Let's talk home gyms

Ok, I can't take it anymore. I'm so tired of the idiots at the gym that I have to build a home gym. What have you home gym people done and what advice do you have for me? I'm talking weights here, I get my cardio done at our work gym in the winter and run in the summer.

What do you do for legs?
What equipment is good to go? Good power racks?
Bad equipment?
Other advice?

<---- beer emoji still broken

 

Gonna be expensive.
Main one is a squat rack and benches with barbell and plated, followed by dumbells and possibly kettlebells. Rogue fitness makes neat ones.

 

I second the squat tower 100%! Also the dual cable/weight stack machine. Those two items should allow you to do almost everything or get creative enough that you can make it work. That’s what I’m working with but miss a lat pull down machine. I can do pull-ups off the tower but it’s not the same. I might add one to the squat tower eventually.

Weights is where it gets expensive $1/lb or more and you’ll want multiples or your stripping/loading bars for different workouts and that gets annoying if you like to super set.

I had an all in one type gym before but it’s too much of using a machine and not enough free weight workouts. If I had unlimited space and money I’d have just added my squat tower to the setup and kept it.

 

Smith Machine and cable machine. You can do just about every exercise on these two machines. Some free weight barbells if you want to focus on specific areas.

 

Ok I want to focus on free weights as much as possible. I'll look at Rogue racks. You are saying lat pulldowns can be added to racks? What about legs, what do you do?

 

-Squats (front and behind neck), barbell hack squats, Jefferson squats
-A bench that has a leg curl/extension attachment at the end of it
-if you have a cable machine setup you can connect a strap around your ankle and do various accessory moves with that (hip abduction/adduction/extension etc)
-seated calf raises using a barbell across your quads or you can simply do standing alternating calf raises holding a dumbbell in your hand.

 

Have you ever used a home gym exclusively for your workouts?
I don’t know one person that has had long term success as in more than 2-3 years. Even those who stick it out can’t make gains like they did at the gym.
They all go crazy and go back to the gym or quit all together.
Just a thought before buying all the equipment... set up a body weight circuit and do that for two weeks. If you can’t keep to it I’ve found the home gym even with all the best equipment will fail.
I used to put together wellness programs for guys in the past as part of my job and I’ve seen lots of money wasted going the home gym route.
Not trying to be a Debbie downer just what I’ve seen.
Head phones at the gym are a lot cheaper lol.
This is the worst time of year at the gym. Another month or two and a good amount will bail out as usual.
(Just a suggestion take it or leave it)

Ride safe,
AAron

 

The smith machine is going to be the most versatile. How much space do you have? Id say a 20x20 room should be enough for a machine plus clear floor space. My neighbor down the street has converted his garage to a nice gym space that he can park his car in.
My son goes down there to work out when he gets kicked out of Planet fitness for grunting...lol

 

A home gym doesn't supply the vanity motivation most people need. People work out harder when they know others can see them. Home gyms are hard to stay motivated in for that reason if you aren't truly working out to simply be healthy because you want to do so. Most people work out to improve how others perceive them whether they want to really admit it to themselves or not.

 

You can do that on the cable machine. Smith machine is good for every kind of bench press plus squat exercise you could ever want to do. Doing a squat properly is better than a leg press machine any day.

 

Home gyms are hard to stay motivated for because it's in your house and it's real easy to say I'll work out tomorrow when you only have to go downstairs or out into a garage to do your workout. You get into that routine of going to a gym and it helps keep you motivated. Think of all the people who buy treadmills or exercise bikes and then quickly forget about them because it's so easy to do that. Maybe you should secretly be like @Chaotic and just race people on the treadmill or bike at the gym!

 

Thanks, are you talking about people losing motivation using a home gym? I don't think that's a concern for me, I am highly motivated to workout but I've lost it with public gyms. I can't take the people anymore.

I do appreciate your advice. I'm looking for this very thing from people that have gone home gym and can help me avoid mistakes. Thanks.

 

In my experience, home gyms are a fantastic place to hang clothes and store things when the shelves in the basement are full. And they're hard to even give away, but, you can talk a recycler to dismantle it and remove it from your basement pretty easily.

 

I am the exact opposite of this, that's my problem. I try to find a corner of the gym alone as much as possible and when people are near me, I get angry. IDGAF what anyone thinks about my workout. F them, I need to get away.

What you described is mostly true, and that's exactly what makes gym people so annoying to me.

 

Totally not me at all. I dread the commute to gym, hate the people. I've been working out at home now just to avoid the gym and my workouts are suffering because I only have dumbells.

So let's get this back on track about home gym equipment. Let's say I have unlimited space since I'm building a new house right now. If you had space, what would you do different or what have you guys learned?

 

How much space do you have allotted for this gym?

 

I'd say this is absolutely true for probably >95% of the population.

Even for myself when I compare the workouts I get at home to those at the gym. I get my workouts done faster and more efficiently at the gym. At home its not that I can't get in a good workout, but because I'm in such close proximity to as many distractions (TV, computer, couch, food, etc etc) its easy to loose focus and get distracted...or try to multi-task between sets (answer and email, throw a load of laundry in, etc etc). You have to be that much more disciplined to get things done quickly and efficiently with a home gym I find. The upside is that it is right there, no need to get prepared, get dressed, drive to wherever (and back)....you just get up, stretch/warm up and go.

Having said that, there's been periods of time where I've gone a year+ doing only home workouts exclusively and most people who know me know I'm in fairly good shape year round....so its entirely possible, assuming you're of the mindset to stay focused.

 

Yeah I get it. That's why I belong to a snap fitness that's open 24/7 and I can go at weird times to avoid the morons. You can do everything with a cable machine for your biceps, triceps, and lats with different attachments. You can even do some chest and leg exercises. Smith machine for bench presses and squats. Smith machine is good because it has a safety rack feature built in to it and you don't have to worry about a spotter. That's really all I would buy for my home gym if I had the room and money. Go to some stores that only sell exercise equipment and try some stuff out and talk to a salesman or two. See what you like and then make a decision from there.

 

....also don't be afraid to find places that sell used gym equipment. Assuming its not beat up severely, you can piece together some high quality equipment for dirt cheap.

 

have you not seen Rocky III?? Mr. T had a home basement gym!