When equipping your garage gym, shopping for barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells might be thrilling. However, don’t forget to consider the crucial role that home gym lighting plays. It may not be as exciting, but it is significant for a variety of reasons.
Optimizing your home gym lighting may make all the difference in producing a training setting that inspires you to keep going, whether you have a corner of a room or a workout area in the garage. When planning your training area, gym lighting is a crucial factor to take into account.
Your cognitive performance and mental well-being are directly impacted by the amount and quality of light you receive when exercising. As a result, consider good lighting when developing your garage gym ideas.
Why Are Lights For Garage Gym Important?
The circadian cycles of the body are affected by lighting, which has an impact on energy levels. Circadian rhythms are biological functions that occur naturally during the day and night.
The cycle between sleep and waking is probably the most well-known, and it is mostly influenced by the light in your surroundings. In contrast to darkness at night, sunlight helps you get up in the morning. However, even artificial light has an impact on your circadian cycles, which in turn affects your energy and mood.
Consider the sunlamps that individuals use to combat wintertime seasonal sadness. Some artificial lighting kinds than others produce more powerful effects. Red lights are more calming, whereas blue lights are typically the most energizing.
How Many Lumens For Garage Are Required?
Based on the room’s intended use, the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) suggested lighting requirements. Despite the fact that they are created for commercial structures, they provide some insightful advice that we will employ in this instance.
To achieve proper coverage, garage lights should deliver 50 lumens per square foot of space. How much lighting is required will also depend on the amount of natural light, the height of the ceiling, and the desired brightness. A typical one-car garage is 12 feet by 22 feet, or 264 square feet, in size.
Similarly, the typical size of a two-car garage is around 20 feet by 20 feet; however, there is a little more variation in size. That is equivalent to about 400 square feet of area. Now that you have those two figures, we can multiply them to determine the overall lumen requirement for your garage.
Best Lights For Garage Gym
1. Natural Light
Sunlight is a terrific, cost-free method to add atmosphere to your home gym while doing indoor exercise. Additionally, it’s a wonderful way to consume vitamin D, which your skin naturally produces when exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D is produced when sunlight contacts your skin.
Your eyes’ photoreceptors receive the signal, alerting you to the need to be awake and aware. Vitamin D increases immunity, aids in illness prevention, and aids the body in better absorbing specific minerals.
Many gym owners combine installed lights with available natural light to achieve the ideal illumination for their home gym. You might only need a few overhead lights if your garage door opens as opposed to, say, lighting up the entire room with LED bulbs.
2. LED Lights
LED lighting is a wonderful option for optimal brightness, energy efficiency, and low glare. Although the initial cost may be higher than for other home gym lights, they utilize less electricity and have a longer lifespan than other light bulbs. You may get the advantages of LED lighting by choosing LED store lights while saving some money.
When installing overhead lighting, employing wall-mounted lights that need bulbs, strip lighting, or even floor bulbs, LED lights can be employed. For these reasons, LED lighting is widely used in corporate fitness centers.
3. Fluorescent Lights
In order to produce light, fluorescent lighting relies on a chemical reaction taking place inside a glass tube. An invisible UV light is created due to this chemical reaction between gases and mercury vapor.
The inside of the glass tube is coated with phosphor powder, which is illuminated by the invisible UV light and produces white “fluorescent” light. The most popular justification for using fluorescent bulbs is their low initial cost and ability to conserve energy.
4. Incandescent lights
A wire filament is heated to a temperature where light is generated in order to produce light. A glass bulb with a translucent coating that is either evacuated or filled with inert gas encloses the metal wire.
As a result, they are inexpensive to produce and inexpensive to buy. The great variety of voltages, light outputs, and currents that incandescent bulbs can handle makes them widely accessible. The least expensive lamp available is this one.
How To Install Lights For Garage Gym
1. Overhead Lights
In the gym, overhead lighting allows for complete illumination of the area. Since you’ll be running, jumping, and tossing in this area, you should choose fixtures that are flush with the ceiling.
Hanging lights are inappropriate here. In many instances, overhead lighting can be attached to a ceiling without the need to drill into a stud. The advantage of overhead lighting is that it requires little upkeep and is simple to install.
They can also be quickly set up so you can take them down if your workout includes moves like rope climbs or wall-ball shots where you or something else might hit the lights. For these advantages, overhead lighting is frequently used in smaller training facilities, such as yoga studios.
2. Wall-Mounted Lights
Wall lighting is the ideal addition to any room, a terrific way to make a place feel more welcome and complete, and a crucial part of any layered lighting system.
Wall lighting creates a pleasant environment and gives the impression that a space is brighter and larger. Overhead lighting sources are balanced by wall-mounted fixtures, which also lend a finishing touch to the décor.
3. Mobile Lights
The final option for lighting your garage gym is perhaps the simplest, making it ideal for those looking to just brighten up their gym without too much trouble.
People who work out in their garages and don’t want to put a lot of effort into lighting their environment will benefit greatly from mobile lights. The advantage of being relatively portable is that they may be placed wherever in your garage.
Things To Avoid While Selecting Lights For Garage Gym
The conventional choice for garage spaces is fluorescent lighting; however, if you live in a cold area, pick a fluorescent fixture based on the lowest temperature in your garage.
A lot of fluorescent lights are inoperative below 50 degrees. Electronic ballasts are more reliable in the cold than electromagnetic ballasts in fixtures. Make sure your illumination is the proper color temperature. In Kelvins, color temperature is calculated (K).
The optimum lighting for workshops and other spaces requiring fine vision is daylight lighting, preferable bulbs over 5000K. For uniformity, use the same color temperatures for all of the lighting in the space. Choose damp-rated, water- or moisture-certified fixtures for places that need lighting in damp settings.
Final Thoughts
Lighting for a garage gym keeps your workout area secure and welcoming, even in a small space, especially whether you exercise early in the morning or late at night. Natural light is a fantastic method to illuminate your room, but if you’re a night owl or prefer to work out in the morning, you can’t rely only on that.
There is a psychological benefit to maximizing fluorescent lighting or overhead lighting in your space. The illumination in your home workout area may increase or decrease your motivation.
You may also save money on the lighting for your home gym by using cutting-edge modern products like smart lights and reasonably priced, extremely effective LED lights. In the long run, the cost of lighting your gym will increase if you work out regularly.
