A gym of your own

If you have always dreamed of setting up a dedicated home gym to lead a fit and healthy life, Vathsala V P has a few ideas you could work on.

With the accent now on fitness, home gyms have almost become an indispensable part of a house. Though considered a speciality space like a home office or a theatre room, gym rooms are considered essential and desirable by most new home buyers. But the first step towards designing a new gym should be to adopt a fitness programme that works for you. If not, the gym room would be a waste of space, really. However, setting up a home gym can be quite a fun exercise.

Easy access

To begin with, the gym room you would be designing should be convenient to reach and comfortable to hang out in. Select that particular area of the house, say near the kitchen or living room, to set it up. For, all of us lead busy lives and cutting ourselves out completely to focus on gymming is a dream, to say the least.

An easily accessible gym will always give you that extra push to go on with your exercise programme. Also, you won’t even have the excuse of lack of time to blame your lethargy on.

Next in line would be the equipments you can load it with. Buy only those equipments that you know you will definitely use. Don’t go overboard and buy a lot of stuff. For instance, I love cycling and hence I bought an exercise bike — it helps me burn a few calories even as I am reading the paper. I hate treadmills — I feel I’d rather go out for a jog for that extra benefit of fresh air. Well, the point is to think before buying rather than cluttering the gym room.

Also, think twice before going in for multi-purpose strength training machines. The settings could be too complicated for you to change, forcing you to skip using it. When it comes to equipments, the keyword should be user-friendly.

Flooring of a gym room is as important as the equipments you equip it with. For, it should be soft on your feet and also allow you to stretch on it for all your stretching exercises. Go in for a good floor mat that’s at once soft and sturdy, to avoid injuries of any kind. These mats should also be able to keep you from slipping and also provide padding for parts of the body that will be on the floor.

Some mats are thicker and provide extra cushioning while others are simply to prevent you from sliding. Care should also be taken to see that the floor mat you choose is easy to clean, as mats have a tendency to attract dust easily.

Once the flooring is settled, take a long, hard look at the walls. Yes, a motivating poster here, and a full-length mirror there, can go a long way in helping you stick to your exercise regimen.

While colourful posters of your screen idols in their very best poses could motivate you to continue with your gymming, full-length mirrors help you maintain the right posture while exercising. Mirrors are also great for the feel of the room as they make the space look larger and inviting.

Colours matter

Wall colours too have a big role to play in making the gym room attractive enough for you to exercise. A bright cheerful wall colour will go a long way to making your home gym more usable. Pick a cheerful yellow or a motivating orange to spice up the space.

Music is also a great motivator. Make enough room for a stereo to play your favourite music, preferably fast numbers, so that you will be able to drive away your exercise blues in a jiffy.

Watching your favourite shows on the telly while gymming helps too, as it takes your mind off the drudgery of gymming.

Gym rooms needn’t necessarily be places where you pump in a lot of energy. In fact, it should be a place that gives you a total mind and body experience. So, dedicate an area of your gym room for a quieter experience, like yoga and meditation.

Soft lighting in this area would be highly beneficial. The floor mat can also double as a yoga mat here. Keep bolsters handy as they help you in various breathing practices, and when placed under the knees, they ease the lower back in relaxation poses.

So, isn’t setting up a home gym a simple task? Believe me, there’s no better investment than the one on a gym room as its impact on your health would be highly obvious within a very short span of time.

What are you still waiting for? Set it up and enjoy a fit and healthy lifestyle.