OT: What does your ideal exercise room look like?

[myshadow]

I may be in the fortunate position of adding on an exercise room to our bedroom when we remodel later this year, and I'm not sure exactly what to consider. Any and all suggestions, thoughts, ideas that you wonderful women may have about your ideal exercise room would be very appreciated.

Tracey

 

[veekcee]

Hi Tracey!

How exciting to plan a space of your own for your workouts!

My dream workout room would be about 15 x 15. One whole wall would have a built in cabinet to house my TV, DVD, dumbbells, barbells and plates, step bench/high step and all the risers. The stability balls could be stacked in a corner and the weight bench would be off to the side. All the equipment could be neatly tucked away with lots of floor space. Ok, dream over.

Take care! ;-)

 

[Gayle]

Hi Tracey,

What a fun and exciting project!! A few basic things that I would consider are:

**Flooring - something that's forgiving on your joints when doing cardio, but durable. I believe carpeting has some drawbacks with regard to injury potential. I don't know what the industry recommends for this, maybe some other forum members might know. I have a designated gym in my house and the flooring is linoleum, it seems to be fine, but I'm sure there's something better.

**Cooling/Air flow - Air conditioning, especially for those hot summer days. You don't know how much you want it until you don't have it...I don't have it .

**Wiring - For a TV and/or stereo system. Also storage for all those Cathe tapes/DVD's .

**Storage for stuff in general - racks for weights, mats, etc.

**Will you be putting in any equipment that needs substantial support? For example, a punching bag or pull up bar that might be mounted on the ceiling or wall. Something to think about.

Good luck with your renovation.

 

[kgravel]

Another consideration, do you have flexibility w/ceiling height for all those airborn jacks, etc? I'm not tall myself, but before I had a workout room, I was always afraid of hitting the ceiling fans in my living room. Oh yeah, they are nice to have for circulation too.

Also, I would add an area for meditation, if you're into that. My workout room is my personal room and I like to practice meditation after yoga. Even if its just a quiet corner to journal or plan your rotations, I find a quiet place away from the tv and noisey family members a godsend.

Enjoy your dreaming,
Kim

 

[kellib]

We just replaced our tv stand with a gadget that holds the tv up in the corner of the room - takes up less space (which means I have more room to jump around in!) The downside is that I'm used to seeing Cathe more at a little below eye level and now I have to look up to see her!

If you are using carpeting in that room I'd recommend getting some carpet to put over it if you are concerned about protecting the original carpet (like if you plan to sell the house some day). We got a big peice very cheap at Home Depot (Clearance/left-overs) but I had to cut it (it was too long, I cut it into an 'L' shape to fit my 10 x 10 room). Now it slides sometimes and I have to redo my duct(duck? the big silver kind) that holds it together. My cat likes to chew on the tape too, go figure.

have fun!!!