Designing a Home Gym

1. Exercise Equipment

This is an obvious. But what should you buy? Rule #1: Buy a type of equipment that you have already used at the health club. Don’t buy a gimmicky thing you saw on an infomercial. You will more likely use the equipment if you are familiar with it and it is already part of your routine. The elliptical trainer pictured here is similar to the one I love using at my health club.

2. Televisions

Sometimes, the only thing that gets me through a workout is the ability to watch TV at the same time. Watching an aging rockstar’s plummet to obscurity on VH1 BEHIND THE MUSIC sure makes my huffing and puffing more bearable.

For the ultimate TV experience, do like they do in actual health clubs. Install an entire row of televisions. 13 inch sets are less than $100 each, and wall-mounting hardware is readily available at home improvement stores. A cable splitter will also allow you to watch different shows on the different sets at the same time. That really makes the time fly.

3. Lockers

You can never have enough storage space, and lockers add a fun element to your home gym. While some retail stores sell lockers at a premium price, sometimes over $1000 because of the trendy look, you can buy them used for practically nothing. These lockers were banged up and rusted, in the parking lot of locker distributor company. I sanded and spray painted them and voila, secret places to hide the Twinkies.

4. Towels

A gym has to have lots and lots of white towels. Buy them in bulk at Costco and stack them up.