Home gym, upstairs bedroom

[mlp_22531]

I've been setting up my little home gym in a side bedroom in my house that's not being used. It's a two story house, so it has framing underneath not a cement slab. I've been careful not to drop the bar hard and I'm not even using that much weight, but doing dead lift's yesterday I dropped it a couple times ever so slightly and the house really shook. Is this room a bad idea to place a home gym? Is there something I could do to make it better, i.e. flooring of some kind?

[kdiggz10]

I've been setting up my little home gym in a side bedroom in my house that's not being used. It's a two story house, so it has framing underneath not a cement slab. I've been careful not to drop the bar hard and I'm not even using that much weight, but doing dead lift's yesterday I dropped it a couple times ever so slightly and the house really shook. Is this room a bad idea to place a home gym? Is there something I could do to make it better, i.e. flooring of some kind?

a lot of people will say that they have their weights in an upstairs room and have had no problems but this is always a bad idea. i didn't do it just for the fact that it would be loud as crap and would really shake the house, as you experienced recently. but the main reason you shouldn't is because the floor joists were not made to take that kind of weight falling on it and will sag over time (or worse, snap in half). i put my stuff in my basement, which wasn't ideal because i can't do any over head lifts down there, but i feel a lot safer knowing i'm not messing up my house. this is just a starter house anyhow. next place i get, i will make sure it has a workout room with 10 ft ceilings and cement slab

[dparty82]

I have a 3 bedroom apartment and it sits right over my landlords' insurance business. It feels like a really strong built building from the late 1890's and not once did the place shake. Mind you, I made sure to place all my machines on outside walls for the strongest support and I never drop weights....might be the key to your success on the second floor. DON'T DROP WEIGHTS!!
Anywho....I only have 7 months left for my lease and since my addiction to weight equipment isn't slowing down; I'm moving to a place with a cement foundation so I can add more weights and not worry about whats underneath. I do though, keep the total weight per room with 108sq ft. to under 1600 lbs. which seems to be a safe weight ratio per sq. ft.

[mlp_22531]

Thanks for the replies. Follow up question. I think DL's are going to be the only exercise I really have a problem with, as far as dropping the weight. Any suggestions on how to handle DL's in a home gym like this? Should I drop them and find a substitute?

[Shea_G]

I have 400lbs in stacks + multi station gym weight (prolly, 2-300lbs), + about 6-700 lbs in free weight + usually two people working out in my upstairs bedroom. Never had any problem with excessive shaking. If its bothering you, you could figure out which way the framing runs and work perpindicular to it, might help.

[Keetman]

.......Any suggestions on how to handle DL's in a home gym like this? Should I drop them and find a substitute?

Blasphemy .

Do you have a garage or basement? Some place in general that has a concrete floor? If you do, I'd say get a small second setup (300lbs and a bar) and do them there. If not, I'd say invest in some bumper (I'd do that anyway really), get some plywood over your deadlift area (then cover that with horse stall mats) and try really hard to not drop the bar.

I know you can't take my sample of one trainer as gospel, but in the year I've been doing DL's, I've only had to drop the bar twice and both times I elected to do so because I had gotten the weight up and felt no reason to risk my back by putting it down softly. I also have bumpers and mats, so again...its far less risky for me to do so.

[xephonics]

I do my DLs in my breezeway, I guess if I did not have the breezeway I could do it on the driveway. I will not do it in my house anymore, due to the fact that I sprained my back trying to set the bar down easily.

Point being, it is not hard to find a way to safely do your workouts.

[hellzlegend]

a lot of people will say that they have their weights in an upstairs room and have had no problems but this is always a bad idea. i didn't do it just for the fact that it would be loud as crap and would really shake the house, as you experienced recently. but the main reason you shouldn't is because the floor joists were not made to take that kind of weight falling on it and will sag over time (or worse, snap in half). i put my stuff in my basement, which wasn't ideal because i can't do any over head lifts down there, but i feel a lot safer knowing i'm not messing up my house. this is just a starter house anyhow. next place i get, i will make sure it has a workout room with 10 ft ceilings and cement slab

this.
I have it in upstairs and the only thing that annoys me is when I rack the bar (not everytime but when I just let it go cause I got no strength) , the house shakes.

