Heating a Garage Gym

Off Topic
41

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]dirtman wrote:
I have a home gym. I am always looking for ways to cool mine down. Its cold where I am and I love it cold when I lift. I even keep the windows open and you can see my breath when I workout.
[/quote]

Nothing says a great workout until the sweat on your hands freezes onto the cold steel and you pull off a layer of skin, eh?

Sorry, banged my hands on too many cold engine blocks in my day and snapped my fingers with one too many cold rifle receivers. I like my gyms 68 F.

Now, I will go do pull ups or whatever outside in 1 F weather, but no moving metal around in the cold.[/quote]

I usually have no shirt on and just a belt and the steam just rises.
Scares my kid LOL. Metal is blaring and I am just growling away. She does not bug me or ask for anything. Its my time. But I do close up the window and it warms up again.

42

[quote]dirtman wrote:

[quote]thethirdruffian wrote:

[quote]dirtman wrote:
I have a home gym. I am always looking for ways to cool mine down. Its cold where I am and I love it cold when I lift. I even keep the windows open and you can see my breath when I workout.
[/quote]

Nothing says a great workout until the sweat on your hands freezes onto the cold steel and you pull off a layer of skin, eh?

Sorry, banged my hands on too many cold engine blocks in my day and snapped my fingers with one too many cold rifle receivers. I like my gyms 68 F.

Now, I will go do pull ups or whatever outside in 1 F weather, but no moving metal around in the cold.[/quote]

I usually have no shirt on and just a belt and the steam just rises.
Scares my kid LOL. Metal is blaring and I am just growling away. She does not bug me or ask for anything. Its my time. But I do close up the window and it warms up again.[/quote]

I’ve noticed that sometimes the quickest way to warm up in the cold is sans shirt. Haven’t tried without pants yet…

43

I train in my garage, in Canada, in the winter, and I’ve tried every electric heater on the market, none of them work, even if I leave them on all night before the workout. What I’ve come to, is two electric forced fan blower types ( from walmart) called construction heater’s, but thats a joke, I can get the name off the box if needed, and one propane construction heater, drywall heater, it’s just a square tube, and a big blue flame blows out of it.

Anyway, I go out turn on the propane heater in the middle of the room, leave it on while I set up for my workout, I turn on the two eletric heater’s, and turn on lights and stereo. It takes about 5-10min, for the propane heater to have it hot enough that I have to take off my jaket, then I turn it off, and I can workout, the two electric units do a great job of keeping the space heated, but just can’t seem to push the initial cold out by them selves. The propane unit is unbelievable, the heat that it throws, if you were worried about fumes, you could just leve the door wide open, it wouldn’t matter, the propane heater would heat the space anyway. I’ve had the heater for two weeks, and I haven’t even dented the little 20lb barbeque tank that I use with it. After two winter’s trying to get by with electric heater’s I’m blown away by this heater, don’t know why I waited so long. I’ve tried the carosine (oil) filled electric heater’s nothing, I think I’ve tried every electric heater there is for 110v and they don’t dent the cold, mabey a foot around the heater thats it. I bought the propane heater used for 60$ at an equipment rental store, it had become to banged up to rent, but works fine for me.

A couple other things, 1, I wouldn’t leave this heater running without being in my garage, because it’s open flame, but thats me, and 2, I used tarps to section off my workout area, so I don’t have to heat such a big area, this didn’t help with the electric heater’s, but I think it makes it easier now that I have the propane unit. This is my story, hope it helps

44

I apologize for not having a heating solution TC, but given that the topic is taking a turn toward training in the cold in general, I trained for 5 years in my garage in very North North Dakota (almost the Canadian border). We had a winter that we experienced around -60 with windchill, and I still trained in the garage with 2 heat dishes and lots of layers. Matt Kroczaleski did some similar stuff training in Michigan with no heat while wearing shorts. He said that you can get accustomed to it, and I found a similar experience as well. After spending enough time training in the cold, your cold tolerance becomes pretty crazy, and you end up wearing fewer and fewer layers.

However, in terms of why this could be a bad idea, one day, when it was about -20, I was doing a set of squats where I was focusing on speeding up the eccentric, and my left hamstring snapped like a cold rubber band if you pull it too fast. I never got it looked at, but from what I can tell, it was a really bad muscle pull (class II maybe?) It took me about 6 months before I could squat heavy again with a full range of motion, and ever since that day, I made sure to really layer up my lower body whenever I was training.

45

[quote]Jscoope wrote:

Ha, I’ve tried and he gets in the way.
He’s still too much of a kid and is either too much mischief or too hilarious for me to lift anything heavy without hurting myself, him, or both of us.[/quote]

Ha…similar story, (not really I guess, but) 15 years ago I took my 3 year old out to teach him how to chop wood…told him to “stand back I’m a blastin’” and the first piece of wood went flying like a helicpter blade nearly missing his head by inches.

