Is a garage gym more trouble than it's worth?

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I moved into a new house about 2 months ago and had these grand plans for a garage gym. It's a detached garage, single skinned with electricity and lighting, it's own fuse box etc.

I have spent around £400 on a weight bench, some weights, a bar etc, nothing too over-the-top (yet). I haven't even unboxed any of this stuff yet.

However, every time I go in there to prepare the space or to think about properly getting started, it just looks like a dark and cobwebby space full of the world's biggest spiders... and to be honest with you it makes me really uncomfortable. Bit embarrassed to admit that but it's true, give me snakes and rats any day of the week and it wouldn't bother me

I did consider when I first moved in getting someone in to basically plasterboard and do it all up, with a proper ceiling and was quoted around £2k.

My question

I know this is ENTIRELY subjective, but I was just looking for your views, your experience, have you done this before? Did you waste a lot of money to find you preferred the gym, or was it a brilliant investment and well worth it?


Logistics

It's also a question of things like where to store tools, the pressure washer, old paint, etc. I have a shed but that's got lawn mower in, BBQ, plant pots, and other things like that. This is the first time I've ever had a garden, shed, garage, so it's just getting my head around the options really.


Pictures below

Garage is made of proper house bricks rather than the big breeze blocks. It's not dingy or damp I don't think (although it is summer still).

garage-ceiling-and-wall.jpg


garage-wall-only.jpg
 
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I used to have a garage gym. ...

Get as much out into a shed as you can. Put in some better lights, and maybe board the ceiling with insulation backed plasterboard, which you can just paint white, to help keep it a bit warmer in winter.

I painted my floor with reddish garage floor paint, and I think I painted the blocks white (was a brick garage, but semi-detached, so party wall in the garage was blockwork).

You will need a heater in the winter though.

Unless you do a full conversion, spiders will get in though ....
 
I use this on my CCTV cameras at home and at work. Worth a try.

https://spiderex.co.uk/

Br careful though, first time I used it on a CCTV camera fixed under my eaves, about half a dozen spiders shot out of the eaves and committed kamikaze. Quite unnerving when you are at the top of a ladder and not expecting them!
 
Join a gym mate. Try and get a "gym buddy" to train with. Friendly competition and someone to lift that heavy bar off your chest is priceless. By all means do some stuff at home. I've still got a platform/bar for DL's in the yard and a few other bits and bobs that I used when I was a few years younger. Unless your blessed enough though, to have a real gym built in your country house, join one. There is no substitute for weight, lot's of weight and lots of different weights.
 
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I have a spider in my garage called Montezuma, its a monster and comes out to look at me when I enter
 
Dork doesn't do gyms himself, but is landlord to a very successful & popular weight training venue. Probably the nicest tenant I ever had.

Gyms are full of like minded people, a place to socialise. Mrs Dork goes regular & thoroughly enjoys it, which reaffirms my suspicions it is more about 6 packs, huge pecs & biceps, than it is about keeping fit.

I'm told that 10mins of training under the instruction of a knowledgeable instructor is worth 6hrs of going it alone.
 
It depends on your training goals. If it’s traditional body building / strength training, it’s very hard to do without a training buddy to spot you on your fail reps. So then you have the expense of a smiths machine. You at least have the height for a pull up bar and dip bar.
 
My mate hates his home made gym. 3 weeks in the making, (emptying garage, good clean out and board out the walls etc, install some bits of equipment), all while working 12 hour shifts 4 days per week. He was totally knackered by the time it was ready to use so took a break away from it for a few days.
Comes the big day when he decided it was time to start using it. Walked in, stubbed his big toe against a piece of equipment and is now nursing a broken toe and torn ligament in his ankle. :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
I use this on my CCTV cameras at home and at work. Worth a try.

https://spiderex.co.uk/

Br careful though, first time I used it on a CCTV camera fixed under my eaves, about half a dozen spiders shot out of the eaves and committed kamikaze. Quite unnerving when you are at the top of a ladder and not expecting them!

They seem to like the warmth of the IR LEDs.
 
I can't kill Spiders...... Even in Australia I would catch them and put them outside. With the exception of the redback spider... They were all entwined in their webs in the garage so could not catch without the risk of getting bit.
 
Thanks to everyone for the helpful comments, really appreciate that.

Just to say also that I'm from a fitness background, in the past I have competed in powerlifting and have been lifting weights on and off for nearly 20 years. I am already a member of a gym and not looking for any instruction, or gym buddy, I've actually preferred to train alone other than when powerlifting.

Times have changed though and I am much more into Triathlon training. I have a turbo trainer already in the garage, but I wanted some weights to do some strength work too and so I wasn't always reliant on driving to the gym, particularly as sometimes I just want to do a quick 20 minutes of leg work or something.

My instincts are telling me that this is not worth it. I will keep the weights I have but will not make the garage into a gym, I will just have them there and ready to go for when I need them
 
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