Shopping for barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells can be exciting when outfitting your home gym—just don’t overlook the important aspect of home gym lighting, which may not be as exciting, but definitely matters for a number of reasons.
Learn the benefits of recessed lighting, overhead lights, LED lights, along with some handy home gym lighting ideas in this guide for home gym owners.
Jump to:
Why Home Gym Lighting Matters
Even in a small workout space, lighting for a home gym keeps your workout space safe and inviting—especially if you work out early in the morning or at night. Natural light is a great way to illuminate your space, but you can’t rely solely on that if you’re a morning bird or tend to exercise after work.
Optimizing overhead lighting or finding a way to get fluorescent lights to maximize your space also has a psychological effect.
You might be more or less motivated by the quality of lighting in your home fitness space. (No one wants to work out in a dungeon.)
With cool newer products like smart lights and affordable, highly-efficient LED lights, you can also save money with your home gym lighting. If you exercise daily, the amount you pay to light your gym will add up over time.
7 Types of Home Gym Lighting
From comprehensive overhead light to maximizing basic light bulb setups in a small garage or basement space, here are seven types of garage gym or home gym lighting to consider.
LED Lighting
LED lights are a great choice for maximum lighting, energy efficiency, and minimal glare.
The initial investment may be more expensive than other types of home gym lights, but they use less electricity and tend to last longer than other types of light bulbs. Opting for LED shop lights can help save you some cash and provide the benefits of LED lighting.
LED lights can be used if you’re installing overhead lights, using wall mounted lights that require bulbs, strip lighting, or even if you’re using floor bulbs. Many corporate fitness spaces use LED lights for these reasons.
Hanging Lights
Hanging lights provide overhead lighting that can easily be mounted to a ceiling, even if there isn’t a stud to drill into, in many cases.
Overhead lighting offers the benefit of easy installation and minimal maintenance.
They can also easily be set up so you can take them down if your workout calls for an exercise like rope climbs or wall-ball shots, where you or an object may hit the lights. Smaller fitness spaces such as a yoga studio often use hanging lights for these benefits.
Recessed Lighting
Downlights, or can lights as they’re sometimes called, are two terms for recessed lighting, which is known for smooth color temperature lighting with minimal space being taken up.
They work great as light fixtures in a garage gym or in areas where you don’t have a ton of room to operate. A pack of light cans can be purchased for as little as $30, too, so the investment doesn’t have to be significant.
Recessed LED lighting marry the best of both worlds for lighting an entire space on a budget, visually and space-wise, but may cost a little more.
Floor Lighting
Don’t skimp on floor lamps and other forms of floor lighting, especially if you’re using most of your home gym budget to deck out your squat rack, weightlifting platform, or get the best equipment you can.
You might be able to repurpose a lamp at home for the time being, which would cost no money. In some situation, getting light horizontally (especially if you have access to natural light or direct light from the sun) isn’t an issue.
Floor lighting is particularly good for a basement gym, where drilling a wall mount or ceiling fixture into cement can be frustrating and may require additional fixtures tools besides the basics.
The one downside to floor lighting is it tends to leave dark corners and glare spots, especially in a small or narrowly shaped room. Depending on where outlets are located, you may need to place the floor lamps in certain areas to maximize wattage.
Track Lighting
A track light bulb gets installed onto strip ceiling light fixtures with a power drill, then you as the home gym owner get to decide how many light fixtures and how many lumens you need on each track.
Many view track lighting as a higher-end option that provides great light for home gyms, although installing several track lights might cost more than other options.
Smart Lighting
Smart lighting that comes with LED bulbs and wifi-enabled technology are making their way into basement gyms, attic gyms, and garage gyms all over the place.
You’re able to control the lights from a remote or from an application on your phone, allowing you to adjust as needed.
It’s the modern equivalent of snapping your fingers and having light turn on.
Natural Lighting
Of course, natural light from the sun is a great, free way to give your home gym ambience.
It’s also a good way to get some vitamin D, which your skin makes naturally when it comes in contact with the sun. Vitamin D helps the body better absorb certain minerals, boosts immunity, and helps ward off several diseases.
Budget Home Lighting Ideas
Here are two home gym lighting ideas you can tackle when working with a limited cash investment.
Maximize Natural Light
Many home gym owners use a combination of natural light and installed lights to get the right lighting for their home gym. If you have a garage door that opens, you may be able to get away with a few overhead lights instead of outfitting an entire space with LED bulbs, for example.
Calculate Your Home Gym’s Square Footage
Figuring out how much gym space you need to cover with light can help you determine if you need one or multiple fixtures on the ceiling or wall for your workout space.
As a rule of thumb, every 100 square feet of your home gym needs around a 2,000 lumen output of light. One standard light bulb might have 75 watts, or approximately 1,100 lumens of light.
