How to Build a Home Gym in Your Garage
The garage is a great place for strength, functional and bodyweight training. It’s a home fitness space that allows you to have serious workouts and throw around some weight without damaging your home. A garage can be large enough to create an impressive dedicated space to home workouts. And you can create a motivating environment with music, lighting and whatever design elements you can think of.
Benefits of a Home Gym in Your Garage
- Excellent for a large functional workout or strength training space.
- Allows you to exercise in a separate part of the home away from distractions.
- Ample space gives you the opportunity to add equipment over time and slowly build up your home gym.
Home Gym Equipment Ideas
- One or two pieces of cardio equipment
- A half rack or Smith machine
- Dumbbells
- Weight bench or crunch bench
- Bars and weight plates
Added Considerations
Additional flooring is ideal for garage gyms outfitted with rugged strength training equipment. Rubber flooring can be purchased online or at most hardware stores. Standard 24” x 24” square interlocking tiles vary in thickness and are easy to install.
Cardio Equipment Electrical Requirements
Life Fitness equipment must be properly installed and grounded. Do not use an extension cord or power strip.
15A CIRCUIT: Life Fitness consumer treadmills should be powered off a 120V 15Amp outlet. No more than one treadmill should be installed on each circuit. One non-tread cardio machine may be hooked up to the circuit. Best performance comes with a dedicated breaker and circuit for all treads.
20A CIRCUIT: One treadmill and up to two non-tread cardio machines can be plugged into outlets served by the same 20A circuit. Lamps or other non-motorized electrical devices up to a total 200 Watts can be plugged into outlets served by the same 20A circuit together with the treadmill.