Building my own home gym (long and pics)

[mroc17]

I saw similar threads and people seemed to enjoy them so I figured I’d make my own. I definitely received a bunch of info from this forum so thanks for that. This will be about the genesis of own home gym project and its maturation. With that said, this will be long so bear with me or…skip to the next post for pics.

As for me, a little background info for you since I'm not well known here, I’m a grad student at Columbia working on my masters in Neuroscience before med school. I’ve been an athlete (soccer/lacrosse) my entire life up through university so I’m not unfamiliar to training. I also am hugely involved in almost all outdoor type sports, definitely anything relating to mountaineering/wilderness survival, MTN biking, rock climbing and more. I live in the city and would usually go to one of the sports facilities available to me as a student, but they’re often busy or crowded. This gym is located in a really nice area at my parent’s house outside of the city, which is quite close to me. I guess you could say I alternate residences when I need anyways. I wanted my own setup and the ability to do anything I want and to have equipment when I get a large enough place of my own here or if I move. Personal convenience and time are important to me.

This project is quite multi-faceted. It’s a gym, it’s a lounge/entertainment area, tool workshop and multi car garage. The garage portion is mostly for cars, bikes, lawn mowers, snow blowers, storage, etc…you get the idea. The upstairs is the gym/lounge/workshop.

This is about the gym mostly, but might as well share the entire process and background info. The structure/masonry was contracted out. We decided to save about 10 grand by doing all the interior work ourselves. The electrical work was done by a friend. We’re currently insulating, dry walling and painting. It’s been a chore because there’s a lot of sq. footage to cover and vaulted ceilings are a pain.

It’s an L shaped building, see the pic. You could essentially divide it into three 25’x25’ sections. The large upstairs room (50’x25’) will be for the gym mostly with a portion dedicated to lounge and entertainment area. There are 8' walls and the ceilings vault to about 12'. There will be about 24 stall mats in the gym area. This thread will pretty much be dedicated to that area.

As for gym equipment (to be updated, this is not a complete list):

Atlantis C-109 Poliquin rack...same thing HealthNut has, most of the accessories he got as well
Atlantis B-177 Adj. bench
Hammer Strength Heavy Duty Adj. bench (got it real cheap)
EliteFTS Collegiate Glute Ham Raise
EliteFTS 4 stack jungle - Cable crossover 2 x 200lb stacks/Lat pulldown 300lb stack/Low row x 250lb stack
Troy Hex dumbbells up to 75 lbs, will get up to 100lbs soon.
Troy VTX Coloured bumper plates 300 lbs
Reverse Hyper is coming (update later)
Some Sorinex stuff (update later)
Scwhinn Airdyne Evolution Comp
Oly lifting platform with "band pegs" - homemade
Prowler 2
Plyo boxes

Misc stuff (not a complete list either)
Pendlay bar, Capps TPB, SS bar, EFS Swiss bar, CFF/Rogue FIG Rings, medicine balls, all sorts of bands/chains, homemade punching bag stand, all sorts of agility tools, Spud hanging ab straps, etc. Some of this stuff is already here or will eventually be in here by the time of completion.

Thanks.

[mroc17]

Abbreviated picture show and there are some time lapse gaps as I just was too busy with school and other things, haha. FYI, I did donate a bunch of hours to being involved and helping the building crew. I also did about 90% of the insulation and will be doing the dry walling/mudding/sanding/painting with my dad. The doors are 9' and the walls are about 11' in the garage. There's no slab, it's being poured when the ground is not as frozen...probably a couple weeks. We need it for stairs inside and outside amongst other things. My dad was nice enough to let me use most of the space I wanted and he's always helped me with things in life (as most parents often do) so I was more than willing to do all the work. Pretty much gave me the entire upstairs except his workshop...

Started here with the masonry.



Here is the frame starting to go up

[mroc17]

More framing/tyvek+siding/roofing...

[mroc17]

Interior shots

[Bluerain]

Looking forward to see what the final outcome will be .

I love these type of threads

[mroc17]

At this point, almost all the interior insulation has been done. We're dry walling upstairs...made the mistake of trying to manhandle the pieces up on the ceiling (what a hassle) instead of getting a lift. We have since bought a dry wall lift, haha. I will update with more pictures and info...as it continues to get finished. Hope I didn't write to much or too many pics. Feel free to ask any questions...

