Ideas on how to move your gym equipment safely

When you are moving house, often one of the biggest challenges you can face is moving your home gym. Obviously, you need to get your gym equipment to your new home safely, and it’s advisable to use professional gym equipment movers like Prestige Moving whose staff are very experienced in moving gym equipment. However, it’s possible to start moving your home gym equipment yourself, if you’re up for a serious workout!

Here are the main techniques you should use to get your gym equipment safely into our moving truck or container.

Before you start

The first thing you need to do is clean all your gym equipment thoroughly before you start disassembling or packing anything. By cleaning and sanitising each piece of equipment, you’ll make sure any bacteria that are built upon your equipment over time doesn’t move to your new home with you.

Have a plan as you need to do this in the safest way to get each piece of equipment out of the house and safely into our truck.

Moving smaller fitness items

It’s advisable to move smaller items first, as this will create more space for the larger items to be moved later. Equipment such as hand weights, weight plates, medicine balls and yoga mats can be packed in boxes. You’ll need strong boxes heavily reinforced with packing tape, or plastic boxes if cardboard isn’t strong enough.

Each individual item should be wrapped in bubble wrap or packing paper to protect it, and any space left in the box can be filled with towels. This will prevent the items from moving while you’re carrying the box, so the weight will be evenly distributed.

It’s really important here not to overpack the boxes – remember, weights are heavy, and if a box broke it could injure you or whoever is carrying it. Use more small boxes rather than fewer large ones. This way, each box will contain less weight, so it’ll be less likely to break.

Moving large equipment

Moving large gym equipment is tricky, and it’s important to be done the right way to protect you from injury and prevent these expensive items from getting damaged. Ideally, you should leave this job to our professional gym equipment movers, as they do know the correct way to lift heavy, bulky items and they also have a full range of tools for the job.

However, if you want to go ahead by yourself, it’s essential to go about it the right and safest way. These are the correct techniques for moving each piece of equipment.

1. Exercise bike

Exercise bikes are probably the most popular home gym machines, and they’re also one of the easiest to move.

If your bike is electric, unplug it and attach the power cord securely to the bike with packing tape. Then slide furniture gliders underneath the bike to protect your floors. If you don’t have gliders, you can substitute them with towels or cardboard – don’t drag the bike directly along the floor as it will cause damage.

If you have to lift the bike downstairs, this should be done by two people. Exercise bikes aren’t particularly heavy, but they’re very awkward, and it’s so important to protect yourself from any injury. For exactly the same reason, there should be at least two people lifting the bike into our moving truck or storage container.

2. Elliptical trainer

The elliptical is one of the most awkward pieces to move, due to its shape and its many moving parts. The easiest option is to disassemble it.

The handlebars and pedals can be removed from the main body of the machine by unscrewing the nuts and bolts. Then wrap each piece in moving blankets and secure with packing tape. Put the nuts and bolts in a sealed bag, which you’ll need to label to make sure nothing goes missing. It is a good idea to tape this labelled bag to the trainer so it is all together.

Then each piece can be carried out to the truck fairly easily.

3. Treadmill

The treadmill is great for cardio, but it’s extremely heavy and difficult to move. It’s important not to underestimate this job.

Firstly, make sure your treadmill is unplugged. Then, if it folds, which most do, fold it and make sure it’s locked in the upright position. If you have a treadmill which doesn’t fold, you’ll need to refer to the instruction manual to find out how to disassemble it.

Once your treadmill is folded or disassembled, wrap it in moving blankets and secure it with packing tape. Then make sure there are two people to lift it onto a trolley. You can then wheel it out to the moving truck, where you’ll need at least two people to lift it in.

You can also use this technique for moving a rowing machine, as most of these fold up the same way as treadmills. Just make sure you secure the handles before you lift the machine.

Find out more about moving your home gym equipment safely

If you’d like more advice about moving your home gym to your new home, or want the help of our experienced gym equipment movers, please contact us. Our team at Prestige Moving will be only too happy to help you.