If you’re a garage gym user, you know that cold weather can put a damper on your fitness routine. A chilly garage gym can be uninviting and uncomfortable and it is hard to conjure up the motivation to push yourself to reach your goals when you know you’ll be freezing for more than half of your workout time. I’ve personally spent multiple years tinkering with solutions to make garage gym workouts more bearable in the dead of Canadian winters. We’ve used our years of experience for good use – we’ve got 5 essential tips to help you turn your cold home gym into a cozy, welcoming space where you can crush your winter workouts. From simple, small purchases to larger design upgrades, we’ve got you covered. So, let’s dive in and turn your garage gym from frigid to functional.
Best Tips to Warm Your Cold Garage Gym
1. Insulate Your Walls and Ceiling
Insulating your garage walls and ceilings is a crucial first step in creating a comfortable and effective home gym space in the winter. It might sound like an obvious suggestion, but it’s important to highlight the impact it can have on your workouts. Without proper insulation, cold air will infiltrate your garage gym, and any heat generated inside will quickly escape.
Before attempting any other methods to heat your garage gym, it’s essential to insulate all exterior surfaces, including your ceiling. Insulation restricts the inward and outward flow of air at walls and ceilings, using conduction, convection, and radiation. Find out more about how insulation works.
We recommend using Rockwool Comfortbatt R22 insulation from Home Depot. It’s fire-resistant and doesn’t allow mold or fungus to grow if it gets wet. Plus, it adds sound insulation, which is a huge bonus for home gyms. (For more tips on making your gym quieter, check out our article).
The installation is fairly simple, and the Rockwool is less itchy than traditional fiberglass insulation. Trust us; your future self will thank you for taking care of insulation first!
We think that insulating your garage gym is so important that we wrote a whole insulating your garage gym for winter workouts.
Additional Points to Consider When Insulating Your Garage Walls and Ceiling:
- Make sure that the insulation is properly installed to maximize its effectiveness. This includes ensuring that there are no gaps or spaces between the insulation and the walls or ceiling.
- Consider the R-value of the insulation you choose. The R-value is a measure of the insulation’s thermal resistance and indicates how well it can resist the flow of heat.
- Insulating your garage walls and ceiling may require a permit from your local building authority.
2. Insulate Your Garage Door
Insulating your garage door is just as important as insulating your garage walls and ceiling. In fact, your garage door might be the main culprit for sucking heat out of your home gym. Standard garage doors offer little to no R value and have cracks and leaky seams, making them one of the biggest energy losses in your garage gym.
Luckily, an afternoon and some DIY-ing can get you an insulated garage door. It will help to keep the heat inside and maintain a comfortable temperature for your workout. Having an insulated garage door is so important that we wrote a step-by-step guide on how to do it yourself, which is briefly highlighted below.
To insulate our garage door, we used a multi-layered approach. First, we added a base layer of SilveRboard radiant acoustic insulation, which is a low profile sound and temperature insulation (R-value: 5) that is easy to work with. Then we purchased the NASA TECH garage door insulation kit from Amazon, which has an R-value of 8 and also provides a nice white backdrop that fits well with our garage gym aesthetic.
By combining these two insulation materials, we were able to achieve an R-value of 13 on our garage door for a fraction of the cost of a fully insulated garage door.
If you’re worried about cold air coming in through the bottom of your garage door, you can also seal it with a threshold seal.
Remember, insulating and sealing your garage door is a key step in creating a warm and comfortable environment for your home gym. For more information on garage door sealing, check out The Spruce.
3. Seal Around Your Windows
You don’t want to overlook your windows! Even if you only have one small window in your garage, it’s important to seal it up properly to keep the cold air out. Cold air can easily seep in through gaps and cracks around your windows, making your garage gym feel much chillier than it needs to be.
To seal your windows, you’ll want to use a high-quality caulk or sealant like Quad Exterior Sealant from Home Depot. This will help prevent drafts and air leaks, while also ensuring that your windows are properly insulated.
If you have single-pane windows, you might want to consider upgrading to double-pane or even triple-pane windows to improve your insulation further. While this can be a bit of an investment upfront, it will pay off in the long run by helping you save on heating costs and making your garage gym more comfortable to use year-round.
As we’ve highlighted, the key to keeping your garage gym warm and cozy during the winter is to make sure that your space is properly insulated and sealed against the elements.
4. Pick the Right Heater For Your Space
Once you have your garage gym insulated and sealed then you can move on to getting a heating source in there. To properly heat your garage gym, you’ll need to consider a few factors such as budget, garage size, and how cold your winters get. There are three main garage gym heating options to choose from: forced air heating systems, mounted infrared heaters, and space heaters.
