Having your own home gym comes with many benefits. You can work out whenever you want, without having to plan a trip to the gym or get yourself ready to go out in public. Your gym can be optimized for the types of workouts you like most. In terms of convenience, comfort, and accessibility, nothing beats a home gym.

You may ask yourself, how do I get started with setting one up? Is it challenging to design your own at-home gym? How do you create a layout that makes the best use of limited space?

Our fitness specialists at Akfit frequently help clients design and furnish their home gyms. We help develop efficient layouts and come up with great solutions to overcome any size limitations that might be present. As a specialty fitness store, we also design and fit commercial gyms as part of our services. 

It’s no surprise, then, that we’ve given gym design and layout a lot of consideration over the years. In the process, we’ve come up with and implemented innovative ideas for custom solutions our clients love.

The purpose of this article to share some of our experience with you to guide you in the process of setting up your home gym. 

In this article: 

1. Design elements
2. Floor plan
3. Layout considerations
4. Space limitations
5. Equipment
6. Accessories
7. Flooring
8. The Joy of Customizing Your Home Gym
9. Reach Out to us

Home Gym Design Elements

Whether you’re setting up a home gym in your basement, in a spare room, in a corner of your bedroom or home office, consider what design elements you’d like to include. Here are some questions to get you started.

• Which fitness machines are must-haves for you?
• Do you need enough space for cardio workouts?
• Are you adding strength training elements to your home gym?
• Do you want a mirror along a wall to help you better gauge your form and technique?
• Are you thinking of painting the walls? If so, what colors would work best for you?
• Will you be adding a television to watch while you’re on a treadmill, elliptical, or spin bike?
• What about speakers – would you like music playing while you work out?
• Any storage considerations?
• Do you want to add motivational sayings or posters on the walls?
• Don’t overlook flooring; will you be adding impact-absorbing matts?
• Have you thought about the lighting that you want in your home gym?
• Do you need to add portable fans, ceiling fans, HVAC ducts, or a new window to ensure you’ll have plenty of ventilation to stay cool during your workouts?

Once you’ve come up with some of the key concepts and design elements you want to include, it’s time to start thinking about how you’re going to design your home gym. 

Drawing Up Your Home Gym Floor Plan

You’ve got some ideas in place. Where will everything go? It’s time to grab a tape measure and figure out how much floor space you have to work with.

It’s a good idea to use graph paper for drawing up your home gym floor plan. Determine the length, width, and area of your space, and take into account any unusual angles or alcoves. 

Even if you’re not sure which fitness products you’ll be adding, you can browse through our selection to start getting an idea of how big each item will be. Look up the product dimensions; you can always contact us for size approximations, too. 

Now block off areas of your floor plan with the sizes of the equipment you want, in your desired placement. You can create many different floor plans on graph paper to determine which layout might work best.

Remember that you can add storage, speakers, and TV monitors to the walls, freeing up your floor space for more fitness equipment and accessories, along with space for your aerobic exercises or yoga. 

What to Consider for Your Home Gym Layout

As you incorporate design elements, come up with possible floor plans, and consider different layouts, there are several things to keep in mind. They include:

• Will you have enough room to move around freely? Putting fitness equipment too close to walls or furnishings will impede your workout routine. You don’t want to feel cramped when you’re exercising.
• Are any of your gym elements going to pose tripping hazards? If so, reconfigure your layout so that you’re not bumping into or tripping over machines or fitness accessories. 
• Where are you going to store gear and accessories, such as dumbbells, jump ropes, bands, rollers, protective wear, and other items when you’re not using them? Think about storage solutions, including racks, shelves, cabinets, drawers, and other possibilities. What will work best in the space you have?
• Safety is paramount. Have you designed safety into your home gym layout? You want to make sure nothing will tip over, fall on you or others, or create any type of tripping, slipping, or falling hazard. Build safety into your home gym layout. 

Overcoming Space Challenges & Limitations

Some people have plenty of space to work with. Others do not. If you’re bumping into space limitation issues, here are some ways to overcome the challenges you’re facing.

