By Thomas King, MSc, CK, CSCS

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the craze of working out from the comfort of your own home has taken the fitness industry by storm. Lately, it seems like everyone is trying to set-up their own home gym.

While setting up a quality home gym may seem like a fairly straight forward task, in many cases, people will find that they end up purchasing items they do not need and missing items that they do need. Presented below are the steps I would follow for setting up a great home gym as well as some tips and tricks that I have learned over the past couple years.

Assess Your Needs

This one seems simple enough but not a lot of people sit down and do it and as a result, they end up spending money on items they will rarely/never use. For example: if your goal is working on the powerlifts (squat, bench press, and deadlift) a squat rack with safeties (you’ll be training alone!!) and a barbell + plates are a necessity. For this set-up, you may be tempted to add some dumbbells but many great powerlifting programs do not require any dumbbells.

How about if your goal is to strength train for running? A runner does not need a squat rack, barbell, or plates and can likely get away with some adjustable dumbbells, resistance bands, and an exercise ball. Most running focused exercises use these pieces of equipment.

The bottom line: Dedicate time to sit down and assess your fitness goals. The pieces of equipment you will need will be dictated by these goals.

Assess Your Space

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a large space available for their home gym. This will have a serious impact on what you can purchase and comfortably fit in the space. For example: a treadmill has a foot print of about 4 feet x 10 feet. If your home gym space is a spare bedroom, this will likely be close to 1/3 of the entire room. In this case I would instead consider a more space efficient spin bike. The foot print here is generally only 2 feet by 4 feet.

Consider as well, the height of the room you will be using for your gym. You may want to overhead press, does the room have roof clearance for you to do a standing overhead press or will you need to be seated for it? Consider this as well if you plan to purchase a squat rack. Many squat racks come in heights 8 feet tall and above. This is likely too high for most houses. Consider looking for a rack that the company advertises as for “home gym” use. These are often shorter, generally about 6 feet high.

Where to Purchase Gym Equipment

This one comes back to your needs analysis. The equipment you need will dictate where it is purchased from. Stores like: Wal-Mart, Winner’s and Sportchek will likely have all the resistance bands and exercise balls that you will need. Chances are, you can find a good quality treadmill/spin bike for home use at Canadian Tire (make sure you wait until it goes on sale!). If you are looking for plates, barbells, or squat racks, you will likely be ordering from somewhere online. Consider when you are ordering that buying from a company in Canada will be much cheaper than an American one. Some places where I have ordered equipment are: Bells of Steel, Fitness Avenue, and Treadmill Factory.

When accumulating equipment, make sure you regularly check places like Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. People are always selling fitness equipment that they thought they needed because they didn’t assess their needs first! Finally, when it comes time to buy equipment, I wouldn’t advise buying all of it straight away. Instead, start with what you would consider your most “crucial” items and let the gym build from there. Some items that you may consider buying when setting up a basic home gym are:

  • Adjustable Dumbbells: Brands such as PowerBlock or Bowflex make popular adjustable dumbbells
  • Resistance Bands: These can be long bands or short bands. The long bands are useful for exercises such as: lat pulldowns, rows, triceps pressdowns and many more. The short bands are useful for many different glute and core exercises
  • Swiss Ball: A good swiss ball is useful for many different core exercises, plus, if a bench isn’t in your budget, you can use it for dumbbell bench presses and other lying exercises
  • Exercise Mat: These are pretty cheap and you won’t have to lie directly on the floor if you would rather avoid that

The Wrap-Up

Setting up your home gym is supposed to be a fun process. After all, if you don’t enjoy setting it up, chances are, you won’t enjoy using it either. While the task may seem daunting at first, if you follow steps I have listed and pay attention to the tips, you should have no trouble settling up a quality gym for a reasonable price that will meet your training needs for years to come.

~Thomas 🏋️‍♀️

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I started training at JKC in 2016 because I’ve always had upper back issues that became aggravated through work. I sought out other training and physio, but experienced little to no results. A client of mine happened to be coming to JKC for a similar issue and highly recommended it. I have had great success and haven’t looked back! I always feel like I’m getting programs tailored to my needs and I’m never bored. I’m 30 weeks pregnant now with my second child and have been able to workout through both pregnancies here at JKC. Even on my least mobile days, I felt safe to workout because my programs were specifically modified for my needs.

JKC was recommended to me by my good friend Casidhe Dyke. Cas had been training with JKC for a while, and both he and his father had seen great results from the personal training that Jon and Thomas were giving them. I was and still am primarily a triathlete and I’ve always struggled with injuries. I was talking to Cas about incorporating more strength training in my program to try and prevent injuries going forward and Cas suggested that I give JKC a try. I reached out to Jon not long after, and the rest is history! After working with Jon and Thomas for a few months, I was getting stronger, faster, and most importantly, I was staying injury-free. I ended up being able to train the whole season without significant injury and posted a personal best at Ironman Copenhagen in 2018. A big part of that was due to the strength training and coaching I received at JKC.

I recently visited Newfoundland for one month, and was looking for a good place to train while I was there. Jon and the team at JK conditioning really took the time to assess what I already knew, and set achievable goals for the time that I had with them. The gym was such a great place to push yourself. It had everything you needed, but more importantly it had a well organized, very knowledgeable, and really motivating group of trainers to push you at each workout. Not to mention a really nice group of other members who also motivated me to go that little bit further. I would highly recommend the gym to anyone who has a goal and wants to find a place to help them achieve it.

I am 62 years young and I started training with Jon in 2013. I originally came to join JKC as a recommendation from other family members that were onboard with Jon. Their enthusiasm for the gym experience was quite evident.  I was not to be outdone, so I decided to join as well. JKC, in my mind, certainly stands out from the crowd. I feel it’s a combination of the skill and passion the coaches have for their job and their clients. Each client is treated with the upmost respect and given time to explore their fitness journey without any pressure. JKC is certainly not a cookie cutter gym.The coaches customize your fitness program to suit your needs and your fitness level. This certainly makes sense because no two clients are alike.  This is where JKC excels! Jon, Thomas, and Craig keep the atmosphere at the gym light, but productive. A great combination that obviously works and makes the clients want to come back. Lastly, the camaraderie at the gym is everything. Meeting likeminded people who make you feel you are not alone in your fitness journey is everything.

I’ve been weight training on and off for years but never really had a specific goal or target in mind so routinely stalled out, plateaued or stopped training all together. Before I joined JKC I was definitely in a fitness slump and needed something to motivate me and get me back on track. I did a bit of digging online, looking at various personal training options and gyms around town but JKC seemed like the best option by far. I’ve tried big box gyms and other personal trainers in the past but none of them have had the perfect combination of goal specific fitness programming, welcoming and supportive environment, and the knowledge and passion to back it all up that you’ll find at JKC. Jon and Thomas are great to work with, they know how to motivate you if you’re having an off day and are well versed in all the different ways to make your muscles burn! I also have noticed some major improvements in my deadlifts since I started with JKC and was really happy with the result.

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