build a home gym and train pull ups at home

You know you need to train…

Have you ever wanted to build a home gym for your pull up or chin up training?

Hopefully by now you are convinced on the merits of using a full body strength and conditioning program, instead of simply becoming a body weight purist.

This really necessitates using some sort of commercial gym, or at the very least, a basic power lifting or cross fit gym where you have access to weights and other bare-bones equipment.

But You Want to Train at Home

But some of you might not want to train at a commercial gym with other people.

Depending on where you train, the facility and atmosphere might be full of potential-friends who will encourage and motivate you with your own training.

On the other hand, you might also find the gym atmosphere annoying or prohibitive of serious training. Depending on the rules of your gym, you might not be able to make noise or lift heavy things.

You might also be fighting for equipment or you might just prefer doing things solo. (This does not make you a jerk or a snob! You could just be more introverted and prefer to do your training privately).

When I opened my personal training studio to train clients 1-1, I was so excited to finally have a space I could train myself out of alone. 

I don’t need others there with me to push or motivate me because I am already very internally motivated.

I’m pretty quiet when I work out because I prefer to be quite focused on the task at hand instead of dealing with multiple distractions.

In a commercial gym setting, I think I appeared rude or snobby because I did not want to talk to people. I am not rude or snobby–but I talk to people all day long in my career as a personal trainer, and I prefer to have some quiet time to myself.

If this is you, I would strongly suggest you set up your own home gym or workout station so you do not have to workout in the company of others.

I will tell you that being able to work out in my own facility for the first time has truly been a game changer.

I don’t have to wait for equipment or feel rushed to finish using a squat rack quickly. I can listen to the music I like without offending others and I can wear what I want. I certainly feel more motivated to come in and train and I enjoy the process infinitely more.

If this sounds like you and you want to be able to train out of your own space, read on to learn how to do it!

Space

Measure once, twice, and a third time. Decide were your different pieces are going to go in your home or garage and if it makes logistic sense to put certain pieces of equipment in certain locations. (For instance, you might not want to dead lift close to where your napping toddler can hear you.

Then you will need to consider how much space you will need for your home gym.

How Serious of a Trainee are You?

Be honest with yourself here. If training is just a simple stress reliever and you have modest goals like being able to do a couple pull ups, a bare-bones home gym with dumbbells and some low cost fitness accessories will do. You can set that up in any room of your house.

Hardcore about training and have serious goals you want to achieve? Dedicate a bigger space to your training room like a 2-3 car garage.

I take my goals seriously serious and I also train clients full time, so I wanted a legitimately equipped space for me and them. I could not do that without everything on this list and a bit more.

That required a pretty big space–about 1500 square feet. Ask yourself what your intentions are and how much space you are going to need to make that happen!

Finances to build a home gym

Now, my situation was probably a bit more expensive than it will be for you since I rented a space to train my clients.

It is the perfect space and ceiling height for lifting weights, and it affords me the freedom to also do Olympic Weightlifting, hang a set of rings and a 20 foot climbing rope from the ceiling and purchase multiple pieces of equipment as my business grows.

You might just have a basement or a garage to work out of–but you can still create an awesome home gym out of either of these two spaces!

Depending on how much equipment you want to purchase and your strength level, you will likely need to invest between $2000-$25,000 to get your space up and running!

I would read my article first, and then make a list of what items you really consider a necessity, and price them out.

Don’t forget to add shipping and delivery charges, as well as the cost to have your items assembled, because that can really change the price of the items you are trying to purchase and build a home gym! Better to take your time creating a financial spreadsheet of the costs and following it to a T than being upset and stressed out when your bill ends up significantly higher than you anticipated.

Under $2,000-$4,000: What Would I purchase to build a home gym?

This is what most people consider a very bare bones fitness budget, but you can do a lot for this amount of money.

What would I get for this much money? I would get these six basic items first. A pull up bar, dumbbells, a barbell, plates, and a power rack. 

Obviously, you are going to need a pull up bar. These are so inexpensive that I would actually recommend getting two–one for home and one for your garage/gym space.

I got mine from Perfect Fitness to hang in my door frame at home during times of inclement weather or when I just cannot get to my studio.

Next, I would invest in quality dumbbells. Yes, I would get dumbbells before a barbell and Plates.

Why? Dumbbells are considerably cheaper and you can do a large variety of exercises for the entire body with them. They also do not take up too much room and allow you to use natural movement patterns, making them very joint friendly for most people.

I got my dumbbells from Fitness Factory.

