From Garage to Garage Gym
Have you ever wanted to turn your garage into a gym? We did and we love it!
When we moved from Ohio to Florida, that is exactly what we did. I had fallen in love with the functional fitness life (and the awesome community at Dayton Strength & Conditioning) but knew that our new schedules wouldn’t leave much time for a stop at the gym. Jace and I each had a long commute to MacDill Air Force Base and back, Easton was playing hockey, baseball and soccer, and we had also added another small human to the mix! Spending hours at the gym just wasn’t going to be an option.
Building out our gym was a bit of work, nothing major, but totally worth it. Over the past 7 years my husband and I have fitnessed together (hey, hey, Street Parking), demonstrate healthy lifestyle habits for our kids (which has led to them wanting to join) and I’ve personally felt very good about showing our boys that women can lift weights and be strong!
So here’s how we turned our garage into a gym and what I learned along the way!
1. Start with a Plan
In 2017, I hadn’t *quite* come to terms with the fact that my olympic weightlifting and/or CrossFit masters championships dream was, in fact, dead so when I imagined my garage workouts they still involved most of the equipment I had access to at my old gym <insert eye roll now, circa 2024>.
I was hell-bent on having a rig with a pull up bar, high-performing barbells, heavy bumper plates and all the other accessories that would help me make my way to the top of some podium. Finding room for all of this was challenging because apparently it’s against the law in Florida to design homes that have any in-the-house storage so everything goes to the garage. Thankfully, we traveled pretty light from Ohio but it would still require some good Tetris moves to make it all work. We decided on a large cinder block wall where the rig could be mounted and, while folded flat, could allow a second car in the garage. Since the weather down here is hotter than the face of the sun lovely, we’d just park one car in and leave the other out (unless threatened by a hurricane…again, #lovely). We flipped a coin for the inside space and, strangely enough, I won!
2. Purchasing Equipment
This was the fun part. I felt like such a baddie searching up the Rogue website and making sure I got all the best stuff <supercringe>. Here’s what we purchased in 2017:
- Rubber flooring
- Rogue RML-3W Fold Back Wall Mount Rack
- Rogue dumbbells (5 – 35 lbs)
- Dumbbell rack
- Rogue 15kg barbell
- CAP 20kg barbell
- Rogue Wall-Mount Barbell storage
- Rogue bumper plates (10 – 45lbs)
- Rogue Bumper plate rack
- Rogue wooden rings
- Rogue Ab mats
- Folding bench
- 2 soft medicine balls (14 & 20 lb)
- 2 Plyometric boxes (1 wooden, 1 soft side)
- 2 Rogue Sandbags (large & small)
- 2 Rogue Kettlebells (35 & 53 lbs)
- Jump rope
- TRX system
Total Price: $waytoomuch.99
Fast Forward to 2024…here’s what we use consistently: dumbbells & rack, our plyo boxes, and workout mats; sandbags, jump rope, kettlebells and soft medicine balls more than occasionally. I would highly recommend checking your brand name allegiance in the dumbbell, bumper plate and kettlebell departments. Amazon has some awesome options that look (and perform) just. the. same!
Two options that aren’t Rogue (with better shipping options/prices):
One addition this year (2024) was a Concept2 rower (at a discount through Street Parking) because it’s a great cardio/strength combo (and it was cheaper/took up less space than the treadmill I wanted). My workouts have transitioned away from the barbells for numerous reasons so as much I hate to admit it I could really do without the rig, the barbells (Jace used his a grand total of ~5 times), and the bumper plates.
So, in summary, I went a little overboard. Don’t do what I did. Before you hit “buy” on anything, go back to Step 1 and be honest with yourself. What are your goals? What do you enjoy? What do you really NEED? Start with those things and, only after you find yourself wishing you had <insert thing> frequently, then think about buying it. Unless you just won the lottery or don’t choose to pay for travel hockey, then, by all means – shop away!
3. Installation Realities
Now, let’s talk installation. I had big plans—and minimal tools.
The flooring presented my first major surprise as I had NO idea how heavy horse stall mats are. I drove over to Plant City in my Hyundai Santa Fe on a solo mission only to discover that mats I had purchased online weighed 95 lbs EACH! I nearly maxed out the weight allowance of our car driving the six mats home. I probably shouldn’t have done it but I had a bunch of old men tell me it couldn’t be done and, well, that was the end of that.
Second surprise (surprise is extremely strong)…come to find out my Makita 2.0Ah “power” drill and starter drill bit set weren’t quite cut out for “powering” ginormous hex bits and drilling through the cinder block. Who knew? So we hired a handyman to set up the rig. I realized halfway through the install that the guy wasn’t following the directions (he “didn’t need them”) and our expensive, FOLDING, wall-mounted rig would now be stuck in the out position. A friendly neighbor helped me re-install it down the road just in time for Hurricane Ian so we could get both our cars in. Yeay! Neighbors who love power tools!
Despite the hiccups, our garage gym was ready… almost!
4. Personal Touches
We didn’t do too much to personalize the space because we don’t really do that well and the space left to do much more was limited. We hung our beautiful American flag, our beloved Air Force flag, mounted a few old license plates from our moves across the country on the back wall, bought a little portable speaker so our music can annoy all the neighbors and used an old dry erase board our son used to practice his math in 1st grade for writing workouts. Ba boom…space complete!
Final Thoughts
Building a home gym is an adventure, and not everything will go perfectly. But hey, that’s part of the fun. It doesn’t need to contain every piece of equipment under the sun (if you need a reminder re-read #2 above)—it just needs to be functional and something that motivates you to use it consistently. Take it slow, invest where it counts, and remember there’s no right way. After all, it’s about removing as many excuses as you can between you and that life-enriching movement (and maybe keeping those kids entertained for a minute or two). You’ve got this!
#yesyoucan
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