[alfred18]

Whooa!!!

[Giovanni24]

Very impressive, it's going to look beautiful when finished. Look forward to seeing the end product.

[AttyGuy]

So, some portion of the second floor you will have for a gym. What is the purpose of the building? I gather your father didn't build it just for your use.

[mroc17]

So, some portion of the second floor you will have for a gym. What is the purpose of the building? I gather your father didn't build it just for your use.

Oh, absolutely not. At one point, I didn't even realize he was doing it. I did kind of sum up what it is in the first post. Essentially, my dad just retired and has wanted a much larger garage than he currently has as only two cars fit. He has...a lot of cars, including classics and a conversion van (doesn't fit in garage) for traveling with my mom all in a tiny driveway. He also has a lot of heavy equipment and tools which he will be storing downstairs and upstairs.

There is a lot of stuff in his house that will be finding a new home there - making room for him for other projects in his house. This was built for him, not me...we live two separate lives and I'm not some spoiled kid. The upstairs was originally going to be a lounge and entertainment area so all that was added was a gym and I told him I would do all the planning and work. The gym will be used by them as well. I just figured everyone likes a home gym so I'd share it...that's all.

Thanks for the compliments, BlueRain/Giovanni/Alfred. I will definitely be updating the thread often with list of equipment, progress pictures and equipment pictures.

[gp92089]

awesome job, cant wait to see the outcome! Also what part outside NYC? I live in huntington.

[Manzooka]

Very cool, man. I'm pretty excited to see how this turns out. I'd love the opportunity to build a home from the ground up with my home gym in mind. Keep up updated

[mroc17]

Thanks guys! Really appreciate the comments and I'm glad some people can enjoy the thread. Updated with an equipment list...I will for sure keep updating with more interior/exterior pics. The ground around the garage and inside needs to be graded and leveled before pouring the slab. That will happen in 1-2 weeks and the slab will follow suit.

Prefer not to say unless in PM as it isn't my house. I live in Manhattan myself. Sorry if that sounds odd...lol.

[97maxxx]

Cant wait to see updated pics...in for later

[View 1]

Great job so far and really look forward to seeing the final gym layout.

[fishingeek]

Cool stuff, will be watching this one progress...

[cgc]

I came in here expecting to see your typical garage gym and I was going to make a stupid comment about "I don't think you built that power rack since it says 'BodySolid' on it", or something to that nature.

But Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo....you are TRULY building your own home gym....you freaken show off...lol

Geezzzz, seriously...can't wait to see it finished and I am totally jealous....

[highhung723]

I came in here expecting to see your typical garage gym and I was going to make a stupid comment about "I don't think you built that power rack since it says 'BodySolid' on it", or something to that nature.

LOL

OP, you should seriously consider opening it as an actual gym an charging admission. You have the space to rival dumb.bell's and Keetman's home gyms. It'll be a PITA hauling equipment to the second level, but the payoff is there. Good luck!

[dundas112]

wow- that is incredible.

[mroc17]

@ all who replied - Thanks for all the interest so far guys, appreciate it really.

I'll updating throughout the month so bear with me as there is still a ton of work inside and outside to be done. Also, some equipment isn't due for 1-2 weeks to a couple months, but I do have the most of the core pieces here already. Mostly on track for finishing in about 6-8 weeks. We should be finishing off insulation and OSB in the garage portion this week schedules willing, I'll post pics as well. I think the inside should be pretty well done by the end of this month.

@cgc - definitely am building it, I wanted to be able to say I did a lot of the work, including the framing...so I did. Feels better knowing you put something into it.

@highhung - we'll see, I'm just a student and value my time (esp free time), but I'll definitely be sharing with people I know. It's definitely gonna be a PITA, it's not even just the gym equipment either. It'll be fun though.

[xuerebx]

Wow, this is awesome! Subscribed to this thread.

[916stang]

keep us updated. impressive looking place.

[Keetman]

LOL

OP, you should seriously consider opening it as an actual gym an charging admission. You have the space to rival dumb.bell's and Keetman's home gyms. It'll be a PITA hauling equipment to the second level, but the payoff is there. Good luck!

Let's not go getting silly, ok.

