A former bodybuilder shares how to workout big in a compact space
Great workouts can happen just about anywhere. Your living room, your garage, even while doing yard work! Just ask former bodybuilder turned Brazilian jiu-jitsu student, Luke Sheffield, who’s set up a home gym fit for a king in a compact space.
Luke recently spilled everything he knows about designing the perfect workout zone with the VERVE Fitness team. Spoiler: sometimes that means getting a little creative with how (and where!) you use your equipment.
From DIY attachments that reduce back strain to weighted vests that you can throw on while doing house chores, Luke knows a thing or two about keeping exercise interesting. He’s kitted out his garage with everything he needs to keep his body modelling that of a Greek statue, but it’s actually Luke’s design muscles that caught our attention.
Using basic items you can pick up at your local hardware store, Luke has transformed commercial-grade gear into multipurpose machines that will make your compact home gym a workout wonderland.
Read on to find out how he does it.
Setting up a home gym with limited space
Q1) Walk us through your epic home gym set-up.
Layout: My gym is set up in my garage, which is about 3.1m x 5.5m. It’s a little compact but I’m really happy with how I’ve utilised the space.
Flooring: The flooring of my home gym is super simple. I purchased rubber mats from Bunnings, which I joined with black gorilla tape so they don’t move when I work out – I like to train hard and fast!
Fitness Equipment: My gear is a mix of machines I picked up second-hand on Facebook Marketplace or purchased from VERVE Fitness. VERVE’s range is more affordable and just as good, if not better, than other well-known gym equipment brands.
I mostly train using VERVE’s gym equipment, which includes:
- Commercial Half Rack - I modified this by switching the chin-up bar and the cross beam for two 1080mm Cross Beams.
- J-Hooks
- Spotter Arms
- Elite Olympic 20kg Barbell
- Tactical Vest Plate Carrier + 10kg Machined Olympic Iron Plates - I actually wear this while doing yard work. I find it’s a great endurance workout. Burns more calories and is way more fun than the treadmill.
- Power Arms - This is my favourite piece in the whole gym!
- 14-inch Power Flat Bench
- Adjustable Bench
- Resistance Bands
- Weight Horns
- Olympic Iron Plates in 25kgs, 20kgs and 10kgs
- Foam Roller - I use this for padding when squatting and hip thrusting.
- Medicine Balls - I mainly use these for Russian twists and other core exercises. They honestly helped make my abs chunky like liver kings and my obliques look like a Greek statue.
My gym also has a compact hack squat, a leg extension curler, a reverse hyperextension, and dumbbells in pairs of 4kg, 7.5kg, 10kg, 12.5kg, 15kg, 17.5kg, 20kg, 25kg, 35kg and 45kg (plus a pretty awesome dumbbell rack) and adjustable dual pin loaded cables. I purchased the cables from a commercial gym when they were refurbishing – a total steal!
Q2) Why did you choose VERVE Fitness equipment for your home gym setup?
Honestly, I really liked the name VERVE! But I also wanted to support an Australian brand and heard great things in ‘Home Gym’ Facebook groups. Plus the customer service has been second to none. Every person at VERVE I’ve spoken with has helped me find what I was looking for and never once made me spend more than I should.
DIY gym equipment modifications
Q3) We see you like to modify your gym equipment. Give us some insight into how that started.
I have ADHD, which means I'm very creative and love going hard at things. I’ve also been training weights pretty aggressively since I was a teenager and competed in IFBB bodybuilding between the ages of 26 and 29 - I’m 31 now. So I’ve had the privilege of training in a lot of gyms all over the world.
When I was travelling, I’d get to do all these awesome exercises that I wished I could do at home but didn’t have the space for. While there were certain attachments I could buy, not everything was available – so in order to do the exercises I loved comfortably, safely and at home, I started to make my own attachments.
Q4) What’s your favourite gym equipment modification you’ve made so far?
