How to Set Up a Home Gym When You Don’t Have Space for One!

Are you finding it hard to get to the gym for a variety of reasons? Are you too busy with work or your kids or both? Just not feeling it’s the right time for a gym membership? 

Whatever the case may be, a home gym can be your solution to your fitness problems. But, not everyone has the space or the money to turn a spare or guest room into a gym. Many people don’t even have a “spare room” to begin with!

So, if you’re wondering how to set up a home gym when you lack space and resources, I can help. Here are my tips for setting up a home gym in any space you have available.

Make the Space You Have Feel Bigger

Even the smallest of spaces can feel spacious and huge with the right home gym color scheme. 

I cannot understate the importance of color in interior design, especially when designing for small spaces. Color can (and does!) completely change the appearance of how big a room feels.

I recommend ensuring that you have plenty of light and reflective surfaces in the room you choose for your gym area. This will make the space feel larger, especially as the light reflects off of mirrors and other reflective items in the space.

A lighter ceiling that is a color, will also add to the room you are in feeling open and airy. Off whites that are actually a very pale teal or blue, can set the mood for the space to help you focus. 

I’d also recommend using a softer color palette overall. Softer and more understated color palettes make things feel less cluttered and allows your eye to focus on the focal points of the room instead of any clutter. 

Softer colors can range from delicate blues to soft whites and mint green. Greys, greiges and off-white are also great options. I suggest keeping the colors clean and not muddy. It makes for a brighter room, a more pleasant space overall and a more enjoyable workout experience! 

Overwhelming colors and patterns can make a room feel smaller and more cluttered, which you don’t want in a space when you’re trying to add some fitness equipment to it as well. 

If you’d like to incorporate some bolder color options or patterns, I would suggest keeping them minimal and succinct. For example, pops of color in your yoga mat or weights can be a great addition, but adding an entire patterned accent wall could make the room feel and look smaller.

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Want to learn more about how color and design can make your space look bigger?

My article on designing small living spaces gives you actionable tips to make your small space feel huge!

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Easy-to-Store Workout Equipment

Just because you’re setting up a home gym doesn’t mean you have to go out and buy a Pelaton, a huge treadmill, or a squat rack. Not only are these things expensive, but they can take up a huge amount of space! 

Small and easily stored pieces of workout equipment are going to fit best in smaller spaces. This could include a yoga mat, a small set of dumbbells or free weights and an exercise ball, to just name a few examples. You can also include pull up bars and resistance bands. 

I recommend that you look for equipment that will serve several purposes.

Each of these things can be used to do a number of different workouts without taking up much space. You can then easily store these things in a closet, under the couch or even outside to reduce clutter and keep things feeling open & spacious.

Make Every Room an Option

A mistake I often see people doing when setting up a home gym is narrowing their options too much. 

There’s no rule out there that says a home gym has to be in a finished basement or in the living room! If you don’t have those areas or the more traditional areas for a home gym are too small, see what you can do in other spaces.

Pull-up bars can go almost anywhere and there are options that can be installed right in any door frame. You can even stick them on a closet doorway, in the kitchen, or tucked away so it doesn’t affect your home’s colors or aesthetics. 

Pull-up bars are also usually easy to take down as you please, so it would go right along with the “easy to store” tip from earlier.

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Try Amy Wax’s online paint color consultant service to get expert advice and guidelines for your brand new home gym color scheme!

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The great outdoors is another option that should be taken advantage of. Even a very small outdoor area can become the perfect place to exercise at home. A few dumbbells, a cardio ladder and some resistance bands are all you need for an awesome workout.

Speaking of cardio, the outdoors is a perfect location to run, bike, hike, walk, swim and more. 

While you should take proper safety precautions during times like this, the entire world can become your “home gym” with a jog around the block, going up and down your apartment stairs, yoga in your backyard, outdoor body weight workouts… the list of options goes on and on!

How to Set Up a Home Gym Anywhere: Wrapping Up

In the end, learning how to set up a home gym in houses and apartments without much space is all about finding equipment that works for your needs that you can store comfortably.

Try things out in one area, and if they don’t work there, move to a new space! While you may need to make some paint color adjustments or make some slight modifications to existing rooms, the benefits you get from exercising regularly are well worth the time and money you put into the investment.

You can learn more about home gym color schemes that I love in my blog post on the subject here. I’m also happy to do an online consultation with you to plan out color & patterns that work for you, your aesthetics and your space. 

Contact me here to set up a consultation, an appointment or to discuss how to set up a home gym in your space.

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PHOTO CREDIT & ARTWORK by Siona Benjamin. Yoga mat pictured available from BlueLikeMe.com.