About Spare Room Gym

Most gym advice assumes a basement the size of a CrossFit box. We don't.

We built our gyms in the rooms we had — a spare bedroom, a single garage bay, an apartment corner. So we know the real questions: Will it fit? Is it quiet enough? Is it worth the money, or is the cheaper one fine? Spare Room Gym exists to answer those honestly.

What we do

We review home-gym equipment for people making one or two big, careful purchases — picked for footprint, build quality and value, and strongest where it's hardest: small spaces and tight budgets. We're research-led: we rank on documented specs, manufacturer data and verified owner-review consensus, and we don't pretend to physically test each product. Here's exactly how we choose.

How we're funded

We're reader-supported: we may earn a commission when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you. No brand can pay for a ranking, and commissions never change our picks.

Who writes this

Marcus Bell writes Spare Room Gym. He's an experienced home-gym owner who built and refined his own setup in a spare room — not a personal trainer or an engineer. He pairs that lived experience with careful research: documented specs, warranty fine print, and the patterns across hundreds of verified owner reviews. When he's used something himself, he says so; when he hasn't, he tells you what the call is based on. We won't run a fabricated headshot — Marcus's photo goes here once we have a real one.

Want to reach us? Get in touch.