There are few things that can really stir the heart of an introverted meathead. And one of the biggest, honestly, is the prospect of an at home garage gym. Just imagine it. You roll out of bed in the morning, eat your breakfast, get your clothes on, and with one step out into the garage you’re there. No wait times, no noise, no top 100 pop playlist blaring into your ears. All this and more, my friend, we’ll discuss as we run through some of the benefits of a garage gym. If you want to skip the benefits use the table of contents to jump to the section you want to view.
Table of Contents
Are home gyms worth it?
Alright, so keeping a home garage gym isn’t always going to be sunshine and lollipops. There are some issues, and some investments you’ll likely need to make. But first, let’s cover the positives, if for no other reason than I believe they vastly outweigh the potential drawbacks.
Number One: No Distractions
Lifting weights is as intense or relaxing a pastime as you want it to be. But personally, when I hit the weights, I plan to do so with intensity and to make gains. And if we’re being honest here, sometimes Katy Perry’s latest hit isn’t exactly what I’m looking for when going for a new bench press or deadlift max. In fact, when I’m ready to attack the weights, you can put money on me getting irritated if I don’t have everything perfectly laid out for me to have the most success I can that day.
The squat rack at my gym will always be open, and there’s never going to be a guy doing curls in it. That means I can move quickly through all my warm up sets, my heavy work sets, and back down in a reasonable amount of time with no one asking to work in.
And on the flip side of that, you’ll also never be the guy using a machine that’s forming a line. We all know that Monday is international chest workout day, so the bench press is going to be in very high demand. When you have your own garage gym, though, you don’t have to worry about being on either side of that equation. Take your time, get your rest, and move on; no one’s stopping you!
Number Two: No Commute
Now listen, I know not everybody’s inclined towards tree hugging like I am. But that doesn’t mean that saving on gas money and carbon emissions are the only benefits of having your own home garage gym. Then again, who out there isn’t looking for ways to save a few nickels here and there in times like this?
Just think about it, like I mentioned above. A quick morning wake up routine and then three feet of walking and you’re in there, ready to make your gains and hit those weights. And if we’re being real here, the gym is a very time consuming hobby. Especially if you work within the realms of powerlifting or strongman type training that requires the use of complicated strongman equipment and long rest periods, not to mention loading and unloading hundreds of pounds of plates. Well, workouts like that may be very time-consuming. But in your own garage gym, a two-hour workout takes exactly two hours, plus or minus a few minutes to get your post-workout protein and a shower afterwards.
And admit it, you hate the post leg-day drive home from work. Few things match the misery of fighting leg cramps during a traffic rush! So now you can take that time to put back into family, friends, business, or a simple post workout nap.
Number Three: In Your Garage Gym You Make the Rules!
The first two reasons on this list were about what DOESN’T happen at your garage gym. But this one? This is all about what CAN happen at your home gym, and that’s anything you want! Feel like blaring music that’s frankly inappropriate for more public settings? Go ahead! Want to scream and slam the weights down in between your sets just because? Awesome, be my guest! Feel like using a ton of chalk and throwing it into the air like Lebron James before a game? It’s all in the cards my friend. And you know why? Because you own that space, and no one can tell you what to do. This isn’t like certain gyms that have alarms on the walls meant to tell you what you can and can’t do, you are truly lord of your own domain.
And on top of that, say goodbye to things like guest passes and waiting lists. Need a workout buddy? Just invite one of your friends over! Few things are as nice as meeting up with a pal and just tackling the weights together without worrying about dropping a twenty-dollar bill on a day pass for them.
Number Four: The Potential Money Saving
Now, if you’re like me and can be honest with yourself, a lot of specialized gear costs a lot of money, and I recognize that it will take me quite a long time to pay back that cost in potential fees from memberships. But if you’re going to a gym with specialized gear, especially things like strongman equipment, you’re going to be paying a pretty monthly penny. A gym near me with special equipment like that runs about fifty bucks a month for a single membership plan.
What I’m saying here is a lot simpler than my rambling may make it out to be. Every month that you work out at a big box gym you’re going to get a nice little chunk of change paid out to them. And every month you’re NOT going there, you’re still paying them, since pay-as-you-go gyms have gone the way of the dodo. Instead, you’ll be locked into a contract for God knows how long, and if you stop going- MAYBE they’ll let you out of it, but you can’t bank on that.
