The Best Place for a Barbell Home Gym

Strength training at home saves a lot of time and is more efficient, especially if you get easily distracted by bad music and bouncing boobs on treadmills.

I have not been to a gym in years and don’t plan on going back. With a barbell, a power rack, a bench and some plates you can get very strong at home without the need for a gym. But where should you put your barbell home gym ? I am glad you asked, here are my recommendations.

Attic

I put my first barbell home gym in an attic. In the summer it got really hot and in the winter very cold. Being directly under the roof usually exposes you more to the elements than being in your apartment. If you only have space in your attic go ahead and train there, but if you train in summer you should get a fan and drink a lot of water, otherwise you might get a heat stroke, I got one once, it’s not fun.

Attics also have the problem that someone is below you, so you need to be careful how you deadlift. I recommend doing deficit rack pulls, so that the plates never touch the floor, but your stand on mats and pull the bar from the safeties.

The upside of the attic is that you have a lot of space, so if you plan on training conjugate style with five different barbells, a dip stand and a reverse hyper, this might be the best place to place your home gym.

Garden

I once had a friend who put a barbell home gym in her garden. She was a CrossFitter and had this romantic idea of doing kipping pull ups and deadlifts while being motivated by sunshine and fresh air.

It turned out that in winter her home gym was too cold for her to train outside and in summer the black power rack got so hot, that she could not touch it. She ended up training in her house with a squat stand most of the time.

Spare Room

If you have a lot of space in your house, a spare room might be good for a home gym. Just be aware, that your training makes some noise that the people in the rooms next to you or below you can hear. This makes training early in the day or late in the evening harder and is a downside of a spare room gym.

On the plus side it won’t be as hot as in the attic which is nice.

If you don’t have a spare room, but want a home gym in your apartment, the bedroom is the best. It’s only in use half the day, so you might as well lift there when you don’t sleep or do horizontal cardio with your girl.

Shed

Because the ceiling is low and the walls are not well isolated, training in a shed can get melting hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter.

In summer you should keep the door and a window open to get some airflow, a fan will also help. In winter an infrared heater will keep you warm, if you have electricity in your shed.

The upside of a shed is, that you are far away from people so you won’t bother anyone with your rattling iron plates or loud lifting music.

Garage

A Garage is usually a bit better isolated and has a higher ceiling than a shed, so it’s a great place for a home gym in my opinion. A fan or an infrared heater still might be a good idea in summer or winter.

Basement

In my experience a basement is the best place for a barbell home gym. It’s cool in the summer because of the underground location, but can be heated easily in the winter.

Nobody is below you that could complain about heavy deadlifts, so noise is usually not an issue.

Some basements have low ceilings though, so if you like the standing overhead press, you might need to switch to the seated press or more incline benching.

Summary

You can put a barbell home gym almost anywhere, you just need to have enough space and know how to make training work in your chosen location. The basement is probably the best, but any home gym is better than all the soulless fitness chains out there.

Coach Georg