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10 Tips for a Successful Switch to a Home Gym
The freeway from our house to The Weight Room is no longer a nightmare; it’s clogged 24/7. A trip to the gym can cost me three hours, and since I like to train in some fashion five or six days a week, well, you add ‘em up: 15 hours.
Time to re-think things. But switching from a commercial gym to home training is a head trip, messing up the thinking part.
I spent the better part of this year uncovering the following five mind benders.
1) While we owned the gym, training at home didn’t even occur to me, but once we no longer owned the gym, it was fear of failure that kept me from making a move toward a part-time home gym. Would I be able to recapture my successful gym flow if I couldn’t get my head in the home-gym game after I let the daily head-to-the-gym-habit lapse? I just didn’t know. And I was afraid to find out. Lesson # 1: Don’t let fear of failure hold you back.
2) Once committed, here’s what hit next, hit hardest and took the most purposeful effort to overcome: After 25 years as a gym member and owner, I felt self-conscious training at home, alone in the basement, almost like I was a kid playing house. That may sound as goofy as all getout, but the truth is, I was almost embarrassed. No one else was involved in this, just me and my mental weirdness. Lesson 2? Recognize and get over it.
3) Then, know in advance any losses can be regained. I chose a minimalist attitude when putting my home gym space together (an indoor cycle, 6 kettlebells, a medicine ball, a Swis ball and a stick), with the plan to train faster, getting more done in less time, resulting in greater conditioning with slightly less strength. No biggie! I can always switch back, and you can, too.
4) Take the time to decide what type of training is important to you, not to the rest of us. Build your home workout space, tools and workouts around that.
5) Be careful not to allow the newness to last too long or to overflow into “haphazard.” Off-the-cuff workouts are great fun, a nice diversion, but at home, without a habit solidly in place, these are a danger zone.
Head trips uncovered, the following five tricks will help get you back on track, at home and training hard.
1) Stick with the basics. You can always add new implements later. When making the switch from gym to home, the basics will keep you grounded. Too many new angles are distracting.
2) Select one exercise to trigger your training attitude, the marker where the warmup ends and the workout begins. I chose light goblet squat/thruster combos to signal the end of my loose get-going attitude. That’s when the clock starts and the attention gets razor sharp.
3) Speaking of clocks, use an actual timepiece. Commit to your chosen time block — 45 minutes, 60, whatever — and don’t stop until finished.
Use a clock Part B: Those who start at a set time are much more likely to get the job done. The when-I-finish-this-chore workouts rarely take place.
4) Get a radio. Music keeps you moving between sets. Danger… Danger: Distractions have a stronger pull at home than at the gym where you trekked for a specific reason. At home it’s easier to quit early.
5) We’ll end with the tried and true: Turn off the phone! That one’s almost too stupid to type.
Oh. Sorry, I hope I didn’t offend anyone with that last one.
Whether you’re a gym rat or a home bear, take a minute to think the above points through. It shouldn’t surprise you to discover these tricks are universal; they’ll work as well for you at a public gym as they will for me at home.
That is to say, the basics work.
Like, cell phones are not welcome on the gym floor.
Oh, and this one. No paperbacks allowed on the leg machines.
Laree Draper
on November 19th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
Good stuff, Laree. Glad to see you’ve successfully transitioned to the home gym. The only real negative I’ve found about home gym training is the lack of “energy,” which seems to exist in a good commercial gym. Other than that point, it’s all good. Convenient, private, radio’s always on the right station, no lines and very familiar.
Once or twice a year I’ll take a break and train at a commerical gym…but for the most part, I prefer the solitude and ready availability of my home gym.
Wicked
on November 20th, 2006 at 11:42 am
I’ve been training at home since May and have never been happier. Don’t have any plans of ever returning to the commercial gym.
on November 20th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
My biggest fear about home training was that I would slack off. The one thing that I believe has kept me committed to my workouts is reporting back to others, whether it’s posting on my IOL log or sending in weekly logs to my online trainer, Mike Mahler. The idea of having to report back to others is a huge motivator for me, and pushes me downstairs to my kettlebells time and again when it would be so easy to simply sit on my butt. It also helps tremendously to have planned workouts, whether you make them up yourself or whether someone creates a template for you. If you know in advance what you’re going to do during any given WO, that also keeps the momentum going. So far, I’ve stuck with home training for about 18 months and don’t miss commercial gyms at all.
on November 20th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Wicked, if you’re ever sitting around with a desire to write a blog post and nothing spectacular on your mind to say, I know people would be interested in your thoughts on how to set up a home gym, what the minimum needs are and how to make the purchase decisions. I seriously think the volume of traffic on the streets and the excessive hours at work are going to drive more and more people to home training, and most of us just don’t know how to make the switch successfully.
on November 21st, 2006 at 4:20 am
Training alone in the solitude of ones own world is peaceful, dynamic, and aggressively effective if… one has the conviction it takes to undertake the challenge.