While space heaters are cheap and portable, they don’t provide much heat. On the other hand, hardwired forced air systems can be costly, but they will effectively warm up your garage gym. The Ken Brown Ceiling Mounted Heater (available on Amazon) is an excellent option for hardwired heating in most garage gyms.
Our personal preference is for infrared heaters. We have had great success with the Dimplex hardwired 2200W version and the plug-in 1500W version. These infrared heaters heat objects, rather than just the air, making them an efficient and effective heating option. They are also instant, consistent, and quiet.
In addition to the infrared heaters, we also have a small space heater that we use to warm up our shoes and dumbbells. This is a cheap and helpful addition to any garage gym, and can provide a portable heat boost to make your workout more enjoyable. Personally, I believe a small space heater is a must for all garage gyms because of their portability and ability to heat specific equipment before you use it.
Pro tip: set your barbell up in front of your space heater while you complete your warm up so that the barbell is nice and warm for when you’re ready to start lifting.
When choosing your heating option, be sure to consider your needs and budget. With these considerations in mind, you’ll be able to choose the best heating source for your garage gym.
5. Get Off the Floor and Get On (Thick) Rubber Mats
Working out on a cold, hard concrete garage floor can be uncomfortable and even dangerous. A concrete floor can become icy and slippery in the cold, leading to potential injury. Installing rubber gym flooring is one of the best ways to improve the experience of working out in a garage in the winter.
Rubber is an excellent choice of flooring for garages in colder climates because of its insulation and heat retention properties. This material helps to keep your garage gym space warmer, and even makes your heaters more efficient. High-quality gym flooring made from thick (at least ¼ to ½ of an inch) rubber can trap heat, which means your feet will stay warmer, and your body will feel more comfortable during your workouts. Additionally, rubber’s shock absorption properties help to cushion you as you work out, which I’ve highlighted in previous articles about gym flooring.
In addition to its insulating and shock-absorbing properties, rubber is also easy to maintain and clean. It acts as a water barrier against the concrete floor, which helps to keep your garage gym space hygienic and functional for years to come.
Investing in rubber gym flooring is a simple upgrade that can make a big difference in the comfort and enjoyment of your workouts, especially in the winter. Here are three of my favourite rubber flooring options:
6×8′ GXMMAT (from Amazon): This mat is a great option for those who want a simple and affordable way to cover their garage gym floor. At 6′ x 8′, the GXMMAT is an all in one (or maybe two) solution for your home gym flooring. It’s fairly thick, at 7mm, and has a large surface area meaning you can either fit a lot of equipment onto it or have ample room for movement-based workouts.
½” Rubber Mats (from Amazon): Rubber mats are a popular choice for garage gyms because they are durable and can be customized to fit any space. They are available in a range of thicknesses, but I suggest at least 3/8″, and you can mix and match different colours to create a unique look. You want something that is hard rubber, rather than an EVA Foam, because the foam will wear down and create grooves.
Regupol Aktiv from Rogue: If you want a premium option, Regupol Aktiv, available through Rogue, is an excellent choice. This flooring is made from recycled rubber and is designed to withstand heavy use. It’s easy to clean and maintain, and it provides excellent shock absorption to protect your joints during intense workouts.
Installing a rubber floor in your garage gym is a simple upgrade that will make your workouts more comfortable and certainly more enjoyable, especially in the winter.
Our Experience
We’ve used these 5 essential tips to turn our garage gym from a sub-zero nightmare to a comfortable, workout-friendly environment. Even when the temperature outside drops well below freezing, our gym stays at a consistent 40°F/5°C. And in just an hour of turning on our heating system, we can reach our ideal workout temperature of 55-60°F/15°C. This has dramatically increased the consistency of our training in winter. It used to be so difficult (and expensive!) to plan our training times, turn on heaters hours and hours before we wanted to train, and then convince ourself that it would be worth it. Now, we have a pretty seamless set up process and can turn on the heaters when we wake up, have a coffee and a snack and be ready to go
Conclusion
It’s crucial to prepare your cold garage gym with the right equipment so that you don’t lose training consistency in the winter months. Insulating your walls and ceiling, sealing around windows, and picking the right heater for your space are all key steps in creating a comfortable winter workout environment. Additionally, it’s important to pay attention to the garage door and the floor, as these can also contribute to the cold temperatures. By implementing these 5 essential tips, you can transform your frigid garage gym into a cozy, inviting space where you can stay fit and healthy all winter long. With the right preparation, you can say goodbye to the cold and hello to a productive training routine in your own home gym.