On those days when driving to the gym or yoga studio for a workout feels like the last thing you want to do, having a high-quality fitness area in the home becomes extremely valuable and convenient! Designing a home gym allows you to maximize your space to the fullest and helps eliminate the likelihood of skipping your fitness plan on unmotivated days. As a result, regular fitness will help energize your days and help keep your body in great shape to be your most productive self.
If you have a ‘flex’ room, basement, or unused corner of the house that you can convert into a home gym, you will need to make sure it is prepared for high activity and remains easy to clean. By choosing a resilient, durable home gym floor, you can better achieve your goals without ever leaving the house!
Best Rooms for Home Gyms
Whether you have an entire room or just a portion of room that you can devote to fitness, creating a home gym is an outstanding use of space. Do you have a flex room in your home? A flex room is a room that often changes in function, capable of being repurposed as an office, a nursery, a bedroom, or in this case, a fitness room! Basement home gyms are extremely common and often offer extended open space. A corner of a mudroom can work well and keep equipment out of the general eyesight of guests. You can even use a finished attic or garage for home gyms, just make sure the floors are adequately braced, that there is adequate airflow and AC, and that there’s no exposed insulation. For an ideal home yoga studio, you can easily craft a tranquil corner in any room with large windows that let plenty of warm sun rays in.
Best Home Gym Flooring Options
To resist heavy workout equipment, weights, active foot traffic, and moisture from sweat and drinks, the best home gym flooring options will offer durability, scratch resistance, and moisture protection.
Rubberized fitness floors are durable, shock-absorbent, slip-resistant, and quiet underfoot. In fact,
Centaur rubberized flooring systems are constructed with commercial spaces in mind, so you really can bring home the durable, heavy flooring from your favorite gym! Easy to maintain, rubber gym flooring puts a bounce in your step during activity and supports heavier workout equipment with ease. Whether you prefer rubber flooring tiles that do not require adhesive and can be moved from room to room or the seamless look of rubber fitness floor sheet, these styles are also ideal for home gyms in basements located below ground level.
To easily convert a home gym back into a stylish space for a different function, versatile
luxury vinyl tile or planks, as well as
sheet vinyl, can provide the resilience, inherent water resistance, and easy maintenance of vinyl to support exercise, while the realistic wood and stone visuals support the décor theme of the home. Laminate and waterproof hardwood offer superior durability if you anticipate high foot traffic or gym activity, want the solid feel of wood, and give the realistic look you love. Make sure your laminate is warranted for the level of water resistance you need, as well as below-grade suitability and floating floor capability if desired. No matter what type of flooring type you prefer, high-character, multi-shade, and reclaimed looks are savvy styles that help camouflage scratches, scuffs, and wear and tear.
Easy-To-Maintain Home Gym Floors
Spilled water bottles and sports drinks, falling sweat beads, as well as the scruffs and marks from footwear, are all common flooring offenders in a home gym. It pays to have easy-to-clean home gym floors that will inhibit moisture absorption and only require paper towels to soak up liquid spills and standing puddles. With waterproof hardwood, laminate, luxury vinyl, sheet vinyl, and composition rubber flooring, your regular maintenance routine is simply dust mopping, sweeping, or vacuuming all abrasive debris from your floor, and spot-treatment as needed. Depending on how many times you work out during the week, clean your floors afterward at least 1-2 times a week and check with your flooring manufacturer for more thorough cleaning and disinfecting guidelines.
Best Tips for Creating a Home Gym
After you finish installing home gym flooring, it’s time to personalize your space for supreme inspiration! Think of your favorite motivating colors, even a subtle nod to your alma mater or favorite sports teams, to customize the design scheme. Invest in high-quality gym mats to support your footing, support workout equipment such as a Peloton bike, and protect your floors. To liven up the walls, consider mounting a television for streaming music and programs, hanging up sports memorabilia, and adding wall decals, neon’s, or framed motivational scenes or posters that will give the room a fun energy.
Consider bringing in plants to enhance the mood as well as provide fresh air and aromas, reduce carbon dioxide and dust, and serve as natural humidifiers. If you have any medals or trophies from competition that you are proud of, find a way to display them for added motivation. Before investing in large, heavy equipment, start small with purchases like free weights or kettlebells to assess what you need for training. Then, you can decide if pieces like a treadmill, bike, climbing wall, row machine, or speed bag are necessary for your fitness goals.
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Not only will creating a home gym allow you to save a little extra money each month by canceling a gym membership, but you can also potentially improve your home’s value with fitness-minded homebuyers. Complete our Floor Genius Quiz to receive flooring style recommendations that fit your preferences and receive an exclusive code for free flooring samples of your quiz results! Get your fitness area started today– the sooner your home can help you reach personal goals, the better.