Have you ever found yourself saying that you just don't have time to get to the gym in the morning before work or in the evening after work? If only you had your own home gym. I am sure many of you have thought about building a home gym but again with the excuses. Home gyms are so expensive. Home gyms require so much more space. Where will I put all of the equipment?

I am here to tell you that a home gym can be created to perform all of your major exercises for less than $200.00 and will only take up a portion of a room or garage. I personally decided that I just didn't have the time to make it to the gym and pay the monthly fee each and every month. I wanted to create my own gym at home but I don't have a lot of space available to me. I had no room in the house and only a corner of the garage to work with. Ok, you might say that the cars go into the garage and there is no space. You are missing the point that the car can be moved for the short 1 or 2 hour work out that you will be doing with your new equipment. Ok, what new equipment? Let's get this journey going.

I went to a used sporting goods store and started looking around. They had everything from big bulky treadmills to the handy Bowflex total body gym. Yes they had tons of stuff I couldn't fit in my house. Just as I was feeling a little down, thinking I wasn't going to find anything -- I saw a bench that caught my eye. It was a flat bench that adjusted to a 90 degree back support bench and to a decline angle that you can perform decline presses with. It didn't have a holder for a bar bell and that got me thinking. Could I possibly use a handful of dumbbells to perform all of my work out needs? I thought I could, so I started writing down the exercises that I could perform. Now would you look at that, I could take care of all of my major muscle groups with this bench and some dumbbells. This set up may not be good for someone who is training for a competition or a heavy lifter but it is perfect for the average person looking to get some weight lifting in with a short amount of time, a little bit of space, and very little cash.

The bench cost me about $100.00. When you are done with your work out you are able to fold it up flat in a corner or against a wall out of the way so that you can pull your car back in the garage. The dumbbells were about $0.50 per pound. So depending on how much weight you need you could come out pretty decent. With the remaining $100.00 of the original $200.00 we were talking about you could purchase about 200 lbs. of weight at that price. I think the average person looking to get some weight training in could easily make this work.

Now the hard part. You have to use the equipment. Don't just let it sit. You have no excuse now. You don't have to drive, wake up too much earlier, or worry about sharing a bench with someone. Get out there and use your equipment. Maybe next article I will add what exercises I do with my new bench and dumbbells. I hope you enjoy.

Please consult a physician before starting a supplementation or weight training regimen.