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My $13,425 Garage Gym Story

I’ve posted tons of videos of me lifting from my garage gym the last few years. But, I haven’t done a proper tour and told the story of the garage gym. So, this week, I posted a YouTube video with a quick tour of the gym, plus a breakdown of all the costs incurred to build the gym. I’ll summarize all that info here as well.

When I started the project, the garage was unfinished with no insulation and a non-insulated main garage door. Also, the ceiling was open to the roof with just cross beams running across.

I had ambitions when that I might be able to finish out the garage myself. I hung all the insulation myself in between the studs. I bought and transported all the drywall for the walls in our minivan. I also bought the side doors and a new window.

The one thing I built from start to finish is the rock climbing wall, which includes the ability to remove and move around the hand holds. I also really wanted like a backboard type set up for the kids to be able to throw balls against, which is what I built next to the climbing wall.

The original concept was born out of trying to build something fun for the kids to play with and the concept of a climbing wall seemed like a good idea, and then I had a vision of having another wall that could be used to throw lacrosse or other balls against. And I added the rim to make it a basketball area too.

So I built the two walls, the blank wall with the hoop gets much more use then the other wall today, which is ok, and at some point I might take the climbing part down. I hired a guy to replace the original garage door with an insulated one.

At some point I lost momentum and hired a guy to finish the walls and ceiling, put in two new doors that I had purchased. The decision to enclose the ceiling was done to better insulate the place.

I regret that a little, because leaving it open would have created a clearance and would have made shooting baskets better and maybe allowed for a higher ring set up, but it would have made it much harder to heat.

I wanted to have a really smooth floor with an epoxy, but that proved too hard and complicated to get done or something. So, what we ended up with was something else the painter said would work, and so far it’s been fine.

  • Hanging the TV was easy, getting the WiFi to extend out to the garage, which is like 20 yards from the main house, was easy too. Having a Roku and a TV antenna out here makes it a pretty nice spot for watching sports.

Decorations

  • I haven’t done much in the way of personal touches. I did hang several license plates on the wall from various other places I’ve lived, including Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey.
  • Also, I hung this scarf from the Tampa Bay Rowdies, the professional soccer franchise I co-founded in 2009 with a friend.

Equipment

As far as equipment goes, it has been eye opening to just go through and list out all the fitness equipment I have in the garage gym.  I’ve accumulated so much equipment its incredible.

  • Treadmill was the first thing I had before building the garage gym that is still here was the treadmill that used to reside in my basement.
  • Tumbling mats: critical to the gym’s versatility. Originally bought them as crash pads for under the climbing wall, but they’ve been used for all sorts of fun things and are great for doing abs on the floor with
  • Sled: wanted a minimalist sled for pushing and pulling sled stuff, very useful up and down the driveway. Not as useful for use inside the gym with the door closed
  • Squat Rack: I didn’t do much research on my squat rack, just picked the rogue rack that looked like it could expand and had lots of compatible accessories.
    • I bought this flying pull up bar so the kids would have something to climb on and to hang rings off of.
    • The dip attachment has been really important, same with the cross bar up top. Landmine attachment too.

Accessories

  • Bands have been important for adding accommodating resistance and doing assisted pull ups.
    • Got a weight belt for doing weighted dips.
    • Fat grips, slingshot, straps, rings, ab wheel, bosu ball
    • Deadlift jack
    • Kettlebells – big and small
    • Clamps
    • Farmers handles
    • Box Jump box from Rogue
    • Wood one from Dick’s Sporting Goods
  • Flooring:
    • I went on Craigslist and found a guy that wholesales gym equipment from a big warehouse like 30 minutes from my house.
    • This was before I had a rack, but was looking for a few things. I picked up two not so great barbells (I did not have any appreciation for the nuance of different barbell types. I picked up a set of 75lb dumbbells, and also several horse stall mats. These stall mats are critical for gym flooring. I later picked up some other mats at tractor supply company.
  • Weights:
    • The bumper plates were purchased online at amazon and they smelled like shit for a while.
    • Later, I picked up some other standard plates of various sizes at a sporting goods store.
    • Bought the curl bar and this weight tree at Dick sporting goods, probably along with the adjustable dumbbells I have.
    • Small kettlebells for the kids to mess around with
  • Built my own deadlift platform using the YouTube video Alan Thrall put together on the subject, and have not been disappointed in the least
  • Over time, I accumulated some other stuff
    • I splurged on my two calibrated plates and another barbell
    • Added another post and a pulley thing
    • Added the mono lift attachment to help with unracking heavier bench presses
    • Cheap trap bar
    • SSB bar from Titan Fitness
    • Wall rack to hold the barbells
  • Kids barbell and weights
    • I drove to Columbus with my son for a few days and we stopped by Rogue headquarters.
    • Where we picked up the training bar to use for my kids and we also bought the 10lb plates and the clamps out there.

Overall the garage gym has been a huge success. It’s a place where I can come lift weights in the morning, but it’s also a place where the kids and I get to spend time together and where we can send the kids if they need to move and the weather isn’t great for going outside.

I highly recommend something like this if you have the space, especially if you live in a cold weather area. The alternative to something like this would I guess joining a country club and spending a lot of time there. But we like having our own space and maybe I’m just not social enough for a setup outside my house.

Below is my best guess of the costs I incurred in creating the garage gym and filling it with a bunch of equipment. All in the number seems very high, but I have gotten so much use out of it that it has been well worth it, especially if you break it down as a monthly cost.

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