Home Gym With the home workout craze, homeowners are turning to designers for equipment they can live with (and love).

By Anne Quito

Imagine a musty basement with a treadmill that doubles as a laundry basket. For a while, this was the sorry state of home gyms: half storage room, half garage. And this does not come from now, but from a long time ago. Do you remember the Jane Fonda or Cindy Crawford videocassettes? How to forget them. As the home-exercise craze faded in the early 1980s, exercise machines became the "pink elephant of the room," that is, constant reminders of abandoned New Year's resolutions. of abs that never were, but could have been with a little discipline. The design of fitness rooms, if you can call it that, was largely dictated by these huge pieces of equipment and all sorts of workout paraphernalia that were more about clutter and clutter in the home than about healthy goals. Real estate agents used to advise home sellers to hide their homes when listing.

Now, all that is changing. This is largely due to a new generation of sleeker, sexier and often more space-saving home workout machines, many of which have been designed by star designers and architects. It is also true that a growing desire to have professional equipment at home has taken root. In 2020, a survey revealed that 47% of respondents considered having a home gym essential or desirable, which is an increase of 20% since 2003. For asking that it not be.

Marijana Radovic and Marco Bonelli, founders of the Milanese architecture studio M2 atelier, say that these machines have opened up new design possibilities: "Fortunately, fitness equipment is now very well designed and pleasing to the eye," they explain. elegant design and its value proposition, we usually place these products in highly visible areas of the houses we design".

Technology has played an important role in expanding the catalog of designer home gyms. There's a real craze for interactive exercise streaming devices like Mirror, Tonal and Tempo, smart spin bikes from Peloton and SoulCycle, and connected rowing machines from Hydrow and Ergatta. There are also cute items that make a statement about luxury, like dumbbells from Louis Vuitton, Elite's Fuoripista exercise bike, Lumiere's Home Gym kit, and Hock's leather hand weights.

Technogym, the Italian manufacturer of high-end fitness equipment, offers attractive fitness equipment designed by the Italian modernist architect Antonio Citterio, the result of a long collaboration. The minimalist spin bike with mirrored wheels and the handsome leather-and-steel Kinesis personal trainer, in particular, are items that will elevate your designer gym at home, but wouldn't look out of place in the living room either, and all for a small fee. price from €12,000. For fans of the Maison Dior, Technogym has also launched a limited edition treadmill, a multifunction training bench and a Pilates ball from the brand. Nerio Alessandri, president of Technogym, says the collaboration with the French luxury brand evokes "its emphasis on performance and aesthetics". All very nice, but now it's time to sweat.

Article adapted by Alejandra Manzano via AD USA

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