I am not a fan of going to public gyms and prefer to work out at home. I really only occasionally use hotel gyms or my office building’s gym. Our house has a big-ish two car garage that was totally unfinished (raw studs) and full of junk. This fall I finally decided to do something about it… so the journey to build a garage gym started.
One weekend, together with my 6 year old son, I set out to clean out the garage. we threw out a lot of junk and roughly organized the rest. See the picture above. The plan was to be able to park two cars and in the back of the (very deep) garage, have the backup power generator on the right and the gym area on the left.
I found a general contractor that I trusted based on previous work and while not cheap they did a great job at organizing electrical work (including hookup for EV charger and mini-split), spray foam insulation, drywall and flooring.
While this wall all stressful and expensive, the only thing I did myself was install Ethernet, TV and gym equipment (aka. what a friend called “the fun parts”). Space is quite limited but I wanted to be able to have a (half-)rack, free-weights and cardio equipment to support my workout routine. I chose the Fringe Sports Dane 2.0 half rack which turned out great. I was intimidated when it just arrived in a 1000lbs crate, but assembling it was straightforward thanks to the amazing instruction video (the printed instructions were useless). My son and I completed it in a busy Saturday.
For cardio I chose a real bike on a Wahoo KICKR Core 2, which was on sale) plus a super intense fan. This worked out great.
I am very happy with the result and have been working out with renewed energy for a week in my very own gym!