Building a home gym, advice needed please.

mattthetall77

Hiya,

Have you ordered the Billyoh building yet?  I've recently been looking around and found a thread on another forum discussing them Best place online for garden sheds? - Overclockers UK Forums along with others.

As others have said, reinforcing the floor with a platform is a good idea, either an olympic lifting platform or thick rubber mats.

Some people recommend Tiger Sheds as being good quality, but they cost a bit more

I would check sizing of the room given choice of the rack, for three reasons:
- When it says height in the specifications on the BillyOh site  as Height (inc floor) does it mean the actual height inside is less?
- If so, and if you are doing overhead press (depending on your height and size of plate) is there a risk of the plates/bar touching the ceiling near the wall?
- Which brings me onto an issue I had to work round in my room, the place you have the rack in the diagram, if using a 7ft bar and the room having 233cm depth it leaves 10cm either side of the bar for plate loading or margin of error in catching the wall.

edit: tbh, most log cabin buildings I've looked at aren't overly high inside

There is a good thread on the overclockers forum about home gym building, may be worth a read about equipment, I had a thorough read through and it has a lot of good advice and questions answered.  Official Home Gym Building Thread - Overclockers UK Forums

Some advice I've picked up when looking (not just form there) is people suggesting rubber coated tri grips rather than just metal to reduce noise.  If using olympic dumbbells make sure you have good collars and not spring collars, especially if overhead or benching to save them sliding off onto your face.  Oh and avoiding hex plates is another that comes up.

Regarding the dumbbells, how string is your other half?  5kg increments is quite a jump if progressing.  I was fortunate to pick up a good set of new hex dumbbells on ebay in 2kg increments to 10kg, then up to 22.5 in 2.5kg increments, but I've had to fill in the odd numbers below 10kg for my girlfriend so she has 1kg increments (she's just starting).

One other thing to mention about the dumbbells you linked, if the floor isn't completely flat, the dumbbells you linked may roll, well the ziva circular dumbbels in the gym in Lincoln do anyway haha. (saying that, my olympic bar does in my garden room too!)

A friend at work with his own gym too used to have some Ironmaster adjustable dumbbells until he kitted out with rubber hex and really liked them Quick-Lock Dumbbell Set 75 lbs (34 kg)

But if you're going to use olympic plates then at least the plates can be used on the dumbbells and barbell, just as I mentioned earlier, have a read up on collars

An alternative to second hand running machines is refurb\retired, when I looked the other year I found Cheap manufacturer return treadmills, exercise bikes, cross trainers and multigyms at the best prices - Restyle Fitness Equipment  - Restyle Fitness which has some good savings

Anyway rambling lots and other half is wanting to head out for curry!

leeince

Some good advice there mate, thank you.

I haven't ordered the cabin yet, I'm having my drive done at the end of May and the builder is doing the concrete base at the end of the Garden at the same time so I still have plenty of time to plan!

My plan with the floor is to lay an 8mm laminate over the 19mm T&G grove but going the other way to the T&G, I will then lay a 18mm stable mat on top of that.

This will give a clearance of approx. 210mm from the top of the rack to the internal ridge in the centre, this will reduce as you go to the left and right due to the slope but should be ok.
Unfortunately 2.5m height and 15 sq meters is the max you can go to without planning permission so I will build it regardless and then fit my equipment in around it, my equipment may have to change but I'm hoping I can go with what I have picked!

I'm now going for the 5m by 3m cabin so do have a little more space!

I think I might knock the dumbells on the head and just get Olympic dumbbell bars and decent collars and a shed load of plates. I can then get a light set of dumbells for the misses.

I have included two new plans, these plans show the internal dimension so represent the floor space I will actually have.

The first shows the bench inside the frame with the treadmill unfolded.

The second shows the bench outside the frame with the treadmill folded up. The treadmill can be folded simply and will kept out the way except when in use, what do you think?

leeince

These are these plans.