Home Multi Gym

Your plan is to transform an empty room and build a home gym - but do so without spending a lot of dough. Well, there's good news: you can do it for less than $500 and have a complete workout area for both cardio and weight training. A home gym design is easy when you know what to shop for.

Before you begin making purchases, plan the workout space in your house in a spare room, a finished basement, or at the back of the garage. You'll need enough room for a set of weights, an exercise mat and bench, and a few pieces of cardio equipment. Then, follow the guidelines listed below and see why it's a snap to create a home gym on a budget.

The Free Weights Requirements

The basic $500 gym will help you with circuit training that includes curls, squats, presses, rows, and lunges. Let's first concentrate on how to build a home gym using free weights. Your equipment will consist of a basic 110-pound barbell and dumbbell set made of metal or a rubber-coated metal. Stainless steel is ideal but pricey but will last forever; just be sure to skip anything plastic.

Barbells and dumbbells come in Standard and Olympic sizes. It doesn't matter which one you choose for your home gym design but they must be compatible with each other; that is, weight plates must fit both the dumbbell handles and the barbell bar. Olympic weights have a larger diameter than standard and the handles and bars are more expensive. Since you are doing a budget home gym, we recommend you stick with the standard set.

You can buy dumbbells in fixed weights (such as the molded plastic ones) but again we recommend you buy the handles and fastening collars so you can interchange weight plates on them. A chin-up bar, fitness ball, and heavy rubber band will fill out your needs for weight training days.

Keep the Cardio Inexpensive

A cardio workout doesn't cost a thing; just put on your jogging shoes and hit the road. But since you want to build a home gym that includes cardiovascular exercise, we have some ideas for that too.

On your cardio workout days, you can get your heart rate up using a jump rope, a heavy bag, and an exercise bike. These three pieces of equipment add variety and will target different muscles, especially the most important muscle of them all -- the heart. Once you've started your home gym design you may want to add a treadmill or elliptical machine at a later time.

The Basics of What You Need to Create a Home Gym:

- Straight barbell bar and set of iron plates (110 lbs combined) - $100
- Dumbbell handles - $25
- Extra weights (4 25s to boost your gym to 210 lbs) - $100
- A chin-up bar - $20
- Fitness ball - $15
- Resistance band with stirrups - $10
- Jump rope - $5
- Exercise mat - $15
- Adjustable weight bench - $60
- Heavy bag - $60
- Exercise bike (used) - $75 to $100

When planning the room, you can opt for either a carpeted or rubber flooring and that will help keep the equipment from scuffing the floor and reduce the noise factor. Also consider adding: a TV or stereo system, a fan, towels, and whatever else you like to make it an enjoyable workout space where you'll look forward to spending several hours a week.

Notes on the Basics

As you can see from the list above, just $500 is all you need to build a home gym for effective weight training and cardio fitness. You may be surprised to find items like the heavy bag on the list, but this is an incredibly fun piece of equipment that uses all the major muscle groups in the body and really gets the heart pumping. It not only strengthens the heart, it tones the muscles, burns fat, increases bone density, and helps with flexibility and coordination. And whacking on that bag is a great stress buster!

We also included the $5 jump rope to give you an idea of how inexpensive cardio training can be, but we also wanted to suggest at least one machine - the stationary bike. If you can afford a little more, take a look at some elliptical trainers since there are many budget models that sell online for less than $350.

Your decision to build a home gym means that you are committed to making an investment in yourself and pursuing a healthy lifestyle. A home gym is surprisingly inexpensive and the effort you put into it will result in a leaner, stronger, fitter, and better looking body.

About the Author:

Kevin Urban is the editor/webmaster at http://www.AllEllipticals.com - the web's top site to start your search for the best elliptical in your price range.

Copyright 2008 AllEllipticals.com

Permission is granted to republish this article provided all links are left intact and clickable.

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