Sure, weight training gear costs a pretty penny. But if you plan on being a lifelong fitness enthusiast, and you’re passionate and consistent, this stuff can be well worth the initial investment. An Olympic barbell that’s well taken care of will last you a lifetime, and doesn’t charge a monthly fee to be picked up and put down.
Number Five: Privacy
Okay, this may be a slightly traumatic mental image for those of us who’ve been frequent gym goers for more than a few years. But if you’re a real dyed in the wool vet of the weight room, then you’ve seen at least one naked old man in the locker room. Now, is it technically a problem to be naked in a gym changing room? I guess not, that’s what it’s there for. That doesn’t mean that you should be forced to talk with a guy who’s got his twig and berries out.
Maybe you’re the guy that actually likes prowling the locker room with your frank and beans out. Well, with your own home gym you can even take that a step further. Walk around that sucker completely naked, do squats bare-ass-to-grass, no one’s there to stop you!
And to talk on a slightly more serious note, I certainly can understand people with body image issues not wanting to start their weight loss journey in front of God and everyone. We live in the era of the pocket-sized camera phone and social media, so judgement is an easy thing to catch from complete strangers. But with your own private garage gym, you can take those first steps away from prying and judging eyes.
Number Six: Hygiene
When I used to go to any of those big box gyms, I’d carry my gym bag with me between sets. And that wasn’t just to have my phone and gear on hand. In that bag I always kept a fresh and full container of wet wipes. You know why? Well, the answer’s simple. Every single piece of upholstery, weight, and barbell in there has been touched by a hundred people a day five days a week, at least, for years.
So, the idea of grabbing handfuls of dead skin, or laying down on a bed of someone’s ringworm was never an appealing prospect to me. If that idea makes your skin crawl, let me once again suggest the magical garage gym! In your own setup, you’ll know exactly who’s been where, touched what, and what needs cleaning- and you can do it with plenty of time for it to dry out properly too, instead of having to rush your back onto some recently disinfected bench because it’s chest day and there’s a line.
Number Seven: Customization
When you walk into a big box gym that you’re paying a membership for, what you see is what you get. And what you get is usually pretty standard fair. White walls with some pictures of average looking people lifting dumbbells, a cardio section, a Zumba room, and a weight training section that will probably have a respectable number of machines, benches, squat racks, and dumbbells. Not a bad deal, really. But it’s not the best.
When you have your own home garage gym, you can tailor it to any tastes that you have. Want nothing but a single power rack, a rusty barbell, and enough weights to make a World’s Strongest Man athlete blush? Go ahead! And this goes for more than just the gear. The walls are your canvas as well. Grab some of your old pinups you have in the closet from the 80s and slap ’em up there! It’s your space, decorate it how you want!
One guy I know even has a classical record player in his garage gym, and if that doesn’t prove that having your own space to do your own thing is awesome, I don’t know what will.
Number Eight: The Music
I know I touched on this a little bit before, but it bears repeating. If you like to listen to a mix of whatever’s popular and playing on the radio at the time, no matter the genre or era of the music, then you’ll love a big box gym. Because that’s what you’ll get: crap piped in from the old ceiling speakers that put you in the mood to do anything but hit the weights. Forgot your headphones? Well, this entire session has now become an exercise in mental toughness as you try to grit your teeth and ignore the garbage assaulting your ears.
Now, in your own home gym, that’s no issue. Personally, I just keep a pair of speakers out there all the time now, and I blare intense, high energy music meant to keep me focused and in the right mindset to tear some weight up. Not only that, but I don’t have to blow my ears out with headphones so loud that they hurt just to drown out all the distractions around me.
Number Nine: No Set Hours in Your Home Gym
Personally, I’m a mid-morning type of guy for my workouts. Around nine, ten o’clock is when I usually get started. Gives me enough time to get my coffee in and get myself mentally ready. But if you work long hours, don’t want to be in the gym during peak hours, or are a complete animal that works out before the sun, well that’s no issue in your own in home garage gym.
