You’ve courted Crossfit–made a commitment, kept dates, paid dues, and put in the work. Now you’re wondering if  you should take this relationship to the next level: move in together, set up a spare room dedicated to Crossfit training in your home and you need home crossfit gym ideas. 

Thanks to the pandemic and quarantines, Crossfit lovers have been forced to think outside their box, re-arrange their budget, and find creative ways to maintain their fitness. Fortunately, there are many options available, one of which is to build your own home Crossfit gym or garage gym.

Space in Crossfit Garage Gyms

The beautiful thing about Crossfit workouts is that it can be done just about anywhere, that’s part of the allure of functional fitness and a Crossfit home gym, you just need enough space to perform  your olympic weightlifting. 

Be it a garage gym, a spare room, or a dusty equipment shed, any space can be set up to house your home Crossfit gym.

Take measurements of the area you intend to convert into a home gym, as this will determine any weight lifting restrictions. 

Height Restrictions in Home Gyms

Height is important for wall balls, overhead movements, olympic weightlifting, pull up bar, squat stand or power rack, climbing ropes, peg boards, and olympic rings. 

Knowing your clearance will give you an idea of the types of Crossfit movements and weight lifting you can accomplish, thus knowing what items to stock your home gym with. 

Room to Move Around Your Gym Equipment

A cluttered garage gym is a dangerous garage gym. 

Tape and measure the estimated amount of room needed for movement in each area of your crossfit garage gym so everything fits. 

Knowing the amount of square footage available gives you an idea of how much equipment you can safely furnish your home Crossfit gym with.

Weight Storage in Crossfit Gyms

A clean home gym is a healthy home gym. 

Allocating a designated barbell, kettle bells, dumbbell, and bumper plate storage area is equally important in your home gym. It allows you to enter your home gym with a focused mindset, free of distraction and injury.

Storage is often overlooked when planning a home Crossfit gym but is extremely important when space is limited. 

Barbells can be stored on the squat rack, tucked into a corner, placed in a barbell holder, or hung on the wall. 

Depending on if you have enough space, a vertical or horizontal barbell rack is available, your barbell can be stored in a floor mount or you can have your rack mounted on the wall. Typically, a dumbbell rack is horizontally stored on the floor due to weight requirements, however, there are heavy duty vertical storage options available. 

A simple shelf can house bumper plates, a jump rope, a weight vest, medicine balls, and wall balls with room to tuck your plyometric box and rogue flat utility bench, or weight bench underneath.

Flooring in Home Gyms

You’ve invested in fancy Crossfit equipment, not only does it need to be properly stored but it needs to be properly floored. 

Crossfit movements that require moving heavy weights quickly create the opportunity to drop the weights between reps. Although bumper plates, plates made from rubber with very low bounce, were created with this in mind, they can bend with repeated force and damage your unprotected floors. 

Adding heavy duty rubber mats or trailer mats to your home gym is an excellent precaution to guard against damaging both your weights and your floors due to their high weight capacity. 

Such flooring is found in many gyms.

Building Budget Friendly Garage Gyms

Space: Check. 

Now let’s move onto the root of all evil: (no not burpees) a budget. 

Gym equipment for home gyms or garage gyms can add up faster than you realize, especially when you’re fueling your passion. Dreams of your own gym are a mouse click away and before you know it, you’re eating peanut butter protein and canned tuna for 6 months straight while paying off your credit card statement. 

So let’s have a plan. 

Whether it be setting money aside every month or buying a new piece of Crossfit equipment with every paycheck, calculate how much money you can afford to invest in your new equipment and plan your garage gym purchases around that. 

Not all of us can afford to go full Rogue Fitness or Crossfit Games right out of the box, but it is very possible to begin setting up a budget version crossfit garage gym with one purchase at a time. 

Think about what you will use the most so you are not blowing your budget on items that will rarely be used and allocating more for the best equipment and an awesome setup.

Get Creative with Crossfit Home Gym

Fortunately, it does not take much to get started doing WODs at home. 

You can start with a simple fringe sport wonder bar and best budget bumper plates and best flat bench, then add body weight movements such as pull ups, jump rope, or scaled muscle ups until you are able to fully stock your crossfit home gym.

Simply adding a weight vest to typical body weight pull ups can also spice up your crossfit workouts.

