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Struggling to find time and motivation to exercise is a tale as old as time. With a multi-use home gym setup, however, you can help empower yourself and your family to be more motivated, all while enjoying family bonding time and instilling lasting, healthy habits for your kids in the convenience of your own home.
In this guide, we’re sharing tips to set up a multi-use home gym for family exercise, regardless of your budget or space.
The Importance of Exercising as a Family
While spending time with the family is a clear benefit of exercising together, there are several other advantages of family workouts you may not have considered.
Working out together helps build healthy cross-generational habits. The AAP recommends making physical activity part of your lifelong goals as a family to promote good cardiovascular health and cognitive development for your children.
Group exercise, especially with the most important people in your life, is socially rewarding! Getting involved in your child’s physical activity, whether exercising at home, throwing a ball around, or volunteering for their team, can have a positive impact on their social development.
Family exercise provides a productive screen-free activity. Between work, school, and binge-watching Netflix, we spend an inordinate amount of time in front of screens.
How to Pick Out the Right Home Gym Equipment
The home gym equipment market has exploded over the past decade and especially since the 2020 pandemic. From smart home gyms to power racks, and dumbbell sets to stationary bikes, the options are seemingly endless.
To cut through the noise, we recommend evaluating the versatility of any given piece of equipment before you make any decisions.
Here are a few pieces we’d recommend starting with:
Dumbbells
There’s no more versatile piece of exercise equipment than the humble dumbbell. With a quality set, you can perform simple yet effective exercises to tone and shape just about every muscle in the body. We recommend getting an adjustable set to save space.
Adjustable Bench
Adjustable benches are essential to any proper home gym, as they allow you to target specific muscle groups more easily. With a small adjustment, for example, you can go from incline presses to decline presses in a pinch.
Exercise Bike
We can thank Peloton for the resurgence of the exercise bike market. Of course, even if you don’t have a thousand bucks to fork over for a high-tech exercise bike, you can still opt for a manual stationary bike with adjustable resistance to get in some low-impact cardio during your workouts.
Resistance Bands
With different sizes and tension levels, resistance bands are excellent for all ages. They’re great for warming up before a workout, stretching post-workout, or mobility training. Best of all, when you’re finished, you can store them away in a drawer!
Power Racks
If you have extra space and want to get serious about your family workout routine, you can’t go wrong with a power rack. With safety bars, you can perform heavy lifts, such as bench presses and squats, with less risk of injury.
Most racks come stock with pull-up bars, while other all-in-one power racks offer additional attachments like pulleys, lat bars, and dip bars.
You can use this equipment as a teaching opportunity for your family, showing them how to use it safely. This could help them navigate public gyms in the future with more confidence.
How to Build a Family-Friendly Home Gym
Once you have a better idea of your fitness goals and equipment needs, it’s time to get set up.
Choose Your Space
Your space will help you determine what kind of equipment you can get. After all, you probably don’t want a power rack in your living room if that’s the only available space, right?
Garages and basements are best, as they’re separate from the general living area and can easily be converted into safe, temperature-controlled workout environments with insulation, upgraded flooring, and storage for smaller workout gear. Spare bedrooms are also a good choice if you do not have the budget to upgrade your garage or basement.
Personalize Your Setup
Just because it’s a space for working out doesn’t mean it can’t be fun and stylish. Plus, if you want to make it appealing for your kids, you may want to consider ways some decor, color, and music can help.
Install a stereo system so you and your family can work out to your favorite playlists, throw up some posters to give the space a pop of color, or add in some grass mats for an outdoor feel. The possibilities are endless!
Build Your Home Gym Today
Why waste time and money going to a gym when you can work out at home? With a small, upfront investment and a little elbow grease, you can reach your fitness goals, and provide a fun, healthy way for you and your family to bond by building a home gym.
By Tess DiNapoli
who is an artist, freelance writer, and content strategist. She has a passion for yoga and often writes about health and wellness, but also enjoys covering the fashion industry and world of fitness.
Member since March, 2025
View all the articles of Tess DiNapoli.
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