An Affordable Home Gym: Get Rid of Your Gym Membership

An Affordable Home Gym: Get Rid of Your Gym Membership

There are plenty of reasons to want to move your workout out of the gym in Louisiana and into your own home workout studio, home gym or garage gym. 

One of the immediate appeals is the convenience of not having to go out of your way in order to get your regular workouts and in the long run, you can save a lot of money from no longer having to invest in your gym membership and trading it for exercise equipment for home. 

One thing that keeps a lot of people from getting into building their own home gym is the idea of the initial investment cost being completely unaffordable. 

And it’s true that there are some amazing home gym set using top of the line equipment which can easily cost over $10,000 and still not have the variety of a traditional gym. 

So while it is true that a home gym can be prohibitively expensive in some cases, there are some amazing budget setups to get you working out in the convenience of your own home. 

Getting Started on Your Home Gym Ideas

You can run the numbers based on your own annual costs for gym membership to get a good idea how long it will take for you to start reaping the rewards in savings, but assuming an annual fee of around 300 you can design your own home gym to be completely paid off by savings between 3 to 7 years depending on how “budget” you want your budget gym to be.

And after you’ve built your own home gym you’ll never have to worry about the commutes to the gym, the monthly fees or having the machines you intended to use being occupied and having to improvise your workout plans. 

Having absolute control over your workout environment has the advantages of being able to never have any of these difficulties come up.

Starting A Budget Home Gym

When it comes to building a home gym there a few strategies and locations where you can go about acquiring your equipment. 

If you’re being really thrifty you can try to acquire all of your equipment off of Craigslist or your local Facebook marketplace

Both of these places can often have amazing deals for picking up a few pieces to start out your home gym and really get you to grasp how easy and affordable it can really be. 

Of course, this depends on your area and the equipment available isn’t exactly stocked to demand so what you’ll be able to find may not match your exact needs. 

But if you want to find some used weights you can often pick them up for an absolute steal of a price that could save you hundreds of dollars and get you the backbone of any strength training (the weights).

When it comes to the equipment you can’t find on open marketplaces you can still find amazing deals through retailers. 

While a lot of floor models will knock you out with their less budget-friendly pricing, there are economic options out there.

The ideal situation is finding a retailer or warehouse that is unloading old equipment for a steep discount in order to make room to stock and sell new models. But even without striking the jackpot and getting unused equipment for a steal you can strike sweet savings by buying used equipment.

When it comes to benches and power racks there is nothing wrong with an older or used model, and the same is true for your weights and bars as they are all sturdy enough to not suffer from wear and tear unless they are completely broken from misuse.

So what should you be shopping for in order to acquire a complete home gym for yourself? We’ll help you with your gym ideas in order to pick out your essential equipment for serving all your physical needs for working out and achieving your fitness goals.

Rack And Bench

Just as essential as the weight your lifting is the equipment that makes it safe and comfortable for you to perform. 

You’ll need a bench, preferably an adjustable or folding bench such as the Hoist HF-415 Folding Multi Bench in order to conserve space and give you a range of positions you can lift in that can’t be comfortably achieved with a simple flat bench. 

Along with the bench, you’ll need a good power rack to enable you to squats and other standing lifts. Both of these pieces of equipment will give you to do with a barbell and quite literally establish the framework of your home gym strength training section.

Weights

But a bench and rack are hardly good for anything without a good set of iron the pump on them. When trying to complete your home gym there are 3 types of weights you’ll want to collect in order to completely diversify your strength training options.

As mentioned previously, one of these is the barbell which will also require its own set of plates that can be mounted. 

There are also non-adjustable bars in a variety of weights but this is hardly a space-efficient or often cheap option for a home gym.

After the bar is the dumbells which actually have a good variety of options for what you choose to use with them. 

There are traditional adjustable bells which are a fantastic option along with the more modern take on them with the Powerblock sets which come in a variety of weight limits and are an amazing compact option when your space needs are a concern. 

There are also fixed-weight dumbbells which are an option that some like for their ease of use but they will take up more space, rarely be the cheaper option and unless you get them for a real steal.

The final style of weights that you’ll want to look into getting are kettlebells which are amazing for performing targeted exercises that dumbbells just often don’t comfortably do. 

They’re also a great first pick up as they’re completely standalone and great for a variety of standing or on the floor exercises.

Cardio

Cardio machines are where the prices can get out of hand and many popular choices don’t really have an economy version that can be considered very “budget”. 

If you are migrating from a gym to your own home gym you should be familiar with what machines are your favorites to work with. 

The cheapest possible options that work just fine for getting your basic cardio experience are steppers and jump ropes which can take cardio from being what could have been your most expensive piece to your cheapest.

But some people have a reasonable attachment to using climbing machines, ellipticals, and rowers which are all fantastic machines that can operate for standard cardio or HIIT focused machines. 

If you want the experience of high-tech cardio machines but can’t afford the upfront cost on even a used model there are some retailers that will help you arrange a custom payment plan that will allow you to pay as low as your current gym fees to earn your cardio machine over time.

Invest in an Exercise Equipment

You get to save a lot of moolah when you invest in a set of exercise machines. It sure beats a monthly gym membership. To get the best gym equipment for your home, Fitness Expo has got it all covered.

We have stores in Metairie, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Kenner, and Jackson in the Mississippi area.