• Add equipment with a smaller footprint. For example, when considering cardio fitness machines, opt for a spin bike instead of a treadmill.
• Choose multifunction items. An elliptical machine might be a good option because of its versatility. Many ellipticals are built for small spaces, and you can do many different types of workouts on these machines.
• Create a multi-purpose space. For example, you can use your rubber gym mat space for doing aerobic exercises, lifting weights, and practicing yoga … just not at the same time! 
• Make use of your wall space. Reserve your floor space for compact exercise equipment and workouts; use your wall space for storage, electronics, mirrors, and miscellaneous items.

Just because you have a small area doesn’t mean you have to give up your home gym dreams. With careful planning, and by selecting the right items to include, you can have a functional, comfortable home gym even in a tiny space. 

What Fitness Equipment Do You Want to Include?

Now comes the most fun part: selecting the fitness equipment to add to your at-home gym. Take your time with this part. There are so many different machines to choose from, different models to evaluate, and different features to weigh. 

When considering which machines to get, think about your goals. If you’re doing strength building, are you going to focus on the upper body, lower body, core, or a little of everything? There are home gym setups available that allow you to strengthen many different muscle groups. These multi gyms could be perfect for the strength training component of your home gym.

If you have a large space to work with, you may want to add several different cardio exercise machines. For example, you may want a rower, an upright bike, and a treadmill to bring more variety to your cardio routines. On days when you can’t go outside, you’ll have a wide range of fitness programs to choose from if you have several different cardio machines in place.

Don’t worry, though, if your space is small. You can accomplish a lot with an elliptical, or you can select the one piece of cardio equipment you’ll enjoy using the most, such as a spin bike. Mix it up by adding strength building and conditioning elements that don’t take up a lot of space.

Add These Accessories to Your Home Gym

Fitness accessories can complete your gym and truly make it your own. Customize your home gym by adding some of your favorite accessories. Here are items to think about:

• Suspension trainers
• Exercise balls
• Resistance bands, tubing, and rope
• Mini trampoline
• Jump ropes
• Monitoring tools
• Protective wear
• Balance trainers and pods
• Yoga mat
• And more

With a selection of fitness accessories, you can broaden the scope of your fitness regimen and round out your home gym without a lot of added expense. 

Don’t Forget About Flooring

Finally, flooring is important. Your home gym will likely see some pretty intense workouts. Will your flooring be able to take it? Will it provide your body with enough cushioning to protect your joints and prevent muscle tears and bone fractures?

Rubber flooring works great for a home gym, and there are many different types of rubber flooring products to choose from. Other flooring options to consider include turf, equipment mats, exercise mats, and bounce flooring.

The Joy of Customizing Your Home Gym

Designing your home gym can be a lot of fun. From planning to researching, and from drawing up a home gym layout to selecting the fitness equipment and accessories that will populate your gym, you can get genuine joy out of the endeavor.

Of course, there will be challenges to overcome, and that’s where Akfit can come to your rescue. We’re passionate about fitness, and we’ll help you through the process so that in the end, you’ll have a functional, customized home gym you’ll get plenty of use from. 

Whether we’re helping families and individuals create the home gym of their dreams, or we’re working with commercial gym owners to develop functional gym floor plans, we design with the following in mind:

• Safety: Always a foremost concern in fitness
• Space: We can help you make the most out of whatever space you have available
• Equipment: We help our clients choose quality equipment that meets their fitness goals
• Flooring: It’s important to install the right flooring in your commercial or home gym
• Budget: We make sure to work with your budget to keep the project affordable
• Storage: A clean, neat gym is a safe one; storage is part of the equation
• Ventilation: Your space needs to have good airflow for more comfortable workouts

Turn to Akfit for Reliable, Knowledgeable Help

For expert help with your commercial or home gym design, turn to Akfit. As professional fitness specialists, we’ll work with you on the different elements needed to personalize your design and create the gym you’ve always hoped for. 

If you are ready to get started on your home gym design, reach out to us and one of our fitness specialists will respond to you shortly. We’re available to answer your questions and guide you through the process of putting together a gym that meets your needs.