You’ll be pretty hard pressed to find any big box gym that’s open 24/7 365. If you’re like me and not big on holidays, you’ll also know the frustration of the gym being closed during days like Thanksgiving and Christmas. But with your own home gym, you’ll never run into a sign on the door that says “Sorry, we’re closed.” Lift on your own time, whenever you want. It’s just better that way.
Number Ten: No More Built in Excuses
To put a nice little bow on the myriad benefits of having your own home garage gym, let’s keep it simple. When you can literally throw a rock from your bed far enough to hit your own gym, you lose one of the most precious things of all: the excuse to not work out. If you’re someone like me, you get hot and cold sometimes on lifting, working out, or being healthy in general. That’s all well and good when you’re paying out of pocket to a gym 30 minutes away, but not anymore, my friend.
Garage gyms provide you not only the freedom to customize, do what you want, lift how you want, and do it all your own way. But they provide motivation. It’s a real kick in the teeth to walk past your weights on the way to McDonald’s without having touched them, trust me.
Home Garage Gym Ideas
Now that we’ve covered some of the benefits of having your own home gym, let’s talk about some things you could do with it to make it yours and make it fit your needs.
MMA Home Gym
In this section we’ll talk about building your own dojo. Now, I’m sure I could break this down into different individual martial arts. But, let’s keep it pretty basic here and talk about some standard needs for a home martial arts gym. To begin, you’re going to need mats if you want to do any grappling at all. Sure, grass can work in a pinch. But grass stains are brutal to get out of your clothing, and when you wrestle in the great outdoors you’re leaving things like animal poop, rocks, and random ant hills up to chance.
It’s all fun and games until someone ends up covered with fire ants. Anyway, you can go a few different paths here for your mats. I bought a wrestling-specific mat ages ago, and it ran a solid five hundred bucks. But, that and the occasional investment in mat tape were very worth it to me. The other option is those puzzle mats, which may be okay for some limited BJJ training, but anything with explosive takedowns isn’t going to work there because they’ll come to pieces.
Up next, let’s sharpen up those hands. First thing’s first, you’ll need a pair of gloves. Honestly, depending on what you want to do, you may need multiple. For example, I have boxing gloves and MMA striking gloves, which gives me workout options. But in all honesty, a 70lb Everlast heavy bag from Walmart along with some cheap 16oz gloves will be more than enough to get you started. YouTube boxing/kickboxing/MMA tutorials and that setup alone will put you ahead of Joe tough guy on the street.
Home Bodybuilding Gym
Up next, we have what’s likely going to be the most common garage gym. The bodybuilding set up is one that’s got the widest range out of all of them. You can start as simply as a few dumbbells and a mat, or jump straight in to buying your own multi-station machines. But if you’re going down this path, you’re going to need to specialize eventually. Bodybuilding is going to cover the widest range of equipment because isolation is key, versus things like MMA, strongman, or powerlifting. The other types of gyms can have substitutions, but to be a real bodybuilder you’re going to have to eventually invest in some machines.
If I had to recommend a few machines to start with, I’d look for one that has a cable pulldown attachment. These machines are usually the cheapest of the bunch, and tend to have a few extra handles and adjustments that you can add. For example, the Xmark lat pulldown machine not only has a station to do pulldowns, but also cables set into the bottom of the machine. That combined with the ability to add and remove actual plates and not just a weight stack makes equipment setups like that extremely valuable, because you can change your rep ranges, weight, and where you’re pulling from to isolate most of your pulling muscles: back, biceps, traps, etc.
And of course, you’re probably going to have to invest in some sort of weighted ab machine. Don’t get me wrong, you can build a six pack with nothing but bench presses, squats, and a good diet. But not everyone is gifted with genetics like that. So, something like a weighted crunch machine will go a long way for most people. Of all the home gyms you can build, though, this is probably the one I’d recommend the least because of the amount of specificity you’re going to need.
Strongman Home Gym
Up next, we have the strongman home garage gym. This is a setup that can vary just as widely as bodybuilding. But the upside of strongman is its simplicity. Essentially, you’re going to want to find awkward objects and pick them up. If you live in an area with large natural stones, congrats! You’re already one step ahead of most people! Strongman, when boiled down to its basics, is all about explosive power and conditioning. The older World’s Strongest Man competitions were pretty much ramshackle powerlifting meets. Back in those days, log presses were really done with random logs dragged out of the woods. Stones were natural stones found in riverbeds. If you want to train like an old-school strongman, the world is your gym.
