If you have a basement you’re not using very much and you’re a fitness enthusiast, you might consider adding a home gym into your basement. While a home gym can be a great option for people who love fitness, it can also get very expensive very quickly. What if you want a great home gym, but you don’t want to spend a lot of money? Here are a few ways you can turn your basement into a home gym at a low cost.
1. Add Some Media Extras
One of the things that can really kick up the professionalism of your basement without a lot of cost is media. For example, you might add some Bluetooth speakers in your home gym or a projector that you can hook up to your phone. These options are fairly inexpensive, but they add an astonishing amount of functionality to your basement, making it much more enjoyable to spend time exercising there.
2. Make the Most of Your Basement Height
Basement heights vary, but they tend to be anywhere from seven to ten feet. If your basement is especially short, a traditional “finished” basement ceiling can cut that down by multiple inches, resulting in a very cramped-looking basement. Consider using an unfinished basement ceiling instead. It’ll make the basement a few inches taller and it can add to an industrial-style look.
3. Use a Protective Layer Over the Top of Your Basement Floor
You might not think about using a protective layer over the concrete basement floor as being a “low cost” option. Surely the lowest-cost option would be to just use the basement as is, right? In fact, this can end up being a very high-cost option because dropping something on the basement floor could cause it to crack, possibly causing expensive foundation concerns. By adding protection over the basement floor, you can avoid those foundation problems entirely.
4. Measure Twice, Buy Once
No one wants to deal with the frustration of having to return something; even if the return is completely free and you get all your money back, it’s still an annoying process overall. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your products will fit perfectly into your gym before you buy them. Measure the area where you’ll put the products, but also measure the door and staircase into the basement so you can be sure that you’ll be able to get the new additions into the basement.
Conclusion
It might be tempting to think that just throwing some weights into your basement makes it count as a “home gym,” but that’s not really going to entice you to come down and start lifting those weights, will it? If you want a low-cost home gym that you really enjoy, consider following these steps. It might surprise you to learn that there are many ways to create a home gym that don’t entail spending thousands of dollars before you lift your first weight.