As I continue to update my fitness facility, I will keep shopping there. The rates are great and the Dumbbells are really high quality!

Depending on your strength, you will probably need dumbbells between 5 and 100 lbs (2 each). You might stop at 50-70 lbs and reinvest as you get stronger, little by little.

This will likely eat up a lot of your budget but it is worth the investment.

Next, I would definitely purchase a barbell, plates, and a squat rack. This will definitely eat up the rest of your $2-$4,000 budget!

Honestly, the dumbbells, pull up bar, barbell, plates and the squat rack will be enough for the rest of your fitness career. Sure, it would be nice to have other pieces of equipment like benches and boxes, a prowler, etc. etc, but you can do very very well with just those basic five pieces.

A lot of bare bones weightlifters, bodybuilders and powerlifters actually prefer training with just the basics, and they still develop incredible physiques and levels of strength.

For your squat rack, I would skip the commercial grade rack unless you are setting up a franchise type fitness facility. Instead, I would purchase a rack fit for home or individual use.

For that purpose, Dick’s Sporting Goods is a great place to shop! The quality and customer service is very, very good. They even have options to assemble the equipment for you once they deliver it which is a great choice (especially if you are like me and HATE installing big things!).

You might not want a full rack, so you can save a great bit of money here–their half racks run for around $200-$300 each. A full scale Power Rack with pull up bar included will run you around $800.

If you can swing it, I would obviously go for the whole power rack, as it will give you a safe place to train bench, overhead press, push press, and squat.

Now that you are going to be training alone, you might like the extra security that comes from having a full power rack. You won’t have to worry about getting pinned under a heavy squat or bench press.

I chose a power rack with a pull up bar ahead, and I am so glad I did–I use this bar almost every day and my clients use it too very often!

Next item for your home-fitness studio: a quality barbell.

I would recommend you go a little higher quality here and go for a Rogue Fitness bar.

Any of the bars on their website are a great pick, but the Rogue Ohio Power Bar is my favorite and the one I chose!

It is only $250-$275 and it is such a great quality bar!

I love that it is certified weight at 20 kg. If you are competing in a strength sport or are just kind of anal retentive  and like to know that your loads are correct, this is a must.

In the past, when I was working out a commercial gym, I found that the weights often felt inconsistent and one day I decided to actually weigh the bars using a home scale (I’m that much of a dork and that OCD, yup). I found that all the bars weighed a little bit different and that the average barbell only weighed 41 lb. This was so frustrating so when I opened my own facility, I knew I HAD to buy a bar that was certified 45 lbs!

It was so calming to KNOW that I was actually lifting the weight I thought I was once I was training in my own facility.

Next up: Plates for that Barbell!

I would also recommend the Competition Plates from Rogue Fitness.

Once again, even if you are not a competitive strength or power athlete, it is nice to know you are lifting the correct training loads to ensure consistent progression.

Again, Rogue Fitness has great prices, the quality of the product is excellent, and the delivery is speedy.

They really make the effort to protect your items by wrapping them properly! I love that!

Over $4,000: The Most Important Accessories!

After you have the six most important home gym items (see above), you are free to either let your wallet cool off, or if you have the finances for it, purchase a few more fun tools for training!

These next items will really make your fitness journey more fun and give you more variety in your training, but they are not absolute necessities. So if you do not have all the basics yet, go back and purchase those or wait till you can afford these!

A Quality Bench

Some of you might be surprised I did not list this earlier, but I really do not think it is necessary until you get your 5 must-haves first.

Unless you are competing in powerlifting, you can do floor barbell press and floor dumbbell press and push ups/weighted push ups until your heart is content. Only once you have ponied up the dough for the other, more important necessities for strength training, should you purchase a bench.

I got mine from Perform Better and I like it a lot. It was very affordable and it feels very stable. You can hit multiple different angles including a decline angle, if you so choose.

Next up: Boxes and Benches:

You can certainly make your own, but it will be easier to buy one or several. If you are doing to be doing box squats, you will want two of the same height.

Otherwise, you can purchase a couple different benches at different heights to suit your needs.

I bought an Aerobic Step from Amazon.com. Here is the link to buy the exact step I bought. This is a great step to prop off of for barbell glute bridges.

Next, I bought an inexpensive yet sturdy box that could stand at multiple heights for different fitness levels. The box I chose has 20, 24, and 30 inch step heights.

I chose to buy the boxes here. This box has been going strong for about a year and I expect to get a lot more use out of it!

