You're thinking about your basement. It's unfinished, but you don't want to waste the space. You've wanted a place to exercise at home, and your unfinished basement is the perfect place to put in a home gym. This way, you can have privacy for your workouts, and you won't have heavy weights dropping on your upstairs floors. That said, you need some Unfinished Basement Home Gym Ideas to help you get started. See if any of these work for you!
1) DIY Home Dance Studio
What type of gym do you want? Don't get stuck with a standard weight bench and treadmill setup. If your basement is large enough, you can really take advantage of its size by making any type of workout room you want. Too many home gyms get neglected after a few months, so make sure to choose a workout plan you'll love and plan your gym around it. For example, if you like to dance, you can use this article to turn your basement into a home dance studio and make dancing your daily or weekly workout!
2) Surround Sound
Music is a great way to distract yourself from a strenuous workout or get your blood pumping, and you'll want a way to play it in your unfinished basement. While you can always use portable speakers or your cellphone music app, surround sound will sound better and get you the volume and clarity you need for tough and energetic workouts. You can get speakers like these to ensure you have high-quality sound, and use your home internet to play it since cellphones don't always get signal in basements.
3) Wall-Mount TV
Sometimes when you're working out, you need something to distract you from your burning muscles and the monotony of the treadmill or cardio equipment. A TV is an effective way to entertain yourself during a long workout, but a TV can get in the way if you don't have it mounted on the wall. If your basement has four concrete walls, you can use this video to learn how to mount your TV to concrete and have a better source of entertainment for your home gym.
4) Floor Mats
Whether you're lifting weights or doing bodyweight exercises, you'll want some padding on the floor. Nobody wants to do a pushup on concrete or drop a weight on a loud floor and hear the loud echo of it. Instead of installing flooring for your home gym, put down floor mats like these. The mat tiles interlock so that you can fit them into any space, though you may want to look into other floor mat options for a large area. Place them in your weightlifting area and create a little bit of clear space for bodyweight exercises.
5) Adjustable Garage Light
If your unfinished basement doesn't have lights or has only bare bulbs and industrial lighting, you might want something better suited to a home gym. It's important to have a well-lit area for exercise so that you don't injure yourself, so a light fixture like this one from Amazon would be great for your basement. You can adjust it to face in three different directions and cover a wide area effectively, and since it's designed for garages, it'll be more durable than many light fixtures.
6) Punching Bag
If your basement doesn't have a ground-level exit, your walls are probably all concrete, making it difficult to hang exercise equipment on the walls. Try equipment like punching bags that can be hung from your rafters. Punching bags are easier to install in a basement with exposed rafters since they aren't hidden behind drywall, so you won't need a stud finder or end up drilling several holes in the wrong spot by accident. That said, they work well in any basement gym.
7) Pulleys
If your basement isn't a walkout, you probably don't have wooden walls to hang or connect things to. One good wall to get around that is to hang things from the ceiling when possible. Try getting a pulley system like that attaches to the ceiling and provides resistance to do pulling exercises. This should be easier to attach in an unfinished basement gym than in another room since the ceiling beams will be exposed, and you won't have to waste time and damage the ceiling hunting for an excellent place to attach the equipment.
8) DIY Pegboard Organizer
You'll need a way to organize your straps and other training equipment, and your options are limited in an unfinished basement. You can install shelves, but they don't work as well without drywall or another solid type of wall behind them. Try making a pegboard organizer using the instructions in this article from Classy Clutter, and organizing your gym equipment on it. Customize it to fit your needs, and paint the pegboard a color you like to add some color to the unfinished walls.
9) Hanging Straps
If your basement doesn't have any wooden walls, it can be difficult to install certain exercise equipment, like exercise straps that anchor to walls. To combat this, get hanging straps like these ones from Amazon that can hang on any pullup bar. This is great for a small basement home gym since you can use the pullup bar for both pullups and exercises with straps. It's also a great way to add an extra piece of equipment that mounts to a ceiling instead of a wall if your usable space is limited by concrete walls.
10) DIY Wall-Mounted Gym
If you have a small basement or use it for other things, but you still want a home gym, you'll need to think about ways to conserve space and have one compact gym area. One way to do that is to create a wall-mounted gym. You'll probably want to put a piece of plywood up before designing the gym, so you'll have something to mount everything to, whether you have unfinished wood walls or concrete walls.
11) Cheap Mirrors
If you're putting your home gym in an unfinished basement, you're focused on utility, not on how it looks. You'll want gym mirrors so that you can see your posture during certain exercises, but mirrors can be expensive. Use this video to learn how to get cheap mirrors for your gym. This way, you can have all the benefits of gym mirrors without the expense of having brand new ones installed. Make sure to get unframed mirrors if you're putting several next to each other, and plan ahead to decide how you'll hang them.
12) Indoor Swimming Pool
If you have a big basement, you should think big when installing your home gym. Instead of just installing gym equipment, think about what else you like to do when exercise. One great advantage of a basement is that it's the lowest floor of your house, so you don't have to worry about putting heavy equipment, or...swimming pools. Think about putting in an indoor swimming pool for aquatic exercise. The basement is the best place in the house for it, and you can use this article by Emma Eilbeck from Lofts and Basements to help make your decision.
