Alright team, looking to put a few things to a vote.
I am going to build a pretty expansive home gym, making most of my purchases next week after I close on the new house. I’m torn on a few pieces of equipment:
For a lower body training machine:
Freak Athlete Hyper Pro 9
Titan leg press/hack squat
Bells of steel Reverse Hyper/GHD
Other (comment below)
0voters
I will have a rack, barbells, DBs, trap bar, a few other toys. Want something to open up more lower body options. I’ve always had good experience with leg press, but I’ve also always included a very healthy diet of GHD or hamstring curls. Honestly never given reverse hypers an honest go, so not sure the value there. As for the freak athlete, the multiple capabilities seem nice, but I’m worried it won’t do any one thing well.
For a power bar:
Rep Double Black Diamond Stainless Steel Power Bar
Rogue Ohio 45lb stainless steel power bar
Other (comment below)
0voters
I just like the idea of a stainless bar for rust purposes.
For plates:
Rep Old School Iron Plates
Rogue Deep Dish Plates
Other
0voters
Rep plates are just that. Classic iron plates, nothing fancy, downside more weight variance. The rogue deep dish are honestly pretty sick looking to me, but idk if having the wider plate makes them blocky. Not looking to spend an insane amount, but want something quality. No bumpers due to space on the bar for heavier deadlifts.
Color for power rack:
White
Black
Red
0voters
I kind of like the idea of a white power rack, seems to be old school strength vibes. Red seems aggressive, which is cool. Blacks the classic.
I’ve got 555 lbs of the Rogue Deep dish plates in my basement and they are SWEET. 8-45’s and 1 set of each 35, 25, 10 and 5. They ring like bells if you don’t clamp them down, and it sounds quite glorious once you get a few plates banging around on the bar. It holds the tone for a long time.
Let’s also be honest with ourselves here. The deep-dish plates make it look like you have more weight on the bar and just make it feel a bit more badass. Distributing the weight further out from the center also lets the bar flex a bit more, so it is actually twice as much supplemental badassery as narrower plates that don’t ring so magnificently.
They are machined very precisely and do not give or bang/ring at all when I put the bar collar on.
I went with the chrome Texas power bar and have zero complaints there. The Rogue Ohio bar is quite similar, I think. It’s just a good all-around bar for my liking, especially the level of flex in the bar and the knurling.
Winter’s coming so I’m likely to end up lifting where there’s a pool, sauna and hot tub for my old ass, then back to the basement.
The bank account becomes a limiting factor here lol. Between a power rack, the rep Adonis pulldown machine, a bar, plates, and a treadmill, plus flooring, the cost is getting up there. Limiting myself to one…… for now.
Although I am getting two barbells. The other one is going to be a rogue Ohio bar, I like them more than the power bar for deadlifts, OHP, and front squats, plus then me and the Mrs can lift at the same time
I had my Rogue Deep Dish plates delivered to the loading dock at work and threw them on the calibrated scale (in packaging). I don’t recall exactly what the variance was but it was well under 1lb.
For my purposes they are all perfectly interchangeable.
Any issues with them when loading up weight? I’ve never seen anyone actually use them with more than 3 plates, don’t want to run into a situation where I run out of barbell space. (Realistically 5-6 plates per side max)
From those options I would definitely go leg press/hack. Never saw the point of the GHR or Reverse Hyper. I prefer a 45-degree hyperextension. It is also much cheaper.
A leg extension and Leg curl or a combo machine would be great.
You should hear them. It really is something else. Other plates I’ve lifted with CLANG. These RING, and once you get 'em all ringing you have a bell choir.
You can always shut them up completely with the collar and be no fun at all.
If I’ve set a subconscious limit of 555 lbs working weight, it’s there for a good reason at age 44.
My thought when buying a few years ago was that 555 was the most weight I would ever possibly need on the bar again in my life. 405 remains a working weight for me on deadlift and hopefully my squat again at some point, so having 4 sets of 45’s was important for me.
I also liked the idea of having a mostly complete set of very well-crafted plates made in the USA. These will be making someone stronger long after I’m gone. They also have 100lb plates I almost talked myself into simply to complete the set, but decided they were unnecessary.
I’ll never load that much weight on a squat again, especially alone in my basement, but I’ve been all systems go for the first time in several years and might sometime soon see how the full set feels with a heavy single deadlift.
I would really like to get a good set of cables and a complete dumbbell set up to 100, but bands, old spinlocks I got for dirt cheap and my 50lb power blocks get the job done for now.
SSB bar and trap bar would be great, too. I should just stop now before I go on Rogue’s website again.
Why a white rack? I’ve had a white and a black rack. I never realized how much I grab onto the rack to stabilize myself when I had a white one, but I now know with a black one, because my chalk handprints are all over it.
Although blood doesn’t show up as well on black as it does on white…
As for the reverse hyper: you can come up with substitutions for just about everything in the world of lifting, but I haven’t found any way to replicate a reverse hyper. It’s a VERY unique piece of equipment.
