* Thumbnails Photo by Brian Wangenheim on Unsplash

*Thumbnails Photo by Ambitious Creative Co. - Rick Barrett on Unsplash

As home gyms gain popularity, we’ve passed along some timely advice for those thinking about their own private and convenient workout space. In addition, we’ve introduced you to some of the experts behind that advice – along with stories of their own home gym experiences.

We’d like to recommend a few more home gym expertise sources who could help clarify your decision-making process and fire up some extra inspiration. Whether you’re looking to start small, are building up around existing equipment, or have a sound plan for a bigger home gym project, these sites, pages and YouTube Channels are worth a visit.

Want to Know More About Our Experts and Others Like Them?

Check out the Top 10 Home Gym Review Websites for 2021, hosted by U.S. equipment distributor Freedom Fitness. The company offers home gym planning to its customers, so its interviews on the subject are always on-point. Many offer companion video tours of home gyms built up over years by people who really know how to put them together.

Shed Gyms, You Say?

Even if you’ve heard of home gyms, basement gyms, garage gyms, and corner-of-the-room gyms shed gyms might still be a new one for you. If you’re one of over 2 million followers of Matt Does Fitness, you may have caught his four-part series on building a shed gym.

(WARNING: You may hear the occasional spicy lyrics in the high-energy background music of certain building montages. If that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to turn down the sound or hum really loudly because you won't want to miss seeing how this project comes together.

Would you like a shed gym but prefer to spend less time and money than Matt did? Garage Gym Reviews host Coop (profiled here) and Shred Shed offer some great tips for building and equipping your backyard gym on a budget.

You can even create a shed-like atmosphere in your garage. Gluck’s Gym emanates from a garage-turned-wooden fitness palace, which may spark your exercise cave-building fire. Before you get started, check Gluck’s excellent tips on construction and equipment.

Want a Gym that Motivates You to Work Out?

Good Housekeeping offers a stimulating collection of garage, basement or bedroom gym decorating ideas. In addition, HGTV has 30 excellent tips on making any space the place to get fit. Other great inspiration sources include Shape and Blender Bottle. Finally, of course, you can’t go wrong with design advice from the American Council on Exercise.

Looking for Your Ideal Cardio Machine?

Catch detailed reviews on the Treadmill Review Guru and Learn with Travis channels.

Get More Great Home Gym Advice and Ideas at Flaman Fitness.

Looking to buy a single bar? Complementing equipment you own? Equipping your well-planned exercise circuit? The Experts at Flaman Fitness can show you the equipment and accessory options that match your budget, available space and fitness goals.

Drop by your nearest Flaman Fitness location and discuss building the home gym you can’t wait to work out in.

“I’m not a gym rat, fitness addict, or CrossFit junky. I’m just a 50-year-old guy who doesn’t want to get old. Well, at the very least, I don’t want to feel like I’m getting old.” – Tim Steward, Gym Crafter

It might be over-the-top to call Tim a home gym evangelist, but there are definitely parallels. He is getting the good word out because fitness did save him – a couple of times.

The Early Years: Tim Dabbles in Strength Training

Tim's exercise journey started when his parents bought him some department store weights. (You know, the kind with concrete-encased in plastic.) As Tim stood over six feet tall, bullies rarely bothered him. Not driven by a need to get “jacked,” he soon developed an off-again/on-again workout schedule.

That lasted into his adulthood when all exercise came to a screeching (with chronic pain) halt.

Pain War 1: The Back

Bulged discs in his spine made it difficult to get up, let alone exercise. His suddenly sedentary lifestyle lead to weight gain, which put even more strain on his back. Physical therapy provided some help but Tim knew he had to start moving. After trifling with some fitness fads, he found two real-deal experts – Jay Ferrugia and Dr. John Rusin.

Saved by Strength Training

The latter lived in Madison, Wisconsin, not far from Tim’s home in Chicago. Tim was able to meet with Rusin, who showed him pain-free lifting methods that would help him get back to strength training. When Rusin began offering one-on-one FHT (functional hypertrophy training) sessions, Tim signed up immediately, deeming it “worth every penny.” He’s still following the program, but there was another medical obstacle to hurdle.

