How to set up your home gym for quickies?

If you think you’ll need quickie workouts from time to time to keep up your conditioning; then streamlining your home gym is essential. If you only have ten minutes to exercise, you don’t want to spend six of those minutes trying to find where you put your exercise bands. Management of your home gym space is critical for successful quickies. The following tips help ensure that your home exercise space is ideal for quickies.

• Consistent space: If space permits, the ideal situation is to have a dedicated space that’s only used for your exercise sessions. In many homes, however, space is at a premium. If you can’t allocate a spot only for exercise, at a minimum choose a place that you use consistently and that’s large enough for your movement needs.
• Storage containers for equipment: You must have proper storage for your equipment in order to find it quickly and to avoid accidents. Storage is particularly important when it comes to dumbbells because other family members or you may trip over randomly placed equipment. For every type of equipment that you purchase — dumbbells, bands, tubing, stretch straps, mats — you need to have a place for it to belong. Store dumbbells on racks and use baskets or crates for bands, tubing, and stretch straps.
• Workout plans or log: You want to be able to do your routine immediately. If you haven’t memorized it, you need to reference it quickly and easily. If you keep a workout log, keep it with all of your equipment. All of your workout design resources (such as this book) should also be easily available.

• Clock or timer: If you know that time is always going to be an issue, keep a clock visible either in or near your workout area. As an alternative, keep a timer and set it for 10 or 15 minutes or whatever you’ve allocated, so you’ll stay within your time budget and be sure to complete your planned exercises.