Building a Home Gym on a Budget

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Building a Home Gym for Less than $400

There are several advantages to building a home gym that include the usual arguments of privacy and convenience. Putting together a home gym design is not a frivolous or luxury indulgence: a workout room will help you to maintain your health and fitness level and emotional well-being. And the best part is that a workout room with weight training equipment doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.

A Free Weights Home Gym

Free weights are ideal for strength training and for building a home gym on a budget. You have a choice between two styles of free weights: Olympic or Standard. You must choose one or the other; the Olympic size barbell and plates have a larger diameter which means they are not interchangeable with Standard size equipment.

While Standard would seem to be a good starter system for a budget home gym, trainers advise that you spend a little more and invest in an Olympic set since it will hold its re-sell value better. And one last point to consider when building your own home gym; you’ll find that many racks and Smith machines are designed to take Olympic bars and plates, so the functionality is greater with them as well.

Along with the Olympic straight barbell and at least 100-lbs of iron plates, get a pair of dumbbell handles. You can load those with the smaller weight plates. If you don’t like the idea of changing plates often, you could opt to build your own home gym around a set of fixed weight dumbbells. Start with lower weights and add on the larger fixed weights as you can afford them and your strength increases.

Building a Home Gym for Less Than $400? It’s True!

The best part about building a home gym is that quality equipment costs less than a gym membership for a year. Not only does the equipment last forever, at the end of the year, you still own your own equipment! Here is all you need to build your own basic home gym and get in shape on a budget:

Straight barbell bar - $50
Set of plates (100 lbs) - $100
Dumbbell handles - $25
Adjustable weight bench - $60 to $150
Doorway Chin-up bar - $40
Kettle bell - $30 to $50 (10-lb, 15-lb, or 20-lbs)
Resistance band - $20
Exercise mat - $15

Several items listed above are inexpensive, but there are a few purchases for the home gym builder where it does not pay to skimp. The first of these is the bench. Any trainer will advise you to buy the best bench you can afford. It should be adjustable (flat-incline-decline) and it must be able to hold up your body weight plus the weights. So if you weigh 200 lbs, and plan to press 200 lbs, the bench should support 450 lbs or more at the minimum.

The Next Step

If you plan to lift heavy, performing squats and bench press, you will eventually need to invest in a good power rack with spotter pins. You should be able to slide your bench under it comfortable, and the rack should be sturdy enough to support the bar and weights. (As an option, you can build your home gym by buying a less expensive squat rack and use it for a bench press.) Many basic power racks cost less than $300, or you could add attachments such as a lat tower, low row, dip, and pull-up station, and pay a little more.

Ideally, designing and building a home gym should also include plans for future expansion if you have the space. You don’t have to spend a lot in the beginning and by starting out slow, you’ll discover what type of lifter you are, and will be better able to decide what type of equipment you want to add to your home gym.

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