Pain War 2: The Head

Constant, unyielding headache pain knocked Tim back onto the couch - out of action, and gaining weight again. A series of arduous medical tests rendered two conclusions:

1) He had a condition called new daily persistent headache.

2) He’d have to learn to live with it. Tim decided not to take it literally lying down.

Reasoning that he could do something about his back if his head was going to hurt anyway, he went to a gym and tried some bench presses. It was a humbling public demonstration of how weak he’d become, but to Tim’s surprise, the physical activity provided a full hour of headache relief.

Saved by Strength Training - Again

He did more resistance training, which didn’t completely alleviate his headaches, but it made the day more pleasant. When he told his acute pain specialist, the doctor nodded and said yes, there was plenty of research indicating resistance training relieves headaches. Why hadn’t he told Tim this before all those excruciating treatments?

It was information Tim definitely could have used sooner, but he didn't let it faze him. He went straight back to training.

Pain War 3: The Battle of the Budget

Tim resolved to commit to fitness full-on – and to filling his two-car garage with all the equipment he thought would help. That’s where he ran into another kind of pain – overspending on equipment he wasn’t excited about using. He limited his focus to the resistance training that had pulled him through before. Suddenly, working out became much more enjoyable and productive (not to mention less expensive).

Following the Dr. Rusin program, he was able to lose weight and could effectively manage his pain. Naturally, he was thrilled with the change exercise had made in his life, But he worried about the scores of people destined to make the same mistakes he had. He wanted to steer them clear of the disillusionment that could make them abandon their goals.

Spreading the Word

That was the inspiration for Gym Crafter, Tim’s home gym website and YouTube channel.

He knew every visitor and viewer would be different. So would everyone's budget and available space, but anything would be a start. Tim’s home gym building experience started with less than $100 spent on a single kettlebell. He found the space to use it by moving a coffee table.

Setting His Own Information Standard

He hopes to encourage his audience to discover what works best for them before they sink a fortune into it. So Tim won’t indulge in the flashy “10 best” lists that too often prompt responsible home gym planners to act like little kids at Christmastime. Nor will he venture opinions on products tested for short periods. He reviews only the equipment he owns and has used for months on a daily basis.

Not Your Usual Home Gym Website

For the time being, Tim will stick with his two platforms (although he’s had some strong Instagram ideas). He recognizes the value of fitness goals, but he deems developing your technique more important. It’s part of discovering what works for you so you’ll keep going. That’s how you form a clear-minded vision of what you want to spend your money on.

Nothing is a 90-Day fix. Fitness is a lifetime commitment, and you need to want to show up for it every day. That’s the gospel Tim preaches today.

“Hopefully I can do a little bit of good in the world by helping one person alleviate their back pain or just work out more because they have a gym that they love,” Tim says. “To me, that's mission accomplished.”

Discover Some Local Home Gym Expertise at Flaman Fitness.

If you’d like to get some dependable gym planning advice a little closer to home, visit your nearest Flaman Fitness location. Our expert sales staff are steeped in successful training methods and know every machine and accessory inside and out. Just talk to them about your available space, budget and goals. They can show you – and let you try – some options that could change the rest of your life for the better.

Meet more leading online home gym experts here - or discover other great sources of home gym advice.

Want to learn more? Check out our profiles of three top home gym experts and discover more sources of inspiration for your personal workout area.

They’re down-to-earth, personable, and anything-but-boastful exercise enthusiasts who look at fitness the same way a lot of you do. They all came to fitness for their own reasons and in their own ways. Sometimes they disagree with each other. But they’re all on the same page when it comes to helping you make the best home gym decisions.

Their expertise comes from considerable experience – years of trying aerobic and strength-training equipment and methods, making mistakes, overcoming obstacles and developing a strong impulse to share what they’ve learned.

1. Cooper Mitchell (AKA "Coop")

Garage Gym Reviews

Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - Twitter

Background: Powerlifting/Strength Training

Self-deprecating self-assessment: “My wife says I like to hear myself talk, as I've been rambling on here for five minutes.”

