How small can a home-gym realistically be?

Conan257

Conan257

Conan257

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We were hoping to put some gym gear (treadmill/weights/bike trainer, basic stuff, I don't expect them all to be out at the same time) in our conservatory... But have now decided we need storage instead.

So i'm looking at our garage... We have a good size garage (full of crap, as per) as well as a "shed" on the back (both constructed from stone with a proper roof). The shed is used for storing bikes, is about 1.3m wide and 2.5m from back wall to the doorway (so can only really use 1.8m or so).

How small, realistically, can you make a home gym? I'm thinking the shed dimensions could do it, and I accept its less than ideal. Otherwise we'd need to steal space at the back of the garage and figure out storage better.
 
I’d go back to why you want a gym and consider whether having it in the shed solves this. My feeling is this is just too small and likely to be cold - so not that great an alternative to an outdoor run.

I think put some tape in those dimensions on the patio and try your exercise routines there. Does it feel spacious enough? Even when you have walls on each of those points?
 
Ultimately as long as you have the space to do what you want to do without damaging the equipment or yourself, you're golden. It will depend massively on what sort of weights you're doing imo, as a power rack and/or barbell with olympic lifts is likely to be more restrictive than a dumbbell setup, depending on your routine.

Is it possible to sort the garage situation out so that you could do it in there? Shifting stuff that could/should be in the shed to there and binning whatever else isn't really needed? I've been through this myself recently and it becomes a bit of a philosophical journey but worth it if you really do have a lot of unused/never gonna use stuff.
 
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I've got the thought that having a treadmill at home will allow me to do more cardio. Recently lost my at-work-free-gym, and now WFH. Having a treadmill would allow running in the evenings with the kids at home and wife at work. Outdoor running at 10pm is less desirable and I'd rather not be leaving the kids alone.

Weight sessions are purely to keep some joints moving and stop my all-cardio exercises from causing issues (i've had this before, need to balance the exercises somewhat), and as such the weights aren't crucial nor do I imagine space being an issue for them.

Point noted on taping it down outside, i'll give that a shot and put some templates down for potential machine sizes.
 
1.3m is very tight. Most benches are 1.2-1.3m when flat, although mirafit do a folding bench thats under 1.2m https://mirafit.co.uk/mirafit-folding-weight-bench.html. That could hang on the wall by the door and only be laid out when the door is closed?

If you're not using full barbell then a small bench & dumbbells is possible in that space.

If you want something heavy then a sandbag might work as it's compact for it's weight, and when the weather's better you can 'run' up and down the garden with it as well. I've used generic 'army kit bag' type things and they fall apart quickly, which is not fun when they're full of sand. And use kiln dried sand, as it's not worth the ballache of drying it out otherwise :)
 
gym0.jpg


gym2.jpg
 
8x10 shed?

Kept nice & tidy - mine normally looks like a minor explosion occurred :)
 
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Having a home gym, my first question would be do you really need/want a treadmill. They take up a lot of space especially when you can just go out for a run for example.

Weights again depends what you want to be doing, also dont forget you need to factor in space around whatever you setup for loading / unloading weights on to bars etc.
 
Fine for a bike trainer, you may struggle on a bench depending on what exercises you are doing. As said though, you'd stuggle having different things out.

I measured front of our garage and the kit takes up more space than expected thats 2.4m by 1.8 (the 1,8 is just a stop point where I have a punch bag)
Generally one out at a time. Bike/bench fold (i say this both are out there now, you could use the bike but not the bench)

If you have any kit already, I would just test it.
 
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