I'm using 450sf of a 2000sf basement for my gym. You do not want to make me angry.....you know I can fill the whole thing up in a month if pressured....so back off.





mroc.....your building is pretty cool. I thought it was funny you got the dumbbells in there before the drywall.....all business. Its exactly what I would've done.

[mroc17]

Let's not go getting silly, ok.

I'm using 450sf of a 2000sf basement for my gym. You do not want to make me angry.....you know I can fill the whole thing up in a month if pressured....so back off.





mroc.....your building is pretty cool. I thought it was funny you got the dumbbells in there before the drywall.....all business. Its exactly what I would've done.

Thanks man. Yeah...well, wanted to use them and get them out of the box. They were the first thing up actually. There's about a 14 ft gap between the dirt floor and second level so...only stuff that gets up is what I carry up the ladder. It's a PITA not having stairs...I swear. When the guy comes to grade and level the land, we're probably going to have him get most of the stuff up on pallets with a lift.

Completely finished insulation for the entire building, moved the rack frames. Started OSBing the bottom garage area...looks pretty good. Contractor ordered too many trusses so we're going to make a 12'x24' pavilion near by. I really...just want to get all the interior work done so I can start getting this gym area/MMA training area done. We've some plans for expanding the gym area since we've so much space to work with in this garage and the house basement. The anticipation of finishing is killer...

I've two freight shipments coming in with some Sorinex and EliteFTS gear tomorrow. It's funny because one is from FedEx and the other from UPS...hope they don't get there at the same time, haha. I'll have some new pics this weekend for you guys.

[mroc17]

Two more pieces of equipment came on Friday. The garage only has one 24' wall left to be sheathed. It's all drywall after that...everything is getting close to completion. I'll do another update with some pictures sometime this week.

EliteFTS Collegiate GHR and Sorinex Scorpion Swiss Ball Bench.

Wasn't even expecting the GHR until the 22nd. The service at EliteFTS has been outstanding so far. I'll make another thread about that later sometime.

They're both nice and beefy, pics don't do them justice again...poor gym equipment. The Scorpion is an interesting piece, used it a lot in uni gym (Columbia has mostly Sorinex and ProStar), but they did something with it. I've seen this at several universities for their sports teams. You can actually do a lot with it, especially if you have a cable machine as well. I'll post pictures after they're moved again when the plastic wrap is all off probably.

[RBLOCK]

Two more pieces of equipment came on Friday. The garage only has one 24' wall left to be sheathed. It's all drywall after that...everything is getting close to completion. I'll do another update with some pictures sometime this week.

EliteFTS Collegiate GHR and Sorinex Scorpion Swiss Ball Bench.

Wasn't even expecting the GHR until the 22nd. The service at EliteFTS has been outstanding so far. I'll make another thread about that later sometime.

They're both nice and beefy, pics don't do them justice again...poor gym equipment. The Scorpion is an interesting piece, used it a lot in uni gym (Columbia has mostly Sorinex and ProStar), but they did something with it. I've seen this at several universities for their sports teams. You can actually do a lot with it, especially if you have a cable machine as well. I'll post pictures after they're moved again when the plastic wrap is all off probably.

Freakin sweet. I especially love that scorpion bench; it's the type of crazy far out equipment that speaks to me.

[mroc17]

Freakin sweet. I especially love that scorpion bench; it's the type of crazy far out equipment that speaks to me.

Thanks man. Yeah, the Scorpion bench is awesome...it's a little wild looking, but it's really cool and can do a ton of stuff with it. Got some more Sorinex/EliteFTS stuff coming in later. I'll make sure to take better pics of it later.

[skinnysteve]

wow... expensive project?

[RBLOCK]

Thanks man. Yeah, the Scorpion bench is awesome...it's a little wild looking, but it's really cool and can do a ton of stuff with it. Got some more Sorinex/EliteFTS stuff coming in later. I'll make sure to take better pics of it later.

I'm waiting on a Sorinex order coming in in May. I ordered a base camp sout rack, hurricane, calf/tibia, and their signature GHR. I wish I had room for a real leg press; right now I just have a powertec leg sled. Someday I hope to have a Rogers seated squat.

Also got an Elitefts lat pulldown/low row on the way.

[darkfact]

Cool thread dude, lots of jealous people following I'm sure lol.

I'm interested to see more about the efs collegiate ghd, I'm debating between that and the legend pro ghd as my next purchase.