Is 8.5' x 8.5' large enough for a home gym?

[kalrith]

I'm contemplating sectioning off part of my unfinished basement as my home gym (mainly to keep the pets out of the space, so I don't drop weights on them ). All I want is to have room for a barbell routine (SS for the foreseeable future). I'll do my cardio elsewhere and have no plans of doing anything like CrossFit.

The easiest space to section off would be 8.5' x 8.5'. There would be a door on one end, but I can put it wherever I want since I'll be putting up drywall. If necessary I can extend it out a bit, but it would take more work and take up extra space in the rest of the basement, and I'm am still limited to an 8.5' width. In other words I could make the space into something like 8.5' x 11' if necessary but would prefer to keep it at 8.5' x 8.5' if that's a sufficient amount of space.

The space is totally empty and would have nothing but a power rack, bench, olympic weight set, and maybe some dumbbells.

Is 8.5' x 8.5' enough room for that?

 

[highland145]

Lay out 2 sheets of plywood, put everything on it and see if you're bumping into the other equipment.

 

[brikis98]

To do a routine like SS, you need:

* A squat or power rack
* A bench
* A barbell + weights
* A hard, flat floor surface with enough space for deadlifts & power cleans

A typical olympic lifting platform (such as this homemade platform) is 6' x 8' or 8' x 8', which gives you a great lifting surface for deadlifts & power cleans and enough space for a squat or power rack too. Therefore, assuming your ceilings are tall enough for the OH press, 8.5' x 8.5' should be enough room.

 

[MotF Bane]

What's your ceiling height?

 

[kalrith]

The ceiling height's 8.5' as well. So basically I'll be in an 8.5' cube.

brikis, thanks for the input. It sounds like I should be set with that size of a room considering what I want to do. As mentioned in other threads, I don't have the equipment yet, but I would like to build the room first and get a mat (probably horse-stall mats) to cover the entire floor before getting the equipment.

My concern for getting the equipment first is two-fold. One is that my cats would sharpen their claws on the bench, or my dogs would pee on the mats, or something like that. The other is that the animals would interfere either to their demise or mine. I especially worry about my cat that gets underfoot at the worst of times. I don't want to mess with putting all the animals (3 dogs & 2 cats) in their crates every time I lift, and I'd hate for nice equipment to get messed up shortly before I block off the area.

Thanks for the input!

 

[MotF Bane]

Depending on your height, 8.5' sounds like it might be low for OH.

As for the animals, if you build a wall, that'll be enough to keep them away.

 

[kalrith]

I'm 6'1". I'll measure the height again tonight. 8.5' (assuming I'm correct) is the height to the floor joists. It's probably 9' to the actual ceiling. If I do the OH with the plates between the joists, then that might work. However, that might be too risky, and it might not line up correctly anyways.

I'll do a DB OH tonight, and mark the height of the my hands. That plus the radius of a 45-lb plate should give me an idea of how much ceiling height I'll need.