Buying & Building Guide for Outdoor Gyms

If you like to work out at home but don’t have a suitable space for it, a garden gym room could be the perfect solution to bring to your home.

While you can use a normal garden shed as your gym space, or even just for storing your fitness equipment, there are other types of garden rooms which might better suit your needs. This guide will explore all the options from our wooden garden buildings, outlining which ones offer the most practical and attractive features for different levels of budget.

Using a Garden Shed as a Gym

Many people use their shed to store their fitness equipment when they become sick of it taking up space in the house. But beyond storage, a large enough shed can make a great workout room.

To have enough space to lift weights, run on a treadmill, or perform yoga, look for a shed of at least 8×6 feet (2.6x3m). But also consider how much room you might need leftover after you add equipment and furniture. Sheds and other garden rooms come in many larger sizes, which you might need if you were to do exercises such as side-to-side ski hops. Of course, one of the great things about garden gyms is that you can also take the exercise outside into the garden itself when you want to perform cardio, be it jumping jacks or bear crawls.

However, most wooden sheds are only 11mm thick on the walls, meaning they lack insulation. They will be cold in the winter, although you might find that the exercise itself helps offset this as you keep yourself warm through movement. If you are sensitive to that, though, you might not want to use a shed as your gym all year round.

You should also consider that most sheds don’t have windows that can open. This lack of ventilation could cause issues when you need your sweat to be able to vent away, so you might find yourself exercising with the doors open most of the time.

A Summerhouse as a Garden Gym

As some of the most stylish buildings on the market, summer houses are a great choice for a gym due to their large windows that provide an abundance of natural light.

The vibe of a summerhouse makes it a more pleasant room to inhabit than a shed, though of course it depends on the kind of space you envision yourself working out in. The nicer aesthetic of a summerhouse could impact your motivation to continue pursuing your self-improvement goals.

However, summerhouses also share some of the same limitations as sheds when it comes to ventilation and insulation (or the lack thereof).

Log Cabin Garden Gyms

Log cabins make excellent garden gym buildings in part due to their naturally insulating qualities. Starting at 19mm thickness and with options up to 44mm, the timber effectively keeps these garden rooms warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.

The experience of building a log cabin gym is a little different from other buildings. Where you would put together a shed or summerhouse by erecting pre-assembled panels of tongue and groove boards, a log cabin involves stacking heavy log boards one atop the other, interlocking them at the corners.

The result of this isn’t just a slightly better insulated building; the walls are also more heavy duty, able to take more weight when you hang items onto them. This makes log cabins a very attractive option for garden gyms, where you can hang up some of your equipment or install a pull-up bar (though heavy weights are probably better off being left on floor-standing racks).

Between log cabins and summerhouses, one of the interesting types available is the options which come with an added side store. The log cabin below, for example, could have the main room used for workouts and then keep the equipment in the storage section afterwards, freeing up the space for other uses.

Insulated garden gyms

If it is important to keep the temperature within a certain range in your garden gym, then you should look into the insulated garden buildings range. These are constructed of wooden panels with insulation material packed inside them.

Here’s a cross section of what this looks like:

Complete with double glazed doors and windows, the impact of this is a room which stays warmer through the winter and cooler in the summer. This could make it much more comfortable to work out in, without as much energy required to control the temperature yourself.

Best roof type for a garden gym

Believe it or not, the roof makes a big difference to your garden gym experience, and it’s not just aesthetic.

The main two types of roof you will come across are apex and pent. In short, the apex is peaked and the pent is flat. We have more information about the differences between apex and pent roofs, but the important distinction for workout purposes is the ceiling height.

Under a pent roof, the tallest part of the garden room is at the front. This provides a stylish look that fits well into modern gardens, and makes the room feel bright and open.

In comparison, an apex roof leaves you with more headroom in the middle, as the ceiling extends upwards along the centre. This makes a significant difference if you plan to do exercises which involve jumping, whether this is skipping, squat jumps, or jumping jacks. With over 2 metres of height on some apex buildings, it is advantageous to have this height in the middle rather than at the very front.

Gym shed floors

It is important to choose a gym building with a sturdy floor, especially if you will be lifting weights or jumping. Always choose the 19mm floor upgrade when purchasing a garden building to use for workouts, as these thicker floorboards will play a crucial role. The standard 11mm floorboards are suitable for normal shed storage and casual usage, but they are unlikely to stand up to the hammering that workouts will put them through.

We would recommend adding padded workout mats or foam tiles to your garden room floor to help protect it from impacts. This is especially important if you were to drop a dumbbell or a barbell, which could severely damage the wood and make the room unsafe.

You should also regularly inspect your floor for wear and tear after putting it through your workouts. If there is damage, you might need to replace a floorboard. You can contact us for help to do this.

Using electrical exercise equipment in your garden gym

If you plan to run on a treadmill, put workouts on a TV, keep cool with a fan, or use any other electronics in your outdoor gym, you will need to have hooked it up with an electricity source.

For many people, this looks like running a cable from an electrical outlet on the side of their house through to the inner wall of their garden room. This is the simplest approach but you could take it further by burying the cable underground.

However, a single extension cable from one power socket could be overloaded if you’re using powerful gear, and this probably won’t provide you with light switches on the walls. It would be best to contact a qualified electrician to discuss the best installation options. For more, read our guide to installing electricity in a garden room.

Securing your Outdoor Gym

Fitness equipment can be expensive, especially treadmills and cast-iron weights. So you will want to make sure your garden gym room is securely locked after you finish your workout.

While the log cabins and summerhouses come with key locks, the sheds require you to install your own lock. For most people this is a simple hasp and padlock. However, padlocks mostly deter opportunistic thefts and can usually be removed with a pair of bolt cutters, unless you use a padlock cover to prevent access.

Of course, the mortice locks in the summerhouses and log cabins could also be broken through by a highly determined thief. This is where the log cabins and insulated rooms have one more advantage: uPVC doors and windows with multi-lock systems.

The multi-point locking means there is more than just one bolt sliding into place to secure the door when you turn the lock. Little pins around the frame move into designated points that prevent opening, and these are much more difficult to break through, providing you with the most secure garden room, as well as superior insulation thanks to the double glazing.

Garden Gym Frequently Asked Questions

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