Home Gym Lighting Options That Will Get You Moving

You don’t have to leave home to enjoy a heart-pumping workout, but your basement or rec room doesn’t always double as a full-fledged fitness studio. The right lighting can go a long way in transforming your home gym into the full group class experience, even for just the duration of your virtual session. Here are our picks for home gym lighting that elevate your setup into the ultimate studio.

13 home gym lighting ideas

1. Natural light

Here’s the obvious one: Set up your home gym in a room flooded with sunlight to get a hefty dose of mood-boosting rays during your daytime workouts. If your home gym does have ample windows and screen doors for this setup, then great – problem solved! But if your gym lacks natural light sources – which is often true for basement or garage gyms – read on for more ideas.

2. LED lighting

If you can’t get natural lighting in your home gym, you can use LED lights to replicate the sun’s glow. Unlike incandescent and fluorescent lights, LED bulbs can emit light of color temperatures closer to the 5000K color temperature of the sun. Additionally, at this color temperature, LED light bulbs won’t drain your energy like fluorescent lights can, making them a superior choice to everyday lights.

3. Smart lights

Adjust your lighting without interrupting your flow. A smart light is controlled from an app on your phone or your smartwatch. Just turn up the light from your device (which you might already be using to track your workout) and dive right back into your squats.

4. Wall-mounted lights

Another great way to fill in the gaps of your poorly lit corners is through wall-mounted lights. With these lights spaced evenly among your home gym’s walls, they will help to illuminate every nook and cranny, thereby enhancing your workouts. That said, wall-mounted lights should always be paired with…

5. Overhead lights

Overhead lights define our lives. They’re the ceiling lights that we see in most rooms, and they can also be the chandeliers and pendant lights that adorn luxurious spaces – but since working out means moving and grooving, hanging lights are a no-go. Instead, your overhead lights should be high up enough that you’re unlikely to accidentally hit them during your workout. Several types of overhead lights achieve exactly this goal, such as:

6. Track lighting

Track lighting comes down just a few inches from your ceiling (at most by around 12”) and is often adjustable in two different ways. First, you can sometimes pivot each individual track light to direct it at a poorly illuminated corner. Second, track lights are often dimmable lights, making them great for cultivating a calm yoga space (more on this later). However, if having lights hang even a small bit from your ceiling seems treacherous, you have other overhead options.

7. Recessed lighting

Recessed lighting is certainly the most common type of overhead lighting – any light bulb nestled into a ceiling is a recessed light. These lights are so common since they cover a substantial amount of a room’s lighting needs, including in your home gym. Like track lights, they too can be dimmable, thereby giving you full control over your home gym lighting. However, they’re anything but easy to install, unlike another common room lighting.

8. Floor lamps

Although floor lamps are, by definition, not overhead lamps, they’re functionally similar. Since floor lamp bulbs are far closer to the ceiling than the floor, they can emanate light throughout your room in a manner similar to overhead lights. Just make sure they’re in a corner where you won’t bump into them during your workout – floor fixtures, though often more durable than pendant lights, aren’t exactly made to withstand force.

Whether in a corner or elsewhere, a floor lamp with a bulb of a color temperature similar to sunlight can give you excellent home gym lighting even if you have no ceiling lights. That said, you might want to pair your floor lamp with another type of lighting to fill in any gaps.

9. Table lamps

If your home gym has countertops or small tables that can accommodate small lighting fixtures, then you can easily use table lamps to fill in any shadows that your floor lamps or overhead lights leave untouched. Just make sure to use smaller lights made of materials that aren’t shatter prone – if your reverse fly sets accidentally knock your dumbbells into your table lamps, you’re obviously better off without a pile of sharp shards on your floor.

Of course, you might be so adept at your fitness routine that extreme situations like lighting damage feel far-fetched. If you are worried about this damage, though, another type of lighting can function similarly to table lights.

10. Portable light

These lights plug right into your mobile charger or another small item with a USB port, so they can go anywhere with you, even if you’re just jogging back and forth in your gym. The BlissLights StarPort Laser USB brings red, green, or blue light wherever your workout takes you, transforming any room from the guest room to the garage into a fabulous home gym.

StarPort USB Light

$14.99

One tiny light. Thousands of stars!

Shop Now arrow_forward

11. String lights

String lights work excellently to fill in the gaps that overhead lighting can leave behind, and they’re unlikely to take significant damage if gym equipment hits them. These twinkling lights set up the perfect mood for winding up or cooling down. Better yet, any home gym can accommodate these lights – just set up an ample number of command hooks and wire your lights appropriately.

12. Red light

Earlier, we mentioned using a dimmer to create a calm yoga space in your home gym. If your overhead lights lack dimmers, a red light can just as easily create the calming effect your yoga space needs. That’s because it’s the highest-wavelength visible color and your eyes react less to high-wavelength light, thus potentially making red a calming color. Try a yoga session under the relaxing red starry-sky effect of the red BlissLights BlissBulb to find out for yourself.

BlissBulb Laser LightBulb

$9.99

Transforming your world is as easy as changing a lightbulb.

Shop Now arrow_forward

13. Galaxy light

Imagine spinning or riding your exercise bike among floating clouds and twinkling stars. The unique galaxy light projects thousands of tiny blue stars against a cloudy, soothing multicolor nebula cloud under which focusing on your breathing may be easier. It’s not only the cool color that has an effect, but the lights are stunning, too: Work out among the stars with just a simple button press.

The BlissLights Sky Lite Evolve Galaxy Projector is among the most popular galaxy lights, and you’ve probably seen it on TikTok – and you too can get it for your home gym. But before you do, take some time to think about how it will fit within the below home gym lighting best practices.

Sky Lite Evolve: Smart Galaxy Projector

$49.99$39.99

The latest evolution in smart galaxy lighting.

Shop Now arrow_forward

Tips when choosing lights for your home gym

When figuring out which of the above 13 home gym lighting types best fits your space, keep the following tips in mind:

• Use the right amount of light. As mentioned earlier, you might struggle to feel energized in poorly lit spaces. That’s why you should use whatever amount of light you need in your home gym to power through those intense HIIT mountain climbers.
• Outfit your fixture with the right light color. Color temperatures closer to the sun’s 5000K are best for replicating the natural glow of the world outside your home gym. Additionally, with smart lights and laser lights, you can add colors and color temperatures that can help calm you after a workout. If you’re missing workout classes with cool light effects in colors outside the typical white-yellow lighting spectrum, items like the BlissLights Ark Aurora Ambient Light can recreate this vibe in any room of your home.
• Try dimmable lights. As with smart color temperature choices, lights that you can dim after a workout may facilitate quicker post-workout cooldowns. If you can’t install a dimmer for your ceiling lights, smart lights and laser lights often include the ability to adjust brightness.
• Get creative. These tips and the above home gym lighting ideas are just best practices rather than firm requirements. If something beyond these ideas works better for you, then lean into it – if anything, getting creative with your lighting is the best way to design a gym that works well for you. The one-of-a-kind effects that laser lights, for example, bring to home gyms are a great place to start with your lighting setup.

Light your home gym uniquely with BlissLights