Basements do not have the highest ceilings. There may be limited space. Basements are often cold, unfriendly, and have less-than-desirable conditions for a workout. It’s not entirely unachievable though to have a basement home gym.
Ceiling Height
Let’s look at the first obvious challenge – the height of the ceiling. This limits some activities, obviously. Any sort of jump rope or skipping rope isn’t going to work in a basement, if you have average ceiling height to contend with.
Most basements also cannot fit in large fitness structures and multi-station workout setups, due to the height restrictions.
This doesn’t mean you can’t work out. One just has to make themselves aware of the height limitation.
Wall-to-Wall Space
The simplest basement home gym workout is something like yoga or tai chi. For this, you don’t necessarily need a lot of space. About ten square feet. That’s it. Buy a yoga mat and try it. Minimum, if you have this, you can get in a basement workout.
With just a mat, there are 100s of yoga and tai chi routines you can do. You can work chest with push-ups. You can work your legs with lunges, squats, and calf raises. You can work your back, using extensions. You can work your core with abdominal routines and planks.
This is just to demonstrate the wide array of exercises that can be blended into your daily basement workout.
What Other Exercises You Can Do In A Basement
There are a few other workout routines you may be able to get in in your basement. Overhead beams can be hooked onto with fitness rings or gymnastic rings. This can drastically alter your chest exercise capabilities and provide some bodyweight-style bicep, tricep, and shoulder exercises as well.
Even if you don’t have a beam but have other things you can hook onto, a basement set of resistance bands opens the door for a lot of exercises you just can’t do with a yoga mat and bodyweight.
There are fun exercises and fitness accessories you can buy, such as a hula hoop, that are cardiovascular in design. Work on your breathing and endurance. If you don’t have these available, you can just jog in place. Jogging in place is easy. You can put on a podcast or a movie and just jog. Start with five minutes and then, build to ten, fifteen, twenty, and so on.
There is a lot you can do in a basement but it’s up to you to build a home workout plan you can commit to. Browse the fitness accessories and home gym products at Living.ca. For $100 and under, you can get quite a lot. From low-impact to high-intensity, when you can’t work out at a local gym, set yourself up in your basement. No excuses!
