Building an At-Home Gym to Jumpstart New Year's Resolutions

So, you’ve decided 2023 will be the year you start caring for your health and exercising! Since the COVID-19 outbreak, it’s been harder to get started at the gym while trying to avoid getting sick. Working out is a common resolution for many people, and as a result, the gym can get overcrowded early on in the year.

Or perhaps, your busy schedule doesn't grant you a lot of time to work out – whether it’s your work schedule or wanting to spend quality time with your family.

To help you get a jumpstart on your goal and work around your unique lifestyle, create your own at-home gym.

Give yourself a personalized space to start a new workout routine you don’t have to travel for. Make your own specialized space right inside your home that fits your lifestyle and targets the type of fitness you want to work on.

Keep reading to learn how to get your home ready for your 2023 resolution.

Decide What Activity to Start With

When setting a goal to work out more, you want to choose a physical activity you’ll maintain interest in. Ideally, you don’t want to start running or lifting weights just because you saw someone doing it on TikTok.

The internet can create a false reality and many people only show a small part of their fitness journey featuring the results, but not how much work they put in to get to where they are.

Research where to begin with your newfound interest so you don’t go overboard and burn out. Start out with something that draws your interest and could help you in your everyday life. If you struggle with mobility, yoga might be a good activity to work on.

Or, if your job is physically demanding, you may want to incorporate weight lifting in your routine to make work easier as you progress in your journey.

Finding an activity you’ll enjoy and which could have added benefits can help you ultimately create a sustainable workout routine. 

Once you decide what you’re going to work on, you then have to identify your fitness base level. You don’t want to start out too intense, as this will lead to a quicker burnout and a forgotten resolution.

Contacting a trainer or using an online program with professional knowledge about the activity of your choice will help you figure out your starting point. There may also be local groups that can help give insight as to what’s best.

Asking questions to people who are fitness enthusiasts can also give real-life guidance. They understand what it’s like to be new to the activity and can provide tips to get started.

You can then use their journey as additional motivation to make progress on your own. Once you understand what’s needed to start your 2023 fitness resolution, you can then start to envision what your at-home gym should look like.

Make Room to Move

Once you decide how you’re going to stay active in the new year, you’ll need to decide what room you would like to transform into a workout space. This may be an extra room you were previously using as a home office or a bedroom that is no longer being used. Or, you might decide those spaces aren’t big enough and you’ll need a whole level to create an ideal space.

In this case, your basement might end up being the perfect area of your home where you decide to make these changes. Either way, whichever room you choose will need a variety of advanced upgrades and updates.

To accommodate these additions, appliances, and equipment purchases, consider utilizing your home’s equity to cover the costs and avoid having to delay your resolution in order to save up.

Once approved, you’ll receive a lump-sum payment, making this a quick and easy way to help jumpstart your at-home gym renovation.

Plus, going this route offers you tax deductions when used for home improvement. Having capital readily available can help you make any necessary changes to your space for it to be ideal to your workout regimen.

If your home doesn’t have any extra space to transform into a gym, consider building an addition to your home or revamping your outside/garage space.

This way, you can create the perfect space for your new goals. Naturally, you want to make it work for your specific new activities, but versatile enough to add more or change things around if your interests change or grow.

Make sure there's enough room for any equipment you plan to use, as well as storage for everything.

Adding an addition gives you the opportunity to create your perfect space for activities, giving you full control over size, colors, lighting, and atmosphere. It may be the mini motivation you need to get started on and stay committed to your new goal.

Get the Right Equipment 

Once you have the space ready, start looking into what equipment you need to get started on your fitness goals. Different activities will require different equipment to train with and a good way to know what to get is to do research in the community.

Insight and details can be found on a trainer's social media channels or forums for the community. See what others have used when they got started and what they find necessary versus impractical.

This way you aren’t buying a lot of equipment that won’t get used. You’ll also need to decide if you want to splurge or save on the equipment. Buying stylish gym equipment could give you the motivation to use your at-home gym more often, making sure you get your money’s worth out of it.

You also could decide to save money and get pre-owned equipment. If you look into forums and local community pages, many people give away their old equipment to upgrade to a model that fits their increasing abilities.

Buying secondhand also gives you the opportunity to learn from the person you’re getting equipment from how to use it properly. Making the investment in quality equipment, new or used, will get you started on your new routine in 2023. 

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Remember, you don’t have to get all the equipment you want at once.

Starting small and getting only one or two new items can prevent working out from getting overwhelming. If you’re brand new to the activity, you don’t need to get the most complicated and expensive equipment right at the start.

Sometimes, when it takes too long to figure out how to use a piece of equipment, it might make you lose motivation to keep going. Give yourself the time to learn the basics to create a solid foundation, then start adding things as they become needed.

For example, when working with weights, start by getting a few dumbbells and kettlebells, and then work up to the bigger machines. This is ultimately how you create a sustainable routine while also giving you more time to slowly incorporate it into your current lifestyle.

Depending on any schedule changes, you may not have the time to do every aspect of your new workouts. Fitting in small parts of it, in the beginning, can help you sort out when you’ll be able to complete it and plan your future fitness schedule.

Additionally, to make sure you're not overwhelmed by all of the workout items constantly sitting around and waiting to be used, utilize any storage you built into your space.

Any of the smaller equipment should have a place in your home gym’s specific storage to keep it organized and help make the room less cluttered.

If the space you plan to exercise in is clear and clean, you’ll be able to complete any workout quickly and efficiently. Making this journey as easy as possible will ensure no resolutions are left in January. 

Photo by Surface on Unsplash