You need a place to work out, and the best place you can find is the garage, but the builder didn’t design it to be a home gym. Maybe you need to leave space to park your car or keep part of the garage open for other projects, or perhaps you have free rein to turn the whole garage into a gym. Either way, you need some Home Gym Ideas for a Garage. See if these ideas work for you!
1) Gym-Themed Clock
During your workouts, you probably have a watch with a timer or use your smartphone to track how long some exercises take, but sometimes it’s convenient to have a clock you can just glance at. If you usually use your cell phone and cable box to check the time, you might need a wall clock for your garage home gym. Try getting a strength training-themed wall clock like the one in the picture, or just one that fits your garage. This way, you can check the time at a glance without interrupting your workout.
2) Multi-Function
If you’re still using your garage as a garage, you’re going to have limited space for your home gym. To account for this, try getting multi-function gym equipment like this pull-up and dip station from Amazon. These equipment types give you multiple workout options without taking up extra space that you need for your car or for garage projects the rest of the time. Consider getting multi-function cardio equipment, as well, depending on your exercise needs.
3) DIY Pulley System
If you have a limited budget for converting your garage to a gym, you’ll have to do a lot of the work yourself. Some equipment is easy to build yourself, like a pull-up bar, but a pulley system probably seems too complicated to make yourself. In this video, Garage Gym Reviews shows you how they built a pulley system for lat pulldowns and other similar exercises for less than $25. You can use the video to create a system in your garage.
4) Interlocking Foam Flooring
While you might spend a lot of time using equipment, there’ll probably be some point in your routine when you’re doing floor exercises. For those exercises, you don’t want to be on a hard concrete floor. Even if you spend all your time using equipment, heavy weights can be loud on concrete floors, and even damage it. Interlocking foam flooring like this is a great cushion for your floor, and you can install it yourself over your garage floor.
5) Mirror Wall
Many gyms have mirrors so that you can check your posture and make sure you’re in the correct position while doing exercises. If you use the garage for other things, it could be difficult to install a mirror wall, but if you’re fully converting your garage into a gym, a mirror wall or two is essential. You can read about installing gym mirrors in this article from Nick’s Glass and Mirrors. You can try installing them yourself and risk seven years of bad luck, or hire a professional to create your mirror wall.
6) Anchors
Anchors are a useful tool for different types of workouts, but depending on your needs, you’ll want them in different locations. If your garage is unfinished, you can easily locate studs to put anchors like these into, then use the anchors for resistance bands and other equipment. Unlike other exercise equipment, they take up almost no space, so you can use your garage as usual when you’re not working out. You can also set them up as part of a more extensive home gym if you’re converting the whole garage into a gym.
7) Durable Floor Tiles
A home gym needs a durable floor, and preferably one with some cushioning. If you do any exercises on the floor, even if it’s just jogging in place to warm up, you don’t want hard concrete under you; it’s not healthy. One way to soften the floor is with peel and stick tiles like these. These tiles are durable enough for a home gym, but still soft enough to lessen the hardness of the concrete floor beneath. They can stick to concrete, so you can install them yourself.
8) DIY Efficient Storage
Before you can create a garage home gym, you need to clear out your garage. If you move things out of the way without a clear plan, then your equipment will be covered in garage tools, and your garage will have taken back over in just a few months. Instead, make a clear plan to organize your garage before building your gym. You can use the step-by-step directions in this video by Crafted Workshop to build new storage, or find another way to organize your garage permanently.
9) Folding
If you use your garage for more than just a gym, one way to squeeze a gym into that space is to use folding equipment like this weight bench from Amazon. You can find a folding version of most equipment, then store it against whichever wall works best. Then, whenever you need to exercise, unfold your equipment to quickly recreate your home gym. Even if you use the whole garage for the gym, you can use this method to fit more variety of equipment.
10) Ropes
If you’ve been to a gym, you’re familiar with the ropes in this picture. The ropes are a great exercise, but they’re not something you’d typically be able to do in a home gym. Since you’re using your garage for a gym, though, you can add large equipment like this. The ropes will probably be loud when they hit the floor, but since you’re at ground level, you don’t have to worry about noise. If you have the whole garage to use for your gym, you’ll have plenty of room for the ropes, too.
