Garage Gyms

 

As of late garage gyms have been very popular. Whether it’s in a garage or basement of a house, the appeal to have a gym at home is increasing this day in age. Personally, I do have my own gym in my house. It took me some times to build it up but to me personally, it was worth the investment.

We will explore the benefits of having a garage gym and some of the drawbacks.

I will name certain brands but I am not endorsing any one company nor do I get paid by these companies to give them a shout out. It’s just my experience with them.

Benefits of Garage Gyms

A few years ago my son was born and my time working out came to a halt. I was very busy between taking care of my son and having a hectic schedule. I ended up gaining weight, ate very unhealthy and overall unhealthy.

Now, this is coming from a guy who throughout my teenage life through the military I was always in great shape. I got to the point that going to the gym was such a hassle and it took time away from my family and home life.

If you’re like me you get sick and tired of waiting to use a piece of equipment, forgetting your headphones and now have to listen to whatever crap the gym has to offer, that monthly automatic payment, the “trainers” that try to sell you whatever, breaking the “gym rules” aka Lunk Alarm, and I could go on and on.

Most of us, when we get ready to go to the gym, we either go before work, right after work, or after we get home. Let’s face the reality of this, it takes time out of our busy day.

We have to get to the gym, workout, depending on time your workout might be quick. You have to deal with a packed gym, not enough machines, gym schedules, etc.

I will now go over some of the benefits of having your own garage gym.

Time

Imagine a life where you don’t have to do the following:

• Pack a bag for the gym.
• Drive to the gym.
• Wait to use equipment.
• Take a shower at the gym.

All those things that you don’t really think add up to a significant amount of time.

This about all the times you show up at the gym. You exit your car, if you’re lucky enough to find a parking spot close by, and walk across the parking lot into the gym.

Once inside, you scan your card and hope that you made the payments, or the auto pay is up to date, and walk to the locker room. You get to the locker room where you grab a locker and put your stuff inside. This day in age you have to padlock everything because of thieves.

What is the worst part of the locker room?

The awkward old guy talking sports or politics while toweling off in front of you and you try to not make eye contact with him.

Finally, you leave the locker room… and then you walk some more to the actual gym. You are surrounded by all kinds of gym goers, from your expert lifters to your beginners.

You then have your weird ones, they have no clue what they are doing, they jump on a lat pull-down machine like a monkey thinking that’s how you use it. You’ve seen them on YouTube.

When you really break it down, that adds up to a lot of time, distractions, and frustrations.
With a home gym, you basically eliminate all of that and concentrate on what you are there to do.

Excuses

Let’s be honest for a second. How many times have you skipped the gym because “something came up,” or “I’m too tired”, we have all done it. Life does get in the way sometimes but other times; it’s all in your head.

How about this…

You plan to work out in the morning before work, but something unexpected pops up. For my line of work, it’s either some big emergency where the whole department gets called in, or one of my investigations; I got a good lead and need to leave early.

Do you try working out in the evening?

I can’t because of my family obligations. Fighting through traffic to get to the gym. The gym is extremely crowded. Most people are probably in the same boat this day in age.

So, you skip your training that day. I’ve done it.

With a home gym, the ability to adjust to your day is significantly easier.

You can workout literally whenever your time permits. Your gym is open 24/7.

Got a meeting in the morning?

No problem, workout at night.

Up in the middle of the night?

Just workout. I’ve done it myself at my home gym. Nights I can’t sleep, I go downstairs and get a quick sweat session on.

I have an early morning mission?

No problem I’ll just do it later in the day. I don’t have to worry about a busy gym. I don’t worry about certain dumbbells being used that I need.

Here’s a fact: Having a home gym exposes excuses because the convenience of having one.

Your Rules!

You’ve walked into your gym and everywhere are the rules. Below are some of the common ones we all see:

• Don’t Drop the weights.
• No chalk allowed.
• No curling in the squat rack.
• No grunting.
• Clothing required.

Gyms have a lot of rules both stated and unstated. Some are legit while others are ridiculous.

If you belong to a large franchise gym, these rules can limit your training, directly impact your performance, and otherwise, make you feel controlled while training.

With a home gym, you can do whatever you want.

You can…

• Wear whatever you want, and as much or as little as you want.
• Listen to whatever music you like as loud as you like.
• Grunt, sing, cuss and yell.
• Drop your weights and deadlift like a normal human.
• Make it rain with chalk.

It is pretty liberating to be able to do whatever you want in your own gym. It’s like a fresh breath of freedom!

Equipment

There are so many companies out there to buy equipment from. You can customize your gym to your training style.

Here are two companies I use.

Like I said before, I am not getting paid to promote these companies.

Rogue Fitness and Kabuki Strength are my go to companies for most of my weight lifting needs. Check them both out. See what you like.

Again, I can’t tell you what to buy. It’s whatever you are looking for. Kabuki Strength specializes for the power-lifter. They sell high-quality bars, mobility equipment, etc. Rogue Fitness sells it all.

It’s for Crossfit athletes, power-lifters, body builders, etc.

Both companies are very pricey but you get quality products from them.

Bottom line, you invest in a home gym, you don’t have to worry about that monthly payment anymore. It basically pays for itself, not only financially but also an investment in yourself.

No Distractions!

Commercial gyms are amazing at distracting people while they workout., from people surrounding you to the TVs on every wall to the guys flexing in the mirrors and doing selfies every 30 seconds. If you’re like me and have ADHD, that can be very tough to focus in on your training.

It’s just so easy to get lost in the chaos of the commercial gym and lose focus on the reason you’re even at the gym.

A home gym eliminates the majority of these distractions because it’s just you and the iron.

Yes, there are going to be distractions regardless of venue. I mean, we live in a world dominated by smart phones but you’ll be able to focus a lot more at your gym.

Now, with that said, commercial gyms do actually provide some people with a little extra motivation. For us guys, it’s typically the pretty girl that walks by that we are trying to impress.

A home gym can’t necessarily replicate that feeling unless you’re streaming live on social media, posting videos for the masses, etc. But what a home gym can offer you is to build a rock solid mental game because you are, for the most part, riding solo.

You set and achieve your own goals, period.

Now to make one thing clear, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a training partner. In fact I encourage it if you can at your home gym.

We went over some of the benefits. Let’s discuss the drawback.

Limitations

The biggest drawback is you get out of your home gym with what you put in it. So if you’re limited in equipment you can only do so much. It took me 5 years to build my gym up. It takes a while to put it all together. I didn’t mind the wait, I used whatever equipment I had to get the most out of it.

There are so many different types of apps out there, workout programs geared to bodyweight training, Crossfit, etc that you can look into as you’re building your gym up.

If you have the money saved up and ready to do it. I recommend you do it and reap the rewards of having your own gym.

Enough Room

The next drawback is the amount of room you may have at your home.

Can you use an entire bay in the garage?

Is it heated for the winter? How about your basement? Do you have enough room as well as ceiling height?

For me I didn’t have the ceiling height but that didn’t stop me. I just sit down when I do my presses. You can always modify any workout you do.

So part of your equation you need to take into account for the amount of room you have and is it logical to build your own gym.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve read this article, I hope it gave you a sense of what it takes to build a home gym and the benefits of having them as well as the drawbacks. It took me a while to build my gym but now that I have it. I love it.

Every so often I would add a new piece of equipment to change things up.

Most of the time, I am happy with what I have and I work out a lot more than I used to when I went to the gym. I workout when I want, how often I want. I have my own rules in my gym, and I am free to do whatever I want.

-Ayman Kafel