Do you regularly struggle to find the required motivation to work out at your home gym? Is it a seldom occurrence that you look forward to train in your home gym? Have you spent all of your money and focus only on traditional gym equipment?

Then you might be lacking is the “non-gym equipment” side of your home gym, i.e. the small accessory pieces that make a home gym more entertaining and capable of drawing you in. In my experience, these accessories have helped me get more use out of my home gym. They have also helped me feel more motivated to get out there and train.

What Is a Home Gym Without Speakers?

I will start with an obvious one. I understand that not all people use music to motivate themselves as much as I do. But is it not only for music. Like most people, I am not drowning in spare time. So, I find training while listening to a podcast very effective. Listening to the news or a book also makes good use of my free time.

The options are endless these days. Small, medium or large? Portable? Bluetooth or WiFi? Both BLUETOOTH and WiFi together? Or just a giant old school setup with amplifiers?

Consider a Television for Your Home Gym

Some people are really against this. I was initially. Nevertheless, having a television in my home gym has again allowed me to hit two birds with one stone. I can train while watching the news, a movie, YouTube etc. I especially enjoy this towards the end of my training sessions, where I just have to do accessories.

But more importantly, it gets my wife out in the home gym. She really enjoys watching TV-shows while working out. It also makes it easier, when we occasionally have our 2-year-old son out there while we train. We are not always dependent on the other one being available to look after him for the entire training session.

Control the temperature in your home gym

It was some of the most boring money to spend. However, my split heater unit has removed the major excuses not to train at home. “It is too cold” and “it is too hot” are no longer valid excuses. For the first 3-4 months after the building was completed, I trained at 0-5°C. It was raw and I felt somewhat proud of my own determination. Nevertheless, I can now regulate the temperature as I please. I can even set the split heater to heat up my gym before I leave from work so it is nice and toasty before I start my training session. I am never going back!

I never see condensation on my metal equipment anymore (less rust). The indoor climate feels better now. The air quality also feels better now. I chose a split heater with several modes. These modes include heating, moist reduction, standard ventilator, and cooling. The ventilator is really powerful when I crank it up in the summer. I can pre-program it on a daily or weekly basis. I can also monitor the power usage in kWh.

Lighting Makes a Huge Difference for Your Home Gym

I get more energy in a brightly lit setting with the lighting being towards the colder white or blue end of the spectrum. Look for the Kelvin rating of the light bulb. You want 4-5K Kelvin for the classic crisp gym light (see picture below). This will also help distinguish your home gym from the rest of your home.

While some people might prefer a dark dungeon, I recon that most people would benefit more from the former. But, if you want both, you should consider something like Philips HUE. It can alter the brightness and the color of the light via a remote or an app.

Snacks for the Home Gym!

I always keep my High5 Carbs and Caffeine blend out in my home gym. It helps with my motivation one days where I have to train around 5 am. I know that a pretty well-tasting drink is waiting out there. This drink will help me wake up. It will also provide a bit of carbs before I eat my breakfast after training. Many companies make similar blends. I just prefer High5 since it is pretty simple and straightforward and it is not full of crappy pseudo-scientific ingredients.

During the long winters, I usually also store some protein and real snack bars out there. And of course, I always have a few beers ready as well. The beers are usually reserved for the occasional friday night training session.

Prevent Clutter in Your Home Gym

Lastly, the final contender on this list is very subjective. BUT, I prefer that things in my home gym have a specified space or spot where I can easily get to them and easily store them away again. I find it time saving and motivating that I do not have to clear out five other items to get to what I need. Additionally, it is much easier to convince myself to put things back again when they actually have a designated spot.

By extension, I also try to think of storage solutions that make sense in my daily training. I make it simple and focus on easy access to the items I use the most! Do not create a complicated storage solution for your favorite barbell. Do not place your most used heavier implements on the top shelf.

These tips have helped me out a lot. I hope they will help you as well!