Building A Home Gym On A Budget in India? Get These 5 Things

I’ve done a lot of blogs with regard to buying home gym equipment in India and even building home gyms. In fact, they’ve been some of my more popular blogs in the past year or so. 

As part of that, understanding that not everybody has the same budget is HIGH and people are looking for different things. 

Often times we don’t want to go to the same company for everything, because there are different companies out there that make a lot of great equipment. 

Today I’m aiming to just highlight some very affordable yet very effective equipment from a couple of different gym manufacturers in India, so you can build the ultimate home gym in India at the ultimate price. 

5 Things You Need For Building A Home Gym On A Budget

Let’s start with the most important part of any gym…

1. Olympic Size Barbell

• Tip: Buy a barbell that is at least 20 kg for men, and 15 kg for women. Pick the company that gives good knurl and bar coating so it won’t rust. Check for tensile strength, anything less than 190K isn’t that strong.

Ateonlineshop.com

This is the only piece of equipment that will be used for all compound movements and is your direct link to the weights. If there’s one thing to invest money and upfront I really suggest a good barbell. 

Here now my recommendation is the ATE Olympic weightlifting bar and that’s because there’s not another bar in the market that compete with the quality-to-price ratio that this bar brings. There are a lot of options when it comes to the finish (Hard chrome) here and if you prefer basics. 

This bar retails for Rs 17000 + GST, I will, however, mention currently ATE has some of the 20kg power bars in their barbell section for the same price, which is at a 5% discount. This bar is great and it’s ideal for general squatting, shoulder presses and weightlifting movements. 

Shipping on these isn’t very much either adding just about flat Rs 1000 based on my own location. 

But for the sake of trying to be somewhat budget conscious, I’d actually suggest the ATE 20 kg Training Barbell, and that’s assuming, of course, you plan on keeping up with your regular bar maintenance. 

2. Power Racks 

• Tip: Squat racks can be an expensive purchase, whether for home or commercial use. It is critical to research the size, stability, and type of squat rack you require before making a purchase.

This is the costliest investment of all. For this, I suggest buying a full cage squat rack. Although you can very well use a half cage and have it be sufficient.

I think the extra money spent for a full cage makes sense as it opens up a ton of options for other movements. Not to mention add-on accessories in the future. 

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Here I’d suggest a Siege Fitness Mammoth 4 post power rack the 36-inch depth version. Now Siege Fitness finish has come a long way in terms of its quality of products and quality control on it is always perfect. They offer a good product at a good price. 

This particular rack comes with J cups, safety straps, and pull-up bars. It has if you don’t plan on bolting your rack to the floor.

Basically, this rack has everything you’ll need to get. It will easily fit in a basement or garage with lower ceilings. It also has a 36-inch depth which I find is ideal for squatting and other movements compared to the 24-inch depth version. 

Siege Fitness also offers a wide variety of attachments and is always coming out with the new affordable product.

If you’d like to get creative perhaps the biggest benefit of Siege besides their cost is the fact they have affordable shipping which greatly helps when you consider this rack weighs close to 300 pounds. All in this rack will run about Rs 60000.

For budget seekers, you can check the siege Revenant squat stand, and gladiator rack (the most affordable 4-post rack).

Also Read: How to Choose Power Rack For Gym India? (10 Point Checklist)  

3. Olympic Flat Benches

• Tip: A good weight bench, like a good pair of weightlifting shoes, serves as a kind of pillar. You want to have something stable enough that it won’t move around or break down on you while slinging weights, whether you’re using it for barbell or dumbbell exercises. 

Buy on Amazon

For this build, I’m suggesting a flat gym bench. Now you could look at an incline option but that will be more costly and I find, for most a flat position is used more than an incline one. Here I’d suggest the competition bench from Bullrock Fitness.

This bench has a lot of great things going for it as it meets IPF specs for height, width and length.

It’s built from heavy-duty 3 by 3 steel and features a flat foot design in front, for a stable benching experience. This bench retails for Rs 14596 on Amazon. 

I would hope that sooner they will upgrade this model with handles, and wheels for those interested. But still, this is the best & heaviest capacity (tested for 474 kgs) flat bench offering in the market.

Buy directly from Amazon here.

4. Flooring and platforms 

• Tip: Flooring makes or breaks the equipment’s life. A good cushion is essential when you drop the bar during deadlifts. A good black rubber flooring should be at least 15MM thick, and even higher where you usually drop weights.

Now this piece is optional but I believe it’s a very good investment to not only protect your floors but also your equipment. Here I’d suggest getting a stall mat from your local supply store. Mats run about Rs 1000 on average. 

Although they occasionally go on sale, I’d suggest purchasing a total of 3 mats. 2 of them will be used to go under your rack. Putting them together will give you a base of 6 by 8 ft and the 3rd mat will be used to build a deadlift platform which will also require some wood. 

Now please note that you could build a deadlift platform by stacking stall mats, but I think using wood provides better protection, looks cooler, and can save you some money.

For the wood, you can go to your local home improvement store and I suggest getting 2 pieces of 3/4-inch thick 4-foot by 8-foot plywood. 

The wood choice is up to you. I personally prefer to get wood that is in the middle range for price because going the cheap route saves money, but the quality is poor and oftentimes the pieces are bowed, which makes for some unevenness when pulling. 

There are plenty of platform tutorials on YouTube on how to build these.

OR

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If you wish to skip the hard work, buy a new deadlift platform from SIEGE FITNESS. The average cost remains 17-19000 Rupees.

5. Weight Plates

• Most lifters are concerned about two things when it comes to plates: price and durability. You want a pair of plates that won’t break the bank and won’t come apart the first time you knock them. Again, LEEWAY FITNESS plates are ideal for this situation.

Leeway Fitness

The only thing you’ll need now is Olympic weights and for this, I’d refer to you based on your own lifting preferences and budget.

Depending on your strength levels, the amount of weight will vary and depend on what you trained for.

It might make more sense to go with bumpers, regular steel plates, or even calibrated plates. Calibrated plated is the costliest option for most.

However, it makes more sense to buy budget steel plates locally and oftentimes weights may be found secondhand on OLX. 

But in case if you have to buy NEW online, I would recommend getting a 50 mm Olympic weight plate from LEEWAY fitness.

They have multiple options to tri-grip plates, to metal integrated plates, to Caption America plates, to the one that is their premium offering is Rubber Bumper plates (buy any that suits your budget). 

Conclusion

So there you go. That’s what I would recommend if you’re building a home gym on a budget and want to keep it somewhat budget-friendly. 

Now it is true you can get a lot of this stuff for a lot less, but the downside is you’re usually going to see a pretty big drop in quality both in the terms of the equipment, the customer service and so forth and maybe just the effectiveness of what you’re going to be using it for. 

Keep that in mind when doing this own home gym build in India. 

If you have other suggestions or recommendations, please leave that in the comment section below. Make sure you let everyone else know what you think of it so they can get some other real-world advice.

For Questions, and recommendations DM me on Instagram: _mensquats_

Thanks!