Inside 4 of the coolest home gyms on Reddit, costing between $1,500 and $20,000
Gabby Landsverk
- With the pandemic shutting down gyms for months, many fitness enthusiasts decided to invest time and money in building their own workout space.
- Gym equipment like weights, racks, and machines can be expensive and bulky. These impressive home gyms from Reddit took thousands of dollars and sometimes years of work to acquire.
- But their owners say it's been worth it, since they no longer have to worry about paying for a membership, waiting to use equipment, or worrying about germs at commercial gyms.
This DIY rack was custom-designed and built when other equipment was sold out.
As soon as gyms in Virginia started to close down, Redditor Runandliftlots starting looking for ways to work out at home.
High-demand equipment was sold out. So Runandliftlots (who, as with the other three Redditors Insider interviewed, preferred to omit their real name for privacy reasons) decided to build their own squat rack, using a design composite from several guides online.
With building materials costing about $500, and the weights and bar costing $850, the full price was around $1,500.
"I absolutely hate burpees, so this had to be done," they said.
This Redditor in the San Francisco Bay Area turned their outdoor patio into an iron paradise.
Redditor Jlfmb spent a little under $3,000 on this home gym setup in San Francisco. The equipment, all ordered in March, took some time to arrive due to the sudden high demand for fitness gear as pandemic lockdowns began.
"Once I realized that even if things were to open up again I'd still not feel safe going to a gym, I just quickly started buying stuff," the owner said, noting that they were lucky enough to be able to afford it, with a job in the tech sector relatively unaffected by the pandemic.
A typical workout includes 3 sets of 5 reps on major lift categories like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and bench presses.
Next they plan to add a sturdy roof and water/windproof curtain to allow workout sessions in the rain.
This gym was built from equipment bought on Craigslist and eBay for $1,500.
Redditor Coinsarge spent about a month hunting for deals on equipment online from sites like Craigslist, eBay and Amazon to put together this home gym in San Francisco.
They spent about $2000 on purchases, but in the process sold about $500 worth of their own old equipment, for a net cost of $1500. This is common strategy for home gym enthusiasts on Reddit to swap out or upgrade equipment overtime.
Their workout program focuses on major lifts like overhead press, squats, bench presses, and deadlifts.
This impressive home gym has been 20 years in the making and cost around $20,000.
Some fitness enthusiasts, though, go above and beyond when it comes to their home workout setup. Redditor TortieMVH's gym has been 20 years in the making, starting with a few pieces of used equipment in the garage when their local gym closed.
From there, they kept adding equipment and moved a few years ago to a bigger home, where they were able to allocate a whole room to the home.
It's also a gym for the whole family, since the owner said their parents and siblings live nearby and use the space for workouts too.
In total, including a treadmill and rower not pictured, this setup cost about $20,000.
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