Designing the Ultimate Home Gym: see how we partnered with gym pioneer David Barton to engineer the perfect at-home workout facility

Men's Fitness, Feb, 2006 by Alex French

Whether because of the crowd, the fungus in the shower drains, or just the bad music they play, chances are you've considered quitting your gym at least one time or another and opening your own--at home.

But aside from your restrictions on price and space, you probably didn't know how or where to begin. That's why we're bringing you our Home-Gym Makeover, the story of one lucky couple from Pennsylvania who entered our contest and won the home gym of their dreams. What they have can be yours, too, if you take the advice that follows.

Our tale begins in the summer of 2005, as our panel of judges sifted through thousands of contest entries in search of a winner for our home-gym makeover project. Among the worthy assortment of out-of-shape dads, stressed executives, and facility-deprived firefighters and policemen, one couple stood out almost immediately. James and Kristin Decker, newlyweds from a Philadelphia suburb, stopped us in our tracks. An insurance adjuster during the week, James competed in nine triathlons in 2005, collecting three top-20 finishes. He trains twice a day, six days a week, and he hasn't eaten pizza since the late '90s. When not working or working out, he attends fitness trade shows and studies gym-equipment catalogs with the kind of intensity generally reserved for fetish porn.

His wife, Kristin, is every bit his equal: She runs 48 miles a week, won the Tim Kerr 10K in 2005, and finished in the top 40 in Philadelphia's Broad Street Run and the Philadelphia Distance Run.

The problem? As newlyweds with different fitness goals, the Deckers were forced to work out in different gyms at different times. "We just got married, and now we never get to see each other," James wrote in his entry. "A home gym would give us the chance to maintain both our bodies and our relationship." Best of all, the couple had the perfect gym-friendly space: an unfinished basement in their new home, just waiting to be put to use. The decision was made.

And by all accounts, we definitely picked the right guy. Hours after MF editor in chief Neal Boulton called James to notify him that he was our contest winner, James e-mailed back saying, "I can't tell you how excited we are. I just had to leave my office to do a lap around the parking lot!"

Selecting a designer to plan for the Ultimate Home Gym was also a no-brainer. We called on fitness guru David Barton. For the past few years, while developing his chain, David Barton Gym (DAVIDBARTON GYM.COM), in cities like New York, Chicago, and Miami, Barton has earned a reputation for designing and building gyms so beautiful--and functional--that they serve to remind us that exercise doesn't have to be all sweat and pain.

GETTING STARTED

According to Barton, after you've committed to transforming any vacant room in your home into a den of fitness, the first thing you've got to decide is what equipment you're going to want. "The key is really figuring out how to get the most out of a small amount of space" he says.

BEFORE

That proved to be no easy task for the Deckers, who immediately drew up an expansive wish list of equipment and a computer-generated floor plan that, if made into a reality, would have transformed their basement from a 42' x 20' rectangle into a logjam of iron.

James' schematic (above) called for pulley systems, adjustable benches, a preacher-curl bench, calf-raise machine, leg extension, leg curl, Smith System, power rack, dumbbells, and nearly every other kind of equipment imaginable. According to Barton, the Deckers' initial plan reflected a very common but grievous error made by do-it-yourself home-gym architects: investing their time and space in big, expensive machines--a leg extension or hamstring curl, hip abduction or preacher bench, for example--that allow users to perform only one, single-joint exercise.

Barton encouraged James and Kristin to consider a "less is more" approach: a few pieces of strength equipment--a power rack, dumbbells, an adjustable bench, and a pulley system--that would allow a wide range of multijoint exercises (the best muscle-builders in any workout). The point: Whether it's the Deckers' home gym or one you're designing on your own, you need equipment that can accommodate your ever-evolving needs, because your workouts will inevitably change over time.

THINK ATHLETIC AND AESTHETIC

No one wants anything in their home to be an eyesore. That's why you have to decide early on how the gym will look and what kind of equipment and layout will best fit the decor of your home. "In my experience," says Barton, "what most people end up doing is putting up white Sheetrock walls, installing some fluorescent lights and a rubber floor, and then adding equipment. It ends up being really sterile and looking like a miniature version of a commercial chain gym--one that doesn't make you feel like working out." Instead, Barton recommends making the gym a warm, inviting room. "What's going to motivate you during a workout is all the senses you engage--the music you're listening to, what's on the television, and the temperature in the room."