How To Build a Home Gym For Only $600: Shawn's Setup

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How To Build a Home Gym For Only $600: Shawn’s Setup

Learn how Shawn built an awesome home gym in the room of his apartment for only $600
Thanks to his dedication and his home gym, Shawn has transformed his body and his life

Shawn decided to build a home gym during the beginning of the COVID lockdowns to get in shape. Shawn got fat and started having problems going up the stairs of his home.

But Shawn decided to change it and wanted to be healthy and fit to enjoy raising his future children, unlike his own childhood where he and his father never did any sport together.

Shawn works on cars for a living, so being in shape has been very helpful, leading to two promotions and a more comfortable life.

Shawn has been worked out in his home gym for the last years and he’s gone through a real body transformation, wow!

Since no gyms were open when covid, he slowly started buying equipment, beginning with a cheap 1″ set with sand-filled plates. He stuck to it for six months and then purchased a rack, barbell, and 100lbs of weight plates.

Building the home gym challenges

Setting up the home gym in his second-floor apartment wasn’t easy (The FEDEX guy hates him for sure!). Shawn doesn’t want to disrupt his family so he only exercises when no one is home, which could be at weird hours since he works a full-time job.

Shawn is not too happy with the home gym foam mats. He wished he had addressed the flooring situation before setting everything up because it sucks, and he will need to redo it with something better than the current foam mats (pro tip: invest in good heavy duty rubber mats folks!)

He wants to hang stuff on his walls, but since he rents his apartment, there is only so much he can do.

Training Workouts

Shawn mainly focuses on StrongLifts 5×5 but switched to 5,3,1 when he stopped seeing strength gains. Recently, he joined a nearby Planet Fitness, which has good machines and is convenient since it’s right across the street. He now combines his home gym and the commercial gym in his fitness routine.

The best part about his home gym is the ability to throw around some weight anytime he wants and take as long as he needs between sets. However, the limited space affects what he can do, and certain lifts are out of the question.

Awesome Setup for Only $600

Shawn spent less than $600 on his equipment, which he bought on sale either from Walmart or Amazon. Shawn used to work at Walmart, what helped him getting those juicy deals.The squat rack was the most expensive piece of equipment, costing $180.

He has plenty of weight plates for any type of lift he needs and a flat bench, a back extension machine, and an incline bench with leg attachments. He also drilled holes and used long studs and nuts to secure the pulley system, which fit perfectly between the pull-up bars.