Spending lockdown (Covid-19) baking delicious food and thinking now would be a good time to covert your garage to a gym? Here’s 7 easy steps to do it. Work out from home and feel great! (Some things you may not be able to do currently but create a list so you know what you need to organise once we are able to do so).
Your garage is the one place in your house that usually has ample space that can be utilised for a home gym. It is ideal as you can leave it set up, ready to go so you can get your workout completed easily.
First step for setting up the gym is to clean your garage. The garage is often a dumping ground where we tend to keep all the things that we don’t use all the year around. Start sorting things that will be useful to you and get rid of the stuff that is of no use (see our De-cluttering blog for more tips). You can make a pile of things you don’t use which may be handy for other people to donate to charity or sell in the near future.
Sweep out and mop the garage floor or vacuum it if it already has garage carpet.
The next step is to organise all the things so that it doesn’t acquire a lot of space and there is still room for your gym area. There are many storage systems available that can help to keep all things in one place without taking a lot of room. Vertical drawers, old cabinets or free-standing wardrobes are great to store items. Freshen them up with some old paint you’ll find lying round to! You can also arrange things that you will need for the gym such as yoga mats, ball, dumbbells, barbells, etc. into the area you are intending on using for the gym. Companies such as Ace of Space offer awesome slatwall storage which is great for getting things off the floor and onto the walls to create more space. They even have a “Workout Kit” you can buy.
Another thing to take into consideration while converting your garage into the gym is the flooring of the garage. The flooring in garages is usually concrete but upgrading to garage carpet is a far better choice. It is easy to clean, water resistant (great for all your sweat!) and can resist the high-intensity movements and heavy work out gear. There are other options of flooring available such as carpet tiles, rubber mats, etc. that can be used as well.
Before selecting the where and how you’ll place your equipment for the gym and other things in the garage, measure the area that you are going to use for setting up the gym as you’ll usually need some of the garage to be used for other purpose (laundry, parking car etc). Keep in mind you want to area to work well for you and allow enough space for equipment as well as TV or other things that you are intending to use in the gym area. Allow enough room for doing floor exercises also, you don’t want to be having to move things around to create space during your workout.
The most critical step is ensuring you have equipment that you are actually going to use. No point in getting a rowing machine if you’re never going to utilise this in your workout. A cycle or small treadmill are ideal if you need something for cardio (otherwise the driveway is fine!). A cycle takes up the least space.
Choose your weights and training gear depending on the type of workout you do. Make sure they are all stored safely and in a way that is easy to take out and place back in again.
Having ventilation in the garage is essential. If it is a hot day, you don’t want to feel overheated while you work out. You can raise the garage door to get an instant breeze and open the side door too which will create a cross draft. A free-standing fan directed towards you when you are working out will work wonders.
To give the last finishing touches and to make your garage feel like an actual gym that you want to work out in, you can add a TV or a music system. We think music is an absolute must to lift the mood! It can be as simple as having a small blue tooth speaker to use with your phone or linking up some other type of speaker system with the rest of the house.
Easy as that, your home gym is now ready to use. Enjoy!