Why I Train in My Garage

I never set out to build a home gym. Like a lot of people, it started in 2020 when the gyms shut down. At the time, all I had in our apartment in San Diego was a pair of 35-pound dumbbells. I made them work and still got some decent workouts in, but I was counting down the days until the gyms reopened. The second they did, I was back.

At the end of 2020, we moved back to the Denver suburbs and were living with my parents. Lainey got COVID, which meant I was staring down two weeks stuck at home. That same day, I ordered a set of heavy kettlebells. I was tired of COVID constantly messing with my ability to work out, so I started to lean into a home gym setup. The kettlebells were great, but without a barbell and some heavier weights, I couldn't really train the way I wanted to.

What I didn't expect was how much I'd come to prefer training at home. There's no driving. No parking. No packing a gym bag. No waiting for a squat rack. No circling the gym looking for an open bench. Even though the gym is close, I'm realistically spending another 30 to 45 minutes of non-training time getting to and from the gym, plus setup. In the garage, everything is ready to go. I walk in, start training, and an hour later I'm back in the kitchen.

The time I'm not spending in the car or locker room is time I can spend training, working, or hanging out with my family. It's a lot easier to ask Lainey for an hour to train when that full hour is spent training. It's a much harder sell when half the time is spent commuting to and from the gym. Working from home makes it even easier. I can carve out an hour in the middle of the day, train, shower, and get right back to work.

Building a home gym isn't cheap upfront. I spent around two grand putting mine together. But between the saved membership fees and the amount of time I've gotten back, it's the best money I've ever spent on training.

Naturally, I'm obsessed with efficiency. I also don't have unlimited garage space, so every piece of equipment has to earn its spot.

Here's what I've got:

• Four 4x6 horse stall mats
• A barbell
• Plates
• A squat rack with a pull-up bar
• An adjustable bench
• Adjustable dumbbells up to 50 pounds
• A hip band
• An upper-body resistance band

For conditioning, I use an Echo Bike, but that's optional. Running is free.

You can get almost everything on that list from affordable brands on Amazon. The stall mats are easy to get at a farm or tractor supply store. That simple setup gives me everything I need to stay fit, get stronger, build muscle, and improve conditioning. It's also everything I use in PST. It all fits in one corner of my garage.

I've got a full-time job, a baby at home, and plenty of reasons to skip workouts. The garage gym is a big reason I don't. It's made it possible for me to keep training consistently through a full season, one where I need the training more than ever, mentally and physically.