Unfortunately, gone are the days of old. You can’t just waddle off of the farm after tossing hay bales for eight hours and be a top-level strongman anymore. And that’s why you’re going to want to invest in strongman gear. And when it comes to strongman equipment, you very much get what you pay for. For example, the rogue monster circus dumbbell. This is a piece of that can really set you back. I mean I got it as a gift. It’s so specific, and so pricey, that I’d never buy it myself. There are some cheaper, adjustable circus dumbbells you can buy. But they cut into your arm, and are much less durable overall. Am I saying you need to buy rogue fitness gear for everything? No, I’m not. But keep one thing in mind when you’re building a strongman gym. Quality over quantity.
In fact, I’d say it’s better to start with a powerlifting setup, and then transitioning into strongman as you build up more basic strength levels. In fact…
Powerlifting Home Gym
And finally, the home garage gym I’d recommend to anyone. Powerlifting is the least complex of all strength sports. It’s beautifully simple, and measures the strength of your squat, deadlift, and bench press. Now, are you going to have to do more than just those three lifts to reach top level? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean starting isn’t just that easy. When I built my home gym up, I went with a setup that was just a combination bench/squat rack, a barbell, and about four hundred pounds of plates. To this day, six years later nearly, all of that original equipment has held up beautifully. And that was in the horrible conditions that a Florida garage suffers through the years.
When you get your barbell lifts up to a level that you plateau, you can easily branch out from there. Unlike the other types of home gyms, powerlifting can be improved with the simplest of equipment. Heck, if you’re not worried about the conditions of your plates and possibly damaging them, you can deadlift straight from the floor- just be careful putting that weight down for the sake of your concrete. But once you’re ready to add assistance work, something as simple as an adjustable dumbbell that can fit Olympic plates will set you right. If you’re going to create your own garage gym, start here. A rack. A barbell. Some weights. Effective, flexible, basic. A perfect starting point for an at home garage gym.
Piece your home gym together over time
Any of the other garage gym types mentioned should really also start here, including the MMA home gym. Mix in some power exercises along with the HIIT training you are already doing and you will be machine. In fact, here is a study that says so! My personal home garage gym was put together over more than 10 years. It doesn’t have to happen overnight.
Conclusion: Should you build your own home gym?
Well, now that I’ve laid everything out for you- it’s going to be up to you to decide. This is a decision that I made years ago and I haven’t looked back. But it really isn’t for everyone. I know many people who can’t motivate themselves to push without something of an audience around, and the gym atmosphere provides that. But otherwise, I really think that at least having some basics around the house to keep you fit is always going to be a great investment. Hail outside? Rain? Wildfire? Well, that’s okay- I’ve got these adjustable dumbbells and a few mats. I can get some kind of workout in! Remember, the only bad workout is the one that doesn’t happen, and with an in home garage gym you’ll never have a reason to miss again.
My Personal Garage Gym Setup
| Safety Squat Bar: Rogue Fitness My Rogue Fitness Safety Squat Bar Review |
| Circus Dumbbell: Rogue Fitness Monster Bell My Rogue Fitness Circus Dumbbell review |
| Spring Collars: Rogue Fitness |
| Weight Bench/Squat Rack w/Leg extension/Preacher curl: Xmark My Xmark Bench review |
| Power Tower: Golds Gym XR 10.9 |
| Strongman Log: Popsport 8″ |
| Training Sandbags: FitShit + Ludus Imperium |
| Adjustable Olympic Dumbbell Handles: Annzoe |
| Olympic Curl Bar: Marcy |
| Olympic Trap Bar: CAP |
| Fat Gripz |
| 10×10 Wrestling Mat (4 sections foldable): Tiffin |
| Assorted Dumbbells 5-35lbs |
| Olympic Plates 550lbs Total + Olympic Bar |
| Boxing Body Protector: Title |
| Heavy Bag + Focus Mitts: Everlast |
| Shin Guards: Anthem Athletics |
| MMA Gloves: Combat Sports International |
| Boxing Gloves: Mytra Fusion |
