Building a Home Gym

Ok, you've made your New Year's Resolutions and you are going to workout every day. You want to set up a home gym or dojo. How do you go about it?

Below is an excerpt from an article at The Art of Manliness on how to turn your garage into a home gym. With just a little imagination, you could adapt the advice into building something more specific to martial arts training if you want.


Are you sick of all that is involved with getting in shape — with becoming stronger and fitter?

Training and getting in shape can be a chore at times, but is it really the training you don’t enjoy?

With a little observation, or self-analysis, you may find the chore is often not the training itself. Of course, you may not love to exercise, but is it really that bad?

The worst part about fitness is all that comes with it: a long commute to the gym, crowds of people, occupied equipment, hygiene concerns, monthly fees, and much more. You have a job, family, and all of life’s chores and tasks to worry about. Who wants to start or end their day with what feels like another chore? A trip to the gym involves changing into appropriate clothes, driving, waiting, more driving…and the routine simply takes you from one climate-controlled box (work) to another (the gym) with your only chance for fresh air coming from walking across the parking lot. Not to mention that every day that you “just don’t feel like it” and decide to skip the gym, it costs you money!

Commercial gyms are designed for the masses — TVs, isolation machines, and a bunch of stuff you don’t really need. It may make you feel better to have “gone to the gym today” but wouldn’t you rather train effectively and efficiently?

Your head should be nodding at this point.

The solution to all of your fitness problems is a garage gym!

Perhaps when you think of a garage gym, you think of Rocky Balboa chasing chickens and lifting logs. Or maybe you think of a version of your commercial gym stuffed in your garage.

The reality is somewhere in between. A garage gym can be an effective and efficient world-class training facility. It is built to suit your performance. Some of the fittest people in the world train in garage gyms regularly because they know the secret. Less equipment, fewer isolation exercises, less junk, but more efficient training.

The thought which will eventually cross your mind is, “I don’t have the money or time to make my own garage my gym.” While certainly not dirt cheap, you can do it for as little as $500, which is the equivalent of about a year and a half of the cheapest gym pass. If you use your garage gym for just two years, you will have made money on the investment. In addition, it only takes about two weeks to complete. And that’s if you take your time.

Are you convinced yet? Ready to start a garage gym? Let’s get started!