What could be better than owning your very own home gym?
Your own space to throw weights about with your own music playing, nobody sitting on the kit holding you up, you can workout when you want and how you want!
Our ‘Home Gym Must Haves’ gives you a quick guide on how to get started on creating the gym you’ve always dreamed of!
OLYMPIC BAR
One of the key items you need along with weight plates themselves is a good quality Olympic Bar. You’ll need this for Squats, Deadlifts, Bench, Shoulder Press, Cleans, Upright Rows, Curls, T-Bar Rows; the list is endless!
Now out of everything to scrimp and save on, spend a little extra and buy a really good quality bar. Remember this thing is going to be dropped and bashed about for years. There is nothing more annoying than trying to use a bar which has bent over time. Bite the bullet and get one which will last a lifetime. We would recommend the BodyMax 7ft Olympic Barbell.
OLYMPIC PLATES / BUMPER PLATES
Obviously, there is no point in having a top quality Barbell without plenty of weight to put on it. Again, this isn’t just a straightforward matter of buying a few plates. You need to decide what you plan on doing with them. If you’re planning to do plenty of exercises which involve dropping the weights to the ground e.g. Deadlifts and Cleans (which you should be) then you should definitely invest in a set of Bumper Plates.
Due to the thick rubber coating on bumper plates, they will not bend or crack over time and can take a considerable amount of abuse. If you have enough money, then a full set of bumper plates would be ideal. You can often get cheaper ones if you go for plain black rather than colour coded (although coloured ones look mint). However, to save money, we would advise getting one set of 20’s or 25’s and then buy cast iron or rubber coated ones for the rest of your plates.
LIFTING PLATFORM
The next must have for any home gym is a lifting platform. This will give you a solid platform to work on, reduce the noise of the weights dropping and prevent you damaging the floor in your house/garage, etc. Now these can be pretty expensive, so a sensible option is to pay one up which you do via our finance options. This may seem like a big investment but will look amazing and last a lifetime.
SQUAT STAND, SQUAT RACK, HALF RACK OR POWER RACK & BENCH
Obviously we need something to put the weights on to carry out any exercise we want to do. There are a few options and in an ideal world, we would all have a heavy-duty Power Rack.
This would allow you to squat, bench, shoulder press (among other things) without the fear of injury rom being trapped under the weight. It also allows you to do pull-ups, dips and T-Bar rows with some added attachments.
For many people, space can be an issue, so squat stands are ideal. These are also more easily moved, but lack the host of benefits of a full power rack. Squat stands are also considerably cheaper and the price and benefits increase as you move up to a squat rack, half rack and so on.
BENCH
Finally, unless you plan to do exercises on the floor, a good quality adjustable bench is your next port of call. What to remember with this is how much stress the bench will be under with your bodyweight and then potentially the bar and plates as well. The last thing you want is a wobbly cheap bench which could collapse over time so again without going too crazy, invest in a decent quality bench which will last a lifetime.
Taking all that on-board, that is the minimum you would require to allow you to have excellent home workouts.
Obviously depending on each individual the list could be expanded on and on. Some nice accessories you might want to add could be a whiteboard to record your workouts, large mirror for selfies and such like or attachments like: T-Bar Row Landmine, Ab wheel, Kettlebell, Dumbbells, Resistance bands. Another thing to consider is chains because they are a fantastic tool to assist in your progress.
If you’re planning on training forever, like we all are, then it’s a great investment to make, having your own workout space is awesome!