I love making Power Arms modifications. All that’s needed is a few M16 bolts from Bunnings, some wood to cut and a drill.
I recently made a chest rest pad that I attached to one of the Power Arms and now I can do reverse flys without back strain. I also created weight horns for the Power arms, by adding a small chain to the belt squat attachment on the tip of the lower arm. Now I can do side raises, barbell curls, rows, literally anything!
As the lower arms on the machine are adjustable and have holes in the bar, you can find a way to make anything work for a workout. For instance, if you don’t think one arm is stable enough because you’re doing heavier weights, get 4 x M16 bolts and join them together with a chin-up bar to make it solid. That makes it easy to do pendulum squats or leg presses.
Even though I love it, the Power Arms can strain your back a little when trying to lift and lower them to setting pin heights. But here’s a trick – all you need is an M16 bolt that has a loop on it from Bunnings, a 1m chain, a quick pin and 2 D-Clips. Connect a clip into the M16 loop bolts at the top of your rack and the chain to the loophole at the end of the power arm, suddenly the weight of the arm becomes weightless. It slides up and down easily, as the chain takes all the weight.
Health & fitness inspiration
Q5) How do you decide what exercises to do when you step into your home gym?
I open my garage door, step inside and start poking my muscles. The ones that aren’t in pain are ready for a beating. I especially love chest pumps and working my abs. Pain motivates me and makes me feel strong – If I’m not sore somewhere, I feel weak.
Q6) What are some of your biggest goals?
Ultimately, I want to be a great father and husband. But I’d also like to graduate from my
dual degree in nursing and paramedicine, achieve a black belt in BJJ, reach 9% body fat and continue to bench, squat, and deadlift powerfully.
Q7) Who inspires you the most?
My family. Especially my one-year-old daughter. Nothing is more important than her happiness, health and safety. Life goes quickly and I don’t want to miss a second of her growing up.
Without my family, I feel like nothing is worth doing. They’re the reason I’m pushing through university, despite having ADHD and dyslexia. They’re the reason I continue to show up for my BJJ classes even when I’m exhausted. Simply put, they keep me fighting when I’m feeling lost.
Q8) Any final words?
I’d like to thank the entire team at VERVE for creating a great brand that loves to have a chat and genuinely shows interest in their customers. Thanks for listening to my ideas! Not only have you made me feel important to your business, but you’ve also made me feel like a friend.
The VERVE equipment has done wonders for my body and mind and I’m definitely up for trying the entire range. You can trust me to give my honest opinion. Cheers guys. 10/10.
Advice for setting up your own compact pumping ground
Whoa, isn’t Luke a machine?
His attitude to home training is a true inspiration to the entire VERVE Fitness team (more than one of our crew has tried out his hack for adding weight horns to the power arms. Genius!).
To stay inspired by Luke, you can follow his Instagram account: @luke_luke_luke_luke_luke_luke
If you’re thinking about setting up a home gym but don’t have much room (or a huge budget) to work with, there’s so much to learn from Luke and his creative, out-of-the-box approach to setting up your space.
Here are just a few of our favourite takeaways from this chat – if there’s anything you think we missed, don’t be afraid to give us a shout.
- You don’t need to purchase everything new – you can often pick up awesome gear secondhand from commercial gyms or sites like Facebook Marketplace
- Keep your flooring simple – rubber mats and gorilla tape is all it takes
- It’s easier than you think to modify equipment – a couple of bolts and a plank of wood can sometimes turn a single-purpose machine into a full-body apparatus. Perfect for compact home gyms!
- Workouts don’t always have to be in ‘the gym’ – throwing on a weighted vest while you do the chores is a great way to get your blood pumping
Shop the collection
Love to exercise but don’t have the time to hit the gym? No problem! Thanks to our range of commercial-grade equipment, setting up a workout space in your home has never been easier or more affordable.
Browse our collection and start building your very own workout haven today.
