I’d greatly appreciate some advice - I’m considering purchasing weights for home use, as all of the gyms near me (and the one I’m at) don’t have any barbells, squat racks etc. They have some small dumbells, ab machines, and a cross trainer. You get the picture.
I weigh around 63-65kg, have never squatted in my life. I feel time’s beginning to run out on me and so I wanted to ask, any advice on buying the basics for a home gym? For someone my size and experience, what sort of numbers could I do without for right now? I ask the last question because money’s a factor.
And of course, here’s me questioning the wisdom of starting out on the big lifts without anyone here to spot/guide me and my form.
If you think that the above idea is stupid, then could you possibly tell me of any gyms in east london?
Reading through that should give you plenty of ideas on what direction to head.
We can help with your form to a degree. As for spotting, any good power rack should have safety pins to serve that purpose. If you don’t trust the pins in a rack, that’s a reason not to buy that particular one.
No clue, wrong continent for me. You might get some better hits on that if you start another thread just for it.
Power rack, a 300 pound olympic weight set, and a bench. For the weight set find a used sporting goods store (the US has Play It Again Sports, not sure London does.) and buy one used or new if its cheap enough.
That’s basically all you need for a long time. Oh, and go to amazon.com and buy the book Starting Strength. It’s like $22, gives you a great beginners program to follow and tells you how to perform the lifts. Very good book.
Go to Putney and go join a rowing club. You would be an excellent lightweight. Also you’ll get strength gains, power gains, cardio gains and kudos gains. Plus their gyms are pretty hardcore, as in only 1 or two machines and the rest are dum/barbell.
I would be against buying stuff in the UK for a home gym as it’s hideously expensive. Also DO NOT buy the Argos 1" bar. They do not work for cleans and only have a service capacity of about 100kg.
All you need is a power rack, an adjustable bench, and and Olympic barbell with 140kg weights. If your power rack doesn’t have any then a dipping station is a great add on. The rack and the barbell are the things to put the money into.
Apologies for the late response, and thanks to everyone who responded. Very informative and helpful responses.
I don’t think I can afford a power rack at the moment - does equipment exist which is specifically there to spot for squat exercises, and perhaps comes cheaper than power racks?
If this idea turns out to be implausible at the moment, then there is muscleworks gym nearby that I can go to(thanks for the heads up on that).
One last thing - this is the gym that was pointed out to me:
Does it appear that it’d be suitable for complete beginners who have never deaded or squat before? I’ll be directly in touch with them also, but would appreciate any help with this!
When they give you an induction ask them to teach to you the squat, deadlift and bench.[/quote]
Thank you echelon! I’ll go there as soon as I’ve taken care of some other things! £40 per month is a bit more than the £25 I’m paying at one of those GLL centers with 3 dumbells, and various ab machines but I hope that masucleworks will be head and shoulders above the current place.