Just because you don’t have a triple-car garage to turn into your home gym, doesn’t mean you can’t have a great workout space at home. A corner of your living room or bedroom can be more than enough to build a great home gym. This guide is here to walk you through designing and building a functional living room workout space that meets all your needs. No matter the space available, you can make huge fitness gains at home.
Get up to speed with all the info you need before you begin you living room home gym journey – from selecting space-saving equipment to storage tips and design ideas to create an inviting space that you will want to use.
Are Living Room Home Gyms Worthwhile?
A big concern in the home gym community surrounds the question of “are small home gyms worth it?”. The resounding answer is that small space home gyms, including home gyms built in living rooms, are 100% worth the investment.
You can build a small home gym in the corner of your living room that provides you with all of the versatility and functionality needed to make major progress in your fitness, regardless of your goals.
The key to ensuring that your living room home gym is worthwhile is developing an appropriate plan for your space, choosing equipment that fits your training style and making it an inviting space that you want to use.
How to Build a Living Room Home Gym
Designing Your Living Room Gym
As with all home gyms, the first step of designing a workout area in your living room is understanding the type of training you will be doing and the space available to you.
Your training style will dictate the equipment that you will need for your workouts (more on that below). Your available space determines the amount and size of equipment that you can handle.
You will also need to determine if your home gym will be permanently displayed in your living room. Keeping your equipment out in the open makes the space more accessible for workouts and means you don’t have to choose portable equipment options that can be stored between workouts.
A permanent gym area, however, will likely require some further design work so that the area fits your room aesthetic. Utilizing mirrors, storage, posters, and matching will be key for this. Screens or shelving can also be used to hide your gym or separate it from the main living area.
Pinterest is a great place to get design help for this.
Designing the Layout of a Living Room Home Gym
You want your living room home gym to be well-defined, functional (as a workout area and living space) and to allow for efficient movement. Keep in mind that the layout will be dependent on if you leave your gym equipment out or if it is stored between uses. (We suggest a mix of both!)
Designing your space with a gym builder like the Rogue Zeus Builder is a great place to start. These resources allows you to drag and drop equipment to find a layout that works for you and your space. This can be a great way to visualize your area – using top down 2D and real-world 3D views.
Creating a clear workout space is the key to having a living room home gym. This is one of the key tips we highlight in our small home gym tips guide, too. Delineating your workout area from your living space is usually done with gym-specific flooring or physical barriers like bookshelves or screens.
You will also want enough room to move around freely. No one wants to be crammed into a corner, or between a coffee table and couch, while getting their sweat on.
For this reason, your living room workout area should have ample free space. A 6 foot x 4 foot area should be enough room for most home workouts.
Specific equipment placement can also make your space feel bigger, and can help create paths so you don’t have to climb over things to get from exercise to exercise. The Rogue Zeus Builder can help here, too.
Further Reading:
Finding Workout Motivation
Part of creating an efficient workout space is ensuring that the area is engaging and motivating.
Choosing the right equipment for your training style, having it readily available and having a planned training session/workout are the 3 easiest ways to have an engaging gym environment. These components don’t rely on external factors and will likely be better long term motivators.
Some people choose to hang motivational posters in their gym area. We’re not a huge fan of motivational posters or flags, especially for living room home gyms. Rarely do these decorations fit with the rest of the house décor, and can create a bit of an eye sore in the room. This is especially the case when the workout area is in a shared space with people that do not use the area.
Instead, we suggest using music to keep you engaged and motivated. We’ve written extensively about gym sound systems, and we feel that a good sound system can be a huge help for home gyms. Alternatively, noise cancelling headphones like the Airpod Pros for those that prefer earbuds, or the Sony WH-1000XM4 (our personal faves) for over-ear lovers are great options so that you don’t impact those around you.
The Ideal Flooring for a Home Gym in a Living Space
As mentioned previously, creating a clear workout area is a key design feature for living room home gyms. Specialized gym flooring is an effective, and budget-friendly way to delineate your living space and workout space.
Our recommended home gym flooring for living rooms is from SuperJare and is available on Amazon. It comes in tiles that cover 24 square feet, which is an ideal size for a living room home gym. You can also lay this type of flooring over carpet.
Rubber gym flooring is preferred for home workouts because it is non-slip and is designed to provide shock absorption, which makes it safer for workouts. Plus, rubber flooring is easy to clean with a mop or wet wipe, so it is more sanitary than a carpet floor.
Further Reading:
Selecting Space Saving Equipment for Living Room Workouts
Living room home gyms are going to be small. As a result, equipment will have to be functional, space-efficient, and versatile. You will also need to forgo some pieces of equipment because they just won’t fit in your space.
We cover this information at an in-depth level in our article covering tips for small home gyms.
Folding Equipment
One of the best options for saving space in an apartment or living room gym is by utilizing folding equipment.
However, you likely won’t be mounting a fold-away squat rack on of our your living room walls (we wouldn’t think it’s a bad idea if you did), but there are plenty of other folding options available.
