Pain cave inspiration / ideas

Triathlon Forum
1

After building my wife a 2 story 16x32 building out back for her art studio, she has vacated the guest room in our house. So, now I have a 14x14 room to dedicate to a pain cave (mostly… She still has clothes in a small closet… Until we remodel the master br).

So, Im looking for inspiration. I started with the pain cave thread… But, it is the perfect example of thread photo rot. 75% of those photos have suffered the tinypic/link invalid fate and no longer exist.

I’m looking to house a TM, rocker plate with bike, second fluid trainer with bike, cheap rower, all purpose bench, a few kettle bells, hand weights and bands. I’d like to move all my tri gear out of my main closet.

Finally, a small bike work station maybe with a wall mounted bike holder to simple maintenance. I have a full free standing holder and workshop outside for larger jobs like full builds.

As noted the room is decent sized but, it’s not huge at 14 ft square. One wall is taken up a closet that has my wife’s off season clothes, my network equipment, and 3d printer.

I’m thinking about using this flooring:

https://www.rubberflooringinc.com/interlocking-tile/foam/soft-rubber.html

I have a 32" TV over the TM. I have a tablet mounted to the areo bars on the bike, now. I’m thinking of getting larger TV for the bike instead…not sure if I’ll get a third for bike #2.

Not sure about good options for storing / organizing all the paraphernalia. If I don’t have dedicated places for stuff… It will just devolve into chaos.

All Thoughts welcome… Is it too much to fit into 14x14?

2

One thing that I did in my pain cave is set up automation where I could. I use smart plugs, and hue lighting, and chromecast and google home and a google home compatible sound bar.

Now you don’t need to use google home, you could use Amazon Alexa or something else, but it is nice to be able to do everything by voice. I can turn on fans, lights, music, etc… If you are making this your room, may as well add the extras that make life comfortable. As an example, when I head to my pain cave, I say, “O.k. Google, Shut Up Legs.” and it turns on the lights, Turns on the TV, Turns on the Music Turns on light strips around the rocker and tv.

If I’m racing or getting warm, I can say, “O.k. Google, turn on fan.” I have different lighting set up for racing or climbing sessions that I can access with different phrases. And when I’m done, I just say, O.k. Google, all done and everything get’s turned off as I leave."

3

I did not mention my automation system.

I run a whole Home Automation system… Home Assistant. I’ve built speed controllers for each fan in the room which are controlled by heart rate. When, anyone walks into the room and turns on the light… The system detects which cell phone (using Bluetooth Mac addr) is in the room, and asks which device they are using (tm, bike1, bike, rower). The hr limits are then configured for that person, on that machine to set hr for low/med/high. The alert also appears on my garmin where I can make my selection without having to touch my phone.

In addition I have a power sensing plug set on the treadmill. So, if someone just gets on without a phone in the room… It will control the fan based on tm power usage.

Finally, when we leave the room and turn off the main light, the automation system turns off all the fans, the chromecast, the TV, and the treadmill.

4

I did not mention my automation system.

I run a whole Home Automation system… Home Assistant. I’ve built speed controllers for each fan in the room which are controlled by heart rate. When, anyone walks into the room and turns on the light… The system detects which cell phone (using Bluetooth Mac addr) is in the room, and asks which device they are using (tm, bike1, bike, rower). The hr limits are then configured for that person, on that machine to set hr for low/med/high. The alert also appears on my garmin where I can make my selection without having to touch my phone.

In addition I have a power sensing plug set on the treadmill. So, if someone just gets on without a phone in the room… It will control the fan based on tm power usage.

Finally, when we leave the room and turn off the main light, the automation system turns off all the fans, the chromecast, the TV, and the treadmill.

That is absolutely awesome!!!. My wife isn’t really into the whole automation thing, so the pain cave is the only place I can play. Yours sounds very advanced. Do you mind me asking what you used? Is this fully custom? Did you write the code? Thanks.

5

Yeah… Spousal approval factor is always a thing to content with. As long as it’s useful to her or, at least, doesn’t get in the way my wife is tolerant of it. She does get annoyed with my sardonic variations on “the laundry is done” announcements. I have about 50 different ones that are selected at random… Some more sarcastic than others. :=) What’s life without a little spice?

There are folks who do way more advanced stuff than me. I use and open source system called Home Assistant (https://home-assistant.io).

It Runs on pretty much anything. I started on an raspberry pi4, but quickly upgraded to a used Dell ultra small form factor pc (size of a large book). The usff pcs can be had off eBay for $100 Ish. I think I have 4 of them now doing various things.

The fans are built around a side project of home assistant called Esphome (https://esphome.io), which is really arduino under the hood. But, you don’t write code in the traditional sense. I am an electrical and software engineer… But, it’s not needed for this kind of stuff. Basically, it’s configuration files that define what modules to pull in and what pins devices are connected to. I suppose the wiring of mains power probably needs a bit more awareness, but non-lethal stuff is easy peasy.

Esphome runs on several variants of the espresiff family of microcontrollers (esp8266 or esp32 and a few others). These can be bought for less than $10, powered off of USB… Plug into a wall charger and bam. They all have wifi built in, and most esp32 have Bluetooth also. The controller can be re-flashed over wifi, so you don’t usually have to mess with plugging it into a computer after the first bootstrap.

So, my fan controllers have an esp32 setup to scan for a Bluetooth hrm, read the heart rate, and set the fan to low/med/high using solid state relays. I 3d printed a box that replaces the existing manual controller with the esp33/and relays in the same volume.

They mostly run stand alone, but they report all the data (hr, fan state, hr strap battery %, etc) back to the main automation system which can override it, sent it updated thresholds, turn it on/off, etc.

6

Another idea is to have a mirrored wall, preferably on a wall that’s to the side of the treadmill if you care about seeing your running form. The mirrors make the room look larger and are nice for checking form when lifting weights.

If you want a single, large mirror, you’d probably have to hire a glass company to cut it for you, deliver and install. I went with 3 very large mirrors from Home Depot or Lowes and hung them myself. I bordered the mirror with race bibs, which makes for a nice look, and hung swim caps above the mirror.

One thing I wish I had done with my workout room is paint the walls. Right now they’re a drab tan color.

You could also have an area to hang your medals, bibs, etc. for some inspiration and a reminder of achievements.

7

Sounds like a lot of stuff for that space but maybe depends a lot of how compact your shop setup is. Grid paper and some scale cutouts should help you understand the space if you want. My gym room is about 18x13. The squat rack takes up a bunch of space. Here are a couple pics of different layouts I’ve tried. Happy to answer any questions.

gym1.jpg
gym2.jpg