While my current home gym is located in my garage, that wasn’t always the case. I’m very fortunate to have a two-car garage and only one car. That has allowed me the room to build a home gym I could only fantasize about previously.
Apartment Gym Challenges
For many years, I lived in an apartment. No garage. No extra space. No squat rack, barbell, or bumper plates. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t work out at home. It just means that I had severely limited options outside of going to a commercial gym.
Keys to a great apartment gym:
- Alter your training to suit what you can fit in your space
- Look for smaller, more compact equipment
- Use highly versatile gear like kettlebells and adjustable dumbbells
If you currently live in an apartment, you are presented with a unique set of obstacles that most homeowners don’t face. For those living in a small space, working out at home can seem like an impossibility. Luckily, with a little thought and planning, this isn’t the case!
Roadblocks to training in an apartment:
- Limited to no extra space
- Landlords that don’t allow heavy weights or other equipment
- Neighbors
- Roommates and/or spouses
- Less than ideal setting (flooring, lighting, and ventilation)
- Having to move eventually (or regularly)
Having lived and trained in an apartment for as long as I did, I have quite a few suggestions to help you get the most from training in that environment. I’ll be honest in that I cycled between training at home, training at a big box type gym, and not training at all.
Over time, however, I accrued enough time training in cramped apartment spaces to compile a pretty large list of tips and tricks I have to be both effective and useful in the real world.
While that list is extensive, and I’ll make sure to cover it below, I want to start by cutting to what I would do if I moved back into an apartment tomorrow. Sure, there are lots of things I could do, but at this point, I know exactly what I would do, so I’ll share that first.
One of the lessons I’ve learned over the last 20+ years buying and using (or not using in too many cases) gym equipment for my home is that the basics are always the best. For those trying to carve out a great gym in an apartment, this rule holds especially true.
The perfect 3 piece apartment gym
If I found myself in an apartment again (and with the prices of homes these days, it’s not an impossibility), I would buy three primary pieces of equipment. Sure, there are probably some other things I might accumulate over time, but three core pieces are all I would need.
With the following 3 pieces, you can train effectively for a lifetime. There is no movement you can’t do and almost no exercise you can’t perform. These 3 pieces will take up almost no room and are ideal for apartment training.
The perfect 3 piece apartment gym would have a collapsable FID bench, adjustable dumbbells, and a pullup bar.
Collapsable FID bench
At the time I’m writing this article, this is still the bench I use. It’s served me well for a very long time. It is exactly what I would buy if I were putting together a gym in my apartment.
FID stands for flat, incline, and decline. It’s one bench that can accommodate any position you require. They are easily adjustable, and you can change them on the fly. Having a single bench that does all 3 is perfect for the apartment setting.
There’s one problem with most benches of this type. They are big, take up a lot of space, and typically don’t match the furnishings that you so carefully picked out to make your apartment look nice. In other words, they stick out like a sore thumb in your tiny apartment!
That’s why I recommend a collapsable FID bench. Specifically, one that can fold down flat and be stored under your bed. This is the ideal solution for an apartment! When you want to train, pull it out. When you are done, collapse it and stow it out of sight and out of mind.
I’ve tried several versions of these, and for my money, there is no better choice in this category than the Body Solid GFID-225. I wrote a full review of this bench, which you can read by clicking here. You can also check other user reviews as well as pricing by clicking here to see them on Amazon.
Have room for more than one bench? Don’t need a bench that stores under your bed? Click here to check out my recommended benches page for my other tried and tested bench recommendations!
Adjustable dumbbells
For most apartments, a traditional barbell is too much. For everyone who can’t consider a barbell and set of weights, dumbbells are the natural choice. (For those that do have room for a barbell, check out my recommend barbells page here!)
With dumbbells, you only have a few choices. There is the traditional giant rack of fixed-weight dumbbells. There is the old-school mini barbell type with a small bar and removable plates. And there is the much more usable and modern option of today’s adjustable dumbbell sets.
In another article, I spent a good amount of time going over why I would select a great set of today’s adjustable dumbbells over the other types. Once you introduce the size constraint of a small apartment space, it becomes an easy choice.
For those tight on room (and budget, for that matter), there is no better choice than a great set of adjustables. I’ve been using my set of adjustable dumbbells for years, and I’ve never had a second thought about them. They are one of my most used pieces of gear!
The key is to get a set that works well, provides a good amount of potential resistance, and is well-built. For my money, there’s only one way to go here. The original adjustable dumbbells, Power Blocks.
Power Blocks are not technically the first people to make adjustables. But they were, in my opinion, the first ones to do it right. Many years later, I still feel they are the best overall choice in this category!
Adding a set of 90 lb Power blocks to your hideaway adjustable bench is a natural combination. It gives you the ability to do just about any kind of weight-training movement you can think of. They are the perfect choice for your apartment gym.
No, they aren’t a barbell and 300-500 lbs of plates. But as far as getting a solid workout in, they are ideal. When looking at the number of things that can be done with a great set of dumbbells vs. the number of things that can’t, it becomes clear just how great a choice they are.
One of their many positive qualities is that they can easily be stored under your bed next to your fold-away bench! That means that you have almost everything you need to work out at home and haven’t taken any extra space to do so!
If you’d like to see the different options Power Blocks has, make sure to check out my recommended dumbbells page here!
Pull up bar
Your apartment has doorways. Those doorways can support a pull-up bar. ‘Nuff said.
A pull-up bar is one of the single most versatile pieces of equipment that you can own. It’s also another one that can be stored away out of site when not in use.
What’s really great about the pull-up bar is that it allows you to perform movements under load that can’t really be done with dumbbells. As complete an implement as dumbbells are, they don’t allow for vertical pulling.
This is where the pull-up bar comes in. Adding pull-ups to your programming is one of the single best things you can do for both back and arm strength. It’s also a functional movement that is highly useful in real life!
A nice pull-up bar is inexpensive. For just a few $, you can have one at your doorstep in a day or two. You can