When deciding to create a home strength area, it’s easy to jump straight to a shopping cart. With dozens of products on the market, building a home strength area can feel overwhelming—but it’s one of the best things you can do for your health. According to Amy Kiser Schemper, a fitness advisor at BowFlex, building a functional home strength fitness setup starts with asking yourself the right questions about your current fitness level, goals, and training style.
So where do you start when it’s time to build a functional, realistic home gym setup you won’t outgrow? We chatted with Kiser Schemper to learn her best tips and tricks for choosing weights that will grow with you, making the most of tight home gym spaces, and future-proofing your setup. Here’s what she shared.
Start with your goals
The first question to ask is, “What are your current strength goals?,” she shares. “Is it to build general strength for health, regain strength after an injury or prolonged period without exercise, or get stronger for an event or life season? Next, what is your current fitness level, and where do you hope to be in a month, a year, and years from now? Strength training and your fitness routine in general will always be a journey over a destination, a marathon, not a sprint, so thinking beyond the present is essential in finding what’s best for you.”
After this, Kiser Schemper also recommends considering how you like to train, such as following a structured, written plan or following along to online fitness videos. Also consider:
- How many strength training days a week you will realistically be able to fit into your schedule
- What workouts have you responded to and enjoyed in the past
- What types of workouts sound exciting to you now
- What your ideal fitness routine may look like
Choose weights that can grow with you
A common pitfall when buying home weights is focusing on where you are today instead of where you want to be in a few months. Kiser Schemper recommends finding a starting weight that is doable for you, yet also challenging.
“You want a weight that feels easy in your first few reps, then is challenging in the last few reps of that set. This can get tricky depending on the variables and type of workout, but aim to be “close to failure” on the last few reps. Put simply, if you finish a set and feel you could do 5-10 more reps easily, the weight might be too light,” she shares.
“If you end the set and feel you can maybe do 3-6 more reps with good form, you are probably close to where you want to be. This can get tricky, so I encourage you not to overthink it; instead, aim to be challenged with every lift. The key is maintaining good form and range of motion throughout the exercise. For beginners, make learning and mastering form your priority, then increase the weight as you feel ready.”
Remember that different movements can require very different amounts of weight. For example, someone may use much less for lateral raises than for squats, deadlifts, or rows. This is where adjustable dumbbells really shine. Being able to switch quickly and easily from lighter to heavier loads with the turn of a dial is a huge advantage when working out at home. This lets you use one set of weights for all your muscle groups and exercises, and progress as you get stronger,” she shares.
Making the most of your space
If space is a concern when planning your home gym, consider equipment that covers a lot of ground in your workouts without taking up much space. “Weights, a mat, and some resistance bands are some of the best investments you can make for a home gym space, as they cover a lot of ground in workouts but not a lot of space! Weights, especially adjustable ones, let you work all muscle groups and do multiple workout formats without needing tons of equipment.”
“You can tuck them in the corner of your living room or bedroom, or fit them nicely in a garage or basement home gym space. Adjustable dumbbells and kettlebells take up much less space than a full rack of weights, but you still get a variety of sizes and options,” she shares. Also, avoid the misconception that you need large pieces of traditional gym equipment, like squat racks or cable machines, to build strength or lift heavy.
What to buy now vs. later
If you don’t want to buy all your gym equipment at once, you can stage purchases in tiers to build your home gym over time. Kiser Schemper recommends using the following schedule as a framework:
- Tier 1: Day-one must-haves
- A mat and some space. Start by learning form and building foundational strength with just bodyweight exercises
- Tier 2: Add as training advances
- Weights! Now it’s time to add load, with some dumbbells or kettlebells. Again, it’s great to start with anything, but if you’re thinking long-term and don’t want to keep buying more weights, invest in adjustable dumbbells. Start slow and low and work your way up!
- Tier 3: Nice-to-haves/luxury upgrades
- Adding a bench lets you do different exercises with more range of motion (i.e., a chest press on a bench versus the floor, or a step-up on the bench versus a regular lunge) and a bigger challenge.
Future-proofing your setup
As you consider your future needs, watch for signs you may be outgrowing your home gym setup. “If you’ve been doing the same exercises with the same weights for over a year without a specific reason, such as an injury or limitation, it’s time to go heavier! If you aren’t feeling fatigued or close to failure (i.e., you can do multiple more reps at the end of a set or workout), it’s time to upgrade! If you have specific goals in mind that you aren’t reaching, it’s probably time to change up your equipment,” she says.
