A home gym is a dream for many people - and for good reason.
First off, it’s incredibly convenient. You already have to commute to work, the grocery store, your kid’s soccer game, and so many other places. A home gym system can save you that drive to a commercial gym. So ditch that gym membership.
Plus, because of the convenience, you are almost guaranteed to go more. You know what this means - no more skipping leg day.
Another huge pro is that your family can see you workout. Instead of mom or dad going to the gym and leaving the family behind, your kids and spouse can see your hard work. What better way to instill hard work and healthy living into your family?
Finally, it’s peaceful solitude. It is just you and your equipment. There’s no 2010s pop playlist on in the background. There’s no waiting for an open bench or squat rack. There’s no sweaty equipment sharing. Zero, zilch, nada. This ain't no commercial gym and you certainly don't need a gym membership.
This might be the best reason for all of them. With a world that is always fighting for your attention, you can take an hour and devote it to getting better in the solitude of your garage.
Okay, by this point, you’ve got to be sold. What could truly be better.
Well, honestly, the biggest hurdle is often financial.
Home gyms are expensive, or at least they can be. However, this guide is going to help break down how you can turn your garage from this image below to a functioning home gym system at any price point - yes, as little as $500.
That’s skipping coffee at Starbucks for 100 days in a row. Wait, hold up, I’m not sure that is worth it. Any other caffeine addicts out there?
The cool thing about this guide is that the budgets pretty much build on themselves. So let’s say you can only commit to $500. Well, in six months or so you can add another $500 and be at the $1000 home gym. It’s not like you have to start all the way over.
Home gyms allow us to work out more often and more consistently. Exercise has continually been proven to be one of, if not the, single most important things we can do for our health.
Let’s start with our $500 budget.
Building a Home Gym with $500
Okay, you are ready. You’ve got $500 and want to stretch it to create a compact home gym.
Here’s the equipment you need:
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A pair of dumbbells
Okay, let’s start with the dumbbells. A pair of dumbbells might be the most universal plug-and-play piece of home gym equipment there is. You have so many incredible muscle building, strength gaining, full body workout exercises you can perform with just one pair.
There are entire dumbbell-only workout plans and fitness routines. If you’ve ever visited a hotel gym, you know that may be the only piece of strength training equipment you can get your hands on, but you certainly can still hit every major muscle group and have a ton of exercise options.
So while you may have to be a little bit creative, you can still get incredible at-home full body workouts with a pair of dumbbells.
So how do you choose which weight to go with? Well, there are a few things to consider. First, how experienced are you with strength training? A more experienced strength trainer can obviously go with a heavier dumbbell than someone who is not. Second, are you a male or female? Females tend to use about 70% of the weight a male in similar physical condition would use. Ladies, this isn’t to say you can’t show the men in your life up every once and a while. Third, what is your goal? Are you trying to gain muscle, strength, or just exercise? I would push you to try and pick a goal beyond just exercising. It will help you see results and more clearly measure them - SMART (fitness) goals anyone? However, if your goal is building muscle (hypertrophy) you may want to go slightly lighter and if your fitness goals involve building strength go slightly heavier. Don’t stress too much as you are going to achieve both if you seriously lift weights.
Okay, practically speaking, where does that put us? I’d recommend somewhere between a 35-50lb dumbbell pair for men and a 20-35lb pair for females.
For most people, this will be heavy enough to get about 8-10 reps of many exercises.
Depending on the weight you select, this will cost you probably about $75-$150.
Next, you are going to need a quality adjustable bench. Sure, there are some cheap options here, but we want an adjustable bench we can keep for the long run. We want to ultimately keep it when we have a power rack and barbell.
An adjustable bench is key here. It’s really about the same price, so there is no reason to go with the flat bench.
The adjustable bench allows you to perform upper body exercises such as: incline bench press, incline rows, shoulder raise variations, and many other exercises that are not possible on a traditional bench.
We are looking for one that has a strong frame, durable upholstery and, in my opinion, is on the wider side. Sometimes, adjustable benches get narrow and don’t feel as sturdy.
As far as price here, we are looking at probably between $250-$350.
Finally, we want a set of resistance bands. For the price, resistance bands are just too good to pass up. For about $50, you can get a set of bands with varying resistance. These are great for exercises like triceps extensions, overhead presses, rows, biceps curls, hamstring curls, and many more. They also are a great tool to help you warm up as well as stretch after a hard workout.
So all in, we are roughly right at $500. This is a really solid start. You can hit a ton of major compound exercises (presses, rows, squats, hinges) and major muscle groups that are going to help you see improvement.
Now let’s see what kind of magic we can work with a $1000 budget.
Building a Home Gym with $1000
With more money, comes more responsibility or something like that.
