your custom home design. As you think about a good workout space, there are several things to consider. Here are a few home gym must-haves to help inspire the perfect workout area in your custom home:
1. Enough Space to Move
Home gyms are of the hot home design trends, but they need to work. One of the most important home gym must-haves is enough space to move. You need enough space for your equipment and you also need enough space to move around. This means a large enough floor plan for your needs, a high enough ceiling, and more.
If you’ll be swinging kettlebells around, you want to make sure you have plenty of room to do so without hitting a wall or the ceiling. The same rings true for dancing, extended body movements, and anything else that requires a range of movement.
Even if you are using a weight machine or other equipment, you still need to have enough space for the equipment itself and for all of those elements to move in the directions they need to.
2. The Right Type of Flooring
You’ll be moving around and working out in your home gym. Between equipment and free weights or other movements, you want a floor that is sturdy, durable, easy to clean, and waterproof. A non-slip surface may also be something you need to consider.
Vinyl planks for tile can be a great flooring option for a home gym, but there are other flooring options available including concrete, rubber, and more. If you want a wood floor, you can also opt for that option and then add non-slip rubber tiles or mats in the areas where you need them.
Not only does this help you protect the floor and provide cushion where you need it, but it also helps you to create focus areas in your home gym. This is one of the tips for designing a home gym that can also help you organize the space.
Plus, a versatile flooring option helps you create more of a flex room. The floor has a classic look that allows you easily repurpose the room into another function if you need to later down the road.
3. Access to Electricity
Planning electrical outlets is important for any room and that included a home gym. No matter how you plan to use your home gym, you’re going to need outlets in the right areas to power equipment, run connected devices, or just charge your phone.
4. Convenient Storage
How much storage you need in a home gym will depend on how you plan to use it and how much equipment you’ll need to include. Free weights can often be stored on a rack out in the open, but there may be other things you want to have nearby.
Will you have a set of towels set aside specifically for gym use? Will you need to store multiple yoga mats when they’re not in use? What about foam rollers, stability balls, sliders, or other items? You can get creative with storage in the room to give everything a place.
Shelves, lockers, or cubes along a wall can provide flexible storage options for the items you need. Depending on what you think you will want to have in the room, it may also make sense to include a storage closet in the room design. There are many ways to incorporate more storage into your custom home design; it’s just a matter of figuring out the right mix for your needs.
5. A Sturdy Doorframe
There are a lot of workout equipment options that are built to attach and detach from a doorframe. Pull-up bars and other push/pull-type equipment are available in options that work with a doorframe.
They are supposed to work well with a standard doorframe without causing damage to you or it. If you’re planning to use these items in your home gym, it might not be a bad idea to let your custom home builder know.
They can work with you to make sure the doorframe is the right size for most of the equipment you want to use, sturdy, and more. Plus, they’ll know to leave stylistic trim for another area. They may even be able to reinforce the frame to ensure it is built to withstand that extra pressure and use over time.
6. A Mirror
Although it may not be a must-have for every home gym, a mirror can be a useful item to include. Mirrors are particularly helpful for dancing, yoga, pilates, bodyweight exercises, weightlifting, and more.
Proper form is important for all of these activities and having a mirror can help you make sure you’re doing the movements correctly. As a bonus, this can also help you prevent strain and injury caused by improper form.
A home gym is one of the popular bonus room ideas and these are just a few home gym must-haves to keep in mind as you think about what you want in your home. There are a lot of options, details, and more to consider as you think about your custom home design and it can be stressful to try and handle it alone.
By partnering with an experienced custom home builder, especially one with an in-house design/build process, you can keep the journey to your custom home exciting and as stress-free as possible. If you’re ready to start bringing your dream home to life, contact Custom Home Group at 717-284-4090!