Expertises: Uneven bars, Fitness, Nutrition, Gym, Exercise equipment
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Larger home gym floor plans allow for more flexibility with exercise equipment addition and placement, but they also cost more to set up. Smaller floor plans require more efficient planning, and may require prioritizing the addition of essential implements over others.
Having a gym in your home is a convenient way of sticking to a gym routine, saving you both time and money in the process. But without the proper know-how of gym design elements, your home gym can end up being woefully under-equipped.
To help you know the ins and outs of a home gym, we’ve curated a list of seven home gym floor plans and layouts. Learn all you need to know about these residence workout spaces by scrolling down!
7 Home Gym Floor Plan Layouts
1. 500 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
Five hundred square feet of space is more than enough for even professional settings. Needless to say, you won’t have to cut corners at all when filling your home gym with equipment and still have enough room left to spare. Of course, this will require quite a hefty monetary investment.
You can include cardio and strength training equipment that cater to your personal needs as well as those of friends and family. Consider adding squat racks, power cages, deadlift barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebell storage racks to your setup.
Don’t forget to leave some empty space in your home gym! Having room to walk about freely is something that may fly under the radar of some but is worth having nonetheless.
Besides, you needn’t limit yourself to relying on home gym equipment for exercising. The large space can be used to perform many exercises as well, like sprinter crunches.
2. 400 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
Though not as large as the aforementioned 500 sq. ft. gym design, the 400 sq. ft. home gym layout has plenty of space for most people. It can fit squat racks, barbell and kettlebell storage racks, a bench, and a few other choice implements for a complete workout experience. Add isolation and cardio machines, and you won’t need any professional-grade equipment at all.
Tip
It’s important to note that fitting a power rack isn’t always possible in these floor plans, as the equipment is limited by the ceiling height.
3. 300 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
This is by no means a small area, but you may start to feel the lack of room in it. This is particularly the case if you’re thinking of incorporating every piece of equipment mentioned earlier.
Nonetheless, you can still fit in a squat rack, dumbbell, and kettlebell storage racks, along with large cardio equipment such as a treadmill. Additionally, you may have spare room for a bench and another bodybuilding machine as per your requirement.
Having multiple of these pieces of equipment stored in your 300 sq. ft. home gym layout may make it feel cramped in comparison with its larger versions. After all, smaller spaces require much more careful planning when trying to save space.
4. 250 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
This is where you may need to leave a few pieces of equipment out when setting the gym up. The selection of quality equipment reduces a smidge, as it takes up plenty of your free space.
Squat racks and dumbbell and kettlebell racks can still comfortably find a place in your home gym, as can a large exercise machine. But anything more, and you’ll be left with little room to maneuver around.
Moreover, you may be forced to choose which machines you wish to include in the gym out of cardio and isolation machines. Setting up a multi-station machine is also possible, but not exactly easy, given how large it is.
5. 200 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
With a 200 sq. ft. home gym floor plan, you may want to do away with a power cage and use a squat rack instead. Another way of saving floor space is to use a wall-mounted foldable squat rack instead that takes up barely a foot when fully extended. Doing so will save you plenty of space for miscellaneous items and floor exercises.
One storage rack each for dumbbells and kettlebells can still be fitted in the gym room without it feeling claustrophobic. And lastly, with the space you save using these tips, you can fit one large cardio machine like a spin bike or an isolation machine.
6. 150 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
You may not be able to fit in isolation machines at all in a 150 sq. ft. home gym. And this may necessitate you having to leave more pieces of equipment out of your gym design.
As with the 200 sq. ft. plan, you may want to use a squat rack over power cages to save space. In addition to a foldable squat rack, you can opt for ergonomic dumbbells and kettlebell racks to further optimize your floor space usage.
And as for exercise machines, you may want to fit no more than one machine in your gym setup. Any more, and the room will feel too cluttered to work out in.
7. 100 Feet2 Home Gym Floor Plan
The 100 sq. ft. home gym design includes the barest of essentials with no more than a couple of additional training kits. Large exercising machines can’t fit in the room at all without obstructing everything else, and it may only fit one set of storage racks. For a great cardio workout, you may be able to get away with a spin bike as well.
You may not find enough space with everything set up to perform floor exercises. And with barely any room for a squat rack, you may have to resort to strength training for rowing with dumbbells and kettlebells instead.
Making The Most Out Of Your Home Gym Setup
1. Equipment Setup In A Home Gym
One of the most critical points of planning a home gym is that you can’t fit everything in one room. With smaller rooms, you’ll have to choose between workout must-haves and those you don’t necessarily need.
Imagine trying to fit three isolation machines in a 200 sq. ft. gym room, leaving barely any space to work with! To put it concisely, the amount of space you allocate for a gym is perfectly fine as long as you manage that space well.
