If you have a television and a DVD Player, go on to Amazon.com and look at the reviews for the fitness videos. Pick out two for Cardiovascular training, 2 for strength training, and 2 for flexibility. You should be able to do this for under $120.00. Keep in mind the videos you choose may need you to get some equipment to go with it. Careful since this can raise your cost quite a bit. However, for under $200.00 you can be off and running and you should have enough variety to get you moving and enjoying success for at least a few months or more.

Here are some recommendations on workout videos. I would also like to let you know that we are in the process of building you some great workouts using the philosophy that has brought thousands life long results. Look for these in the next few months!

Now for the $700.00 dollar gym lets get started shopping!

I want to give the example of just a blank room. Lets assume that all you have is 4 walls and some carpet on the floor. Also I want to be conservative so lets say the room is 12ft x 12ft. This is an average to small second or third size bedroom (at least in the area I live in it is).

So looking at the example above we need to get ourselves a television, dvd player, and some videos to start with. This way we will have that as the basis for our workouts. From there we will add in some extra equipment that will help to take our workouts to the next level.

So for our television dvd, lets do our best do not over spend on it. Here is a good quality one at a good price.

Toshiba 19LV505 19-Inch 720p LCD HDTV with Built-in DVD Player (Black). This is a highly rated product for around $300.00 Amazon.com has it for $282.00 plus shipping is another $25.00

We will need to put it on the wall so here is a basic wall mount for it.

VideoSecu Wall mount for LCD Monitor Flat Screen TV with Swing Arm VESA100/75 -ML10B 1E9 This is $36.00 with shipping at Amazon.com

Now here are the videos we will order for our workout plan. I am going to save some serious money and get the package savings on:

The Biggest Winner – How to Win by Losing: The Complete Body Workout (5-Disc DVD Set: Shape Up – Front, Shape Up – Back, Cardio Kickbox, Maximize – Full Frontal, Maximize – Back in Action) ~ Jillian Michaels

This is one of the trainers From the television show “The Biggest Loser”. Amazon.com has this item for about $22.00 including shipping.

So now we have spent a total of $365.00 so far.

Now lets move on to some of the training equipment we will be adding to our gym.

First an Exercise mat (or maybe a few). These are going to save your knees. even on carpet it can get hard on your knees doing kneeling exercises.

Amazon.com is going to love you for ordering everything from them but they really do make it easy. I really like these exercise mats, not only do they roll up for easy storage, they have good grip to them and are quite comfortable.

The Valeo Foam Exercise Mat sell for about $20.00 with shipping. Lets go ahead and order 2 of them.

Lets also get some pushup bars. These are a very inexpensive way to add significantly to what you can get accomplished with your upper body workouts.

Here is the recommendation I have for you to get. I have tried these and love them, it is called the Perfect Pushup – Original. They once again are at Amazon.com for a great price.

I am going to get 2 of these as well so that is another $60.00

Now we also want to get some form of pull-ups. I mentioned in a post on the New Years Resolutions that a good option was the P90X version. Here is another good one made by the same company as the perfect pushup.It is called the Perfect Pullup. Convenient right? They can be found at Amazon.com

They are on sale right now for $60.00 plus free shipping so we scored on this one.

So this brings our new grand total up to $525.00

Now the last thing we need is some Dumbbells and and we will be able to do just about everything we need to improve every aspect of our fitness.

The most bang for your buck can be found in the PowerBlock SportBlock Adjustable 3- to 24-Pounds per Dumbbell Set. We will just get the 3lb to 24lb set.

These also happen to be on sale at Amazon for $178.00 and free shipping.

Well as usual I overspent. The total came to $703.00. Better scrape through the car for loose change.

So there you have the $700.00 Home gym.

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Here are some of the factors:

1. What is your fitness goals? If it is to just do some cardiovascular to burn calories and maybe some light strength moves, this will be a very easy task. If you are looking for a gym that provides variety and gives you many different types of muscular efficiency training, things will get a bit more interesting.

              Lets say that you are looking for just a basic workout area that you can get some cardio in and maybe do a few strength exercises. Then it can end up being as easy as a treadmill and an exercise mat and some dumbbells. 

              For a more elaborate set of goals it may require more. Lets say you want the same abilities as your larger chain gym in the guest room of your home. Well now we will want to get at least 2 pieces of cardio equipment. We will also need a few free weight benches, dumbbells, stretching mats, pullup bars and several other smaller items will help provide a lot of variety.

2. How many people will be using your facility? Do you live alone or is this designed to be used by multiple people at the same time? Are you potentially looking at having some of your friends come over and work out with you?

              A gym for yourself is easy enough since only one item can be used at a time. But here is something to consider. I have helped several clients in the past get 2 or 3 friends involved in the project. Now you need to make the facility have the ability to hold all of you doing something at the same time. Keep in mind this is also a great way to ease the cost. I have encouraged them to share the costs of the equipment. Some paid a monthly fee to the person who owned the house, others just each put in an equal amount. There are several good ways of working this situation to benefit more than just you. The benefit in these situations is the accountability factor that comes with it.

