5 Garden Gym Ideas for Your Garden Building

January is suddenly upon us and, as with the start of any new year, it brings the opportunity to set goals and resolutions for the year ahead. For many, a new year is the start of a new fitness regime to get in shape in time for the summer.

The ‘new year, new me’ mantra does not just have to focus on physical fitness though: you can use this time of year to form new habits and introduce new activities into your everyday routine to improve your wellbeing. Exercise helps your body to release endorphins, triggering a positive feeling in the brain, which can be extremely beneficial to us during times of stress. 

There are many different forms of exercise you can turn your hand to, from Yoga and Pilates to boxing and weightlifting. You may be thinking of joining a gym for these, but have you thought about turning a garden building into your very own garden gym? 

There are many benefits of having a garden building as a home gym, including tailoring the design to your chosen form of fitness. As there are so many ways you can set up a gym, we thought we would share 5 garden gym ideas for your garden building to offer some inspiration for transforming your own personal gym.

Cardiovascular fitness

Cardio workouts are great for improving your overall levels of fitness and will certainly make you work up a sweat. You can also take cardio exercise at your own pace and increase the intensity as you improve. The types of equipment you will need in an outdoor garden gym to make it suitable for cardio workouts include a cross trainer, a cycling machine, a treadmill, and a rowing machine. You can choose your favourite one or have a selection of machinery, so you do not get bored.

All this equipment will need to be plugged in, so you will want to make sure that your garden building is fully equipped with electrics. Buildings in our studio range, like the Burnham Studio that is featured below, can be equipped with electrics, and they come with full internal lining and insulation as standard, making them a great choice for a garden gym studio.

Weightlifting workouts

Would you like to gain muscle mass or work on improving your strength? You will want to consider having a garden gym that is set up for weightlifting. Items you may want to have inside your gym may include dumbbells, a weightlifting bench, a power cage or rack and some barbells. All that equipment is going to take up a lot of room, so you will want to think about the overall size of your garden building to ensure it is large enough to house all these items.

If you choose one of our garden buildings with a storage partition for your outdoor gym, you can store additional weights and other equipment inside, giving you additional space inside the main section of your building for deadlifting and stretching.

With any fitness space that has lots of weights and machinery, you will need to make sure that the flooring is suitable for supporting it all. We offer the option of adding heavy-duty flooring to any of our garden buildings, which is a great option for an outdoor gym.

Aerobics classes

Aerobics is perfect for those who want to get up on their feet and move a bit more. You do not need much equipment, making it a popular choice for those starting to get into exercise, or if you are limited on space. You can dance to some of your favourite tracks with your own routine of steps, or you could mount a tv onto the wall, load up YouTube, and find a video of an instructor teaching aerobics or Zumba that you can follow.

Aerobics is a more social form of exercise, but who says that by having a gym in your garden you must be alone? Many local gyms are offering remote workouts, so you still get the sense of being in a class full of people. You could take your laptop into the gym with you, join a virtual class and move alongside hundreds of others online.

Strengthening your core and improving your balance

A garden building for working on your strengthening your core and improving your balance can be a more compact space as you will need less room for equipment. If you have enough room to place a few mats and shelving to hold items such as resistance bands, you will be all set for practising Pilates.

One of our customers opted for the Salthouse Studio pictured above as their fitness studio, making it large enough to teach inside once the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted. They have tailored our standard design to include additional double doors and opening windows to allow for air to flow through, which will be useful after a particularly intense session. Buildings like our Salthouse with plenty of glazing will also allow for natural light to flood the inside.

Reaching inner peace

Yoga calms you and relieves your body from stress, while also reducing muscle tension and strain. The best way to practice Yoga is by having a quiet clutter-free space to practice in, making one of our garden buildings an ideal choice.

Take this Holt Studio for example, floor-to-ceiling length mirrors have been installed and there are mats on the floor, providing you with a focused space where you can work on your breathing and stretches. You do not need to have masses of space inside a Yoga room, so if you are restricted on space in your garden, one of smaller sized garden buildings would be the perfect fit.

You can also use a garden gym building for all or any of the above uses to create a combination space. The beauty of a combination space is that you can pick and choose your favourite exercises and use them to form a well-rounded workout routine. It does not need to be a big space either, you could have enough room for a treadmill, a Yoga mat, and a few weights, or you may choose to have a larger interior with separate areas for each part of your new regime. 

If you would like some guidance on which of our garden buildings would be best suited for your own personal gym, please do get in touch with us either via email on sales@cranegardenbuildings.co.uk or by calling 01760 444229. Our friendly advisors will be more than happy to offer their expertise and share their knowledge of our garden buildings with you to recommend the perfect building for your home gym project.