Decluttering the Gym

Whether we are talking about the largest commercial gyms or the smallest apartment gyms, whether it's a facility or if it's in your own home gym, one of the maxims is that your fitness room will change faster than any other room in the building or in your house.

 

That's because the needs change quickly based on different workouts, changes in our bodies, changes in the demographics, or even new trends.  

 

But one thing never changes, and that is the fact that gyms get cluttered.

Sometimes, really cluttered.  Whether it's tripping over an attachment to a bench, outgrowing your dumbbell set and then putting some on the floor, deciding to use kettlebells and before you know it you've got six of those on the floor, your jump rope and your bands and your stretching strap all start providing different and new ways to trip you, there are so many ways the gym gets cluttered very quickly.

 

But take heart, yours truly has been designing gyms for about a quarter-century... Not that I look that old... And there are definitely some tricks that we can pass on to you. Pieces of advice from the beginning, or that you can add on later on.  I had one client that said I saved her marriage by decluttering their gym, I kid you not!

 

The first basic piece of advice is to plan a little more storage than you have equipment. That means if you're getting a set of dumbbells, get a rack that's a little too big for it. That means if you're getting a kettlebell rack, think the same way. If you're getting a vertical barbell holder, make sure it has enough slots for one or two more bars than you actually have or plan to have.  

 

This way when you need an in-between set of dumbbells, which we call incrementals, or if you outgrow your set or your daughter or son needs heavier weights, you've got a place to put them.

 

The second piece of advice is that sometimes it's better to plan for an accessory rack. Whether it's the multi-purpose Hampton rack, or one of the accessory sets from Prism, Batca's Axis system, or one of the other brands, planning for accessories means that you won't be draping them all over the gym.

 

The third piece of advice is that sometimes a vertical rack of dumbbells or plates can save you a ton of horizontal room. There is a trade-off here, and I don't recommend vertical racks for heavy weights because the biomechanics of lifting and torquing are not very good. But if You are looking to add some dumbbells onto your set, take the lighter dumbbells and put them on a vertical rack and that may only take up about 18 in by 18 in.

 

If you're trying to get an Olympic lifting space, whether in a studio or a home and you're worried about storage space torque makes an amazing half rack system with storage built into the back of it. This is an incredible space saver and a lot of clients can't believe how much they can actually fit on a rack like this.

 

Another piece of advice here goes in the other direction. Yes, there are such things as fold-up treadmills and other fold-up pieces of cardio equipment. But there is a reason there is nearly no such thing as a well-built or expensive fold-up treadmill. And that's because when you spend money on a treadmill, you expect it to last for a while. And fold-up treadmills do not have anywhere near the lifespan of the full platform versions. There's a reason why all the treadmills you see in department stores fold up. It's the price point they're trying to hit, and department stores don't have service departments for fitness equipment.

 

There are actually a lot of other cost benefits to saving space in a gym, but that's why we designed Jim's, we don't just sell fitness equipment. If you want to have your gym personally designed for you and your space, connect with connectfit now!