A Gym of One’s Own

DREAM GYM: A still from a 3-D rendering that Bandit Fitness created for the author.

Here’s everything you need for the ultimate in high-end home workouts.

BY ERIC SNIDER

You’ve heard the phrase go big or go home? How about go big and go home? As in a home gym… that’s big. If you have a designated workout area in your abode — or are considering it — you’re definitely not alone. Waves of people are opting to exercise at home rather than use a commercial gym. Of course, the pandemic has played a major role in the explosion of home training. In a poll commissioned last summer by Beachbody, a health and fitness company, nine out of 10 Americans who exercise regularly said they would continue at-home workouts even after their gym reopened. App-based programs like Peloton and Shred are a hot trend in home exercise. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re going big, remember? This article’s purpose is to plan out a dream gym that’ll meet the needs of everyone from the person who wants moderate daily cardio to the hardcore who lifts weights until he or she collapses. To that end, let us introduce our consultant, Jake Rogers, sales manager for Largo-based Bandit Fitness. The company carries a full line of exercise equipment, and provides consulting services for homeowners looking to add a gym. Rogers and his team analyze customers’ needs — including their exercise routines

The Bodycraft E1200 elliptical comes with a 16-inch touch screen that allows you to access YouTube, Netflix and even an XBox while exercising.

and aspirations, gear preferences, available space and other factors — then build a 3D model of the gym on a computer. Changes can be made by simply dragging and dropping. “Our customers care a lot about installing something unique, and not going cookie-cutter,” Rogers says. “And our designs include not just equipment configurations, but colorings of the walls, flooring types, windows, mirrors, and even stuff like smoothie bars.” (To be clear: While Bandit can include magenta walls in the design, it only sells and installs equipment. If you want a full room conversion with, say, wall-to-wall mirrors, you’ll need a contractor.) The 3D rendering offers another key advantage: “We don’t run into situations,” Rogers says, “where our delivery people show up at a giant home with a whole bunch of equipment and the first thing they say is, ‘Where do you want this stuff?’” So let’s get started on our dream gym. First, how big is big? According to Rogers, 1,000 to 1,200 square feet is on the high end of Bandit projects. That’s about the size of a three-car garage converted into a workout space — jobs that Bandit has undertaken recently. We’ll start with our cardio area. Rogers is enamored with the Hydro rowing machine, a sleek number with a 22-inch, hi-def screen that shows ondemand workout regimens. A maxedout Hydro costs $2,245, plus $38 a month to subscribe to the programs. For those of us who need impact-free cardio, an elliptical machine is a must. Rogers recommends the Bodycraft E1200 ($6,199), with a 16-inch touch screen that’s open-platform so you can access YouTube, Netflix and even an XBox to play video games during your session. Our dream gym has to include a treadmill, right? Rogers has just the piece, the sturdily made Landice L7 ($4,399), with advanced shock absorption. And finally, for the true warriors, there’s the Stairmaster 10G Gauntlet ($16,000) with a 15-inch touch screen. If you’re not intimidated already, this baby comes with Overdrive Training and a top step rate of 190 per minute. Have fun. To crib a line from Al Pacino, “We’re just getting warmed up!” It’s on to the weights area. Let’s start with the ultra-versatile Tuff Stuff CXT-225 multi-functional trainer ($6,098), with more weights, pushes, pulls, pulleys, cables and attachments than we can calculate. We’ll tack on a Smith Machine in one corner so we can add free weights on barbells and other items of excruciation. Speaking of free weights, we gotta have dumbbells. A set of Tag Fitness round urethane pairs — five to 100 pounds in increments of five — with rack ($8,679) oughta do. And for a step up on the maniac scale, we’ll add a BodySolid SPR-1000 power rack for squats, bench pressing, deadlifts and other uber-taxing endeavors. With a good bench and set of plates, this rig runs around $2,500. We now have everything we need to keep ourselves in tip-top condition, but our dream gym somehow doesn’t seem quite finished, does it? More bells and whistles, please. If you watch sports on TV at all, you’ve seen commercials showing chiseled athletes furiously churning a heavy rope in each hand. So let’s add a 50foot Body Solid training rope that’s 1.5 inches in diameter ($119) for a good grip. While we’re at it, we’ll get us a Tank M4 fitness sled by Torque ($1,495), just in case we get the urge to get low and push, push, puuush real hard. Gotta have a yoga/stretching area for the more cerebral among us. We’ll need a mat, of course, so a Manduka Pro 6m in Verve Red ($120) should suffice. Nearby we’ll put a stylish rack of six CAP medicine balls in a variety of colors ($385), a set of CAP kettlebells (10-50 pounds, by fives, $794.25), and a couple of inflatable TheraBand stability balls (prices vary). Let’s make one blue, the other yellow. No, red. OK, now we’re done. Time to get huffin’ and puffin’ and humpin’ and heavin’ and gruntin’ and gaspin’. In your imagination, of course. For now.

Nine out of 10 Americans who exercise regularly said they would continue athome workouts even after their gym reopened.

TUFF ENOUGH: A view of a Bandit-designed home gym with the Tuff Stuff Proformance Functional Trainer.

Dear Neighbor,

I’m Tommy Inzina, president and CEO of BayCare Health System. I’ve been at the helm of this organization for five years and a team member for more than 25 years. I’ve never been prouder of our team members and physicians, more than 30,000 strong, than I am when I look back at 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has created challenges and changes for the health care industry and our communities that we never could have imagined. It’s been hard on you. It’s been hard on us, too, but we were proud to serve you during this difficult time. It’s why we exist: to serve the community.

All 15 of our hospitals have remained open and fully equipped to treat the sick. We’ve even been able to venture into areas of work that were new for BayCare—new for most hospital systems, in fact—such as putting up drive-through COVID-19 testing sites, helping employers safely reopen for business, advising nursing homes and schools on infection control, and operating public vaccination clinics.

Today I’m inviting you to read more about BayCare’s service in our 2020 Report to the Community. Through stories and videos, you’ll learn how BayCare pivoted to serve the communities of Tampa Bay and West Central Florida when the first cases of the virus surfaced here in March 2020, yet also managed to complete major construction projects, launched new programs to improve patient satisfaction and even committed to building two new hospitals.

BayCare was formed in Tampa Bay to make sure that this community would always have access to high-quality, not-for-profit health care. We’re your locally owned health care system, and we were proud to be able to serve you during the tough year of 2020. We’ll be here to care for you in the future, too—no matter what.

Sincerely,

Tommy Inzina President/CEO

Our mission is to serve the community.

Our community is more than just numbers to us. As a not-for-profit health care system serving West Central Florida, we’re dedicated to improving the region’s health through community-owned services that set the standard for high-quality, compassionate care. Our network includes 15 hospitals and hundreds of convenient locations, primarily in the counties of Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Polk. We’re proud that the work we do helps make our communities healthier and stronger.

FULL PAGE AD (BLEED) 8.5 X 11.0625$445 15Million Hospitals

Community Benefit1

28,357

Team Members2

5,842

Physicians and Medical Professionals3

¹Represents unreimbursed costs for traditional charity care, Medicaid and other means-tested programs, and unbilled community services 2Includes PRN 3Includes employed and credentialed physicians and medical professionals

To see BayCare’s 2020 Report to the Community: BayCare.org/AnnualReport