What is the main problem with a home gym? The noise, of course! I’ve done lots of research on the quietest gym equipment and have found the best 12 ways how to soundproof a home gym.
If you build your home gym using these recommended ideas, then you will have a gym that is a lot quieter than today’s traditional home gyms.
I am an avid gym goer myself, but I never had a home big enough to install my own home gym.
I do have a lot of experience with the different types of equipment available, and some are a lot quieter than others.
Let’s take a look at some easy ways to soundproof your home gym.
1. Build Your Own Soundproof Weight Lifting Platform
If you are really into weightlifting, then you know how important it is to have a platform to Deadlift and Squat on.
Not only is a platform great for these two exercises, but it is also great for Olympic lifts like Snatches and Cleans.
Crossfit is another great style of lifting that can benefit from a platform like this.
What do all these exercises and styles of lifting have in common? They all require you to drop very heavy weights on the floor.
This is where a soundproof weightlifting platform comes into play. The best way to reduce sound and protect your floor is to build a soundproof platform for weightlifting.
This is a small project that you can actually build yourself over a weekend. Some of the required materials required to do this are items like durable hardwood and thick rubber matting for shock absorption.
Building this platform will help you create the best quiet drop zone for all of your favorite lifts.
2. Implement Soundproof Flooring Tile in Your Home Gym
On top of a soundproof platform for your heavy lifts, it is also a smart idea to make sure your entire home gym has soundproof flooring throughout.
Kettlebells, dumbbells, and a lot of barbell exercises usually require you to drop weights during a set or after.
Having a nice thick foam floor mat throughout your home gym will help protect your home’s natural floor from cracking as well as give your feet a better grip.
These interlocking foam tiles from amazon are great to use because they are well priced and have great reviews.
They also come in a few different colors, which is nice to have if you don’t want a solid black floor in your gym.
Even if you don’t plan on dropping heavy weights on your floor, I still recommend investing in these because there will always be a time when weights will hit your floor.
It’s cheaper to protect your floor from damage than have to replace it because of an accident.
3. Invest in Rubber Coated Dumbbells
If you already have a nice set of dumbbells that aren’t coated with rubber, then you will probably have to make this transition slowly.
Having rubber-coated dumbbells is the best thing you can do to soundproof your dumbbells and save your floor at the same time.
Rubber dumbbells will reduce many unnecessary noises like re-racking weights, dropping them on the floor, or hitting them together while lifting.
These rubber-coated hexagonal dumbbells are perfect because, on top of having a rubber coat, they are also hexagonal.
A hexagonal dumbbell is less likely to roll around your floor and damage something in your home.
4. Use Rubber Coated Kettlebells
Using a rubber-coated kettlebell like this one from amazon will help reduce unnecessary noise.
There are many full-body workouts focused on just using a kettlebell.
If you have never used a kettlebell before then, you may be missing out on some great core strengthening exercises that can transfer well to your other big lifts.
5. Implement a Sandbag into Your Home Gym
If you have never tried using a sandbag, then you may want to incorporate it into your next routine.
These are great for a quick full-body workout. It will also give you a good bit of cardio.
Using a sandbag is very similar to a kettlebell. The main difference is there are a lot more exercises you can perform since you can throw and toss the bag around.
You are limited with a kettlebell due to its shape and rigidity. A bag filled with sand is way more forgiving than a solid piece of iron.
6. Build a Sandpit
Sand is king when it comes to noise reduction. You can build a small sandpit to do your heaviest barbell exercises that require a lot of dropping and banging.
You would simply need to create small square frames to hold the sand in. The small sandpits will be your designated areas where you will be dropping heavy weights.
Not only will sand reduce the noise of dropped weights substantially, but it will also keep your weights from bouncing or rolling around.
Building a small sand pit on each side of a weightlifting platform would be perfect for deadlifts.
7. Wrap Your Weightlifting Racks with Cloth
Have you ever noticed how loud it is when you drop a barbell on the weight rack after a heavy set of bench presses?
You can reduce quite a bit of noise from your weight racks using something like cloth bar tape.
Use this on your dumbbell rack, squat rack, bench press, and any other place that has a high chance of impact.
You don’t have to go crazy and wrap your entire bench press or squat rack. Simply wrap the tape a few times around the areas that come in contact with your barbells or dumbbells.
