Personal gyms fit for 2013
What better way to make good on your new year’s resolution to get fit — or stay fit — than to tour a few exceptional home gyms for inspiration.
Having a place you want to spend time in raising your heart rate is half the battle of sticking to a regular routine.
Wolf Custom Homes’ show home in Watermark at Bearspaw, to the west of Calgary, has a home gym that would inspire many visits.
It’s a large sunlit room with windows on two walls, a view out toward the mountains, a comfortable cork floor and a built-in stereo system.
I also like the detail of the wall-mounted water fountain in the hallway wall between the gym and the change room. Some people are motivated by reward, and this gym’s change room comes with a steam room and shower.
Part of the lure of a home gym is the pleasure after the pain. Hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms all help complement the spa workout experience, though the risk is they can be almost more attractive than the workout.
In Artesia at Heritage Pointe, to the south of Calgary, Astoria Custom Homes’ show home places the home gym in the walkout basement with a view toward a calm pond.
Water is a theme with this gym, which puts the reward front and centre: a Spa Berry hot tub. The gym is also mostly open to the pool room, though “pool” here is the tabletop kind, and also offers a view of the glasswalled wine room.
Not everyone has a walkout basement, but that doesn’t mean a lower-level home gym can’t have a view.
Glass walls and a wall of mirrors give the home gym in NuVista Homes’ Brittany show home in Redstone, in Calgary’s northeast, an expansive feeling.
The glass walls provide sight lines through the rec room, while providing a sound barrier between the two spaces.
Considering the comments above, apparently I believe a key quality to a home gym is not only the equipment, but the view.
This opinion appears to be shared by QualexLandmark at Mark on 10th, which recently announced its rooftop fitness club and lounge atop its 35-storey downtown condo project.
This residents’ club will include a fully equipped fitness centre, along with billiards table, media centre and lounge with wet bar.
A cantilevered, enclosed glass mezzanine will offer panoramic views of downtown Calgary as well as the mountains.
It’s an interesting concept, working out with a view.
Here’s a little inspiration from above. During his 187-day stretch at the International Space Station, Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk worked out daily.
You would think that the out-of-this world view of our little blue planet would suffice. Instead, he worked out to videos of his favourite trail runs through green woods near his home.
All this to say, home is where the workout is.