What are the precautions when building a home gym at home?

When building a home gym, there are two things to keep in mind: noise and floor strength. What exactly should I pay attention to?

1. Noise countermeasures

When exercising at home, if you step on or jump, vibration will occur. Also, when using exercise equipment such as a power rack, a loud noise is generated.

In particular, concrete used in condominiums has the property of transmitting vibration 15 times more easily than air. There is a layer of air called a living room between concrete, which has high strength and is easy to transmit vibration. This structure is the same as a drum, and it is easy to amplify sound and vibration. Therefore, even ordinary life sounds often lead to troubles and complaints.

Soundproofing with flooring is also suitable for preventing such noise and vibration.
The sound insulation grade of the floor is expressed by a numerical value called "L value", and the smaller this numerical value, the more difficult it is for sound and vibration to be transmitted.

If you want to exercise well at home, it is best to change the flooring material to one with such high soundproofing and sound insulation. As a guide, it is a good idea to select a flooring material with an L value of about 35-40 and remodel it.

2. Floor strength

The next issue is the strength of the floor.

In particular, some power racks and barbells for bench presses used for muscle training weigh more than 100 kg, and if they are used in condominiums, they will be seriously scratched when dropped or the floor will come off in some cases. It can also happen.

Since the load capacity per square meter stipulated by the Building Standards Law is 180 kg, if a bench press or home rack is placed in a space of about 2 to 3 tatami mats and people train there, the load capacity will be barely enough.

When training with such equipment in earnest, it is recommended to change the floor material, reinforce the floor itself, and renovate the beams that support the house.