Now that we have a little bit bigger budget, let’s see how we can stretch it. The two things we are going to do is increase our range of dumbbells and start investing in quality rubber flooring.
Here’s the additional home gym equipment you need:
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Lighter pair of dumbbells
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Heavier pair of dumbbells
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3 rubber mats (4x6)
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Tape for the mats
Let’s start with the flooring.
Now, I know this isn’t the most exciting purchase, but it is necessary. It is an investment that you will certainly come to appreciate.
The last thing you want is to accidentally drop your dumbbells on your garage floor. This can cause damage to the dumbbells, the floor, or both. As we look to grow our home gym system in the future, quality rubber flooring is going to be critical, so we are going to start by introducing some of the mats to our budget.
Three 4x6 rubber mats will give you a 12x6 surface to work on. This isn’t huge, but will allow you to train safely and efficiently. Depending on the thickness of the mats, these will probably cost you between $100-200.
Rubber mats not only protect your floor, but they also protect you. They are naturally slip-resistant and give you a solid footing as you are training. They also have just a little bit of give, which makes exercises like planks, push-ups, and jumps more comfortable on your joints.
In addition to the mats, you are probably going to want to invest in some tape ($30-$50) to secure the mats. Before installing the mats, be sure to check out our article here for more information.
We also want to add a pair of lighter dumbbells.
These are going to be used for things like biceps curls, lateral raises, rear delt raises, single-leg RDLs, among others. While having the one pair of dumbbells from the $500 budget is great, it does certainly limit us in performing some of the exercises just mentioned. It is just simply too heavy.
Now, with our $1000 budget, we don’t have enough to purchase every 5lb increment dumbbell pair so we need to be strategic. I would say for men here we are looking at a 15-30lb pair and for women probably in the 10-15lb range.
We also need to consider a heavier dumbbell. At some point our moderate weight dumbbell is also going to be too light. For instance, if you want to perform goblet squats, RDLs, single-arm rows, or even bench press.
Each of these exercises will likely need a little bit heavier dumbbell. Having a range from light to heavy allows you to hit almost any exercise. Now, the key to improving in the gym, and in your case your home gym, is progressive overload - meaning you gradually add weight or reps (there are a few other variables - but these are the main two). So as a weight feels easier you can add reps until eventually you can move up to the next dumbbell.
Now as far as how heavy of a dumbbell pair to get. For men, I would recommend between 60-80lbs and for women between 40-55lbs. You want this to be a pretty heavy pair of dumbbells, but not a pair that gets dusty because it's so heavy. It should be used in almost every workout, otherwise we will use our money elsewhere.
As far as pricing goes, for the lighter dumbbells we are looking at around $50-$100 and for the heavier dumbbells $150-$250. Now, I know the prices seem to vary here a lot. That’s simply because dumbbells (and weight plates for that matter) are often priced per pound. So they get pretty much proportionally more expensive the heavier they get.
At this point, we are starting to look at a pretty serious home gym.
However, our next budget level is going to unlock strength training’s greatest tool - stay tuned.
Building a Home Gym with $2000
Now, we are getting to the good, good stuff.
With a $2000 budget, we can build a legit home gym. We are assuming you are putting it in a basement or garage, that is around 20x20. At $2,000 we won’t fill the whole future home gym. We will wait until the next budget jump for that.
So at this price point, we are looking at everything above plus these items:
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3 additional rubber mats (4x6)
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Crumb rubber bumper plate set (260lbs)
Alright, so first off, the additional mats will cost us about another $100-200. We now have enough mats to fill a 12x12 home gym. This is getting to be a pretty good size home gym. The tape we purchased should last us for the additional mats as well.
With a 12x12 home gym, you have plenty of room for almost any exercise - squats, push-ups, jump rope, deadlifts, and even Olympic lifting - assuming your ceiling is tall enough.
The items I’m most excited for come next.
First, the rack.
A rack opens up a world of new possibilities, but there are a few things we want to ensure our rack has. First, a pull-up bar. Most racks have these but not all. These are obviously great for pull-ups and chin-ups, but they are also great for banded exercises. Simply hook one of your resistance bands over the top and you can perform exercises such as lat stretches, triceps pushdown, assisted jumps, assisted pull-ups, and more.
Plus, without a pull-up bar, it is pretty hard to get a vertical pull exercise in your rotation. If you are unfamiliar with this idea, it is a good idea to ensure your pushing and pulling exercises are well rounded - meaning you are getting vertical and horizontal pressing (think overhead press and bench press) as well as vertical and horizontal pulling (think pull-ups and bent-over rows).
A second thing that is critical is plate storage. There is no need to purchase an additional plate storage rack. Just opt for a rack that has a built-in storage. This will save your home gym space and more than likely money as well.
