So, you’ve decided to build your own home gym. Great choice. But before you start buying equipment, there are a few things you should know to avoid common and often expensive mistakes. In this guide, I’ve gathered the lessons I’ve learned over the years. Lessons I now take for granted, but wish I had known when I first started out.

Barbell Sleeve Diameter

When it comes to barbells: Buy once, cry once

For most us a barbell will be our main way to connect to the weights, especially early on. Barbells are a Home Gym essential. But, they come with different sleeve diameters: standard (20 mm and 25 mm) or olympic (50 mm). And the choice is fairly simple if you’re in it for the long run: Just buy an olympic barbell. Olympic barbells have the best price to quality ratio. If you spend around 300 Euros, you will never have to buy a replacement. Most 300 Euro barbells can be passed on to your children. Check out the Home Gym Dictionary for more on general barbell build and specs.

Modular Home Gym Equipment

Modularity is a key feature for most home gyms

You don’t have to buy the most expensive heavy duty equipment to make a clever long term purchase. But you have to buy modular equipment! Especially when it comes to power racks and benches. Modular power racks with a good weight capacity can last you for many years. A company like SQMIZE offers Power Racks in all price ranges, all with huge modularity.

When you are looking at a power rack, you should always check the size of ecosystem for the power rack. The ecosystem describes the amount of attachments and upgrades available for the power rack. Next, you should use the Power Rack Compatibility Table to check if attachments from other companies are compatible with the power rack you are looking at. A rack that is upgradable will last you much longer. Unless, you have unlimited funds. Then go crazy from the beginning I guess.

These days, the same logic can be applied to other home gym items such as storage systems and benches.

Pulley Ratios and Cable Travel

Weight is weight. Or is it?

Just because you bought a cable machine with a 50 kg weight stack it doesn’t guarantee that all 50 kg will be available to you. A rule of thumb is that cable machines where you pull from a fixed point will have a 1:1 ratio. A 1:1 ratio means that when you select 50 kg you will be lifting 50 kg. This is what you see with a fixed high or low pulley point as seen on a lat pulldown or seated row machine. Meanwhile, cable machines where you pull from a point that can be moved will usually have a 2:1 ratio.

A 2:1 ratio means that when you select 50 kg you will be lifting 25 kg. This is what you often see on functional trainers. A 2:1 ratio also doubles the cable travel. This is why a 2:1 ratio is great for functional trainers, where you often work on smaller muscle groups. And you get the extra cable travel for exercises like chest flys. There are ways to convert a 2:1 ratio to a 1:1 ratio, but those might affect the warranty of your equipment. So make sure to check the pulley ratio before purchasing a cable machine.

Preparations before Flooring your Home Gym

Do it right from the beginning!

It really sucks to change the flooring after you already set up several very heavy pieces of equipment. But, if funds are tight, just put flooring under your most heavy pieces of equipment. Then you can always fill in the holes later on. And scrub the rubber mats with soap and leave them out in the sun for a week before bringing them inside. In my experience, this greatly reduces the smell from the rubber mats.

For a more detailed guide to flooring, check out our article on Home Gym Flooring.

Home Gym Height Requirements

Measure twice, buy once!

It is easy to get carried away and assume that a new cool piece of gym equipment will fit your home gym. But, it is not easy to disassemble and return or resell a piece of equipment. Common mistakes in my experience are:

• Does it arrive assembled or disassembled? This could determine whether you can even get it through the door or down the stairs.
• Overlooking height requirements.
• Forgetting the added space requirement from weight horns on plate loaded machines.
• Does the piece of equipment need to be accessible from one side or two sides?

Used Home Gym Gold

One mans trash is another mans treasure

Before investing too much money, consider starting with the essentials and see whether a home gym truly fits your routine. Using second-hand gear or simple DIY solutions is also a great way to test different concepts without spending much. And if you buy smart, you can sometimes even sell the item later at a profit. Once you know what you actually use and enjoy, you can confidently plan the bigger purchases.

Home Gym Noise Reduction

Reducing noise by decorating

Lets start with the equipment itself. Bumper and urethane plates make less noise than bare iron or steel plates. Some people enjoy the sound of clanging iron. Yet, for others rubber or urethane plates are a simple way to reduce noise. Next up, barbell tolerances. The less tolerance and movement between the shaft and the sleeve of a barbell, the less noise. But barbell tolerances are usually not listed on equipment websites. But low quality barbell usually have larger tolerances and make more noise. A great example of a well-priced high quality barbell with low tolerances would be the REP Colorado Bar.

Finally, decorating your home gym can both appease your eyes and ears. Heavy, dense objects naturally help reduce low-frequency sound, so once your rack, plates, and machines are in place, much of the deep “booming” bass will take care of itself. What often remains is the higher-frequency echo. We all know that unpleasant, hollow sound in an empty room during a move. Hanging posters, banners, or other soft wall decorations can help absorb that echo and make your gym feel quieter and more comfortable.

Rubber Items and China

Rubber items are rarely made outside of Asia

Almost all rubber items such as hexagon dumbbells, bumper plates and flooring are made overseas, often in China. To my knowledge this is due to the work-place-requirements when working with rubber in Europe. So, when you see 2 different companies selling similar rubberized hexagon dumbbells with their respective logos on, chances are that both dumbbells were made in the same factory. Therefore, just go with the cheapest option.

As always, I hope this was useful!