Two years ago, I had a mild midlife crisis when I turned 40. I say “mild” because I did not make any negative life-altering choices or obsess over opportunities missed in the first 40 years of my life. I did, however, make the stereotypical massive purchase which had a toe hold in vanity.
Driven by the determination to maintain some level of athleticism as I age, I cleaned out my garage—which had long been a gear hoarding space—and turned it into my ultimate home gym. When all was said and done, my out-of-pocket expenses came to around $5,000—the third-largest single purchase I’ve made in my life (after my home and my Tacoma).
It’s still not the fanciest home gym in the world, but I did splurge on some top-tier equipment that I knew would enhance our workouts at home. My wife uses our garage gym six to seven days a week, while I am in for a solid three workouts per week. I used to open my garage and shudder at the mess, and now I see nothing but opportunity to better myself.
Essentials: The Must-Haves for a Basic Home Gym
A kettlebell, yoga mat, and speaker are where it all started for me. I would put my daughter (then a newborn) down for naps and rip a fast kettlebell and core workout in my backyard while listening to tunes and obsessively watching our baby monitor. Both my workout time and space are much more plentiful now, but these three products still remain key parts of my fitness routine.
Paradigm Pro Elite 33 mm kettlebells
I would suggest that a kettleball be the first purchase for your home gym due to the dozens of powerful exercises you can do with it. I have tested and written about a variety of kettlebells and, after having used the Paradigm Competition Kettlebell for seven years, it is still my favorite and the one I go to for swings as well as presses (my main two kettlebell movements). Its hollow core makes it feel balanced in my hand and the oversized handle delivers plenty of real estate for moves that require both hands, like swings.
JBL Boombox 2
If a kettlebell is the first purchase you make for your home gym, I would suggest buying a premium speaker as your second. At $400, the Boombox 2 is crazy expensive, but the price tag comes with a huge audio upgrade from its smaller counterparts. We have had two different friends purchase this speaker after working out in our garage with us because they were so impressed with the sound quality.
With 24 hours of solid battery life, we charge the thing about once a month even when using it six-plus days a week. It is also really loud. I can clearly hear my wife’s pump-up music through a closed garage door from a hundred yards away. In my opinion, listening to the music you want loudly is one of the great joys of having your own exercise space.
If you are on a budget you can get by with a smaller bluetooth speaker like our favorite budget option, the TriBit Xsound Plus2, or you can stick with the earbuds you already have. If you have the extra dough, though, solid robust sound brings pure magic into a workout space.
Lululemon Reversible Mat 5mm
This 5-millimeter mat is meant for yoga, but thanks to a polyurethane top and natural rubber bottom, it’s robust enough to pull double duty as a core workout landing space or even a platform for squats. While cheaper, thinner yoga matts tend to get ratty quickly after extensive use, this one has remained intact after over two years of heavy use.
Nice to Haves: Equipment that Will Enhance Your Gym Experience
Once I created some more time in my life for fitness as well as more physical space in my garage, I started to accumulate specialty pieces of workout gear that would allow me to focus on parts of my body that are especially injury prone (like my chest and shoulders).
R-B Rubber Stall Mats
These 4-by-6-foot mats designed for horse stalls will turn what is likely the least comfortable floor in your home into what feels like a professional gym at a sub-$60 price tag (I got mine at my local Grange). The mats use recycled tire crumb and a polyurethane binder that has proved soft enough for me to walk around on barefoot (how I prefer to lift) and sturdy enough to handle the impact when my wife and I drop the bar after our heaviest deadlifts.
You can purchase significantly more expensive, gym-specific flooring, but I’ve found that these mats work just fine and show little wear and tear after two years of heavy use. Plus, the budget price point made growing our garage gym space scalable.
Everlast Fight Sports Conditioning Rope
This 50-foot-rope made from a blend of polypropylene (80 percent) and polyester (20 percent) offered me great respite from the many stressors of the Covid lockdowns, and they continue to deliver a great stress-relieving workout today, even though they do look haggard four years later. While the rope has frayed from hundreds of uses and many thousands of slams into the floor of my garage and driveway, it still holds its weight and delivers the kind of resistance you need for a high-intensity workout.
