Build a Home Gym for Your Muscle-Building and Fat Loss Workouts: Part 1

This is part 1 of a 2-part series on building your own home gym.   You may be thinking of building a home gym right now but unsure of the best approach.  Should you go with machines? full bench setups?  What equipment should you buy?  How much do they cost?  These might be questions on your mind if you're considering building a home gym.

photo credit: Abdullah Al-Naser

I'll attempt to answer these questions as I detail my experiences with building my first gym here.

I’ve built up a fairly equipped gym in my basement over a period of 5 years on a stringent budget to gain muscle. If you have lots of money to spend, you may choose to build a more fully equipped gym with free weights(barbells, dumbbells) and fancy machines( treadmill, cable stations, elliptical/stationary bike).

If you’re like me and can’t afford to copy one of those multi-million dollar fitness centers…(Bally’s, LA Fitness Center, Gold’s Gym), take the minimalistic approach to building your own personal gym for muscle gain.

It’s simple, quick, and efficient. You don’t need a lot of space and it’s definitely not necessary to buy every single equipment that I recommend in this article in order to bodybuild and build muscle

Again, in this series, I’m going to tell you what the absolute essentials are before you go on to add additional equipment for future use. Contrary to what most people think, you can get an ass-kicking,  stomach-turning workout with just two or three primary pieces of equipment.  Think of the benefits of your very own personal gym for building muscle:

• no commute time to a crowded gym
• avoid bad weather
• avoid annoyance from those who hog machines and free weights
• work out anytime you’re at home
• factor of convenience
• cheaper cost than a gym membership over the long term

But first, decide that you are willing to commit a lifestyle of fitness. Make sure you’re fully aware of what you’ll get our of your investment. After all, the home gym is  an investment…a long term one.  If you plan on working out and keeping an exercise regimen, then do so. Don’t procrastinate.  Get going if the ultimate goal is to gain muscle.

Exercise is a lifestyle. It’s a productive lifetime habit for overall health.

Recognize that you can get an exceptional workout with the bare and basic inexpensive equipment for your gym. Take note.  A must-have essential equipment is the olympic bench and rack setup combo pictured here,

An olympic-style bench provides the strong support and sturdiness to accompany heavy individuals and free weights. Stay away from flimsy bench setups you find at Walmart, Modells, or Dick’s Sporting Goods. Make sure you look for “Olympic” grade benches. You want fitness equipment that will last. Some also come with a leg curl/leg extention attachment. They’re not necessary but optional. There are expensive models with these attachments and cheaper models without.

Now you may buy the entire bench setup, similar to one pictured above, if you’re on a budget like I was, or get a bench along with a full power/squat rack separately. A power rack, also often called a power cage, enables you to do the many variations of squats, deadlifts, and presses all inside safely due to the attached safety pins.

A tough and reliable power rack runs around $200 on the low end to $500 on the upper end with additional pins and attachments. Nevetheless, this setup allows you do perform all worthwhile upper and lower body compound movements: rack deadlifts, front squats, conventional back squats, bench press and it’s variations, dumbbell press and it’s variations, military press, etc..

The list goes on. You will be able to do dozens of exercises, both compound and isolation, with a bench and a rack. I’m going to say that about 90% of all worthy strength training exercises can be done inside a power rack with an olympic-grade bench station.

I paid around $185 for the bench at the time it was on sale. It came with adjustable handles serving as a stand-in rack for bench presses, barbell military presses, and squats. If you’re on a tight budget, stick with an olympic bench for now and leave the rack for a later purchase. A bench should suffice.

If you’re going with putting a separate power cage in your basement, make sure you measure the height from floor to ceiling. Most full-length racks are at least 82.5″ in height and you’ll have to make sure it’ll fit from top to bottom.

Though with only a bench, you’ll still need a way to perform chinups and pullups. If you bought a rack, you’ll be able to do them. If not, you’ll need either a doorway bar or a standalone chinup/pullup/dip station.

You can buy a doorway bar for $20 – $30. A full station is pricier and ranges from $200 for the lower end models to over $350 for the higher end models. A full station provides greater versatility because you can loop a rope around to do rope pullups and assisted rope pullups. You can even attach rings for ring work. With rings alone, you can pull off several dozen different exercises and train like a gymnast. Again, be sure to measure the height of your basement from floor to ceiling to make sure the station will fit.

Now, the absolute equipment you need aside from a bench are free weights, specifically a 300 lb. Olympic barbell set. A set consists of a 45 lb. seven foot (86″) bar, two collars/sleeves, and free weight plates totalling 255 lbs. (two 45lb. plates, two 35lb. plates, two 25lb. plates, two 10lb. plates, four 5lb. plates, two 2.5lb. plates).The price ranges for a set are all over the place.

The cheapest prices I’ve seen today is $100 – $150 dollars at neighborhood garage sales and independent sellers from Craigslist. The price from most retailers averages $300 – $350.  With a set, your exercise options are endless. As you get stronger, you can purchase additional olympic weight plates later on for additional resistance.

The other alternative and/or supplement to this basic olympic barbell set is a standard 160lb. barbell set for $100 or so. The bar length is a foot shorter than the olympic version. They’re also less thick and hold less total weight, usually a maximum of 240lbs. For strength training purposes, I recommend an olympic barbell set since you’ll undoubtedly get stronger in the core basic lifts. You’ll outgrow a standard bar.

That’s it. These are the core and basic equipment you need for an intense full body strength training workout. All the main exercise movements worth doing and the most effective lifts with its many variations are covered with an olympic bench, power rack, and barbell set.

The three combo should cost you no more than $700 – $750, especially if you shop around for deals. If you’re choosing to go with just a bench and barbell set, it should cost you around $450. Throw in an additional $100- $150 for a chin/dip/pullup station.

Now you may add extra accessories like a weighted dip/chinup belt for added resistance for dips, chinups, and pullups.  A trap bar offers variability in performing deadlifts and shrugs.  Other exercise equipment accessories for a strength training/bodybuilding home gym includes:

• ab wheel

• weight vest

• resistance bands

• Elite rings

• TRX suspension system

• manilla rope (for rope pullups and assisted pullups)

• wrist wraps

• Powerblock

• total dumbbell set

• EZ bar curl

• portable chinup/pullup bar, doorway bar

• cardio equipment for high intensity interval training and general conditioning: Airdyne Scwhinn stationary bike, elliptical machines, recumbent bikes, jump rope, etc.

You can also consider building your own exercise equipment if you’re getting real passionate about this.  Some specific “build your own exercise equipment” tutorials can be found at Ross Enaimett’s “Home Equipment” forum thread.

A home gym will pay off in years end.  Remember, realize that a home gym is an investment, especially for strength training routines.  Exercise equipment are tools to fitness, especially true to gain muscle. Don’t delay and set up your own gym now to build muscle.

Let's move on to part 2 of this series where I'll talk about the extra equipment you can buy to further enhance your training experience.

Build a Home Gym for Your Muscle-Building and Fat Loss Workouts- Part 2

If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com

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