Home gyms are amazing, but we don’t all have the luxury of the large amounts of headroom required for full sized power racks and overhead exercises.

Thankfully you can still build an awesome home gym in your shorter spaces, and with our list of exercise replacements you can hit all your target muscle groups.

Alternative Exercises For a Reduced Headroom

Standing Overhead Press

If you have a low ceiling then one of the first lifts on the chopping block is the standing overhead press, along with variations such as the push press, and clean and press. That doesn’t mean that vertical presses are off the table entirely though. You can easily replace them with:

• Seated overhead press

• Z press

• Upright row

And if you have enough height to raise your arms above your head, but not for the plates on a barbell, then you could try performing a kettlebell overhead press instead. The weight stays below the level of your hand meaning it won’t hit the ceiling.

Pull Ups

A low ceiling means no space to pull your body up and over a pull up bar, but here are some recommendations for alternatives that work your back just as well:

• Inverted row

• Lat pulldown

• Barbell row

• Cable row

Flooring For Gyms with a Low Ceiling

The floor of your gym is one of the most important parts. It’s what you stand on the whole time you’re training, and protects both your equipment and underlying flooring from damage.

When you’re working with height limitations then some concessions might need to be made.

If you’re in a basement or garage then the bare concrete floor will preserve the most height, but it’s also uncomfortable, dirty, cold, and equipment might slip around unless you bolt it down. Some well-placed exercise mats can help make your workout more comfortable.

If you plan on deadlifting then you really need some rubber gym mats to protect both the floor and your bar and plates. If you have enough floor space but not enough height you could have your short power cage bolted on the bare concrete floor, and then a dedicated section with rubber flooring for deadlifts.

If height is a concern, you can invest in 20mm Gym Flooring. This won't provide as much cushioning as 40mm flooring but will be a big improvement over bare floors.

The Best Fitness Equipment For Home Gyms With a Low Ceiling

A power rack is the cornerstone of many home gyms, and at just 6ft/183cm tall our M200S Short Power Rack is the perfect option for anyone with a low ceiling.

An Adjustable Weight Bench to allow you to perform seated versions of exercises you can’t do standing up.

Some Kettlebells might allow you to do standing overhead exercises if you can raise your arms above your head, and they can be used for a huge number of additional exercises.

And finally, a good choice would be some gymnastics rings. Hang them from the top of your rack and you can perform a wide variety of callisthenics movements like ring rows, ring push ups, ring dips, etc.

Now you have some replacement exercises as well as all the equipment you need to get started. So measure your ceiling for the rack, choose what type of flooring you want, and build the best type of gym there is - a home gym!

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Tags: Misc > Gym Planning