Your 3 step budget tips shows you how.
Sadly much home fitness equipment gets to spend its life as a dust trap beneath the bed. Yet by making informed decisions on what you REALLY need, some terrific choices can be made.
And the great news? Setting up a perfect gym for home use costs less than you might think.
1. Make your gym budget friendly. At its basic minimum, a perfect home gym that is budget-friendly takes up surprisingly little room and is less expensive than you might anticipate. So what do you REALLY need when looking to set up a home gym? The minimum equipment investment for providing a great variety of productive strength training exercises would be:
- Weightlifting bar, plates and little discs
- Squat stands or squat rack
- Weightlifting bench.
For an excellent weightlifting bar, see Everlast 140kg Olympic Weight Inc. 20kg 7ft Bar
Important tip: consider purchasing second hand home gym equipment. Try the ads in your local newspaper, or browse the fitness section in eBay. I was fortunate to buy a soloflex home gym for a budget price.
2. The bare bones budget gym. But what if you don't want to bench press or squat? You can strength train effectively without a rack, weightlifting bar and bench, by selecting a trap bar or hex bar to fulfill your strength training requirements. The trap bar deadlift, plus the chin up and parallel bar dip, cover most of the body's musculature - these 3 exercises combined can build a LOT of muscle.
And more great news? The trap bar, when comparing equal strengths of bars, is cheaper than its straight Olympic bar cousin - the benefit to you? You get more bang for your buck!
For a Mega-Shrug/Trap Hip Bar 1,000 LB + Capacity, see York Int'l Multi Hex Dead Lift/Shrug Bar
This amazing bar has some exciting features including a "rock & roll" kickstand which allows easy plate loading and unloading!
3. Home gym location. It is possible to strength train in a mere 7 ft by 10 ft space. You do not require a whole room for your home gym needs - a portion of a room you use for something else is more than adequate. I currently train in a 7 ft by 10 ft area and manage to include a squat bar, bench, weight tree, and free standing chin up bar with dip attachment.
Other considerations when setting up your cheap home gym? If possible, choose a place that has good ventilation. Depending on your climate, you may need a fan to keep you cool in the summer or some form of heating to take off the chill in the winter. Also ensure you have good lighting, and that the floor to your selected location is solid, both for practicality and safety purposes.
Looking to buy your gym on a budget? See Affordable Home Gym - Gym systems that provide cardio, strength and flexibility at great savings!