Setting Up and Using Your Home Gym

Gyms are great, but they don't work for everyone. Visiting a gym takes time, costs money, and can be difficult to work into your routine. If you have been struggling to keep up with your fitness routine, here's some good news: you don't have to have a lot of space or money to get your own home gym started! Home gyms are also beneficial in that they add flexibility to your workouts and can be tailored to your specific goals and preferences. It becomes easier to squeeze in an exercise session without having to commute to the gym, plus you don't have to wait for machines and feel much less self-conscious. Having a home gym also saves you money in the long run! Here are some tips to building your own home gym so that you can stay active in the comfort of your own home.

Make Space
 
First, you need to decide where you're going to set up your home gym. An office, spare bedroom, even a patio or back porch: all are excellent places to set up a fitness area. If possible, make your home gym as light and airy as possible. An ideal fitness area has natural light coming in from multiple angles; if this isn't feasible, soft white light bulbs can be a good substitute. Bringing in plants can increase oxygen levels in the room, especially plants such as bamboo palms, spider plants, and ferns.

Clear your exercise space of clutter or distractions; if you're planning to use any fitness DVDs, ensure that the screen you're using is at a good level for following along. Finally, consider adding a mirror in order to check your posture.

Stock Your Home Gym

While quality exercise equipment is a great addition to your home gym, it is possible to start in small and inexpensive ways. Foam rollers are a versatile piece for core strengthening, as well as yoga poses and the traditional muscle rolling. Jump ropes are inexpensive and perfect for cardio, and a set of dumbbells or free weights can go a long way towards strength training. Of course, if you have the space for larger pieces of equipment, make sure you get something high-quality that will fit in your space and last for a long time! An experienced fitness equipment store can help you get started with finding the right pieces for your specific home gym.

Organize Your Space

If your home gym is in an area of your house that you use for other things, you need to be able to optimize your space so it can function. If you can, dedicate a few shelves or bins to organizing everything you need for your workout. Corner shelves and some ottomans can be repurposed as storage containers to hide some of your smaller pieces.

Use Your Space!

Now that your home gym is set up, be sure to put it to good use! It's just as difficult to build discipline around using a home gym as it is with exercising outside the home; in some ways it's actually more difficult. Use best practices to keep yourself motivated and on track as you get yourself into a fitness routine:

• Seek Instant Gratification: Studies show that you are actually more likely to exercise if you think it can help you today, rather than when you consider long-term benefits. Focus on the short-term payoffs of working out instead of long-term benefits. Will you be in a better mood? Will you feel less pain? Will exercise clear your mind or center your emotions? Choose a benefit and let that be your motivation.
• Set Goals: Make specific, measurable goals that challenge you while remaining realistic. Keep track of your progress as you continue towards your goal.
• Have a Plan: When you have a home gym, it's easy to get sidetracked by daily events. Plan ahead to set aside time to exercise, and treat it as an important appointment or household task you need to do. Keep your plans realistic and time your workouts for when you know you will be most likely to do them. If you make your home workouts easy and convenient, you will be more likely to do them.
• Make it Fun: We tend to stick with things we enjoy over things that we don't. Make your workouts as enjoyable as possible to give yourself the best chance at long-term success.
• Enlist a Buddy: Being accountable to someone can be a huge motivation and having company makes the time go by faster; enlist a roommate or partner to exercise with you. You can even video chat with a friend as they do their own workout at home!

• Reward Yourself: Studies show that being rewarded for hard work can be a powerful incentive to keep going.

No matter how you choose to motivate yourself, stick with it. Having a home gym can be an amazing tool as you work towards your fitness goals.