Additionally, where you place the equipment in the gym matters as well. This is more for the sake of convenience, but you will be glad to keep frequently-used equipment next to each other in the long run.
2. Measurements Matter
Each piece of gym equipment comes with a specifications list that details product dimensions. These measurements can help you gauge what you can fit in the home gym and what to avoid.
With a large area, you have more wiggle room when it comes to managing how much space a particular piece of equipment covers. But with smaller ones, you’ll want to be as precise as possible and get creative with their placement when needed.
So, be sure to take note of the measurements before you purchase and place them in your home gym.
3. Accessorizing Your Gym
Accessories can play a major role in your gym and make your workout experience more complete than before. These are quality-of-life adjustments that simply make your life in the gym easier. Consider adding the following accessories to your own home gym based on your budget:
- Jump ropes
- Yoga mat
- Protective gear
- Balance trainers
- Suspension trainer
- Punching bag
- Pull-up and pull-down (exercise) bars
- Push-up bars
- Swiss ball
- Mirror
- Skipping rope
These are just a few in a laundry list of accessories to widen your exercising horizon that can make your home gym experience much better.
4. Set The Gym Up Slowly
Buying every piece of fitness equipment from the get-go may be enticing, but it can get expensive and difficult to manage very quickly. So, start off by purchasing the bare minimum and add equipment you need as your training progresses.
Plates, dumbbells, and a few other items can be purchased early on, which can be upgraded as you grow stronger.
You’ll find that managing floor space becomes much easier when you make additions to an existing gym layout. Slowly but surely, your home gym will come together in the way you visualize it.
5. Proper Flooring
A gym is usually home to heavy pieces of equipment, and these being moved around during weight training can strain the floor quite a bit. Even garage and basement cement floors have been known to crack, meaning that floor strength matters beyond just tile.
So, when you’re building a home gym, it’s best to make sure that the floor can take the stress. Natural rubber tiles, plywood, or a combination of both can absorb much of the shock that is produced by dropped free weights.
If you can’t use these options, consider using crash pads as flooring to reduce the impact of free weights. These pads can be moved about easily and set aside when not in use, which can be nifty for a smaller home gym.
And lastly, even if you don’t yet have heavy free weights in the gym, it’s for the best to have natural rubber equipment mats or tiles anyways. They can be the right flooring for you, serving as a more comfortable surface for your feet throughout an exercise routine.
Home Gym Safety Precautions
With all the heavy equipment that sees frequent use in a physical fitness center, there is always a chance of something going wrong. It could be something as simple as an injury caused by an improperly stored dumbbell falling or something more serious like malfunctioning machines.
In any case, it’s important not to gloss over home gym safety measures. Let’s look at how you can ensure your workout routines remain safe and effective.
1. Be Mindful Of Your Surroundings
Before you begin your daily workout routine, ensure that there are no obstructions littered around the floor. This includes misplaced exercising implements, bags, obstacles, small pets and the like.
2. Clear Out Your Space
It may be tempting to leave your equipment strewn across the gym after intense cardio workouts, but this can quickly become a tripping hazard. Clearing out your space and placing gym equipment where it is supposed to be is a good practice to avoid such hazards.
You should try to follow the same guidelines that a local fitness center has when working out in your home gym. Not only will this promote a healthy workout habit, but it will also reduce the chances of an unfortunate injury.
3. Have Company At The Gym
Having a workout buddy is always beneficial for your health, promoting a healthier workout regime. Moreover, having an exercise buddy in your vicinity means that you will receive help quickly in case something goes wrong.
While it is an ideal prospect to have a workout buddy, it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. Simply having someone in your vicinity as you work out is generally a good idea for a quick response to accidents or injuries.
4. Keep Your Doors Shut
Distractions can easily ruin the flow of your workout, which is why many opt to keep their gym doors closed. The fewer the distractions, the better your focus will be on the aerobic exercise routine.
Tip
Consider keeping the gym doors locked up when not in use. All those heavy exercise implements can be hazardous for kids and pets, should they enter the room unsupervised.
Home Gym Floor Plan Conclusion
Having a gym in your home brings in a host of benefits, including saving money and time on gym membership, commuting, and the like. And a home gym allows you to approach exercise at your own pace.
If your workout routines are not extensive, you can opt for as small a room as 100 sq. ft. Less intense workout requires fewer pieces of fitness equipment, and you can forgo purchasing other equipment you don’t need. As you continue to add more exercise implements to the gym, you’ll need to grow more mindful of the space they occupy.
At the end of the day, it’s important to take it slow, start with the essentials and make your way up to a complete home gym.
