In the last year, working out at home has taken on a whole new meaning. Previously, a home gym was seen as a luxury. Now, a personal workout space is part of the bigger picture of health and wellness. Home fitness has accelerated massively throughout the coronavirus pandemic. What’s come out of the pandemic is just how necessary fitness is to so many areas of your life. More people are investing in a home fitness workout space and taking their home exercise to a whole new level.
In this article:
- 5 Types of Home Workout Spaces
- Why is it Important to Have a Personal Workout Space?
- 4 Things to Consider When Setting Up a Workout Zone
- What Tools Do You Need to Create a Workout Space?
- Reap the Benefits of a Home Workout Area
Personal workout spaces- 5 Types of Home Workout Spaces
When it comes to home workout spaces, you start to see people get creative with their space. Many of you might not have a whole room to dedicate to fitness. In comparison, others are ready to build a purpose-built gym in the garden to fit a precise specification. Fortunately, there are several types of home workout spaces to meet your needs, space, and budget.
Home Gym
A home gym is a broad term. Your home gym is a personal workout space that contains all of the gym equipment necessary for you to get in a killer workout. Creative home gym ideas include a yoga studio in a conservatory or a free weights room in a spare bedroom. A home gym can be full of high-tech equipment like treadmills and smart rowing machines or a space for you to perform a HIIT workout with kettlebells and weights.
Living Room Nook
The nook-style home gym applies to any room in the house. It could be in a dining area or living room. With this, you create a separate area through home gym flooring or temporary room separators. Many people don’t have an entire room for a workout space, so integrating fitness equipment into your living area is a great way to incorporate a home gym.
Garage Gym
A garage is often a go-to spot for a home gym. This is because garages already have a solid foundation that can handle heavy equipment and weights. It’s separate from the home, so it is good for keeping the noise down and not waking up the family. If you’re wondering how to turn a garage into a home gym, a great place to start is by choosing the right flooring for comfortable training and to install useful features like good lighting and temperature control.
Outdoor Gym
Nowadays, more people are looking to maximise the home space. That means using your outdoor area effectively. An outdoor gym could be a shed, summerhouse, or outdoor gym. Outdoor gyms are a great way to incorporate home fitness without taking up a room in the house. For those that need that spare room for a home office, building an outdoor gym is a fantastic solution.
Attic or Basement
Another type of home workout space is either an attic or basement home gym. Go low or go high in the house and set up your own personal fitness space. One thing to keep in mind with an attic or loft home gym is that if you plan on performing high impact exercise, the sound will come through the ceiling. But, if you’re looking to create a serene home yoga studio, an attic workout space is ideal.
Why is it Important to Have a Personal Workout Space?
It’s no secret that fitness is good for your physical and mental health. Moving your body has so many benefits to your overall well-being. The coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on home fitness, and having a personal workout space is more important than ever. Here’s what our customers have to say about their personal fitness space.
Mental Well-Being and Self-Care
For many of our customers, a home workout space represents self-care. It gives them the opportunity to take the time and focus on themselves. In a world full of constant connectivity, it can feel challenging to disconnect and take a few deep breaths. This is where having a fitness space at home can support your mental health.
“Having a dedicated place to workout is imperative because it means you have your “go-to” place when you want to exercise and the beauty of having this at home is the fact I don’t have to pay for a membership and travel to and from a gym and can easily work out in my own time which is one less thing to worry about. Even my wife loves using the equipment, which is a bonus! If you’re ever worried about the cost of buying equipment, all you have to do is buy things over a period of time, and eventually, you’ll have your very own gym, which is what I’ve done, and I’m still buying more and more as the months go on."
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“My garage gym has saved me. I truly believe that having the little sanctuary to train and continue some part of normality that is working out for me has helped me create good habits during the lockdown. It has created somewhere for me to go, to forget any stresses or anxious thoughts and just work hard with some good tunes playing.
Safe Workout Space
Throughout multiple lockdowns, public messaging actively encouraged fitness but with gyms and fitness studios closed, it was tough to get a workout in. Finding a safe place to work out that meets your needs is important in allowing you to hit your goals and continue to work out.
“I think it's massively important to have a safe and suitable place to workout. Having a dedicated place to work out means while you are there, you should just focus on your sessions without any distraction from normal day to day routines. I find that even putting my phone away during the session helps as it's very easy to pick it up, and then before you know it, time has passed from texting and searching the web or Facebook etc.”
Train Clients at Home
A number of our amazing clients are personal trainers. Creating a safe space for clients to work out at home has allowed them to generate income and support their clients throughout hard times.
"I have a new gym at home in the garden, built during Covid, and with space now at home, it is much easier to access time and space to workout. It is for working with weights, conditioning and mobility. I use this space myself and with my clients.”
“In the short time we have been developing our school wellbeing suite, we are already seeing benefits amongst students and staff. Having such a facility on-site makes it extremely accessible for all students and staff. In particular for some students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to access such facilities.”
