Why spend all that money on a gym membership when you end up making up excuses not to go every week? Why not build your own home gym where you can work out comfortably in your own home? Here is part two of a three part guide to building your own gym at home.

Space for your Home Gym

You are going to need a solid floor that you can do your exercises on. If you are lifting weights, which is what this article is focusing on, then you are going to want to have a solid surface on which you can drop weights during exercise like power cleans and dead lifts. Garages and basement floors tend to work well for this. If you have a nice hardwood flooring, you need to change your strategy a bit.

Area of Space: You need at least 10 square feet for a good workout space. Your gym should not be shoved into a corner or closed off where you will never think about it. Instead, your home gym should be in an accessible room with space, and windows for good lighting.

Height of Roof: You want to make sure that the home gym has a high enough room that you can reach above your head and still have at least a couple of feet of clearance to handle overhead movements, tall machines and so on.

Flooring for your Home Gym

The flooring that you choose for your home gym needs to be able to do two different things. First and foremost, it needs to be able to reduce the noise created by the machines and the weights that you use in your home gym. Secondly, the flooring that you choose needs to be able to protect the flooring underneath. Here are some of the options that are available to you for this purpose:

Plywood Flooring: You can use layers of plywood and then place a heavy fabric or carpet on top. The carpet may slip around a bit. It isn't going to give you solid footing all the time, but it is a worthwhile floor option if you are looking for something easy and inexpensive.

Rubber Mat Flooring: You can reduce the amount of noise that you make and also cut down on the damage to your floor by buying durable rubber mats. You may also consider kindermats or the mats that are used by gymnasts as they provide a lot of cushion and will protect your flooring well.

Platform Flooring: If you plan on doing a lot of different Olympic exercises, then it may be ideal for you to build a platform on which you can perform your workout. Keep in mind that this is a more cost and labor intensive option, but it will provide you with the most permanent results as well.

Photo Credits: markhillary

Originally posted 2009-09-15 03:29:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts

• 4 Heart Healthy Exercises If you want to get on the road to a healthy and full life, you need to focus not only on losing weight, but also doing exercises that are going to benefit your most powerful organ, your heart. It may be tough at first, but it's important that you......
• Is Natural Weight Loss Possible? With all of the medical advances out there, and the concern over side effects, many people are getting interested in natural weight loss methods. While there are a few out there that are thinly veiled scams, natural weight loss can be possible, when you have the right foundation and the......
• The Dangers of Weight Loss Shortcuts The problem with weight loss shortcuts is that they attempt to go against the real science behind weight loss, health and nutrition. There is only one real way to diet, and that is to burn more calories than you take in. A single pound of weight is equivalent to 3,500......
• Simple and Serious Resistance Band Workouts Most people know what resistance bands are, but do not realize how effective these exercise tools can actually be at building strength and helping to work off weight. How can a series of rubber tubes or bands actually do anything, right? It is time to lose this attitude because resistance......
• How to Handle Bad Stress With Exercise Every day, no matter if you are a stay at home mom or an investment banker, we all have to deal with stress. There are two main types of stress, good and bad, and unfortunately, most of us have to deal with the bad on a daily basis. Bad stress......

Related Websites

• Why Bother with Basement Renovations? For some people, basement renovations are something complicated by problems with water or because their basements are little more than dirt cellars. For homes that have the potential, however, basement renovations can greatly improve a house. Adding a room to your home is a significant expense. But renovating the basement,......
• Choosing a New Flooring One of the easiest ways to dramatically change a room is by adding new flooring. Although in the past, many of us drifted towards plush carpeting, if you’re planning on selling your home, it’s time to do some rethinking. Any more, thick carpeting is associated with the 80’s and really......
• Tips To Find A Contractor For Your Home Improvement Projects If you are planning a big home improvement project that you are going to need to hire a contractor for there are a few things that you will need to know before you even consider hiring them for your own home improvement project. First of all you need to be......
• Downsizing a Baby Boomer from an Empty Nest Baby boomers who have have completed the task of child-rearing (or are in the home stretch) start to think about that empty nest. Mrs. GoTo and I are semi-empty nesters.  We have two sons working and living on their own.  The third son is still in college so he still......
• How to Choose the Right Thai Boxing Gym? We have asked a top professional in muscle building and muscle training for his opinion on how to find the right gym for any kind of fitness training, thai boxing, muscle training or just fitness training. So, without taking any special training in consideration, what are the 10 main points......

Online Stores

• Laminate Flooring Tile Flooring Building Hardware Home Improvement
• Marble Tile Flooring Tile Flooring Building Hardware Home Improvement
• Weights Dumbbells Strength Training Gym, Workout Yoga Exercise Fitness
• Wood Flooring Tile Flooring Building Hardware Home Improvement
• Stair Machines Steppers Cardiovascular Equipment Gym, Workout Yoga Exercise Fitness

If you liked this article, vote for it on del.icio.us and stumbleupon.

Time the change your life? No longer content to live a sedentary lifestyle and revel in couch potatoism? Click here to download the 31 page the 100% FREE eBook "How to Lose Weight and Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle."

Categories:

Weight Loss Journal, exercise, gym

Tags:

accessible room, basement floors, carpet, dead lifts, exercises, fabric, floor option, garages, good lighting, gym membership, hardwood flooring, home gym, home space, lifting weights, plywood, rubber mat, solid surface, square feet, two different things, workout space