If you could design a home gym, what equipment would you buy yourself first?

I found on craigslist a squat rack, plates bars, a box, jump rope. It was an awesome deal. Ive been slowly adding to this

Salt water heated pool
Nustep
Treadmill

Squat rack or lifting cage, bench and dumbbells. That's all I really use.

My bf actually has most of it, but our current house is too small so we can't set it up.

I have a home gym and slowly added over the years. Started with just an adjustable bench, jumprope, exercise ball, resistance bands, and adjustable dumbbells. Now I have kettlebells, a squat rack, rower, battle rope, oly bar with plates, bosu ball, sliding disks, and this weekend just added a t-bar with landmine and 8lb slam ball.

I've built mine up over the years. The first thing I bought was a treadmill that no longer gets used on a regular basis (I run outside all year 'round), followed by a C2 Rower then a turbo trainer for my bike ( a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine that refuses to die) for winter bike training that I'll probably replace this year with one of the smart trainers (haven't decided which one yet).

My garage now has a (now) seldom used multi-gym that's been replaced by a power rack, Olympic bar & plates & flat bench (stronglifts 5 x 5 for me & my daughter is getting more into power lifting).

If I was doing it all over again I'd skip the treadmill ( a decent one is expensive...it's cheaper to join Planet Fitness if there's one close by) forget the multi-gym and go with the power rack, free weights & bench, the C2 rower & a trainer for my bike.

Likewise accumulated my equipment over a few years.
-Bowflex Selecttech Adjustable Dumbbells (purchased in 12/2011 to do P90X) - love these, still going strong, used them this morning
- Sunny Fitness Spin Bike (10/2014) - bought on a whim when I thought I'd get shredded doing HIIT workouts. Never really got into it that much. Still have it and use it to warm-up occasionally. Was beneficial to have for my wife when she was recovering from a running-related hip injury.
- Fitness Gear (Dick's house brand) Olympic Bench (purchased 7/2015) - not the full or half rack but is cost-effective and can rig it up to squat off the back. Bench is sturdy and adjustable.
- CAP barbell and 300lb plates set (7/2015) - pretty standard 2" steel plate set, got on sale at Dunham's. They're not necessarily pretty or high end but they get the job done
- Ceiling mounted pull up bar (7/2015) - got it off amazon, bolts into joists, was like $45. Nice upgrade from a cheap doorframe one when I moved all my crap to the basement.
- Fitness Gear barbell and 300lb plates set (6/2016) - progressed to where I could squat and deadlift more than 300lb so rather than spend ~100 on extra plates I bought another full set on sale for around $150, second bar is nice to have for supersetting. These are a little nicer than the CAP; nicer paint, grip handles. It bothers me a little that I have mismatched plates, but they were too cheap to pass up.
- Concept2 Rower (1/2017) - Love this thing, should use it more. Was my go to in college and had some gift cards after Christmas.
- Heavy Bag (4/2017) - impulse buy, friend started going to a boxing gym, thought I'd channel Daredevil and Captain America. screw around hitting it from time to time.
- Treadmill (12/2017, gift from my in-laws) - As mentioned, my wife is a runner, was a gift from her parents for Christmas. Nice to have with the midwest weather extremes we get.
- Rubber flooring (6/2018) - Got two horse stall mats from Tractor Supply, way better than foam puzzle-piece flooring. Heavy and awkward to maneuver, suggest getting help to load and unload. Our store also stores them in direct sunlight, tried to melt my fingerprints off getting them in our SUV.

Wish List:
- Preacher Curl Bench
- Power Rack
- Nicer bars and plates (preferably some bumper plates)
- Plate storage of some kind
- lifting platform
- proper stand for DBs (currently use an old end table)
^I don't really need any of this stuff to do what I want to do but I like nice stuff and I feel like it would up my "gym cred" I guess?

Lessons Learned:
If I were starting from scratch I think I'd definitely go higher end on stuff from the start. I'm super cheap and can't justify to myself replacing equipment that fits my needs just fine for nicer stuff. I will need to replace my bars with good ones that are rated for more weight at some point. I also would've gotten the rubber mats and probably more of them right from the get-go. I'd skip the spin bike and heavy bag; and wouldn't bother with the treadmill if it was just me too.

Having space for a home gym is a top priority for my fiance once we start looking for a house. Right now we actually have quite a few pieces of equipment between the two of us: treadmill, adjustable dumbbells, bench, floor mats, lots of boxing equipment, bosu ball, resistance bands, steel club, pull up bar, jump ropes, this device that converts our bikes into stationary bikes (don't remember what it was called, maybe indoor training stand), etc. Once we buy a house, we'll want to add a squat rack, barbell, and plates. TRX and battle ropes would also be fun!

Since your question is what I would buy first, I will limit myself to 3 items in order

Rowing machine
Dumbbells
Bench

This is my preference, for my goals, which are staying trim and fit

Lap pool, forested lap track, climbing wall, laser tag arena, zen garden yoga studio, indoor horse arena....I didn't see anything about REALISTIC home gym!!!

This

vinceno21 wrote: »

I have a Rogue deadlift pad and 610lb of rogue plates in my garage. I enjoy pulling when the weather is nice, but let me tell you that home gyms are a complete waste of time in my opinion. Unless you have a double insulated garage and AC you literally have to go with the current weather conditions, which sucks being that I live in Sacramento, CA. Also, you lose a lot of motivation working out alone all of the time. Anyone who is thinking about making their garage a gym please think twice because it sounds fun at first until youre either working out in nasty weather conditions. Save your money and spend it on a nice gym with air conditioning.

This may be true for you but not for everyone. I generally hate most other people and can't imagine dragging myself to a gym outside my house. I love having my own stuff in my own space and don't ever have to worry about trying to work in around other people. The convenience of lifting whenever I need to has helped me build the habit such that I can't remember the last time I skipped a workout because I "wasn't motivated" to do it.

Granted, my gym is in my basement, not my garage.

rack/cage, barbell & plates, 2nd barbell & more plates or dumbbells
Cardio indoors is never going to happen, except maybe, maybe potentially a cycling trainer in the winter + Zwift with others I cycle with in the summer. (but way less likely to happen than the fat bike).

CatherineLaurel wrote: »

I am day dreaming of what my future home gym will consist of. This dream may not be too far away but like most people, I have limited resources so I must prioritize! I think the first few things I’d HAVE to have are:

Treadmill
Barbell set
Dumbbell Set
Bench
Workout Mat

What about you?!

Looking at your goals and then choosing a training program may help with your decisions. I lift, circuit train, and run to be better at my sport. That said, most programs require weights. So, If I were to begin on a budget, I would install horse stall mats and an Olympic barbell/weight set and landmine sleeve. Then a half-rack and suspension trainer. With this set-up you can powerlift or circuit train or yoga or calisthenics... And a treadmill.

I have a home gym in my basement. It has two treadmills and an elliptical with exercise mats on the entire floor. I have some free hand weights, yoga mats and a foam roller. I'd like to add more strength equipment but not sure what to get, honestly. I'm leaning toward finding a Bowflex Home Gym.