Folding cardio machines, like bikes and treadmills, have been a popular choice for living room workout spaces for years. Their small footprint when stored, and ease of set up while providing all of the technology and functionality you would find in non-folding versions make them a great choice for small home gyms.
Folding weight benches are another great small space option for most people. Pieces like folding Nordic curl and back extension combos, and folding reverse hypers are more niche but would make sense for some small area gyms.
All-In-One Equipment
Choosing equipment that is multifunctional is a big part of designing your small space home gym. You simply cannot afford to have single use equipment because you won’t have the space to store it.
Adjustable dumbbells, like the PowerBlocks or Nuobells, are easily the most versatile and multi-functional equipment that you can get. They take up next to no space when stored and they allow you to do all major and accessory weight training movements. Adjustable dumbbells are the #1 piece of equipment to buy for a small living room home gym.
Our Exxentric kBox flywheel trainer is one of our most used pieces of equipment. It’s portable, versatile, has nearly unlimited uses and can easily store away in a corner or closet. We’ve even gone into full detail of why you should add a flywheel to your gym, regardless of the workout area’s size .
There are other all-in-one alternatives like a Bowflex home gym, or a Rep Ares squat rack and functional trainer that could go into a living room home gym. However, they aren’t mobile and don’t fit in with a ‘normal’ living room aesthetic, so we wouldn’t necessarily recommend them.
Small Space Equipment
Equipment that can be stored away easily, or has a small footprint, is also key to living room gyms. It’s nice to have a box of equipment stored in a cupboard or closet that can be pulled out and used for full workouts.
Small equipment might include mini bands and resistance bands, slider pads, a skipping rope or a TRX. You would have a super solid home gym if you had all of these. And they would all fit in a small storage container that you could slide under a couch.
Compact Equipment Storage Solutions
There are a few key storage solutions for you to consider when designing your home gym. Regardless of your equipment choices, you will likely want to hide away some of the equipment or at the very least, have it well-organized.
Purpose-built equipment storage is the most effective way to store your home gym equipment. Options such as weight plate trees, dumbbell racks and upright barbell sleeves serve their purpose, though their aesthetic may leave something to be desired.
The easiest way to store your small equipment is with decorative baskets on a shelf or in a cabinet. This is an ideal way to store resistance bands, skipping ropes, sliders and things like that.
Peg boards are also a great option to hang equipment. Peg boards can be very aesthetically pleasing and fit in with the overall vibe of your living room. Purpose built metal storage lockers can also be a great option depending on your room aesthetic.
Furniture with built-in storage, like a chaise lounge that lifts or removable coffee table lid, require more forethought and planning, but are viable options if you are updating your furniture anyways. Many of these pieces have huge storage capacities. Just keep in mind that you’ll have to lift equipment in and out of potentially awkward positions.
Further Considerations as You Build a Living Room Home Gym
We’ve covered the essentials of building a small space home gym – whether it be in your living room or a spare room. However, there are a few more considerations that you should think about before diving into your new home gym adventure.
Preventing Disturbances for Neighbours or Family Members
Gyms are notoriously loud. Our experiments found that dropping a loaded barbell is the equivalent noise as being in a night club. You probably don’t want to subject your family and neighbours to that.
A few considerations for decreasing the noise of your small home gym include using quieter equipment, like rubber weights rather than metal, installing gym specific flooring to dampen sound and vibrations and use headphones rather than a speaker. Plus, choose reasonable times to workout, avoiding early morning and late evenings.
You can learn more in our guide to soundproofing your home gym.
How Much Does a Living Room Home Gym Cost
The cost of a small living room home gym depends on your equipment types, quantities and companies chosen. A couple of hundred dollars can be enough to begin a very functional and sufficient home gym. This likely means utilizing bands, sliders, gymnastic rings and/or small dumbbells. Adding in a spin bike or treadmill will substantially increase the budget needed.
Our extensive guide to initial home gym costs covers this in greater detail and provides examples.
How to Keep a Living Room Home Gym Clean
It’s important to keep your home gym clean, but especially so if your gym is in a living area. There are a few easy, basic steps to keep your home gym clean. Gym specific flooring is great because it allows for easy wipe up or mopping. Regularly cleaning your equipment with disinfectant is also highly encouraged. Using a fan or opening a window during your workouts can keep you cool so you sweat less and prevent stagnant air. Finally, running a dehumidifier after your workout can get rid of the moist air generated from your hard work.
Final Thoughts
A small home gym tucked into the corner of a living room is a fantastic way to start your home gym journey. The right selection of equipment, a clean layout and design, and some consideration of other people that may also use the space will set you up for potential years of enjoyment and progress.
We encourage you to start with our 5 step home gym building guide if you’re just starting out, and to look through our tips for small home gyms so that you don’t repeat the mistakes we’ve made. And be sure to share your questions and pictures in the comments!
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