Focus on Family Time
When you only have to take a couple of steps to work out at home, all of a sudden, you gain a ton of time back. Think of all the times you were stuck in traffic on the way to the gym. Or when you are limited by your gym’s opening times and can’t work out exactly when you want. All of this time back means you can spend time and focus on the family without your fitness suffering.
"Fitness has been a huge part of my life from a young age. As a child I played every sport I was given the opportunity to have a go at. Moving into my mid-20s, I had qualified as a paramedic around this time and the mental health benefits from exercise really shone through. If I had a bad day at work, lacing up a pair of trainers and heading out for a run would give me the time to process what I needed too. For me, it is my coping mechanism. Despite becoming a father In 2018, I decided 2020 would be a good year to compete in Ironman Wales again; that was a mistake. COVID put the brakes on this, and motivation has been hard. Ironman is yet to return, and now with baby no two due on October 21, I will have to shelf the long-distance events.
"My family will always come first, and I’m sure I will get back to similar events in the not too distant future. For now, I have converted my garage so that I can be on hand when those nappy’s need changing. It’s all about getting quality training when the window of opportunity presents. Having a small workout space at home is proving to be extremely beneficial. Not only for me but my family too. I believe introducing children to exercise at a young age will encourage them to live a long, happy and healthy life—something we all want for our children. We love our rubber flooring, and my son enjoys practising his burpees and roly polys on a nice soft floor."
Improve Motivation and Stay Focused
Motivation and consistency is key to fitness. When you show up for yourself regularly and work out, it encourages you to form a positive attitude with exercise and keep your motivation levels high. Sticking to a consistent fitness schedule is essential for achieving your goals.
"It keeps you motivated as you’re in an environment set for it, and it also means it’s safer to do so. I am also able to have friends exercise with me due to having the correct space, this makes it more fun and mentally rewarding as it helps others."
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"My flooring tiles were easy to set up and very sturdy. I use it for my workouts nearly everyday and I've had absolutely no issues with them. Fitness is quite important to me as it helps with my overall mental and physical health. It positively impacts Mental Wellbeing as it can get you distracted from your problems. It is vital for me to have my own workout environment as I could access it whenever I'd like to"
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“I think it's important to have a place you can focus, somewhere you affiliate with getting the work done. We all tried working out in our living rooms and gardens over lockdown but It just doesn’t bring the same energy. Whether it’s the south downs because you’re a long-distance runner or the clanging of the weights in the gym when you’re in your spot, and it’s time to train that carries a huge amount of motivation.”
“I started my own workout space when lockdown hit and gyms closed. I quickly realised resistant bands wouldn’t cut it. When I was able to create my own workspace and deploy my own plans I was able to maximise my training to its fullest potential. I have since hit PBS in my squat, deadlift and bench and also felt much fitter and agile when I’m playing my sports.”
4 Things to Consider When Setting Up a Workout Zone
When setting up a workout zone, there are four key elements you should consider. These are the elements that can change from person to person. If you go through this list of factors, you will be in a great position to set up your personal workout space.
Make a Plan
Think about what goals you are looking to achieve. If you want to increase muscle mass and strength, it makes sense that you would build a free weights area in the home. Whereas, if you’re looking for a versatile space, you would choose fitness equipment that allows you to work multiple muscle groups.
Create Space
Figure out where in the home you have the space to create a fitness area. You could look at your garage, a spare bedroom, a shed, and even a basement if you have one. Measure the space you have available so that you can fit equipment to the area you have. Your space will dictate how much and how large your fitness equipment will be.
Determine a Budget
You can create a home gym on a small or large budget. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on building a home fitness space. At the same time, it’s easy to invest a fair amount of budget into your home. It all comes down to your budget and the investment you have available for this project.
Think About Noise
Another factor to think about is noise. Do you have neighbours, a young family, or like to work out late at night? If you plan on doing a lot of yoga and low-impact exercise, you likely won’t make a lot of noise. But if you do a lot of jumps, high-impact activity, and drop weights, you will need to think about sound insulation by installing noise-reducing anti-shock rubber tiles.
What Tools do you need to Create a Workout Space
The next stage of creating a workout space is thinking about what kind of tools you will need. To start with, consider the heating, ventilation and insulation. If you want to work out all year, you need to make sure that your home gym temperature is stable even in cold winters or sweltering hot summers. Think about your lighting as well as this can impact the overall feel of your workout space.
The correct type of fitness flooring will also set you up for success. A safe foundation will provide plenty of traction so that you don’t slip over during exercise. It’s a good idea to align your home gym flooring with your type of exercise so that you can set up the best foundation for fitness possible.
Other tools you may need to create your workout space include:
- Equipment staples - dumbbells, weight plates, barbells, and workout bench
- Equipment storage - weight storage, shelving, and squat rack
Reap the Benefits of a Home Workout Area
The bottom line is that anyone can set up a workout space at home. You don’t need any expert DIY or fitness knowledge to get going. Integrating a personal workout space into your home gives you access to exercise around the clock. When you can exercise consistently and show up for yourself, you can take time to stay present, reduce stress, and even support your personal training clients.
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