[BRUTUSPLAC]

this.
I have it in upstairs and the only thing that annoys me is when I rack the bar (not everytime but when I just let it go cause I got no strength) , the house shakes.

yuor scaring the termiites ?? what ?? LOLOL

[C5VetteLS1]

a lot of people will say that they have their weights in an upstairs room and have had no problems but this is always a bad idea. i didn't do it just for the fact that it would be loud as crap and would really shake the house, as you experienced recently. but the main reason you shouldn't is because the floor joists were not made to take that kind of weight falling on it and will sag over time (or worse, snap in half).

Gotta call big time BULLSH!T on this one. Do you realize that a waterbed weighs more than most people have in equipment? In fact I have a California King waterbed in one room and my gym in the other room on the 2nd floor of my house.

Of course it will be loud as hell if you drop a deadlift. A 50lb hex Dumbbell is also loud as hell when dropped ... and even shakes the house. LOFL, but I promise ... it won't snap in half! I just don't drop the bar when doing deads ... never had to.

[HardKore79]

Gotta call big time BULLSH!T on this one. Do you realize that a waterbed weighs more than most people have in equipment? In fact I have a California King waterbed in one room and my gym in the other room on the 2nd floor of my house.

Actually, static and dynamic loading are two different things. With non-movable objects you can go a lot heavier than with objects that move at a certain speed.

[Essexlad]

Gotta call big time BULLSH!T on this one. Do you realize that a waterbed weighs more than most people have in equipment? In fact I have a California King waterbed in one room and my gym in the other room on the 2nd floor of my house.

Of course it will be loud as hell if you drop a deadlift. A 50lb hex Dumbbell is also loud as hell when dropped ... and even shakes the house. LOFL, but I promise ... it won't snap in half! I just don't drop the bar when doing deads ... never had to.

I think he's right personally, waterbeds are very well designed to spread their load over their entire area, and hence over a lot of joists, so it may not be entirely analogous to lifting equipment. Early waterbeds, from what I read, did have a habit of ending up downstairs. Also not all floors are equal, your house might just have a well built floor .


Few points for the OP;

Your house may shake, but that doesn't mean you're going through the floor. Wood is a fairly flexible material, shaking means it's absorbing the force, not that it's anyway near failure (although it could be).

The ONLY way to decrease the chances of going through the floor is to increase the number of joists the load is spread over (preferably up against a supporting wall to, not in the middle of a span).
Placing plywood underneath you when deadlifting will do very very little. Plywood is too flexible to transfer the load effectively over more joists. Same goes for rubber, although that does provide some shock absorption, it is also heavy in itself for 3/4" which is what you need to get that decent absorption. Not sure whether the trade off is worth it to be honest.
So you are left with moving your equipment so it spans more joists, or physically adding more joists to the floor.

It depends entirely on how your floor is constructed (i.e. joist size and spacing) as to whether this is a good idea or not. If you can't find this out, and find someone who knows their stuff about floors to check it over, then follow the advice and do your big lifts elsewhere.

This is a really good article on putting massive aquariums (6-700lbs) upstairs;
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article28.html
It dispells a lot of myths about putting heavy sh!t upstairs if you can be bothered to read it all.


Edit: also what Harkore said is very true.

[mlp_22531]

Thanks all. Good info. I'm kinda bummed out because I've been totally psyched getting into lifting and putting together a home gym. I'm not sure what direction I'll go right now.

[C5VetteLS1]

Actually, static and dynamic loading are two different things. With non-movable objects you can go a lot heavier than with objects that move at a certain speed.

I think he's right personally, waterbeds are very well designed to spread their load over their entire area, and hence over a lot of joists, so it may not be entirely analogous to lifting equipment. Early waterbeds, from what I read, did have a habit of ending up downstairs. Also not all floors are equal, your house might just have a well built floor .

Understood, I was simply stating that not only is my gym upstairs, where I deadlift as well ... but I also have a huge waterbed up there as well. Over 5000lbs total and no problem FWIW.

[Accutron]

You could put your rack across the joists and do rack-pulls starting at the lowest pin. So the pressure of the weight is spread out more over the racks footprint (if its not a 4 point rack.)

I wouldn't DL on my 2nd story floor...