Home gym decoration

If you want to install a home gym that will avoid pitfalls and have high utilization rate, the core is not to collect high-end equipment and how beautiful it is, but to completely adapt to your own exercise habits, existing space conditions and budget. If you blindly copy the configurations of commercial gyms or Internet celebrity templates, 90% of them will end up being an idle area piled up with debris.

Don't believe it, I've been through this trap myself. Last year, I converted the 12-square-meter secondary bedroom facing north into a gym. As soon as I saw the ins-style gym on Xiaohongshu, I couldn’t walk. It had a full-frame squat rack, a wooden rowing machine, and a whole wall of perforated boards to hang various small equipment. It cost almost 20,000, but I usually do most of the exercises. For HIIT and yoga, the squat rack accumulated dust after three uses. It took up half of the room and couldn't even stretch my legs while doing Pamela. In the end, the rack was sold to fitness enthusiasts in the same city at a low price and replaced with a foldable dumbbell rack. Thick yoga mats were laid in the vacant space, and the utilization rate tripled.

Nowadays, people who practice home fitness are basically divided into two groups. It’s hard to say who is right and who is wrong. It all depends on demand.

Most of the minimalists are ordinary sports enthusiasts who exercise no more than 5 hours a week. They mostly do bodyweight training, aerobics or yoga. They feel that there is no need to make the home gym complicated. It is enough to leave enough space on the floor and lay a professional shock-absorbing mat. At most, add a pair of adjustable dumbbells and a few sets of elastic bands. After training, the whole thing can be stored in the cabinet, and there is no need to occupy a special room. A friend of mine who works on the Internet directly designated the 4-square-meter corner of the living room by the window as a fitness area. He only laid 5cm thick non-slip rubber floor mats and installed a foldable wall-mounted mirror. The total cost was only 1,200. After using it for two years, he said it was enough. When he was tired from training, he could just slump on the sofa and drink iced Coke. It was ten times more comfortable than going to Shangjian.

Professionals are basically veterans who have fixed strength training habits and practice at least 4 times a week. For them, basic configuration has a much higher priority than equipment. A friend of mine who plays powerlifting converted a 20-square-meter basement into a gym. The floor was made up of three layers: the bottom layer was flat with high-density shock-absorbing pads, the middle layer was filled with rubber particles for buffering, and the top layer was paved with a whole piece of anti-slip sports rubber, and the squat rack was specially expanded. The screws were used to fix the ground, and even the circuits were separately routed all the way to power the elliptical machine and the Smith machine. The total cost was nearly 30,000. He said that now there is no need to catch up with Shangjian's closing time at 10 o'clock, and he can practice until midnight on weekends. The saved annual card fee will be nothing at all over a few years, and it will be worth the price.

The most common mistake many people make when setting up a home gym is to pick out the equipment first and then ignore the issue of concealed engineering. I helped a friend check the gym he had renovated on the balcony. Without any additional load-bearing reinforcements, I put a 300-pound squat rack and a few hundred pounds of barbell plates. The total weight was almost 800 pounds. Within half a month, the property management came to the door and said that there was a crack in the roof of the balcony of the owner's house downstairs. It cost less than 10,000 yuan to repair and reinforce it, and the previous decoration money was wasted. There are also soundproof pits that I have stepped on. When I first practiced box jumping without laying thick floor mats, the aunt downstairs knocked on the door on time every day. Later, I added two layers of 10mm shock-absorbing pads to solve the problem. Oh, and there is ventilation. Don’t try to be quiet and move the gym to a closed storage room or basement. There is not even a convection window. In the summer, you will be covered in sweat after 10 minutes of practice, and the smell cannot be dissipated. In the end, it will just become a place where express delivery is piled up and seasonal clothes are dried.

As for the most debated questions, there are actually no standard answers. For example, do you want to install a whole wall of mirrors? People who like to practice gymnastics and yoga feel that they must pretend to be able to correct their movements at any time and have a lot of space. However, most powerlifting veterans don't like to pretend. They say that when practicing in front of the mirror, they can't help but watch their own movements, which will disrupt the rhythm of exerting force. I only have half a wall mirror installed now, which is enough to watch my movements without being distracted. Also, do you want to make a soundproof ceiling? Owners who live on the top floor basically ignore it. Most of the people with children at home and living in the middle floor will spend thousands more to add a sound insulation layer to avoid clanging noises when practicing deadlifts and conflicts with neighbors. No matter what choice you choose, it is right.

The budget is even more frugal. I have seen fitness areas that can be built for only 1,000 yuan: a stowable yoga mat is laid out in the corner of the living room, a pair of adjustable dumbbells and a set of elastic bands are added, and they can be stored in the cabinet after training, which does not occupy any daily space.； I have also seen top-of-the-line gyms that cost hundreds of thousands to install, equipped with fresh air, central air conditioning, water-cooled rowing machines, and a dedicated fascial gun relaxation area. As long as you can really use them, you won't lose anything. What scares you most is that you are too lazy to even run. When your brain gets hot, you will follow others' pretense. You will spend a lot of money, and in the end you will not even lift a dumbbell twice. That is a real waste.

To be honest, a home gym is essentially a space that serves you. You don’t have to compare configurations with others, and you don’t have to pursue whether the photos look good or not. You can just walk in and exercise for 10 minutes at any time, wearing slippers, which is better than anything else. If you haven't determined your exercise habits yet, don't rush into it. Make use of the existing space and practice for 3 months. If you can stick to it, you can then change it according to your own needs. You will definitely make money without losing money.