How I Built My Home Gym

Where the Idea for a Home Gym Came From

The idea of training at home came to me in 2020, when gyms closed because of the coronavirus and I suddenly found myself without access to equipment that I had previously taken for granted. At first, there was no real strategy behind it. I simply wanted to stay in the habit of training and have enough equipment for a basic workout.

My first setup was simple: dumbbells, an EZ bar, and a workout bench. That was enough to train my chest, shoulders, arms, part of my back, and do a few basic leg exercises. Of course, it did not replace training at a proper gym, but at least I could no longer use a lack of options as an excuse.

Later, I adopted a simple rule. Since I had previously paid for a gym membership every month, I started setting aside the same amount or spending it directly on home gym equipment. Sometimes I bought extra weight plates. Other times, it was racks, a straight barbell, a pull-up bar, resistance bands, handles, or a piece of cardio equipment.

After about six months, I started to wonder whether I still needed a gym membership at all. I did not have access to weight machines, a Smith machine, or cable stations, but I had put together several solid training plans and could train every muscle group without much trouble.

The biggest change, however, was not the equipment or the exercises themselves. It was the way I started thinking about training. I began using a few simple mental anchors. When I want to watch a movie, a series, or a longer YouTube video, I work out or do cardio while watching it. I see watching films and series as a bit of a waste of time, even though I still enjoy it. Training at home allowed me to combine the two: I can watch something for pleasure while also doing something useful for my body, without feeling that I am wasting valuable time that always seems to be in short supply.

This works particularly well with cardio. Using a stationary bike, treadmill, elliptical, or stepper while watching a movie can completely change how the activity feels. You are not sitting around doing nothing for an hour. You are getting in some steady aerobic work, increasing your energy expenditure, and adding more movement to your day, all while watching something you wanted to see anyway.

A home gym does not need to look like a professional training facility. Who has that much space? That is why I will briefly explain how I made it work at home and how I managed to fit the equipment into a small apartment.

A home gym also cannot provide the same energy, atmosphere, and sense of competition that a traditional gym can offer. That is difficult to replace completely. On the other hand, when a constant lack of time is a problem, cutting out the commute, changing clothes, waiting for equipment, and getting back home saves a considerable amount of time. For me, practicality always comes first. I take the same approach to training, diet, and everyday life.

How I Put Together My Mini Home Gym Setup

I started with a bench and a pair of spinlock dumbbells. That setup was already enough for a basic home workout, but I quickly found that constantly changing the weight plates was a hassle. So I bought a pair of short dumbbell handles with collars. I kept the spinlock dumbbells for heavier loads and used the dumbbells with collars whenever I wanted to change the weight quickly.

After that, I kept buying whatever plates I could find on OLX. Altogether, I ended up with around 150 kg of weight plates. In my opinion, that is more than enough for a home gym. Unless someone is training seriously for powerlifting, space, workout organisation, and exercise selection will probably become limiting factors long before they run out of weight plates.

Next, I bought a protective floor mat made of interlocking tiles. It protects the floor and helps keep the noise down for the neighbours. Sound travels incredibly well through our building, so even carefully setting down a pair of dumbbells can be heard several floors below.

I also bought a leg extension and curl attachment for the bench. Honestly, I did not expect much from it. I assumed it would be cheaply made and that I would not get much use out of it. As it turned out, it works very smoothly. It has good-quality bearings, so you can get a solid workout for both your quads and hamstrings. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.

Things started getting messy, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. My wife could barely contain her excitement when she saw what was happening to the apartment. That was sarcasm. To bring some order to everything, I bought a rack for the weight plates. I chose a sturdier model from Marbo Sport, as roughly half of my equipment already comes from that company.

For cardio, I first bought a stepper. It is a great option when space is limited. The stationary bike did not last long and was eventually sold. In my opinion, home models are not particularly comfortable, and pedalling on them feels very different from riding a normal bike.

More recently, I finally decided to buy a treadmill. I spent quite a lot of time choosing one and eventually went with a model from Hop-Sport. To this day, I have not regretted the purchase. Having a treadmill at home takes cardio to another level, especially when you have a screen in front of you and can watch a movie at the same time.

Along the way, I also picked up a few smaller accessories that made my workouts slightly more versatile:

• push-up handles,
• a wrist roller,
• a neck training harness,
• a butterfly chest exerciser,
• an ab wheel,
• several sets of resistance bands in different sizes,
• foam rollers and trigger point balls.

How I Made Room for a Home Gym in My Apartment

And that is pretty much everything. I managed to hide most of the equipment behind a door, so it is practically invisible. The bench sits under the table and doubles as an ottoman. The treadmill gets used too often to put away. It is also ridiculously heavy, and I will not pretend I have any desire to keep dragging it around. At this point, it has simply blended into the surroundings :D

Start Where You Are

The point is that if you really want to get in shape, you can usually find a way to fit training around your life. I am not trying to sound dramatic. I mean it. I went through a terrible period in my life: caring for my mother-in-law, who had cancer, running my own business, often working 10–16 hours a day rather than the usual eight, looking after a young child who also needed a lot of my time, and developing the website you are reading this on. All of this was happening more or less at the same time.

I managed the chaos, set clear priorities, and organised everything in a way that kept me from losing my mind. A home gym helped me remove most of the logistics from training: commuting, waiting for equipment, packing a gym bag, and trying to find extra time that was already in short supply.

I hope my story helps someone return to training, start moving more, or simply find the motivation to take action. You do not need perfect conditions. You need to start with what you can realistically do at home and add more equipment only when you actually need it.