I much rather prefer the echoes of my own silence, grunts and groans than those of others. I’ve always viewed bodybuilding as an individual activity surrounded by friends of like goals, wants and needs. Training partners, well – sometimes, but for the most part there is something endearing about the workout one can have at five am or two pm with no one around. Concentration and focus is keyed in on the task at hand. The only sweat you have to lie in is your own. No questions being asked, no distractions, no lost time due to equipment being used by some other dedicated soul. Cold solid iron and me… that’s all and I love it.
on November 21st, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Since I moved from the “big city” to a very small town with virtually, NO gyms I was forced to get a home gym. My rule is: When I do train at the crummy little gym her in town-I train what I can’t train at my home gym. So, I do my heavy bench, shoulder work, etc where I can get a “spot” and the other body parts at my home gym. Works great for me. By the way. . . I decided to purchase “commerical grade” home gym equipment. It’s more expensive (for sure) but much better than “home gym” rated equipment..
on November 21st, 2006 at 9:23 pm
I’ve been home training exclusively for over 5 years now but just recently, due to commuting requirements, have been forced to join a club. After a month, the club is “ok” but I’d much rather train alone, and at home. I’m too distracted at the club, always having “Draper thoughts” running through my mind when I see “trainers” gabbing to their clients about what the weekend was like or what their plans are for the coming weekend with no focus whatsoever on their clients’ training needs. A home gym only takes some creativity to design to do what you need it to, or you can build it with some great “tools” if you like. Either way, I can’t wait until mine is up and running again!
on November 22nd, 2006 at 9:55 am
I owned a gym for over 25 years and I enjoy my home training very much. I like the idea that nobody drops my precious antique Olympic bars, bangs my cherished globe dumbells together, leaves plates on the floor, or screams bloody murder while doing baby-weight squats. No one askes me to change the music on the radio or pesters me with questions (which advice they will ignore anyway…!) while I’m in the middle of a set. My equipment is right where I left it after my last workout…and I don’t have to chase after anyone to pay his/her dues so I can pay the rent! I’m in bodybuilder heaven!
on November 22nd, 2006 at 10:20 am
Laree, great stuff in there. I was a gym-only person for quite a while. Now, even though I do most of my training in the gym, will always take at least some of my training home. These are great ideas on how to carve out space and time and attitude for home workouts, could get the clothes off a lot of people’s treadmills.
on November 22nd, 2006 at 10:27 am
I have created a good hardcore gym in my basement. With a young child I find it much easier to find the time to workout. I tried to duplicate my gym with the same equipment that I use to consistently use at the commercial gym.
on November 22nd, 2006 at 2:37 pm
My rule is don’t buy for your home gym that you can make and don’t buy what you won’t use now. I will need to join a gym to use specialized machines if I can’t figure another way to the same exercize without. I am crazy about my home gym. A little propane radient heater keeps me toasty too.
Phil
on November 23rd, 2006 at 10:12 am
Thanks for the home training information. My oldest son and I train at home. We use equipment I have been putting together for the last 25 years (plates never wear out). I like it because once the habit was established, it’s so easy to get to a serious workout. I have everything set up exactly the way I want it, too.
on November 24th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
[…] 10 Tips for a Successful Switch to a Home Gym […]
on November 24th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
Here’s a link for you: Bill’s just posted his thoughts on setting up a home gym, part one — the Minimalist Approach.
on December 5th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
[…] How are you going to discover if this home gym stuff is for you? Will you use it or hate it? If you’re not sure you’ll use your home gym equipment, you’ll be afraid to let your gym membership go, afraid to commit the money for workout equipment you won’t use. Heck, you won’t even want to clean out the garage. […]
on December 25th, 2006 at 8:31 pm
Thoughts on the home gym - I love working out alone in my home gym with weights and cardio. I find myself distracted at the club with the footsteps of the person on the t-mill beside me. If they are walking and I am running it is hard for me to keep my pace. If they are running faster than me - it is even worse. With weight training the club is horrible. All the other women who are afraid of the weight room single me out - the lone female to ask me questions even when I have ear buds on - go figure. I just get a much better workout alone and love it. My husband furnished the weight room with commercial grade equipment. I still sometimes have the need for a group fitness class - so I will occassionally go to the local Y and jump around with the group then go home and lift.
on December 30th, 2006 at 4:20 am
I love home training. When i started lifting it was in my garage alone, sometimes joined by a mate but mostly alone. I never found it hard to be motivated as some seem to be, i guess it’s because i love exercising. I use a commecial gym now as i no longer have a garage or space for all the stuff i’d like but i do use my kettlebell and sandbag at home.
on April 1st, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Put the home gym in the lounge dont hide it in the garage.
be proud of doing a workout if your life revolves around doing a workout and being fit.
make that the centre of your house
not you being exiled to the garage.
go and put your couch in the basement/garage and se
how much time you spend out there on the couch.
on July 27th, 2010 at 1:57 am
I’m the type of person who loves to train and very athletic but due to my full time job, and having a young kid at home, it’s very tough to find time to go to a gym in my area that’s why I decided to just buy a home gym equipment where I can easily pursue my love of training and working out.. And yeah the one I bought was the marcy smith machines and that was 5 years ago.. still working all good and never cost me a fortune..