Coop had been surrounded by fitness culture all his life.

His father was a national-level powerlifter who weighed 220 and could squat 750 lbs. Elite status for 220 lb. lifters is 580. Some with that fitness pedigree might tend to lord it over workout newbies, but not Coop.

His fondest memories are of his father’s garage gym (now commemorated by a “Doug’s Gym” sign in Coop’s own garage). The powerlifting magazines and Louis Simmons VHS tapes Coop’s father kept were chock-full of deadlift secrets and other tips to help athletes realize their full potential. While his father’s workout area inspired him to embrace cross-training, those pre-internet info sources inspired him to share what he’d learned in the digital media era.

A gregarious self-described “gear head,” Coop harnessed his love for home gyms, his experience building them, and his natural talkativeness. Through multiple blogs and videos, he reviews products and advises consumers on purchases and errors to avoid. When his fun-loving, stream-of-consciousness video patter runs headlong into a tongue trip, Coop leaves it in. His quick, entertaining recoveries reinforce his philosophical approach to handling mistakes – and his sincere desire to help others avoid them.

2. Brandon Campbell Diamond (AKA "Brandon Campbell")

Basement Brandon

Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - Twitter

Background: Powerlifting/Strength Training

Self-deprecating self-assessment: “I’m stronger, balder, wiser – but I’m going off on a little bit of a tangent.”

For a popular fitness presence, Brandon Campbell Diamond took a while to warm to the limelight. But he set self-consciousness aside for a good cause.

He started his fitness video career as a means to help pay for his training as a powerlifter through sponsorships. Diamond dropped his last name and published his work under the name Brandon Campbell. This new persona was reinforced by the creation of his company Campbell Fitness.

He hoped to avoid confusion with another online video host but mostly didn’t want people who knew him to know what he was doing. He’s still a little sheepish about the quality of his early videos, so much so that many aren’t available online anymore.

However he started, his content quickly won him thousands of followers. He shared the progress and occasional foibles of both his training and building his gym. He kept them coming by providing multiple windows on home gym training – including gym equipment reviews, tips on powerlifting, training and lifestyle, and plenty of experience-based health and nutrition advice – including grocery shopping.

All the while, his confidence and the quality of videos improved. In 2018, he retired the Campbell Fitness brand and promised to make even better videos. He remains a top fitness draw on his Youtube channel Basement Brandon.

1. Adam Hensley (AKA "Adam")

Garage Gym Lab

Youtube - Instagram - Facebook - Twitter

Background: Powerlifting/Strength Training

Self-deprecating self-assessment: "‘Who's this tiny guy telling me what I should buy when it comes to gym equipment?’”

Changing circumstances? Changing Needs? Adam’s been there, documented that.

It started in 2016 when the then real estate finance professional moved with his wife to a new home. Not impressed with the nearby gym offerings, he drove 45 minutes to an uptown gym and bought a second membership just to shower. With a son on the way, he opted to keep his exercise close to home. His garage gym started with a single squat rack, a bench, bar, and weight plates.

His experience balancing exercise, work and a growing family compelled him to share what he learned with others making similar decisions. He’d toyed with blogging before, writing several articles on Microsoft Excel, which he never published. However, his new idea took shape quickly.

He started out reviewing equipment. Home Gym manufacturers were surprisingly supportive – and willing to take their lumps on occasion. COVID brought more change – bad and good. While it threw a wrench into real estate values, it prompted commercial gym-only suppliers to tap the home gym boom, expanding Adam’s review prospects.

Today, Adam’s dedicated full-time to the thousands who follow his thorough and dependable equipment reviews, informational articles, interviews, and profiles of other successful home gym setups. He gives full credit to his wife, who supported his potentially risky venture with only a reminder that he’d have to park on the street.

Further Home Gym Reading

Meet an expert who used exercise to triumph over debilitating pain. Learn how he’s using his experience to help others make informed home gym choices.

PLUS more great sources of inspiration for your perfect home gym.

Find More Home Gym Expertise at Flaman Fitness.