46

[quote]sen say wrote:

[quote]Jscoope wrote:

Ha, I’ve tried and he gets in the way.
He’s still too much of a kid and is either too much mischief or too hilarious for me to lift anything heavy without hurting myself, him, or both of us.[/quote]

Ha…similar story, (not really I guess, but) 15 years ago I took my 3 year old out to teach him how to chop wood…told him to “stand back I’m a blastin’” and the first piece of wood went flying like a helicpter blade nearly missing his head by inches.[/quote]

Well, the first time I tried lifting with him around I was on the floor with the rumble roller and he jumped on top of me, kicking me in the nuts while he was at it. After that, I started lifting and by the time I got to Squats he was just standing in front of me mimicking me and it was too funny to continue cos his face was really fucking serious and he kept growling, even though I wasn’t.

47

[quote]AnytimeJake wrote:
I train in my garage, in Canada, in the winter, and I’ve tried every electric heater on the market, none of them work, even if I leave them on all night before the workout. What I’ve come to, is two electric forced fan blower types ( from walmart) called construction heater’s, but thats a joke, I can get the name off the box if needed, and one propane construction heater, drywall heater, it’s just a square tube, and a big blue flame blows out of it.

Anyway, I go out turn on the propane heater in the middle of the room, leave it on while I set up for my workout, I turn on the two eletric heater’s, and turn on lights and stereo. It takes about 5-10min, for the propane heater to have it hot enough that I have to take off my jaket, then I turn it off, and I can workout, the two electric units do a great job of keeping the space heated, but just can’t seem to push the initial cold out by them selves. The propane unit is unbelievable, the heat that it throws, if you were worried about fumes, you could just leve the door wide open, it wouldn’t matter, the propane heater would heat the space anyway. I’ve had the heater for two weeks, and I haven’t even dented the little 20lb barbeque tank that I use with it. After two winter’s trying to get by with electric heater’s I’m blown away by this heater, don’t know why I waited so long. I’ve tried the carosine (oil) filled electric heater’s nothing, I think I’ve tried every electric heater there is for 110v and they don’t dent the cold, mabey a foot around the heater thats it. I bought the propane heater used for 60$ at an equipment rental store, it had become to banged up to rent, but works fine for me.

A couple other things, 1, I wouldn’t leave this heater running without being in my garage, because it’s open flame, but thats me, and 2, I used tarps to section off my workout area, so I don’t have to heat such a big area, this didn’t help with the electric heater’s, but I think it makes it easier now that I have the propane unit. This is my story, hope it helps[/quote]

I was wondering about that. If it would be effective enough to just aim at the rack and blast for 10-15 mins and then shut off, and then by the time it cools off I’ll be warmed up anyway.
It seems like the best, long-term solution is to insulate and add an overhead infared heater with a fan.

48

My garage gym is 30’x30’ and finished and insulated to an R-30 rating. Winters here in W. Montana can get very frigid so I have 5 radiant heaters that are bolted to the ceiling and then angled downward to heat. What I normally do before I train is I will go out to the gym and turn on the heaters about 2 hours before I train. This allows it to warm up to a pre-workout 50 degrees, by the time I am done training it is a very toasty 60 degrees and I am sweating.

In the 10 years that I have had “My Gym”, one of the heaters finally broke down and I had to replace it. I was able to find a radiant heater on Amazon for $50.00 including shipping. It also does help that I have 2 ceiling fans that help distribute the heat through out the gym. Another DIY tip is that I have 2" blue insulation foam crammed into the slots on the garage door and then covered with plastic. This brings up the R value of the garage door.

In the picture I provided you can see the radiant heater bolted to the ceiling.

49

Do any of you guys still use your garage for cars?
Up until a few weeks ago we only had 1 car so we just parked it on the other side, leaving my gym area open. Now we have a 2nd car and my wife still wants to park inside (she leaves for work at 5:30 and it’s cold and snowy (we live on a private road = no plowing)). Since the 2nd car is brand new it seems dumb to park it outside, but the issue is that all the caked up dirty snow melts off and drops onto the floor and leeches all over my equipment - my dumbells and plates sit on the floor and lean against the wall cos I don’t have any kind of rack for them.
I’ve taken to putting a tarp down but it’s still so much snow that it the water is everywhere by morning.
No real point, I guess the only thing to do is park outside.

50

[quote]biggjames wrote:
My garage gym is 30’x30’ and finished and insulated to an R-30 rating. Winters here in W. Montana can get very frigid so I have 5 radiant heaters that are bolted to the ceiling and then angled downward to heat. What I normally do before I train is I will go out to the gym and turn on the heaters about 2 hours before I train. This allows it to warm up to a pre-workout 50 degrees, by the time I am done training it is a very toasty 60 degrees and I am sweating.

In the 10 years that I have had “My Gym”, one of the heaters finally broke down and I had to replace it. I was able to find a radiant heater on Amazon for $50.00 including shipping. It also does help that I have 2 ceiling fans that help distribute the heat through out the gym. Another DIY tip is that I have 2" blue insulation foam crammed into the slots on the garage door and then covered with plastic. This brings up the R value of the garage door.

