How do you make a garage gym?

The Garage Gym... Where do I start?

The space in the garage is the most limiting factor when making your gym. Naturally then one should try to maximize the utility of the space that you have. This means being efficient with the layout and storage systems. This also means stay way from giant, heavy, bulky, non-versatile machines that you can't move! That means you Bowflex.. In this post I'm just going to focus on the BASICS of what gear you might want to get first, and I'll address it by category. 

What are the basics of a sound strength and conditioning program? 

Calisthenics:
What gear can you use for Calisthenics? The most helpful gear for Calisthenics are Olympic Rings and a STURDY PULL UP BAR, not the cheap door hanging plastic crap. You can make very serious strength gains with just these 2 tools. ​

Calisthenics:
- Olympic Rings
​- Sturdy Pull Up Bar 

Weightlifting: 
What gear can you use for Weightlifting? There are a lot of options here, Kettlebells, Dumbbells, Barbells, and Sandbags are my favorites. For many I would suggest investing in a decent barbell and bumper plates, but you can't go wrong with any of the aforementioned gear.  QUALITY of the KB is important. QUALITY of barbell and bumpers are important as well. Same with the sandbags, can you imagine a leaky one?? If you want to get in to the back squat, front squat, overhead squat, or jerk or overhead pressing variations, you might want to invest in some squat stands or a squat rack. 

What else might you want for weightlifting? 
In order to be able to protect your floor against dropped weights and metal objects, you'd want to consider some type of flooring, such as horse stall matts from Tractor Supply on the cheap end, to some interlocking rubber matting at the home improvement store, to some high end flooring from PLAE that will be the most awesome flooring you've ever seen. ​

Weightlifting:
- Barbell and Bumpers
- Kettlebells
- Dumbbells
​- SandBags
- Flooring

Core: 
All you really need for this is are sliders, either the plastic furniture slider variety or the hardcore Havyk gear variety :) Cook Bands, and an AbMat. ​

Core:
- Sliders
- Cook Bands
​- AbMats 

Conditioning: 
What can I use for conditioning at home? 
Bar none the best conditioning gear for a home gym is an AirDyne or a Rowing Machine. Specifically, an AirDyne from Assault Fitness, Rogue Fitness, Schwinn, or Concept 2. The rowing machine MUST be from Concept 2 don't waste your $ on anything less. Jump Ropes work for this purpose. Treadmill? Running outside is always an option, and treadmills are quite expensive and have a lot of moving parts that can break, so in general I'd say this is one of the last things you would need to acquire.

My first suggestion would be to get a Woodway or an AirRunner from Assault Fitness, which are non-motorized, curved deck treadmills that encourage proper running technique, have no top speed limit, and don't depend on a motor. They last forever and still have a console that measures everything you do. These are by far the best treadmills, and are the best for high performance runners and athletes. 

My second suggestion then is to be wary of the cheap home models, they are total junk, so don't be tempted. Instead, go with higher end motorized home treadmill. There is nothing worse in a garage gym than having some giant broken treadmill taking up space collecting dust. 

Conditioning:
- AirDyne
- Rowing Machine
- Treadmill (Like AirRunner) 
​