Building a Home Gym for Different Fitness Goals
With talks of another wave of COVID, there’s a good chance that your local gym will have to shut down again to prevent the spread of the virus.
Do you want to deal with another month or two without access to gym equipment? It’s time to build a home gym that can help you achieve your fitness goals.
Let’s take a look at common fitness goals and how to build a home gym based around them.
Bodybuilding
Muscle growth is one of the two most common fitness goals – the other being weight loss, which we’ll discuss more below.
If you want to increase size, you’ll want to focus on equipment that allows you to do two things:
- Utilize compound movements (exercises that target the most muscle groups)
- Maximize time under tension
A bench with a barbell or dumbbell set will be your foundation, but resistance bands will also play a key role as they can be used to push the muscle to complete failure.
Blood flow restriction bands have also been shown to promote muscle hypertrophy when pairing them with lighter weight loads.
Here’s a complete guide to everything you’ll need for a bodybuilding home gym.
Weight Loss
Weight loss can vary drastically depending on your goal: Do you want to lose weight for your health? Are you looking to get shredded for a competition?
Most of the effective weight loss workouts are going to focus on high-intensity intervals since this ensures maximum caloric expenditure. These exercises will be primarily based on bodyweight, but there are a few pieces of equipment that can help:
Resistance bands allow you to focus on a light load with more repetitions, increasing your endurance and overall ability to burn calories.
Hip resistance bands can take basic bodyweight exercises – many of which you’ll find in a HIIT workout – and make them more challenging. Greater intensity equals more calorie burning.
A thermogenic belt safely increases your internal temperature to promote spot reduction.
Check out our collection of home gym workouts for weight loss.
CrossFit
CrossFit workouts combine foundational exercises from bodybuilding and powerlifting with metabolic condition (metcon) work.
To get the most out of your CrossFit home workouts, regardless of your experience level, we recommend a few key pieces of equipment.
A box is a must. If you haven’t already, you’ll find that box jumps are an all too common exercise in CrossFit.
A barbell with rubber-padded weight plates are also used in almost every CrossFit workout so add that to your list.
If you have the space and budget, a permanently installed pull-up bar will make all the difference.
Get our comprehensive list of CrossFit equipment for a home gym along with several workouts.
Powerlifting
Since you’re focusing on three exercises – squat, deadlift, and bench press – you only need a few pieces of equipment.
A barbell with plenty of rubber-padded weight plates is the glue of your powerlifting workouts.
Naturally, you’ll also need a sturdy bench. We highly recommend one that can be adjusted at several angles. A wide base on a bench is ideal for your safety if you’re pushing serious weight.
Check out our in-depth guide on how to build your own powerlifting home gym.
Strongman
True Strongman workouts at home are going to require a lot of space, preferably outside. Given the exercises and training methods, Strongman workouts are a bit harder to prep for but not impossible.
Like powerlifting, you’ll need a barbell, weight plates, and bench, but there are a couple more pieces of equipment that you can easily find online or in stores:
A power sled can be used to develop raw power and strength. It’s also great for improving your grip strength and pulling power.
Speaking of grip strength, Alpha Grips are the real deal when you want to dramatically boost your grip but can’t afford a thick grip barbell.
Maintenance Work
Have you hit your fitness goal and you’re happy with how you look and feel? If you’re in maintenance mode with your physique, you can base most of your workouts on bodyweight exercises.
If you don’t already have a home workout for bodyweight exercises, we have a few for you. Check out our article featuring a challenging HIIT workout.
With that said, it doesn’t hurt to keep your body just outside of its comfort zone to ensure you don’t lose any gains. Here are a few pieces of home gym equipment to help you:
Gliding discs can transform ordinary exercises, providing the element of instability and keeping your body guessing for months to come.
An abdominal mat is a go-to piece of equipment as it offers comfort and convenience while ensuring you reach a full range of motion.
Finally, to ensure you keep that waistline, those thighs, or those arms lean and toned, you can use a shred belt.
Need Help Building a Home Gym?
Not sure about the exact equipment you need? Is there a piece of equipment you’re considering that we didn’t mention above? Reach out on our Facebook and we’ll be happy to help you with building your home gym.