In the picture I provided you can see the radiant heater bolted to the ceiling.[/quote]

Happen to have a link to that amazon heater? Pretty much exactly what I’m looking for (provided it’s for 120v).
And was your garage insulated when you bought the place or did you do it? Remember how much it cost?

51

Nope, cars stay outside and believe me I hear about it almost daily from my wife during the winter.

52

[quote]Jscoope wrote:

[quote]biggjames wrote:
My garage gym is 30’x30’ and finished and insulated to an R-30 rating. Winters here in W. Montana can get very frigid so I have 5 radiant heaters that are bolted to the ceiling and then angled downward to heat. What I normally do before I train is I will go out to the gym and turn on the heaters about 2 hours before I train. This allows it to warm up to a pre-workout 50 degrees, by the time I am done training it is a very toasty 60 degrees and I am sweating.

In the 10 years that I have had “My Gym”, one of the heaters finally broke down and I had to replace it. I was able to find a radiant heater on Amazon for $50.00 including shipping. It also does help that I have 2 ceiling fans that help distribute the heat through out the gym. Another DIY tip is that I have 2" blue insulation foam crammed into the slots on the garage door and then covered with plastic. This brings up the R value of the garage door.

In the picture I provided you can see the radiant heater bolted to the ceiling.[/quote]

Happen to have a link to that amazon heater? Pretty much exactly what I’m looking for (provided it’s for 120v).
And was your garage insulated when you bought the place or did you do it? Remember how much it cost?
[/quote]

http://www.amazon.com/Howard-Berger-Ceiling-Mount-Quartz-Heater/dp/B002R686FQ/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1387405624&sr=8-10&keywords=radiant+heater

It does run 120V.

When I had the garage built is was already planned to be a gym. For resale purposes it is still a garage. That was 10 years ago and I think the garage total was maybe $20,000.00 including the slab.

53

Good to know. Thanks.
So those radiant ones work by heating “objects”, right? Do we count as objects?

54

1861×890 209 KB

Deadlifted in the garage san shirt tonight in honor of the thread!

55

[quote]Jscoope wrote:
Good to know. Thanks.
So those radiant ones work by heating “objects”, right? Do we count as objects?[/quote]

Yes you will feel the heat, plus your bar and such will be warmer.

As to your earlier question, yes you can have insulation blown in and it is exactly as you described, a hole is cut in the drywall between each stud and it is blown in. You can rent equipment to do this yourself or contract it out. Yes you can also do attic spaces.

56

Sweet.
Lowes guy just came and quoted $990 for the ceiling and $2450 for the walls. Both blown-in to R-38 which is in line with the rest of the house.

I know those prices are ridiculous, but now I have the footage and he basically told me exactly how to do it.
I know I can buy those bags of blown-in from Lowes for like $5 each and if you buy so many they give you the equipment rental for free.
I’ll just have to talk to some people about what kind of prep work is involved (do light fixtures and wiring in the ceiling need to be protected/covered with something?) and how I know when the walls are filled (just when the insulation starts coming back out the hole?).
Either way, insulation seems like what I’ll end up doing but I may just wait for the spring when it’s a bit warmer and just suffer through this winter.
Apparently you get a tax refund for materials as well. It’s probably on like 10%, but still.

57

[quote]Jscoope wrote:
Do any of you guys still use your garage for cars?
[/quote]

2 car garage…keep 1 car in the garage, but pull it out when we lift. Don’t want any stupid accidents breaking the car.

58

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Deadlifted in the garage san shirt tonight in honor of the thread![/quote]

Ha ! I did the same thing…almost went down to boxers to take a pic, but sons’ girlfriends were over and didn’t want them to know how weird I am by accident.

59

[quote]Jscoope wrote:
Sweet.
Lowes guy just came and quoted $990 for the ceiling and $2450 for the walls. Both blown-in to R-38 which is in line with the rest of the house.

I know those prices are ridiculous, but now I have the footage and he basically told me exactly how to do it.
I know I can buy those bags of blown-in from Lowes for like $5 each and if you buy so many they give you the equipment rental for free.
I’ll just have to talk to some people about what kind of prep work is involved (do light fixtures and wiring in the ceiling need to be protected/covered with something?) and how I know when the walls are filled (just when the insulation starts coming back out the hole?).
Either way, insulation seems like what I’ll end up doing but I may just wait for the spring when it’s a bit warmer and just suffer through this winter.
Apparently you get a tax refund for materials as well. It’s probably on like 10%, but still.[/quote]

There is some prep like making baffles so that the insulation does not get down into the soffits and block your attic ventilation. You may need to make a box around your attic access to keep insulation back.

One more thing about those electric radiant heaters. I think they are 1500 watts which means more than one or two on a fifteen amp circuit will be pushing it. Code for newer circuits is 20 amps but even then you may need to add a couple more circuits depending on how many heaters you need.

60

[quote]sen say wrote:

[quote]usmccds423 wrote:
Deadlifted in the garage san shirt tonight in honor of the thread![/quote]

Ha ! I did the same thing…almost went down to boxers to take a pic, but sons’ girlfriends were over and didn’t want them to know how weird I am by accident.[/quote]

Ha, nice!