Our sales staff have years of experience helping customers build home gyms that keep them motivated and on track to reach their goals. Whether you’re looking at a single item or a combo, a basic setup or a full-blown garage gym, our experts can guide you to equipment options that will serve your budget, space and objectives.

Drop by your nearest Flaman Fitness location and discover what’s possible

Pondering what to spend on your home gym can be daunting. You don’t want to over-extend yourself. But, on the other hand, you don’t want to cheap out and wind up with a room full of unusable junk, either. Too often, the complicated art of budgeting your home gym becomes a reason not to have one.

Fortunately, some home gym experts have been through all that. They’ve made mistakes, filed them under “experience,” then made that experience available to the rest of us. As a result, their advice can help you “flip the script” on your home gym budget anxieties – so you can be optimistic about what’s doable.

1. Don't Go on a Buying Spree.

Most fitness experts agree that rushing out and buying everything at once is a huge mistake. You’ll likely blow your whole fitness budget buying a few top-of-the-line, brand-name items then scrimp on others. The mismatch won’t work, and you’ll pay to replace the items that don’t fit. Of course, you might be able to re-sell those items but expect to take a loss.2. Get it one piece at a time.

2. Get It One Piece at a Time.

Some of the best home gyms started with a single piece of equipment. That could be a barbell, a pull-up bar, a jump rope, a yoga mat or even your own body weight. The point is figuring out what kind of exercise works for you and makes you want to come back for more. Once you do, you can find equipment that expands and/or enhances that good feeling. Furthermore, your spending decisions won’t feel so imposing and mysterious.

However, there is ONE exception to this rule. If you’re completely confident in what you want and can afford, buying multiple items can pay off in shipping costs saved.

3. Distill the Value of Your Exercise.

How many times have you said, “I’d pay a million dollars for a product that could …?” Exaggerations aside, we all develop an instinct for what certain benefits are worth. Some calculations are easy, like the money you save driving straight home. Some, like the time you save, require a little more thought.

What do you spend to make up the time you could have spent with your family? What’s the value of setting a good fitness example for your kids? How does having more time impact your work and home chore performance? Sure, it might seem unsentimental to reduce the quality and length of your life to a dollar figure. However, the costs of doing without them can be calculated.

4. Consider Setting a Monthly Budget.

Explore the option of making payments vs. buying something outright. Most fitness retailers can arrange financing more expensive equipment on a monthly schedule. You can also make payments on a credit card purchase or a personal loan.

Just be sure you don’t get in over your head spending money you don’t have and aren’t likely to get. Buying too much on credit can damage your credit score – especially if your income source runs dry. Instead, find out what your options would be in that case and stay within a set budget.

5. Pick Your One Central Product.

If you want to splurge on one piece of equipment, make it the one that you’ll build your workout routine around. It could be a treadmill or a rack. If you’re going to use it a lot, don’t scrimp on quality.

6. Think Ahead.

A half rack may be more affordable, but will you still use it after moving up to a full rack? You can check online reviews for resale values, but it may prove more economical to go big in the first place. If a full rack isn't affordable, consider add-on options to convert certain half racks into full racks.

7. Be Careful If You Buy Used.

There’s an upside and a downside to buying used. You’ll save money, but you’re taking a chance on how damaged or worn out a piece of equipment might be. And you won’t have a warranty, so it’s buyer beware. However, there are a few precautions you can take:

1) Check if the seller has an online rating.

2) Try before you buy.

2) Bring a fitness-savvy friend along if you can.

8. Don't Forget Those Non-Equipment Expenses.

Every size of home gym requires some prep work. For example, a small corner workout area might require a quick cleaning and possibly a little redecorating. Bigger projects might involve anything from a flooring, wiring, or ventilation job to a full remodel. You can get a wider scope of different home gym projects here.

Find More Expert Budget Advice at Flaman Fitness.

If you know your goals, your available space, how you’d like to work out, and what you can spend, our experts can help you put the rest together. They’ll show you the equipment choices that fit into your budget – and let you try before you buy. They’ll also outline financing options that can help you get started on your fitness journey.

