Home Gym (Shed)

Barney224

Hi, looking for some advice. My son wants to set up a small gym in the back garden. I also need a shed as current one probably has 2 more years left before it collapses, so I thought I'd kill 2 birds and get a shed set up for him and then take it over when he's done (or moved out!) :-)

Budget wise I wanted to keep under €2k if possible and was looking at steel sheds (ideally with a window). Has anyone set up something similar in their garden?

Black Sheep

I have a shed gym. I'm afraid it is block built, insulated etc so it is a lot more than 2k.

For me there were a few things I thought about in terms of future proofing it.

- I wanted electricity / plugs so I would have light to train late and night and the early morning, and to be able to plug in heaters during winter

- I wanted insulation for the same reason, winter training

In terms of the floor I had a pretty basic concrete floor that I cleaned and then sealed before putting down 1m square rubber tiles that I cut to fit.

In terms of cost I'm not sure if you are budgeting your equipment separate to the 2k, or if you have that stuff already, but if you are paying for the equipment and maybe flooring out of the 2k also then it will be a challenge.

If buy a shed one thing I would mention is that ceiling height is a big thing when training at home. If your son wants to install a power rack or anything like that then check the maximum height, and add a few inches if his head will be going over that when he does pull-ups. You also want to consider whether there is room for him to stand upright and press a weight overhead. You'd be surprised how much ceiling clearance you ideally want. If whatever shed you do select has quite a lot ceiling then you will be limited to shorter racks and squat stands. That's fine, but in our case we had a rack first that turned out to be too tall for the shed, we only copped it mid way through the build.

Barney224

Black Sheep wrote: »

I have a shed gym. I'm afraid it is block built, insulated etc so it is a lot more than 2k.

For me there were a few things I thought about in terms of future proofing it.

- I wanted electricity / plugs so I would have light to train late and night and the early morning, and to be able to plug in heaters during winter

- I wanted insulation for the same reason, winter training

In terms of the floor I had a pretty basic concrete floor that I cleaned and then sealed before putting down 1m square rubber tiles that I cut to fit.

In terms of cost I'm not sure if you are budgeting your equipment separate to the 2k, or if you have that stuff already, but if you are paying for the equipment and maybe flooring out of the 2k also then it will be a challenge.

If buy a shed one thing I would mention is that ceiling height is a big thing when training at home. If your son wants to install a power rack or anything like that then check the maximum height, and add a few inches if his head will be going over that when he does pull-ups. You also want to consider whether there is room for him to stand upright and press a weight overhead. You'd be surprised how much ceiling clearance you ideally want. If whatever shed you do select has quite a lot ceiling then you will be limited to shorter racks and squat stands. That's fine, but in our case we had a rack first that turned out to be too tall for the shed, we only copped it mid way through the build.

Thanks for tips. No, the 2k would not include gym equipment. He'll be buying that himself, but good point on the height. He's quite tall himself so would need a lot of room height-wise. The only thinig is, most of the sheds I've seen online seem to be a standard height.

DId you buy your shed from a supplier? Or was it custom built?

Black Sheep

Barney224 wrote: »

Thanks for tips. No, the 2k would not include gym equipment. He'll be buying that himself, but good point on the height. He's quite tall himself so would need a lot of room height-wise. The only thinig is, most of the sheds I've seen online seem to be a standard height.

DId you buy your shed from a supplier? Or was it custom built?

It was built when we were re doing an extension on the house.

Worth asking your question on some of the Uk home gym / garage gym pages on Reddit and Facebook, there are guys who have done all kinds of things with sheds / containers etc You might get some ideas.

melissajeffrey

You have a good idea for home gym, I made my room like a gym, with just bought some fitness supplies,
because I can't afford that. I will collect more fitness equipment after a time by time.

beertons

A lad on boards, by the name KKV, did a home gym build thread a while back. Looked class.

Strumms

I’d imagine you would need it completely insulated with as in the depths of winter any equipment that is motorised / electrical can get damaged by the extreme cold temperatures… for working out in the summer you’d need some way of cooling so fans or preferably a portable aircon unit…

an alternative is to do what I have done…

kitchen / dining area : treadmill, exercise bike, suspension trainer

bedroom : weights, resistance bands, bosu ball,

not exactly a home gym but barring the cross trainer I have everything I use at the gym at home…. Doesn’t all have to be in the one space… stuff at the gym isn’t.