8. Use Bumper Plates for Your Barbell
The main difference between these plates and traditional steel plates is that they are made of solid rubber.
These weights were designed especially for Crossfit and Olympic lifting.
These two types of lifting require the weights to either be constantly dropped or hit the ground.
There are a few benefits to using bumper plates, and one of them includes a quieter workout.
Rubber plates will not nearly make as much noise as solid steel plates, so this makes it perfect for quieting your home gym.
Not only will it reduce the amount of noise your workouts have, but using rubber bumper plates will also help protect your floor when you drop the bar after a heavy set of deadlifts.
9. Cover Your Walls with Carpet
Most home gyms that require soundproofing are mostly located either inside a garage or in a spare room.
Since these are usually very enclosed spaces, there tend to be a lot of echoes from the weights. One way to help reduce echoing is to install carpet on the walls.
Covering your walls with carpet will also help protect your walls from your dumbbells or barbells if they were to accidentally roll onto your wall.
If you install some type of padding or carpet on your wall, you can even use a medicine ball to throw at the wall as a workout without worrying about damaging your wall.
Using carpet isn’t the most effective way to reduce echoes, but it is probably the cheapest alternative to acoustic panels.
Acoustic panels are highly effective at reducing the noise and echo of sudden loud sounds like weightlifting.
10. Implement Acoustic Panels
It is also a little bit pricier, but that is mostly due to the overall added effectiveness of these panels. Carpet cannot even compare to what these panels are able to do.
Installing acoustic panels on your walls and ceilings will drastically reduce echoes in your home gym.
They also work substantially well if you record instructional fitness videos because the panels will drastically improve the overall sound quality.
An easy way to install acoustic panels on your ceiling is to insert drywall anchors after you have taken the appropriate measurements for your panels.
Next, install screw hooks into the anchors. The anchors will give the hooks something to grip on. If you install screw hooks without anchors, then you run the risk of your panels falling off.
Anchors are meant to give the hooks something to grip since drywall is not very robust.
When installing acoustic panels on the ceiling, it is recommended to try and leave at least a 2-inch gap between the ceiling and the panel.
Leaving a small gap like this will help your panel absorb more sound than if it was installed flush onto the ceiling.
11. Incorporate TRX Training
Keeping a TRX kit in your home gym can come in handy. It’s one of the best pieces of equipment you can incorporate into a home gym due to its functionality.
If it’s late at night and you don’t want to make too much noise in your home gym, then this is the perfect option.
You can simply attach this kit to your squat rack or anything that you feel is sturdy enough to hold your body weight.
The TRX kit is also small enough to travel with, which means you can use it if you are away from your gym for an extended period of time.
There are so many different workouts that you can find online for TRX that you will never get bored.
12. Use Weightlifting Tiles for Deadlifting
Adding specific weightlifting tiles like these for your deadlift will have an increased effect on impact and noise reduction.
If you are a gym rat like me, then you know that the deadlift is the loudest exercise in the gym.
The only other exercise louder than a heavy deadlift set is the guy using the cable machine incorrectly with way too much weight causing the weights to smash and echo across the gym.
If you are training for strength and size, then deadlifting is probably a core movement in your workout routine.
Using some type of tile dedicated to reducing the noise and impact of a deadlift, on top of soundproof flooring, in a home gym is key to having a quieter workout session.
Final Thoughts
Having your own home gym can save you a lot of money in the long run.
If you are thinking about building your home gym, then I recommend you take into consideration the types of weightlifting equipment you will be buying.
It will be worth the extra money to make sure the equipment has soundproof traits.
Rubber is always quieter than iron. If you are dropping weights often, then make sure you soundproof your floor.
If you frequently use dumbbells in your home gym, then it would be a good idea to invest in rubber dumbbells. Everybody’s home gym will be different, and not everyone will need the same type of equipment.
If you already have a home gym, then I would suggest assessing what exercises are causing the most noise in your home and going from there.
Upgrading equipment won’t be an overnight process. Start with the nosiest items and work your way down from there.
We all know weightlifting equipment isn’t cheap. If it’s cheap, then the build quality is most likely suffering. In the weightlifting industry, cheap isn’t always better.