Improve Your Office Space With A Home Gym
As people start returning to their office space, you might still find some empty space that could use some other purpose. You may also want to provide something extra special for your employees to help them really look forward to returning to the brick-and-mortar office space. One way to accomplish all these things and more is to add an in-office gym.
The Importance of In-Office Gyms
Bringing a fitness vibe into your office is beneficial for many reasons. First, when you add a gym to your office, you’re giving your employees an opportunity to work out and stay healthy in their free time before or after the workday, or even on their lunch break.
Bekir Mustafić, e-Commerce manager for Gymreapers, says, “The ability to have a gym or exercise space before or after work, or even on a lunch break, brings many health benefits and also elevates mood (serotonin). Overall, having an exercise space helps people look and feel more healthy and can even reduce the number of sick days used.”
Mark Swaby, President of Force USA, also discusses the importance of having an in-office gym. He states, “Finding time to work out is the hard part. However, it’s made a lot easier when it’s at arms reach. If it’s in your office environment, it’s available.”
Michael R. from Iron Grip mentions “Anything that a company can do to encourage its employees to be active and to get and stay healthy will yield many benefits, including less sick time, better employee well-being, and a happier and more satisfied team overall. An in-house gym can help create a pathway to these benefits, but importantly, it signals to the employee that their health and well-being is as important to the company as it is to them.”
Also, by adding a home style gym to your office, you can fill up any empty space that may still be an issue post-pandemic. Andreas Gundersen, CEO of Gungnir, has equipment in his office that has won Red Dot Awards for outstanding product design in the gym space. This can showcase examples to staff on innovation. They even have kettlebells with primal faces on them from Onnit. Just another example of when everyone else sees a circle, you can see a face.
Jordy Schmidt, Global Marketing Coordinator at FITBENCH, offers additional insight as to the importance of having an in-office gym by stating, “Having a gym accessible and ideally nearby is essential to feel motivated to get moving. It saves commuting time and the close proximity discourages users from making up an excuse as the dumbbells and bench is nearly within reach. Plus, when one peer sees another peer working out, it enhances motivation and perhaps promotes friendly competition or the possibility for group training and a way for workers to connect/hang out when the topic is NOT work-related.”
Equipment For In-Office Gyms
The type of gym equipment you outfit your space with will depend on a few different things: space, equipment preference, and cost. You may only have a certain amount of space to work with and this can dictate what you add, and what you don’t, to your office gym. Also, you might have a preference for certain types of equipment, such as PowerBlock dumbbells for strength training, or a simple cable machine attachment like the ANCORE cable trainer that can be mounted onto existing equipment. If your employees are more focused on cardio, perhaps you prefer an Echelon bike that has hundreds of recorded exercises to view at any time.
When it comes to space-saving strength equipment, PowerBlock allows you to have a full set of dumbbells, all in one compact space. You could also add space-saving recovery equipment to your in-office gym, like Mobility Wall, which allows you to basically have a massage parlor, right in your door frame.
In addition, the cost of each piece of equipment may help you determine what to buy and what to leave on the shelf.
At the end of the day, when you add a home gym to your office, know that you’re helping your employees, and yourself, strive for optimal health and have an enjoyable activity on hand.
Restructure Your Office Space
Even with your staff heading back to the office, or already there, you may find some employees still working from home. It’s also possible that the pandemic forced you to downsize your employee base. With that said, you may have some extra space. Adding an in-office gym is a great way to use the extra space, but it’s not the only option of course. For example, you could expand the work areas for your current employees and give them more room to do their daily work duties.
Office work settings don’t always stay the same. And that’s not a bad thing! When you switch up your current office setting, you’re keeping employees engaged and happy. And you’re making use of your office space due to prior changes in the work environment. Plus, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy the new changes, too!