I’m considering dropping my gym membership and setting up a home gym. The only place close enough to my house is overcrowded both morning and evenings.
I’m looking at something like this: http://shop.store.yahoo.com/ exercise/smith-free-weight-gym.html
I’m not crazy about the smith machine feature but the wife loves it. Any suggested products? Other suggestion for building out a home gym?
Buy a bunch of freeweights. A high quality bench and a good powerack and you are golden you can do any excercise from that setup. Go to NY barbell.com they got great prices and their stuff is rock solid.
I set up a cheap home gym for the second daily workout of Growth Surge Pt. II with a swiss ball and a set of power blocks. The next step would be a quality bench.
Yukon stuff is ok. Better quality stuff is Nautilus, Parabody, Tuff Stuff, NY Barbell, Northern Lights. How big are you. If you toss around over 200# in that system you may not be satisfied with it. I always urge people to look for deals on ebay as well. Sometimes you can get stuff for pennies of what it would cost new.
Could you clarify on that NY Barbell thing? There is no nybarbell.com, and a google search doesn’t come up with anything useful.
Stupid me. Just found it at newyorkbarbells.com
Try a Bowflex!..Nah, Bowflex is for fags! Get a decent bench, an Olympic bar and plates, and a set of Powerblocks, and you’ll be all set. Good luck.
You can’t go wrong with free weights. Amortised over the length of a training career the cost becomes minuscule. You could go with individual squat stands, or opt for a power rack depending on how much cash is burning a hole in your back pocket. Here’s a link that will guide you to building your own equipment if you’re are looking for something a bit more esoteric than the standard barbell dumbbell set-up. Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos
Buy a chin/dip/knee-up machine, i got my from Yukon and it is well worth the price. Pull-ups and it’s variants will kick your butt forever. I do weighted ones when I am in a grove, or hang a thick rope over the bar to be more renegade.
I also use many rubber tubes and can hook them over the pull-up tower to do many other exercises.
Thanks for the comments guys. Right now I have a full set of hex DBs up to 50s, a simple decline/flat/incline bench, and a pullup bar. Sufficient for the second workout of the day in phase II of GSP, but not enough for me to drop the membership yet.
Next step will be a cage, a nicer bench and around 400 pounds of free weights (4x45, 2x35, 2x25, 2x10, 2x5). A lot of setups I’ve seen at newyorkbarbell.com and similar sites include a pulley system which would be great for rows.
I’m leaning towards this setup:
POWER RACK HOME GYM
I’m struggling with the idea of buying something like this sight unseen, but I’ve only heard good stuff on NY Barbell’s stuff… Anyone else want to put in a good (or bad) word for NY Barbell? Thanks!
For a good idea to start check out www.ironmind.com and look around on their home stuff. The prices seem high to me, but I am also in the preliminary stage of research on this subject. All you need is plates, bar, bench, and Power Rack. I mean bench, deadlift, squat, power clean, pullups, what more does a man need?
I bought a system from newyorkbarbells.com and am really happy with it. It wasn’t real easy to assemble, but once I got it together it was fine. I did however have a small problem with a piece, but Darwin sent me a replacement part twice (it never quite worked, so I have to settle to use 190lbs instead of 200lbs on the plates because the pin is slightly off).
I agree with all the suggestions about free weights and powerblocks. The powerblocks are great, particularly if you have a space issue.
If you haven’t already bought the free weights, look for some used ones. I bought two sets, both used. I ended up with a little over six hundred pounds of Olympic weights, two straight bars, two bent bars, two weight trees, collars, etc. for $400. And that isn’t counting the two benchs, squat rack, rubber mat, and several other items that got ‘thrown in’. Amazing the deals you can get from guys who give up after realizing that it takes more than ‘9 easy weeks’ to look like Arnold.
Hmmm, whenever I think “home gym” I think of: rubber tubes of varying degress of resistance, jump ropes, a banana bag (you know them long ass heavy bags - good for kicking) and a 200lb heavy bag. Oh, and a chin up bar, a couple of double-end bags and a timer. Oh, that’s what I think about a “home gym”. Weird, I know.
Open up the classifieds. Find someone trying to sell the stuff that they are not man enough to use and then tell them you will move the stuff for them without charging them. haha. Okay maybe throw the guy a few bucks, but no more than 10% of the Retail cost, any more than that on used weights and you are not shopping around enough. The beauty of what we do is that only the strong survive to thrive and the rest just wish they had the strength and energy to clean out the garage on weekends.
Check out Dr. Squats Website. He has developed a smith machine that follows the nature curves one uses when exercising. Thus, removing many of the problems that one gets with “normal” smith machines. it is a bit pricey though. Best of Luck.