13) Bathroom
If you're going to be spending a lot of time in your basement home gym, you'll want some comforts. While you might not want to finish the entire basement or even the gym area, consider putting in a bathroom. This way, you'll have a place to take a shower or cool down after your workout, and you won't have to worry about walking around the house in smelly gym clothes. If you have roommates or a family, they'll thank you for it!
14) Doorway Pull-up Bar
It can be hard to find places to mount things in a basement since all or most of the walls are made of concrete, but don't let that deter you from getting the exercise equipment you want. Try buying this doorway-mounted pull-up bar from Amazon. It mounts to the studs on the side of your doorway, so you know for sure that you'll have a solid place to attach it, no matter how your basement is arranged.
15) Natural Light
Natural lighting helps people be happier and more productive, and while this is valuable in an office environment, it's also good in a home gym. The problem is, most basements don't have a lot of natural light. You might have tiny basement windows near the ceiling or even one of two full windows next to a walkout basement door, but that won't let in a lot of light. Try adding more windows or locating the gym near your existing windows so that you can have light to help you stay focused and happy during your workouts
16) Exercise Ball
It can be hard to find places to hang things in a gym since the walls are concrete and don't have studs like a typical room. Try to focus on equipment that won't need to be hung up, like this exercise ball from Amazon. You'll want to put it on some mats since concrete floors will be uncomfortable for exercise ball exercises. Since this doesn't need to be anchored, you won't have to worry about attaching it to concrete walls.
17) DIY Vinyl Floor
Your basement probably doesn't have flooring, and you don't want to do exercises on hard concrete. Rather than buying gym mats for the entire floor, think about installing a vinyl floor. Vinyl is relatively easy to install, and it's a cheap option to cover a concrete floor. You'll need a durable floor for your home gym, and this will cushion your feet better than concrete. Use the instructions in this article to install vinyl floor, or hire somebody to do it, then only lay mats down in areas that need the most cushioning.
18) Hang Mirrors on Concrete
Your home gym will need some mirrors. While you can get away with not having mirrors, they're great for checking posture while you do exercises. They also amplify natural light, which is vital in a basement with little natural light. Unfortunately, it can be hard to hang mirrors on concrete walls, but you can still have mirrors in your home gym! Watch this video by 1825 Interiors to learn how to fasten a mirror on a concrete wall.
19) Cardio
A basement is ideal for lifting weights since any noises from dropped weights won't travel as far and echo as loudly throughout the house as they would from an upstairs room. The basement is also convenient and gives you plenty of space to work out, but it doesn't make it difficult to do running and stepping exercises without gym equipment. You'll want to make sure you have plenty of cardio workout machines in your home gym, like treadmills, bikes, and stair-steppers. This way, you can do every part of a complete workout in one place.
20) Nonslip Workout Mat
If your basement doesn't have flooring, you'll need to install something to cushion the ground since concrete is much harder than a typical floor and can cause injury during bodyweight exercises and cardio workouts. You'll want something that's better for your ankles and causes less wear and tear on your body, but you might not want to install an entire floor. Instead, buy a workout mat like this to cover the space you'll use the most for your bodyweight and other floor exercises.
21) All-In-One Suspension Training
Since your gym is in a concrete room, you probably can't hang or anchor things to the wall very easily, though you can still attach some things to the wall if you do it correctly. You can hang things from the ceiling instead of anchoring them on walls, but this requires you to change your workout routine. To ensure that you still get a complete workout with ceiling-mounted equipment, try getting this all-in-one suspension training equipment from Amazon. You can anchor it anywhere, including walls, ceilings, or even doorways if you don't like mounting it on the ceiling.
22) DIY Climbing Pegboard
A climbing pegboard is an awesome upper body workout and a fun addition to any gym, but it might seem hard to do in a basement. After all, you don't have typical wooden walls to anchor it to. Use the instructions in this article to build your climbing pegboard, and note how they mounted it on brick. You can mount yours on concrete if you do it properly, and then you'll have a unique home gym option. Make sure you have mats underneath if you have a high ceiling.
23) Floor Mirror
It's hard to hang things on concrete walls, and mirrors are no exception. That said, it's useful to have a mirror in your home gym so that you can watch your posture while doing exercises, so you'll want to find a way to have a mirror in your basement. Instead of hanging it, try getting a floor mirror like this one from Amazon. The mirror is full-length, but it's designed to sit on the floor against a wall, so you don't have to go to the trouble of hanging it on concrete.
24) Bouldering Wall
If you have a large basement, you might as well go all-out with your home gym and build something amazing. You don't even need to spend a lot of money if you find a project you can build on your own. If you have a tall enough basement ceiling, try using the directions in this article to build a bouldering wall. The wall doesn't have to be very tall, as long as it's tall enough for you to get your feet off the ground.
What kind of gym are you building in your basement? Did any of these ideas help inspire you? Tell us about it in the comments below.