3. Is this a long term or a short term situation?

               Many people are not aware of this but you can lease exercise equipment. Lets say you are needing a workout facility for a year in a small apartment until your house is built. Or maybe you are worried about your ability to stick with a program and are not ready to spend several thousand dollars. Leasing i a great second option for you.

               Another possibility is you are finishing construction on your dream home. You have the perfect gym space picked out and you are more than ready to cancel your gym membership. Now make sure you choose top of the line equipment and make your facility be the envy of all your neighbors.

There are many other factors as well. The first of these however has to be the biggest deciding factor in how you will go about building your gym.

Next I want to give you some guidelines for what I think you should have in your workout facility. In my opinion deciding on equipment must first come from understanding what your body needs for it to be the most successful. 

As you may have read in some of the philosophy posts, the key to any workout regimen is how is it improving the overall efficiency of your muscular system. We discussed the fact that we are beings that constantly change based on the stimulus we are given and thus we need to make sure that we are constantly giving our muscular system the right type of stimulus. 

To be honest regardless of your goals really you need to design a facility that will give you everything you need. This can still be done with little to no equipment but lets list out all that your body will need to have available to it for you to be able to train at a level that will create high levels of muscular efficiency. This is the key to all your goals.

So here is a list of most of what you will be looking for your gym to accomplish for you. Different fitness experts will have their own say in this but I feel this covers the bulk of what you would ask your body to do. These are also just in random order, please do not assume what is listed first means it is the most important.

1. Cardiovascular Exercise – you do not have to use a piece of equipment for this, it just makes it far more convenient. There are ways to accomplish this without the help of equipment but it will get tedious after awhile. A good piece of cardio equipment makes this portion of your fitness better. Another cheaper option is a television with a DVD player and purchase some aerobics tapes and kickboxing tapes and yoga tapes. I will discuss this in the next post but this is without a doubt the cheapest way to get yourself going on several different types of exercise.

2. Flexibility – Open floor space is one of the most underrated portions of any fitness facility. Make sure you have enough space to lay out flat with your arms and legs out wide. Lengthening of the muscular system has numerous benefits and you facility needs to be able to meet this need.

3. Strength Exercise – Here is where the variety is your best friend. Remember that we said you do constantly change to the stimulus your body receives. If you are constantly doing the same strength workout, the muscles will adapt to it and it will quickly become less effective for you. The body is programed for survival. It will look for the easiest and best way to do whatever you ask of it. If you purchase an all in one gym that has about 8 to 12 exercises on it. You will be surprised how quickly your body will stop responding to these workouts. Luckily after the many years I have been in this industry, I will share with you many ways to change it up in your strength training without too much cost.

4. Entertainment – If yo have never listened to good workout music or better yet, your good workout music while training, you are missing out. I really recommend putting some form of stereo equipment into your gym. an Ipod is nice and one of the best exercise invention I have ever seen but get a speaker doc for it and keep your body free of the wires and headphones! Also a television is a very smart move. if you are in the .5% of people that do not watch television, well, I’m sorry. Putting a television into your workout area eliminates one excuse for not exercising, you CAN watch your favorite show if you exercise that night. It also provides the means to watching workout videos which can make a major difference.

5. Cleanliness – When I first started working at a Gym I was a maintenance guy. Trust me when I say the designing a facility that is easy to clean and maintain will make one of the largest impacts on the success of your gym. I will go over the secrets I learned with you soon. For now just trust me, the floor and equipment choices are very important in this area.

So next post lets build our first gym. We will start with a small budget workout facility. I will give you some example products that will work. 

For our First gym we will have a budget of $700.00. Go start saving, we have a gym to build!

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If any of these questions are true or you are looking to turn a room of your home into a great workout area that will help you and your family get into great shape, we are here to help.

Over the last several years we have helped out several families with what components are most important when designing your own gym. There are several factors that go into this;

1. How much space do you have to work with

2. What is your budget

3. What are you wanting the gym to provide for you

4. Is this a temporary or long term facility?

There are many factors beyond this as well but these 4 are the most important to start with. What we would like to do is go through the process of designing 2 different home gyms using the criteria above. We want to give you an example of how to do it for a very small budget as well as a more high end home facility. 

During the nearly 20 years I have spent in the fitness industry I have had the luxury of opening large chain Gyms such as Bally’s Total Fitness to the process of designing the most functional training facility in the Northwest, ADAPT Training. I am now in the process of building a training facility for the High School I work at. Along with my fellow trainers, we have been able to use hundreds of different strength and cardiovascular machines and we will give you the good and bad on some of the more popular ones in an effort to help you make your decisions. 

Read through the posts in this section before deciding on what to purchase for your own workout facility. It is easy to try and follow the model of a large gym and pay top dollar for the latest equipment. Also be careful about purchasing the all in one gym machines you may see on late night infomercials. 

We will walk you through the steps necessary to get the most for your money.

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