Some Crossfit equipment can be improvised, for example, rectangular water irrigation valve boxes substitute for jerk blocks or plyometric boxes, for a fraction of the cost, as they are roughly shin high and suitable for scaled box jumps.

Filling a five gallon bucket to desired weight for farmer carries is a budget friendly alternative to kettle bells. 

Most gyms have at least one plyo box and it only takes a little bit of extra wood to build your own plyometric box for box jumps.

Although it is possible to build your own power racks, for safety reasons, it is not recommended.

Part of functional fitness is the ability to move awkward items, so consider household items you can substitute so you can allocate more funds toward the large ticket items. 

Research Best Crossfit Equipment

Decide which movements you want to focus on the most, then research and compare costs of the Crossfit equipment needed for them.

If you’re on a small budget, it may be wise to consider gently used gym equipment.

Facebook marketplace, Facebook Crossfit resell groups, Craigslist, and garage sales host a plethora of pre-loved items from budget bumper plates, barbells, dumbbells, and kettle bells to rowers, ski erg, or an air bike. 

Despite the budget, it is not advised to go cheap on a poor quality rig. Remember, you need something sturdy enough to hold you and a loaded barbell. 

Not every pull up bar and squat rack is created equal. Talk with Crossfit coaches and other Crossfitters to get good recommendations for best Crossfit equipment. 

Many manufacturers, such as Rogue Fitness, Fringe Sport, Titan fitness, offer starter packages for the basic items such as barbells, bumper plates, flat bench, and squat rack or pull up bar. 

Where to start building your Garage Gym

A helpful tip is to create a list of items needed for your home Crossfit gym, then list them in order of priority. 

Best equipment found in Crossfit gyms:

• Barbells and specialty bars
• Bumper plates
• Kettle bells 
• Plyo boxes 
• Dumbbells 
• Glute Ham Developer (GHD)
• Ab mats
• Medicine balls or slam balls
• Squat racks or power rack
• Pull up rigs
• Olympic rings
• Jumping rope
• Climbing ropes
• Rowers
• Peg Boards
• Ski Ergs
• Assault bikes or Air Bike
• Jerk Blocks
• Push sleds
• Weight bench or flat bench
• Resistance bands
• Parallettes

Additional Equipment in Crossfit Gyms:

• Barbell clips
• Huge fan 
• Timers
• Chalk
• Weight belts
• Wrist wraps
• Weightlifting shoes
• Knee sleeves
• Rubber flooring
• Mirrors 
• Weight vest

Fringe Sport sells some of the best Crossfit equipment, as does Rep Fitness, Titan Fitness, Rogue Fitness, as well as several vendors that cater the Crossfit Games.

Programming for a Home Gym

One thing to consider when building a home Crossfit gym is your crossfit training. 

Going from a Crossfit box to a home gym doesn’t have to be challenging when it comes to crossfit workouts. 

Thanks to Covid 19, many affiliates offer at-home options for WODs. Crossfit.com also posts daily workouts that can be done in your own home.

If you’re looking for a more tailored experience, companies such as Renaissance Periodization offers a personal trainer model with one-on-one coaching.

There is also the chance to train like your favorite Crossfit athlete. Athletes such as Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Mat Fraser, and many more offer elite programming for no matter your level of fitness. 

There are options available through Instagram however, please be aware that exercise is not a one-size-fits-all and you want to train with purpose otherwise why train at all? Knowing how to scale these workouts is an important aspect that is often overlooked when they are posted. Having endless options of free Instagram workouts does have some benefits, however a major flaw is the ability to scroll by the unappealing workouts and cherry pick. 

Finding and following specific programming, whether it’s Crossfit workouts or a quick workout,  is very important when considering a home Crossfit gym as you want to maintain the same benefits of Crossfit that you would get at a Crossfit affiliate using your own equipment.

Last round!

Lastly, make it your own! Why not? It’s your home gym, go crazy! If your favorite color is yellow, splash some paint on the walls and hang some words of inspiration in this awesome space. After all, this is your happy place and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to reach your fitness goals.  

When researching your home Crossfit gym ideas, be realistic. Think about the movements you want to work on the most and prioritize the necessary Crossfit equipment. Consider the size of your crossfit home gym when creating your budget.