2020 has seen many people, either through choice or necessity, setting up a dedicated home space to do their workouts. These range from lounge room floors that foldable pieces of equipment are worked out on before being slid back under a bed to full-on garage gyms with all the bells and whistles. In these pandemic times, working out at home may represent a safer option than going to a commercial gym. Yet there are still a number of risks that are inherent to the home gym experience that need to be addressed. Here are 4 ways to keep your home gym safe, injury free zone.
Invest in Racks and Plate Holders
There is nothing more dangerous in a gym than clutter. Yet, unless you’ve got barbell and dumbbell racks and weight plate holders in your home gym, clutter is pretty much unavoidable. Tripping over a weight plate could put you out of business for months so spending a little extra for weight plate holders makes a lot of sense.
When shopping for such pieces of gear as a power tower or a power rack, look for those that include weight stack pins. Then, put up a sign, just like they do in commercial gyms, telling users to put their weights away!
Clean Your Gym
The fact that you aren’t getting hundreds of people using your gear every day doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t regularly clean your exercise equipment. You don’t have to be as rigorous as commercial gyms which clean their gear several times a day (at least they should do). However, you should go through with safe cleaning products at least twice a week and give your gear a good clean. Pay special attention to the upholstery and gripping areas, and don’t forget your gym mirrors!
Learn Proper Form
You will probably be sending a decent amount of time training by yourself in your home gym. That means that there is no one there to help you if you fail on an exercise. There is also no experienced trainer to keep an eye on you. Both of those factors mean that you need to take responsibility for doing the exercise correctly. If you don’t, you are liable to do yourself some serious damage.
You can learn proper exercise form by referring to the top health blogs online and downloading videos of correct exercise technique.
Invest in a Power Rack
If you are putting together a serious home gym to take the place of your commercial gym workouts, we seriously recommend investing in a power rack. This is a frame cage that you perform your exercises inside of. It allows you to rack and unrack the bar at a range of heights and has a pair of safety spotter bars that act as a protective mechanism if you are unable to complete a repetition.
A power rack is an invaluable safety tool for people who are training alone. It is especially beneficial on such exercises as squats, allowing you to set the safety spotter bar a little lower than the bottom position of your squat. If you are unable to complete a rep, you are able to simply drop the bar down onto the safety spotter and move out of the way. Rather than crushing you, the weight will sit harmlessly on the safety spotter bars.
A power rack often comes with a number of training accessories such as a pull up bar, removable dip bar and (sometimes) high and low cable pulley stations.
Wrap Up
Think safety first when it comes to your home gym. While you don’t have to contend with the potential hazards of so many other bodies being around you that comes with the commercial gym experience, there are other potential dangers that come with the home gym experience. Follow out four key guidelines to minimize those risks and get the most out of your home gym investment.
