I broke down, and though I really can’t afford it I felt it was time to take it to the next level. I started building my own home GYM. I’m going with bare bones basics for now and will add on later as I see fit. I’d like some suggestions though so here is my list of things so far.
Doorway pull up bar set for chins, pull ups, and low for dips.
300 # Olympic barbell set with rack.
Incline decline bench that doubles as a incline sit-up and roman chair.
Walk in 1000 # squat rack with adjustable pins doubleing as bench press and military press.
X Vest for pull ups, pylo-pushups, jump squats, dips, and whatever else I can find to use it for.
soon to come- (right now I am doing the Bear and CT’s power Circuit training, yeah thats right BOTH… God am I insane??? That is why some equipment that I feel is very needed isn’t there yet…)
6. Power block set with the 85 # per hand attachment.
7. Inversion boots (I got some crazy ideas evil grin).
8. 2 X 35 & 2 X 45 lbs bumper plates.
9. Low pull dishes for the squat rack.
10. Medicine ball
11. Hot Tub
12. Permanent in house T-Vixen with or without clothes… bare bones basics so I’d prefer without clothes.
-optional equipment-
13. Big screen TV & stereo
14. Bar-BQ
15. Large industrial cooler with 2 months supply of whole turkeys, salmon steak, venison, tuna steak, spare ribs, baby back ribs, bison ribeye, briscuit, and good ole free range beef in all cuts… oh some cornish game hens too.
Yeah I’m dreaming on 11-15 right now but notice how 11 & 12 are not optional?!
Any suggestions? Good start?
On a side note- I am joining Nevada Barbell Association’s workshop that is FREE! Yeah they are going to teach me to do those Oly lifts a lot better for f**king FREE!
I can’t believe you forgot the dip/chin belt. That is a must. If you have one of those virtually useless things called a weight lifting belt you can use that with a rope without any problems.
Sounds great to me. How much can the chinning bar handle?
I would consider a power rack. You can use that for everything (deadlifts, squats, benches, presses, etc.). With the various pin placements, you can easily adjust for whatever exercise you are doing. This would be the best thing over a walk-in squat/bench station. It will allow you to save space and offer you much more in your training.
When I build my own home gym, this will be the first thing I get (along with a 300lb Olympic barbell set and a bench to use with the rack).
All the other stuff will come in handy, but you will want to start with the rack. Also, you won’t need a chin-up bar if you have a power rack, as most have a bar for chinning.
I have the X-Vest (40 lbs) instead of a chin/dip belt for now. I will need one soon though, good call. The squat rack is a half cage design (a fully adjustable power rack pins and all, even optional low safety bars like a full cage), not some peice of shit that came with a bench etc. It was kinda pricey but is more space saving than a full cage and I can do everything you suggested with it. The chinning bar holds 300 lbs which is 110 lbs more than me. Good enough for now until I get a power-tower with a dip station… I might make it though I’m not sure (most affordable models are crap). I got the power-rack over at NewYorkBarbells. They have some really cool shit! They even have a trap bar, which I might get after a while. They have one set squat rack but all the other ones are power rack or A-frame style, take a look. Pretty decent stuff. Anyone seen a used set of powerblocks that go up to at least 85 lbs per hand? These things are way cheaper than a full dumbell set but I realized that I won’t use anything under 45 lbs. So half of it will go to waste. Time to find the T-Vixen… having my own GYM is going to be so much more fun and effective. No more waiting on the Power-Circuit (until 12 am to do it), no more watching like a hawk on equipment for the supersets of OVT. More time to psych myself up instead of getting angry.
Fuck the dumbells I’m getting an oly dumbell bar and a oly cambered curl bar. It’s easy enough to change plates when you have a rack. Oh this is so cooooool… any more ideas? I feel like I am missing something. Oh Nate Dogg the power rack I got is called a Sumo Power Rack… finding low pull dishes is not so easy. Might have to make those too.
Go to home depot and get a stick welder. You can make anything.
Also, if you want to make a high pulley system, go to an industrial supply store and buy two heavy duty rubber wheels with steel plates on them. I used a knife to cut the grooves for the cable, but after slicing my finger up, opted to go with a bench grinder. Much safer and quicker. You can buy rubber coated cable at any hardware store and I used a pipe with threaded ends for the weight stack.
Home gyms are so overpriced that even if I had the money I wouldn’t feel good about paying full price when you can make the stuff yourself for a fraction of the cost.
Basically, anything you see in a gym can be made at home. For padding, you can buy big sheets of vinyl and blocks of foam for dirt cheap. If I can make this stuff anyone can.
I would invest in a good olympic bar instead of getting a set. Look in the local paper for someone selling olympic weights. Here is St. Louis, there is always someone selling them. That way, you can always get more at any time. I would imagine you will probably use more than 300 pounds on your squat, bench and DL. Get the following.
2-2 1/2s
2-5s
2-10s
2-25s(may want to get more depending on the machines you purchase, ie reverse hyper)
2-35s
45s - as many as you can get your hands on
In the past,I’ve had problems getting 45s. They are the most popular and tend to be bought up the quickest.