Would you spend £32k on a luxury home gym?
Forget a dusty old exercise bike, or yet another walk in the park. The latest fitness fad is a DIY health club. So . . .
THERE was a time when ‘home gym’ meant a neglected exercise bike-cum-clothes horse in the corner of the bedroom and a set of dumbbells gathering dust at the back of the wardrobe.
Today, for a growing number of homeowners, it’s nothing less than a fully-dedicated workout space furnished with the latest high-tech exercise equipment — from skiing machines to state-of-the-art treadmills.
Forget fancy kitchen upgrades or games rooms, the latest home improvement must-have is a health and fitness club in your home.
With all 6,700 gyms in the UK shut to their 9.7 million members — and with the uncertainty of the ongoing pandemic surrounding their re-opening — frustrated fitness fans are spending a fortune on near-as-possible replicas in lofts, garages and outbuildings.
It’s a trend reflected in booming demand for home exercise equipment, with John Lewis reporting sales of bigger machines, such as cross trainers and treadmills, up by more than 50 per cent. Home workout firm Peloton is estimated to have made a huge £1.3billion last year, double the figure for 2019.
Here, five women reveal why the silver lining of lockdown is getting the complete gym experience all to themselves, in the comfort of their own homes — with no threat of closure.
I SPENT £13k OF CANCELLED HOLIDAY CASH ON GYM CAThErINE PEArSON, 46, is a sales and marketing director and lives in hartford, Cheshire. She is divorced with three sons, Max, 21, Felix, 20, and Gus, 11. She says:
sITTING in the same room staring at a screen for eight hours a day in lockdown is tough — and I really needed the escape of a workout.
Now, lifting weights in my home gym with my favourite motivational music blasting out and feel-good endorphins whizzing around my body, I’ve got the best escape ever. I’d had my eye on converting the garage to a gym since moving into my five-bedroom home after my separation three years ago.
But it became more pressing last year when commercial gyms were closed and I knew I would need the physical and mental strength that exercise gives me to get through the pandemic.
I used to go to the gym five times a week. If I miss a few days, I feel my mood dip and when I’m low I eat more, which makes me feel sluggish and bad about myself.
When my holidays to Tenerife and Greece were cancelled and I had extra money, I decided to spend it on a home gym. I cleared out the garage before hiring a builder to do the work. He installed rubber gym flooring and put in funky spotlights.
I wanted it to feel like a cool — rather than girly — gym, and definitely not a garage.
I paid £1,200 for a high-quality squat rack and £800 for a Concept 2 rowing machine. I spent £1,700 on a Wattbike Atom, which simulates going up and down hills, and £250 on a set of kettlebells.
I also bought a wall-mounted Apple TV so that I can stream Zwift, the cycling app, and pretend
I’m cycling in the French Alps. I can access the gym from an internal door in the house.
The refit was completed in November, just as the second lockdown was enforced, and has already been worth every penny of the £13,000 price tag.I prefer it to a normal gym. I don’t have to wait for equipment to become free or disinfect everything I use.
I always try to turn a negative situation into a positive and keep telling people that it’s thanks to my foreign holidays being cancelled last year that I now have an amazing home gym.
I’LL SAVE MONEY WITH MY £8k GYM
JOANNE WILKINSON, 38, is a carer for a family member and lives in Telford, Shropshire, with her partner Derek, 53, who runs his own business, and their three children aged five, three and one. She says: LAsT summer, we converted the detached garage in the garden of our four-floor property into a home gym — and now it has become my little oasis of calm.
Pre-Covid, I used to do a Park
Run every saturday with the children in the pushchair, as well as classes at the gym, but both have been a casualty of lockdown.
When I returned to work last June after maternity leave, I could no longer justify going to the gym, when it reopened, at the expense of family time as I’m already squeezing in studying for a masters degree. Desperate to be able exercise, my solution was to convert the garage. It cost £8,000, including all the gym equipment.
It has been boarded and insulated, with new flooring and lighting. We have bricked up the
main garage door and replaced the wall at the opposite end with a sliding patio door.
There are fitted mirrors along one wall and a TV so I can stream exercise classes from the internet. I’ve put in a spin bike, cross trainer, rower and a weights area with dumbbells, kettlebells and a squat rack. I try to do something every day, whether that’s 15 minutes or an hour.
Given that I used to pay more than £500 a year for gym membership, our home gym will save me money in the long term. But it has already given me a huge mental and physical boost.
Although I miss the classes, the swimming pool and the social aspect of a commercial gym, I’m in no rush to go back.