Do you want to put a TV in your home gym but aren’t sure how high to mount it? I found out what’s right for you.
How high should a TV in your home gym be mounted? The best mounting height for a TV in your home gym is 5’11 (180cm). This is for an average-height man (5’9/175cm) on a treadmill. This height is the most comfortable and safest. If you’re taller or shorter you might have to adjust accordingly.
There are a few other things to keep in mind when putting a TV in your home gym. There are some locations you really want to avoid mounting a TV and places that are great. You can also give yourself some flexibility after mounting.
If you’re looking for the best TV and TV size for a home gym, click here.
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Exact mounting heights for gym TV’s
TVs are mounted best where your eyes are pointing straight forward to about 15 degrees up without bending your neck. You want the TV to be at a comfortable and safe height for your stature. That means that if you’re taller, you should mount it higher and vice versa. It also depends on the height of your exercise machine.
If you’re wondering if your gym ceiling is high enough, you’ll love this article on home gym heights.
I’ll go into the why and how below but to make things easy for you, here’s a table where you can see exactly how high the TV should be for your height.
TV Height table
| Your height | Eye height | Treadmill deck | TV mounting height |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5'5 | 4'11 | 8" | 5'7 |
| 5'6 | 5' | 8" | 5'8 |
| 5'7 | 5'1 | 8" | 5'9 |
| 5'8 | 5'2 | 8" | 5'10 |
| 5'9 | 5'3 | 8" | 5'11 |
| 5'10 | 5'4 | 8" | 6' |
| 5'11 | 5'5 | 8" | 6'1 |
| 6' | 5'6 | 8" | 6'2 |
| 6'1 | 5'7 | 8" | 6'3 |
| 6'2 | 5'8 | 8" | 6'4 |
A few explanations for clarity:
To calculate the perfect TV height for your personal situation take the following steps:
- Measure your height
- Subtract 6 inches/15cm from your height. That’s your eye height
- Now look up the deck height of your treadmill or other machine.
- Add your eye height to the deck height and you’ve got your mounting height
Need a cheap but good TV for your home gym? This Amazon Fire TV (Amazon link) is big enough, has all the features you want, and doesn’t break the bank. You could even stream workouts on it if you want.
Why TV mounting height is important
The mounting height of a TV in the gym is important for several reasons.
Viewing comfort: Having the TV at an awkward height where you have to bend your neck isn’t comfortable at all. The TV should be straight in front of your eyes, up to 15 degrees above straight. This provides the most comfortable position for your neck to be in.
Posture: The viewing comfort has a big impact on your posture. Since we’re talking about a gym, posture is even more important. Performing exercises with bad posture can lead to injuries. That’s where the mounting height of the TV is crucial. You want your neck to be in a neutral position most of the time while looking at the screen.
Want to know the best spots to put your treadmill? Click here for the best places.
Distraction: There are times when you absolutely don’t want to be distracted in the gym. There are also times when distraction is very welcome. You don’t want to be distracted while doing heavy lifts. You really want to be distracted while doing cardio. Height can be used to keep the TV in your field of view for cardio but out of view during heavy lifting.
Safety: Sometimes you make a mistake or you fail a repetition in the gym. Not a big problem in general. But if that means you slam the weights into the TV because it’s mounted too low, that can create a lot of problems. You want to keep it out of reach of easy mistakes.
There are a few things to take into account when deciding how high to mount your TV.
Make sure you also check out this post on what the best TV size for a home gym is.
Where to mount a Home gym TV?
You want to mount the TV in front of the place where you spend the most time and where you need the distraction.
You can’t put it in a place where you can look at it comfortably 100% of the time. So give some thought to it, where is it the most important to see the screen? You don’t want to have to bend your neck up, down, left, or right from the position where you watch it the most. Performing an exercise with your neck in a bad position can be quite dangerous and lead to injuries and posture problems.
For most people, the most important place to look at the screen will be on their cardio machine. Who doesn’t want to be distracted while doing cardio, I certainly do. Cardio also lends itself well to doing other things at the same time like listening to podcasts, the TV will be perfect for that.
In other places, you really don’t want to see the TV. While doing heavy squats for example. A distraction at the wrong moment can be very dangerous while doing heavy lifts.
What to use to mount a home gym TV?
Wherever you’re placing your TV, you’ll have to mount it on the wall. Since for most people, the mounting height will be quite high, it’s not possible to put it on a stand or cabinet.
Luckily wall mounting hardware is readily available and not too expensive. There are two things to keep in mind when shopping for mounting hardware though.
Get a sturdy mount: A gym is a place where people move around. You’ll be moving weights, getting on or off machines, etc. That means you can hit the TV by accident at some point. You don’t want the TV to fall down from a small tap. Get one that’s sturdy and rated for the weight of your TV. Also, mount it properly on the wall, a good mount is no use if it’s not anchored to the wall very well.
Flexibility: The cheapest TV mounts are just straight without any adjustability. If you’re still not completely sure how things will turn out, even with this guide, a little flexibility can help you. There are awesome TV mounts that can adjust the angle of the screen up or down. Some even do left and right. This allows you to get away with slightly different mounting locations than you could with a straight mount.
Here is a TV mount that ticks all the boxes for a great price. (Amazon link)
Related questions
How big should my home gym TV be? It’s not a home theater so you don’t have to go huge. It also depends on how far you are away from it. For a smaller home gym, a 40” TV will definitely be big enough. If your gym is very small, you want to err on the smaller side instead of the bigger side of TVs.
How far away should I be from my home gym TV? The optimal distance from a TV is 1.5 to 2.5 times the screen diagonal.
Is sound quality important for a gym TV? For a home gym, sound quality is important. Since you’ll probably be listening to a good chunk of the time instead of watching. For a commercial gym, it’s not important since the sound is usually turned off anyway.