Everlast Slam Ball
This 25-pound slam ball holds a great deal of expressed rage inside of it. Slamming it on the ground of my padded gym floor and grunting like a gorilla is one of the single best ways to release frustration—and it’s a great core exercise when done correctly, too.
Rogue Adjustable Bench 3.1 – Black – Black – Premium Foam Pad
A solid bench is a very important safety investment when building a home gym. If you’re thinking of cutting corners with this purchase, I suggest you do a quick web search for videos of benches failing while people were bench pressing. I trust this heavy, solidly built steel bench with my life. I also love how easily I can move this bench to any incline and back to flat thanks to its slick adjustment mechanism and sturdy handle. Though hefty, it’s easy to roll the 52-inch-long-bench out of the way when not in use.
PAPABE 150-pound Dumbbell Set
My wife and I decided to get the least expensive dumbbell set that we could find, which is how we landed on Pababe. While affordable, these weights get the job done just fine. They’re rubberized, so we can drop them and create minimal damage to our mats. The light knurling on the handle delivers a just right grip that doesn’t rip up my palms during high-rep exercises but isn’t slippery when my hands are sweaty.
Rogue Flat Pack Games Box
We use this 30-inch by 24-inch by 20-inch cube for box jumps to build our explosive energy. I’ve also found that doing one-leg step ups to failure is one of the best ways to get the legs in shape for backcountry skiing. You can find cheaper plyo boxes, but I chose to spend extra on this one because I’ve learned that Rogue makes quality equipment that’s made to last.
NordicTrack X22i Incline Treadmill
I love this treadmill for its high-quality screen, iFit compatibility, and dainty 70-inch by 39-inch footprint that fits nicely in my garage. But the X22i’s best feature is its 40-percent incline. The steep incline means I can get in a proper skimo workout (with nerdy poles and all!) and burn out on vert to get my legs prepared for big ski objectives.
Splurge: Turn Your Home Gym Into a Legit Workout Space
The equipment above is all you really need to maintain your fitness as a mountain athlete. The following pieces will elevate your home workout space into a real gym, as I did on my 40th birthday. You will notice that everything in this splurge tier is from Rogue Fitness. While I believe you can get excellent equipment from Rogue’s competitors, I chose to pay full price for every Rogue item in my garage because of their durability and the brand’s lifetime warranty on all of the structural welds and frames. Buying all your equipment from one brand can also save you a lot of money on shipping costs.
Rogue RML-390F Flat Foot Monster Lite Rack – Single 1.25″ Pullup Bar
This 48-inch by 49-inch rack slips perfectly into the corner of our garage and has an ample 30-inches of space within, giving us plenty of space to perform squats and bench presses. The Flat Foot option makes it a stable, sturdy platform to do pull ups on even without bolting it to a wall or into the floor. Assembly is straightforward—I enlisted the help of a handy neighbor and we had it up in under an hour.
Rogue TB-2 Trap Bar
A friend purchased a Rogue TB-2 Trap Bar while I was saving money to build this gym and after using his I begrudgingly realized I needed to save another $415 to add this item to my purchase list. It offered a much better deadlift experience than the regular barbells I had been using. The trapezoidal design and raised handles help me maximize each of my deadlifts without having to bend too far and challenge my spine.
Rogue 45LB Ohio Power Bar – Black Zinc
While there are myriad barbells on the market that can serve you extremely well, with different designs aimed at maximizing different lifts, I chose the Power Bar because it is built specifically for my three favorite lifts—the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. The shaft doesn’t flex much, which is nice for when we want to lift heavy. I also find that the extra hearty knurling (the textured areas on the bar) gives me extra grip while bench pressing.
Rogue 260 LB HG 2.0 Set
I have to be honest with this purchase: I bought Rogue plates because I had purchased enough gear from Rogue to qualify for free shipping (which is where plate manufacturers can get you). I could rattle off all of the benefits of these weights, like the fact that they are in killer shape after almost two years of use and thousands of drops, or how seamlessly they slide on and off the barbell and trap bar after thousands of uses.
But in my opinion, you could be well served by a more budget-plate company and save yourself around $100. That said, I would highly suggest sticking with rubberized bumper plates if you plan on lifting heavy weight and potentially dropping them.
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