A quality rack that has these two features can run between about $500-$800, depending on any additional bells and whistles you like.
Next up, we have a barbell.
Things are really heating up now for your home gym.
You are going to want to purchase an Olympic 45lb barbell. This is going to give you the most options for your training in your home gym. Especially, when building a home gym on a budget and when our constraints are space and money, we want to opt for home gym equipment with the most functionality. This is certainly what you are getting for your home gym with a barbell.
The Olympic barbell differs from a traditional power bar in that it is meant to spin. All this does, is give you the option to perform Olympic lifts. Even if you have no intention of this, it doesn’t hurt to go with this variation as it leaves the option open for down the road.
I know I’ve switched my training styles as other factors in my life change, and you don’t want to rule out the option, especially when it doesn’t cost anything additional.
A solid barbell for your home gym will run you around $200.
Finally, we have our bumper plates.
Now with our plate selection we absolutely want to go with rubber plates. The cost is similar to other alternatives, plus they can be dropped.
Rubber plates are going to be better for your floors. They are also going to be better if you plan on doing any sort of Olympic weightlifting or CrossFit. I have also found they are better for random uses. What I mean by this is, rubber plates are a little bit thicker than metal plates, so they make a great 2- inch platform. This can be helpful for deficit push-ups, front foot elevated split squats, and even calf raises.
All things considered, they again just give you more flexibility and options for your home gym.
Now, our budget is going to limit the amount and type of plates we can purchase, but we are going to make it work.
As far as type of rubber plates, I would go with crumb rubber. These are essentially recycled tires, but are just as durable as some of the other options. They typically aren’t colored, but they are going to save you some money and provide the same function. So, we are going to ignore beauty for practicality.
As far as how much weight you can get, we have about $300 left. At this price point, a set of about 260lbs is achievable. This would give you a pair of 45, 35, 25, 15, and 10lb plates. Including the weight of the barbell, you can get up to 305lbs. This is a pretty solid amount of weight. The only exercises that potentially could be limited are your deadlift and squat, but that’s assuming you are pretty dang strong and are likely going for low rep sets. In that case, for an extra $100-$150 you can get another pair of 45s bringing you up to 395.
Okay, why did we go through all the trouble of purchasing a barbell, rack, and bumper plates for your home gym? Well, because now, you have access to some of the most incredible strength exercises ever created - the squat, bench press, deadlift, bent-over row, RDL, overhead press, and countless more.
At this point, you can build some serious strength and muscle.
You really don’t have any limitations as far as equipment in your home gym.. Sure, some machines could be nice, but you really have no excuses.
You can progressively overload your back squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, and pull-ups and make some serious progress with your strength training equipment.
Now, let’s get to some luxuries.
Building a Home Gym with $5000
Okay, now we are just spoiled. This extra budget gives us a lot of wiggle room for some fun home gym toys. Your gym membership is gone. You've worked hard to save money, and now your home workouts are legendary.
Here’s the breakdown, everything mentioned above plus:
Your home gym is stacked.
With 9 additional mats we can now cover a full 20x20 home gym (about the size of a two-car garage). We are also going to need to invest in a little bit more tape so between the two we are looking at about an additional $300-600.
Next up are our dumbbells. Up until this point, we’ve only had three pairs at most, so while it would have been nice, we decided not to invest in a rack. But now, we want to complete our set with a rack to store our dumbbells and dumbbells ranging from 5-50 pounds. This may leave you with a few duplicates, but dumbbells are pretty easy to sell on FB marketplace or just purchase the pairs you are missing. This will allow us to perform almost any dumbbell exercise and much more easily add weight as we can jump 5 pounds instead of 15 or 20. Our rack and dumbbell set is going to be right around $1000.
We are also going to want a pair of heavy dumbbells for your home gym. We already have a moderate pair (hopefully around 70lbs for males), but we want one set closer to 90lbs or whatever you would consider a heavy pair. These aren’t going to be used every day, but at least weekly for exercises like rows, RDLs, and farmer’s or suitcase carries. This pair of dumbbells will probably cost around $250.
We also are going to want a landmine pivot. These are relatively inexpensive, but allow us to perform a whole host of cool exercises. $50 is all it will take to allow us to perform landmine press, landmine single-leg RDLs, and more.
Finally, we are going to want a piece of cardio equipment for your home gym. Here, the gym equipment piece I would opt for is a bike. There are a ton of options you can go with as far as bikes go. A bike will allow you to perform low intensity sessions (zone 2) as well as high intensity intervals and everything in between. Bikes also have a relatively low footprint in a home gym. Consider a fan bike or C2 bike here. You are probably looking at about $1000 for a solid bike.
