Designing a Home Gym

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Many homes have a treadmill or dumbbell these days, but a home gym is more than just an accumulation of equipment—it’s the product of a well-conceived A wall of mirrors makes a home gym look twice as large and keeps a modest-sized room from feeling cramped. Credit: William Hirsch AIA. design that’s as functional as it is motivating. The good news is that it doesn’t take much space—nor does it require plumbing or a lot of rewiring—to set up a home gym. It does, however, take careful planning to optimize the square footage and create a sound, safe and inviting workout space. Space Considerations Before you start equipment shopping, settle on the location of your home gym. Space limitations will impact the size, quantity and layout of your apparatus. According to the American Council on Exercise, free weights require 20 to 50 square feet of space in order to use properly, treadmills need about 30 square feet and a multi-station gym necessitates 50 to 200 square feet. “Maximizing smaller space comes down to choosing the right equipment,” says Jeff Thomsen, president of Fitness Solutions Direct in Hoboken, N.J. Thomsen works with homeowners to design gyms based on their space, lifestyle and fitness goals. “There are pieces of equipment that are very functional and take up minimal room,” he says. Thomsen also suggests you select a square or rectangular area as “odd-shaped rooms tend to result in a lot of wasted space.”  Basements are a natural for an exercise area. According to Cary, N.C.-based architect William J. Hirsch, Jr., author of Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect, “It’s best to place the home gym on the lowest floor of the house to reduce noise transmission from the exercise equipment.” Sound is a top issue in designing a gym. Treadmills, stationary bikes and elliptical machines produce droning vibrations that can be transmitted through a wood-framed floor. On the other hand, the concrete slab floors usually found in basements absorb the vibrations. Another plus? Basements are cooler. Architect Joshua Zinder of JZA + D in Princeton, N.J., recently finished a large basement for a family that included about 250 square feet for a home gym. Bright lighting, reflective white acoustical ceiling tiles and mirrors keep this basement gym light and airy. Credit: Joshua Zinder, JZA + D “Because it was all subterranean, we had to make sure the gym felt light and airy and open even though it was in a small section of the basement that didn’t have windows.” Zinder achieved that airy feeling by using bright lighting, reflective white acoustical ceiling tiles and mirrors. “Lining the room with mirrors made it feel twice the size.” Mirrors play a dual role, as well, since they help you monitor your form to ensure you’re exercising properly. There was also a green aspect to Zinder’s design: The ceiling tiles and rubber flooring were made from recycled materials.

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