Glute Ham Raise and 45 Degree Back Extension

Both of these I purchased from Dicks Sporting Goods and I love them! The one complaint I have about the Glute-Ham Raise/Reverse Hyper is that it is a bit tough for super short people who feel like their feet do not even reach the foot pads for glute ham raises (that may or may not be me!). Otherwise, this Glute Ham Raise is fantastic.

The 45 degree back extension is great too– I purchased it from Dicks Sporting Goods as well. Both of these will allow you to accumulate more work for the core and glutes–making them a fantastic addition to any home or private fitness space.

Stability Balls:

I like these for core stability exercises as well as stability hamstring and one leg hamstring curls.

Super inexpensive and and they also add some nice color and pop to a home gym or home studio. You can buy your own from Amazon.com.

Conditioning Tools:

I purchased a sled/prowler, battle ropes, slam balls (20 and 40 lb sizes), and jump ropes. I got most of these tools from either Titan Fitness or Dicks Sporting Goods.

I also purchased kettlebells from 24-70 lb here.

I love kettlebell work- the kettlebells are a great tool for conditioning movements like the swing, get up, clean and press, snatch, etc. etc. Explosive swings can also help you build hip extension power. And of course, if you are going to do the Tactical Strength Challenge, you should definitely have some training kettlebells!

I bought the competition style bells–but the gym style bells would work well too! I wanted to add some color to my studio and I like the feel of the bigger bells!

Going Gymnastics Style: Rings and Climbing Rope

If you have the ceiling height for it, and your budget is not already exhausted, go for a set of rings and a climbing rope!

I promise that these two tools will make your training more fun and will help you build a very stable shoulder girdle.

I also promise you that if you start climbing a rope and doing ring pull ups, your regular pull up strength will improve by leaps and bounds.

I bought my rope from Rogue Fitness: here is the link to buy your own climbing rope.

The nice thing about these ropes is that they come in multiple different heights, so you can still get one even if you don’t have a high ceiling or you are just working out of your basement!

I also bought my rings from Rogue Fitness and I love them too: you can get yours here! They are very sturdy and they are also adjustable height so I can set them at multiple different heights whether I am doing rows or pull ups, ring dips or other exercises.

Other Home Gym Considerations: Equipment

I have a lat pull down machine, a cable crossover machine, and some pieces of cardio equipment.

I might not have purchased these items if it was just me working out here, but some of my clients benefit from using these pieces of equipment, and I had/have the space for these pieces. I would not qualify these pieces as a necessity, but they are a nice touch, if you have the space and the money for more items of equipment.

My lat pulldown is from York Barbell and you can purchase it here.

I purchased my bike from Dicks Sporting Goods as well- I got a Schwinn model. I like using a Spin bike for steady state cardio and I definitely do so if it is raining outside and I can’t make one of my evening walks.

In the future, I may invest in a rowing ergometer and or a treadmill and given the quality and customer service of the items at Dicks Sporting Goods, I would definitely shop there again.

Flooring:

Flooring is key! You might be a bit limited here based on the flooring in your specific location–i.e., if you have carpet in your basement. If you are working out on a concrete floor, I would recommend getting some mats that will work for your specific situation.

For instance, I wanted some slightly softer mats for my “main” exercise space. These fit together like puzzle pieces. I got mine from Great Mats!

They are perfect for doing standing exercises like walking lunges, step ups, and are sturdy enough for most everything else.

I also purchased a rollout mat as a long strip and three hard roll out mats in smaller sizes. One went underneath my squat rack and two are free floating. These mats are much harder/more sturdy and are perfect for squatting and deadlifting.

My handyman bolted the squat rack to the mats and the floor. 

You can buy your mats here!

Aesthetic Accessories:

Depending on your tastes, you may want to add non-fitness related accessories.

I’m not much one for motivational posters. I prefer “pretty!”

I put a couple plants up which helped add some color. I also bought these absolutely fantastic gold mirrors at an auction; these came from a luxury hotel in my area called the Hershey Hotel!

I think my studio looks fabulous and it is pretty without being overkill pink rainbows everywhere, because I have a feeling people don’t want to live heavy things in a space with an overly feminine touch.

Suit your Fancy:

Of course, some of my recommendations might not sit in line with what you consider staple items for your home gym or fitness facility. But my advice will suit 99.9 percent of trainees looking to get strong as hell at pull ups and other bread and butter strength exercises and develop a stunning physique along the way.

Now that you have the tools, go ahead and start building that home gym today and cancel your gym membership tomorrow!