11) Fold-Up Mat
If you’re using your garage for cars or other work, you probably don’t have a large space for your home gym. Since garage floors tend to be hard, you’ll want something to cover the concrete, but it has to be something that can be moved when you need to park a car. Try getting a fold-up mat like this one from Amazon. This will soften the floor so you can do floor exercises more comfortably, and you can tuck the pad away when you need to free up space.
12) DIY Wall-Mount TV
One thing people don’t always think about when designing a gym is that they’ll need entertainment. Working out can be stressful, but it doesn’t take a lot of mental space; that’s why professional gyms have TVs, and many people listen to music while running. Plan ahead by setting up a wall-mounted TV in your garage home gym. You can use these instructions from Every Day A Project to mount a TV so you can swivel it to watch from anywhere, including from any workbenches you may still be using for garage projects.
13) Fan
Working out is hot and sweaty work, and you’ll want air conditioning or at least a fan to keep you cool. Ideally, you’d have air conditioning, but if your garage doesn’t have it and isn’t insulated well enough to be energy-efficient, you’re better off using a plug-in fan like this one. The fan has a remote control and the option to mount it to the wall, so you can put it wherever it’ll be most convenient for your workout.
14) Mat Floor
While a lot of exercise mats for home gyms fit in small floor spaces, you might have the luxury of using your whole garage for a home gym. In such a case, you might as well have floor mats for the whole space. This way, you don’t have to worry about working out only in the same 10-foot by 10-foot space. Try installing mats over your whole garage floor as the owner of the garage in this image did. This will let you spread out and make use of your whole space.
15) Pull-Up Bar
Pull-up bars are an important piece of strength training equipment, and they’re easier to set up in a garage than in any other room in the house. Since you can see the studs in a garage without drywall, you don’t have to worry about trying to locate studs behind a wall. If you do have drywall, you can use the directions in this instructable to install a pull-up bar in your garage ceiling, or even high up on the wall.
16) Music
When you’re working out, you don’t want to listen to the sound of your footsteps or your own grunts of effort as you lift weights. You want the sound of television or music in the background to keep your mind occupied. Check out this article by herchen from New Garage Ideas to learn how you can plan a sound system for your garage home gym. This way, you don’t have to bring your smartphone or music player with you to exercise; the music player will already be set up.
17) Use the Ceiling
Most garages have exposed ceiling beams. This is often the case even if the walls have drywall, and it benefits you when it comes to making a home gym. If your garage has exposed beams on the ceiling, use them to hang or install equipment like the equipment in this picture. Exercise tools like pull-up bars are easier to add when you can see where you need to place them, and you’ll know you’re hanging them from a sturdy support.
18) DIY Mobile TV Stand
Your home gym needs entertainment. While you may enjoy exercising, you probably don’t want to do it without some music or television to distract you from the burn of exertion. One way to put a TV in your garage gym is to build a mobile TV stand. Watch this video by Jeff Parker to learn how you can mobilize your television for $65. Once you do so, you can move the TV to whatever area you’re working out in, or roll it to a different part of the garage if you’re still using part of the garage for other tasks.
19) Glow In the Dark
If you still use your garage for vehicles, you want your gym equipment to be visible when you pull a vehicle into the garage. After all, it’d be a waste to design your home gym only to run it over later and damage your car and equipment. Mark your exercise machines with this glow in the dark tape to make sure you can see it when you pull into the garage, particularly if you’re likely to do so at night, or if the space isn’t well-lit.
20) DIY Drop Down TV
Your garage home gym needs entertainment, but you might be struggling to find a place to put it. Don’t give up and go without, though. Music and television allow you to keep your mind occupied so you can get the most benefit from a workout. If you can’t free up the wall of floor space, try putting a TV on the ceiling. In this article, Anna Sapiga describes ways to mount a TV from the ceiling and have it flip down when you want to use it.
Did any of these home gym ideas help you? What else would you like to do in your home gym? Tell us about it in the comments below!
