Converted home gyms get a workout

Four evenings a week for almost two hours, power lifter Bob Packer puts his body through a rigorous routine of strength training. There are no lines to use equipment, no monthly membership fees and no commute time.

Packer, 59, is one of a growing number of Americans choosing to work out at home. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, between 2000 and 2006 there was about a 30 percent increase in the number of people who exercised at home, primarily due to aging baby boomers concerned about their health.

Packer converted a two- car garage into a hard-core strength-training gym when he moved to his Clovis, Calif., home a year-and-a-half ago. His $20,000 worth of equipment includes an eight-station machine with two weight stacks, 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of free weights, an assisted chin dip, bench press, squat rack and power cage. There also is carpet and a few wall mirrors. Packer trains in his gym with fellow power lifters.

"I like it because there are no distractions," says Packer, who is co-owner a fitness equipment shop in Fresno, Calif.

According to Kevin Mulligan, a partner and president of Image Homes, which builds homes in central California, rooms designed specifically for fitness have become a trend in the last five years. Image Homes offers a 15-by-15-foot bonus room option, which Mulligan says owners typically want to use for a gym or theater.

Features such as ballet barres, wall mirrors, electrical outlets closer to the ceiling for wall-mounted televisions and floor plugs for cardio machines are added to the fitness rooms.

"Bonus rooms are a huge seller in houses," Mulligan says. "The gyms are more popular than the theater room. People are into fitness."

According to the National Association of Home Builders, one-third of new and potential home buyers list a home exercise room as essential or desirable; these rank third behind offices and theaters as the most popular special-function room. Anthony Gamber, president of the Fresno Association of Realtors, says bonus rooms bump up the appeal of properties because people can choose what to use them for.

Henry Rodriguez, owner of Better Body Home Fitness in Fresno, says benefits of a home fitness room include convenience and a controlled environment.

"It's right there. There are no excuses for not working out other than being lazy," he says. "You set the air conditioning, the television and the music."

Mulligan, 53, works out four to five times a week in his home gym, a 10-by-12-foot space he added when he remodeled his tri-level Fresno home about five years ago; it sits off the garage on the lower level. Mulligan has about $4,000 worth of equipment, including a treadmill, elliptical machine, bench press, dumbbells, fitness bands and a television. Mulligan's wife, Jode, and children, Patrick, 23, Jenny, 22, and Kelly, 20, also use the room.

"It's convenient. It's quiet. It's private," says Kevin Mulligan, who belongs to gym and a country club, but prefers exercising at home. "It's my own little safe house to go to where no one bothers me."

There can be a drawback to exercising at home, says Derek Pennington, 21, who works at Busy Body Home Fitness in Fresno. "If you lack discipline, you can find ways to distract yourself," such as the couch or the refrigerator, he says.

Family also can be a distraction, Packer says, and they must understand that workout time is sacred. "This is your time. And it has to be a habit, not just something you do as a whim," he says.

Packer has seen about a 20 percent increase in the sale of home fitness equipment over the last five years.

Equipment costs vary depending on durability, warranties and options. It can be as simple as spending $25 for a jump-rope and strength-training exercise bands, Rodriguez says.

Or it can run more than $20,000 for a multistation weight machine, several pieces of cardio equipment and free weights. Rodriguez once outfitted a $36,000 room that included top-of-the-line cardio and strength training equipment, chrome dumbbells and orthopedically designed weight bars. But the average cost of equipment for a good home workout room, with a piece of cardio equipment and a weight machine, is around $2,000, Rodriguez says.

Packer recommends buying more than one piece of equipment. "Any type of exercise is better than nothing, but the fewer things you have at your convenience the more likely you are to get bored and stop doing it," he says. "Variety is a good thing when it comes to fitness."

However, there are several things to consider before buying any equipment.

"I always ask the customer: 'Who? What? Where?'" Rodriguez says.

"Who will use the equipment? What is it going to be used for? What are your goals? Are they weight loss, strength training, well-being? And where is it going to go? You need to make sure it fits in the space you have."

-dailyherald