Call or visit your nearest Flaman Fitness Location and find out what your budget can do for you!

Space might be the final frontier to Star Trek fans, but it’s often the first thing you want to consider when you’re planning a home gym. Failing to gauge the dimensions of your workout area properly can result in cramped workout conditions, putting your noggin through your ceiling tiles or having to disassemble and return the equipment you just bought and assembled.

Properly measured, planned and equipped, any size of workout space – from the corner of a room to an entire garage – can make your exercise time comfortable, productive, and rewarding.

Measure and Envision

Measuring is not simple math. There’s more to it than just determining the cubic feet of an area then subtracting the total height, width, and length of the equipment you want to put in it.

If you’re looking for more specific guidelines on what fits into what, the American Council on Exercise has more detailed guidelines on how much extra space specific equipment will require. For instance, you’ll need 20 to 50 square feet to use free weights properly. Treadmills require about 30 square feet, and a multi-gym will need anywhere between 50 and 200 square feet. But, of course, that’s before your height measurements.

Here's Where It Gets Complicated.

You want to make sure you have room to walk around your equipment. You’ll also want adequate space above your equipment for exercises like pull-ups and chin-ups. If you’re setting up in a sloped-ceiling area like an attic, your rack is definitely going to be in the middle of the room.

Attachments and adjustments can change the basic dimensions of a fitness product. For example, the specifications for some racks might provide a footprint based on the area of its uprights alone - leaving out the extra space taken up by weight plate storage pegs or equipment features that swing out or up. Machines also often require additional space for safe operation. For instance, treadmills come with specific instructions on how far they need to be stationed from walls behind, in front, or to either side.

How Do You Want to Exercise?

It’s also likely that you’ll want to arrange your equipment so it's convenient to the flow of your workout routine – especially if you’re into circuit training or cross circuit training. You’ll want wide, unobstructed pathways from one piece of equipment to another.

Arraying your equipment in order of usage might mean you can’t just slot everything in like you’re playing Tetris. This might seem like a minor issue for those of us who can wheel the treadmill to a different spot when we change our minds. However, some hardcore home gym owners take it so seriously that they’ll hire professional home gym floor plan designers to ensure an optimum flow between cardio exercise and strength training exercises.

Resources for Home Gym Planning

If you have your eye on a particular piece of equipment, it’s always wise to seek the user manual online. Manuals usually provide a complete view of the product with accurate dimensions and guidelines for leaving space around them. This info could help you head off an unpleasant surprise during assembly or use.

Storage

Not all equipment permanently resides where you use it. Smaller items like resistance bands, dumbbells and kettlebells need to be shelved out of the way to prevent damage, tripping hazards and general clutter.

Storage solutions need to satisfy two criteria: They need to be compact, and they need to be handy. Racks are available for your free weights, and there are some ingenious solutions for other small exercise equipment – even in limited spaces.

Little Space? No Big Problem.

Are you living in a one-bedroom apartment? Is your house is already almost full? Do you frequently travel from hotel room to hotel room? Your workout area doesn’t have to sprawl very far to accomplish workout goals like fat burning, greater endurance, improved functionality, and more muscle strength. You need only the corner of a room for body-weight exercises or on-the-spot cardio.

Consider compact exercise equipment like jump ropes, suspension trainers, resistance bands, or an adjustable dumbbell. In addition, a yoga mat establishes a comfortable base for your pre-workout stretch, workout, and post-workout recovery. More great news – recovery tools like foam rollers and percussive massage guns are also relatively compact.

Storage is a cinch – a closet, shelving unit or hidden spot along the wall will do. Some equipment will even fit in a dresser drawer. If you’re a do-it-yourself type, you can build a very handy door-mounted storage pegboard.

Flaman Fitness Expertise Helps You Make the Most of Your Space.

Whether your home gym plans involve a small corner, extra room, attic, basement, or garage, you want to make the most of your available space. Our fitness pros are experts in matching customers with the right equipment. They’ve helped many home gym enthusiasts create their ideal workout experience. So bring in your dimensions, fitness goals, and budget. You’ll be amazed what they can set up for you – including fitness package deals for a great start to a healthy new life.

