With a bad back and 67 birthdays under his belt, Bob Guarasci knew he had work to do if he wanted to stay healthy.

"I'm not the type who gets up early in the morning and goes to the gym," said Guarasci, whose company produces video training courses. "But I felt I had to do something proactive."

So he brought the gym to his Colleyville, Texas, home. What was a spare bedroom is now a fitness center, with no traffic jams on the way, no lines for machines and no excuses for not working out.

"Every time I think about sitting on the couch or in a chair and watching TV," he said, "I tell myself, 'Why not go upstairs and do something?'"

The concept isn't new. Treadmills in the bedroom and barbells in the garage have been buffing us up — or collecting dust — for decades.

But a lot of people are going Guarasci's route and giving them a room of their own.

"Some people are just more comfortable working out at home," said Noel Mikeska, CEO of Your Body Fitness, a Dallas company that supplies personal trainers and runs corporate fitness programs.

"We see more and more homes with gyms," he said. "It's kind of like people making media rooms instead of just having a TV. I think more people have fitness rooms than media rooms."

Mike May, a spokesman for the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, said the trend is advancing on two fronts: homeowners converting a room where they already live and builders including a fitness room in new homes.

"People are setting aside the space," he said.

Americans spent about $5 billion last year on fitness equipment, just over half of that total on treadmills, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. Home gym machines were second, followed by stationary bikes and elliptical trainers.

Guarasci already had a treadmill, "but frankly, I never used it much."

So last January he went to Busy Body for a fresh start. A fitness-minded companion and a sales staff steered him toward an elliptical trainer.

"I got on and I was sold in the first 30 seconds," he said. "It was low impact and it was comfortable."

That took care of the cardio. Over at the weight machines, Guarasci's friend was a fan of Vectra, a high-end system.

"Then it was just a question of which stations you want," he said. "I ended up with a double stack and pretty much the entire system."

He completed the makeover with small dumbbells, a stability ball, mirrors, carpeting and a nice TV. About $10,000 later, Guarasci had his fitness room.

"You don't need to spend that much, but I'm fortunate that I could," he said. "I tried to make it a room I would want to go to."

But that wasn't necessarily enough. Busy Body included a free training session to get him started on the new equipment — and perhaps persuade him to work with a trainer long term.

It worked. Joe Gonzalez visits Guarasci three times a week.

"I think I needed the supervision of a trainer," he said. "Whatever you do has to be done intelligently."

The push doesn't hurt, either.

"Joe makes sure I keep up my cardio," he said. "And I guess I need somebody to show up and say, 'OK, let's get to work.'"

The results, he said, have justified the investment. Guarasci said his back is stronger and his muscle tone better than in years. He recently sailed through a stress test.

"Now I know what I need to do, and I have a great place to do it," he said. "I'm rapidly becoming a true believer."