We are delighted to launch this product at a time when it can be of most help to consumers who are continuing to adjust to their new normal in fitness routines and developing new at-home workout habits.

– Jim Barr, CEO, Nautilus Inc. (parent company of Bowflex), June 2020

Timing is essential, even when the fitness innovation you’re launching can prove its worth anytime.

Destined for Home Exercise Success?

Launched in mid-2020, the Bowflex 2080 Barbell with Curl Bar System certainly benefitted from trends prompted by the Covid pandemic. An April 2020 survey for U.S firm Statista showed 21% of respondents hesitated to go back to their gyms within the next six months. About twice as many couldn’t say when they’d feel safe doing so.

Furthermore, many of them would miss training with free weights, which had debuted at No. 4 on the American College of Sports Medicine’s Top 10 Fitness Trends for 2020. That left the door open for a good home weight-training system to win admirers – especially one that was compact, affordable, and offered Bowflex’s ingeniously simple SelectTech® system for near-instant weight adjustments.

Built for Long-Term Service

Opportune as it seemed, the timing was entirely coincidental. The 2080 took a long time to develop, even if it had previous SelectTech successes to emulate. There wouldn’t have been time to foresee, let alone exploit, a pandemic’s impact on the fitness club industry. The 2080 had been designed to succeed before gym closures were an issue, and it remains popular as gyms open up again.

We continue our steadfast mission to bring high-quality, affordable new fitness options to help our customers achieve success at home. Our new barbell and curl bar system takes a popular and effective strength training product and makes it even better with adjustable weight settings and an innovative, compact and beautiful design.

– Nautilus CEO Jim Barr

Bowflex’s commitment to making the home user “stronger every day” requires a unique vision for every new exercise equipment innovation. The 2080 was initially designed to compliment users’ health club strength training. No one could predict then that gym shutdowns and home lockdowns would make exercising in apartments, spare rooms, and garages the only option. Happily, the 2080 system offered the exact qualities many housebound consumers required.

Adjustability

This ultimate strength solution’s seven incremental weights mean users of any fitness level can quickly access the right weight for a personal full-body workout. A rotating dial allows single or multiple users to select a 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80-pound lift, gradually increasing strength at their own pace. Like all SelectTech weights, the 2080 employs a locking tray system, so your weight plates stay neat and organized. An optional weight upgrade can give you four more levels, taking you up to 120 pounds.

Compact Design

A space-efficient design makes the 2080 ideal for smaller workout areas. Those slim, contained plates make for a manageable footprint. Either bar fully loaded boasts the modest dimensions of 59.3” long x 11.7” wide x 12.7” high. You can put both on the optional Bowflex SelectTech 2080 Barbell Stand, which measures 59.3” x 23.8” and stands 32.1” tall.

Full-Body Exercise

The 2080 is engineered for quick, dynamic movements. These help you develop those fast-twitch muscles that give you strength and agility for sports or just your daily functionality.

And the developments benefit more than your arms and upper body. The wide variety of strength exercises you can perform target your lower body as well. These include curls, triceps extensions, deadlifts, clean and press, glute bridges, and squats lunges.

Trainer-led Videos

What’s better than a wide variety of full-body exercises? Having the variety PLUS expert coaching to help you perfect your form. You can access a library of 14 trainer-led videos on the Bowflex YouTube channel. Encouraging, easy-to-follow instruction guides both advanced and entry-level users through techniques and workouts – bringing you closer to your goals.

The 2080 barbell stand features a built-in media rack, allowing you to keep your training and your instruction conveniently close together.

Get to Know the 2080 at Flaman Fitness.

Any time may be a great time to use the Bowflex SelectTech 2080 Barbell with Curl Bar, but the best time is now. The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll see those full-body results. There’s no better place to see and try this amazing system than your nearest Flaman Fitness location.

As the home of Canada’s largest Bowflex showroom, Flaman prides itself on its team of Bowflex experts. They're ready with answers to your questions, feature details, and timely tips to get you started on your home fitness adventure.