Setting Up A Home Gym (1 Viewer)

[jannny]

Heyssss

I am planning on setting up my home gym because, gym memberships costs like a bitch! lol

So right now I think I need,

- Exercise bike
- Bench
- Skipping rope
- Barbell
- Dumbbell

I am new to this but,
What certain features should i look for when buying a bench? I am planning on buying it on ebay since its gna be cheaper. How much is a cheap one? On ebay its normally around 100 dollar range.. is that good enough?

How bout for exercise bike? What features should i look for? Are the cheap ones in Big W good enough (around 90 dollars)

What are you guys thoughts on home gym? Is it better than going to a real gym? because I heard that people dont get motivated at home! so yea.

 

[quik.]

Just copied from an older thread:

Setting up my own home gym at the moment, all that's left is the bench, just waiting till mums cc has the room for the order.

I would say get a power rack, bench, and barbell+weights set.

The rack lets you squat and bench with spotter bars, so you won't hurt yourself if you rep it out a bit and get stuck. Can also do rack pulls from different heights etc. There are a fair few different types, and rated to different max weights. They start out relatively cheap and get more expensive compared to the quality of build / how much weight you want them to hold. Most come with a chinup bar, mine also has attachable dip bars.

Barbell + weights, the barbell you buy is pretty important. A cheap little dinky one might bend, or have crap knurling so its a bitch to actually grip. They can get pretty expensive, especially for olympic barbells, but a high quality one will last you ages. Most come with rotating collars, make sure yours does. it means when the weight naturally rolls on the bar, the actual bar itself wont twist in your hand.

Benches are everywhere, just make sure it's rated to a weight you're comfortable with, and remember your bodyweight will be on there as well.

I wouldn't recommend Rebel apart from the dumbbells and maybe maybe the bench. You can find better stuff, usually at better prices, online at places that specialise in gym equipment.

Some of the places I looked at -

http://www.fitnessxpress.com.au/stor...log/index.html

http://www.samsfitness.com.au/index.php

http://gymdirect.com.au/

Sams and gym direct have warehouses in Sydney if you don't feel like paying shipping :] Sams I had no issues with, Gym direct some slight problems but not with the product itself. Have not personally dealt with fitnessxpress yet.

There is also a package that I was considering getting, but in the end opted for a different rack so couldn't. Has most things you need.

http://www.gymandfitness.com.au/body...bar-p-248.html

Sorry for the wall post :/ But yeah, all the best with getting everything set up, weight training is awesome.

Edit: Nearly forgot, the weights listed by the person above will be outgrown fairly quickly. You can buy packages starting at 50 at rebel, up to a fair bit. I would say start with around 150 or 200kg, give yourself room to grow. The first few months you will see fairly dramatic increases in strength before tapering off into steady gains.

 

[jannny]

ah ok..

Hey wat do you think of this bench?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Brand-New-Weight-Bench-with-Leg-Curl-Attachment_W0QQitemZ120285524527QQihZ002QQcategoryZ15281QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

[Pace_T]

squat rack if you can afford it, otherwise its no big deal
benchpress with a barbell + dumbells should suffice
oh and make sure you have small weights too to use as stepping stones.
really you can do everything you need to do with around $500.
make sure the bench can incline. $100 for a bench sounds really cheap. make sure its not a crap one.

 

[jannny]

How bout exercise bikes? I dont have any clue about exercise bikes except my friend's cheap one broke easily.. so that means get a kinda expensive one?

I wanan get exercise bike for my cardio, just to improve general fitness

 

[YO!]

Heyssss

I am planning on setting up my home gym because, gym memberships costs like a bitch! lol

So right now I think I need,

- Exercise bike
- Bench
- Skipping rope
- Barbell
- Dumbbell

I am new to this but,
What certain features should i look for when buying a bench? I am planning on buying it on ebay since its gna be cheaper. How much is a cheap one? On ebay its normally around 100 dollar range.. is that good enough?

How bout for exercise bike? What features should i look for? Are the cheap ones in Big W good enough (around 90 dollars)

What are you guys thoughts on home gym? Is it better than going to a real gym? because I heard that people dont get motivated at home! so yea.

Mate, I've been working out for a year in my own 'home gym' (all it really is is a bench and dumbells) and I think it's great!

All you need to really buy is a bench and dumbells. You can pretty much perform all exercises for all parts of your body using just that equipment. In total, it should cost you about 150-200 (including bench, weight bar, dumbell bar, and about 60 kg of weights).

Also, just a tip, when benching make sure you have a tight grip of the bar because if you don't the bar may roll around in your hand and you'll end up with blisters (I wish someone had told me that tip when I first started working out).

Also, look up the bicycle ab exercise on Google, it's been proven to be the most effective ab workout by some university in America.

Anyway, if you need any more info, PM me.

 

[quik.]

If you wna bike for general fitness I would vote to just using a regular bike and not sitting in a pool of your own sweat :]

 

[chicky_pie]

And exercising naked is great.

PM me the pics when you do.

 

[jannny]

If you wna bike for general fitness I would vote to just using a regular bike and not sitting in a pool of your own sweat :]

lol, haha but i think i'll still prefer exercise bike I am just worried that since I am doing cardio, and its burning fat then I wouldn't really grow(bulking).

wat you reckon?

 

[quik.]

Too much cardio will definately inhibit (depending on the level, maybe stop altogether) you putting on weight. Some people prefer to throw some cardio in, others prefer to focus purely on putting on weight. See what works for you is really the best advice.

 

[Mumma]

Good choice. I'm much more motivated to work out since everything is right outside and I don't have to go to the gym was spend any extra money. Also there's nothing more annoying than equipment being used up and having to wait around!

I bought this around two weeks ago.


(I was doing squat warm ups here and chucked the bench in to take a photo)

Since I do a strength training program that relies a lot on heavy squatting, I needed a quality powerrack. What are you planning on doing? My advice is if you're serious about it and have a good workout program figured out, stick with it and don't go cheap on your equipment. Also, don't get an exercise bike. Waste of space and money better spent elsewhere.

If you want to benchpress, you'll need to hold the weight up above your head. A squat rack/power rack will do that for you, or you can get stands. Otherwise you'll need to pick the barbell from behind your head - probably good exercise (and that's how they did it in the old days) but it will limit your bench from getting heavy. A steady flat bench should suffice.

Stay away from Rebel sport and the like - go online and buy. Listen to what quik said. Get an Olympic barbell. Not only are they heavier, but have rotating collars.

If you're not really sure what you want to be doing - I'm going to push strength training on you. Read this http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program/. This is what I'm currently doing and I'm make good gains.

 

[Pace_T]

seems to me that janny is interested in the aesthetics of the hobby. if thats the case you shouldnt be bothering strength training. imo stick to a bulking/cutting routine. dont waste your time.

theres two main problems i think that people with home gyms encounter
1) theres no spotter. this is going to inhibit how much you bench, particularly with barbells etc. dumbell equivalents are pretty good though. without a spotter just go 1 or 2 reps shy of failure for barbell bench and all that stuff.

2) the other problem lies with squats. unless you have some sort of rack (which can easily cost >$1000) then its extremely difficult to mount the right weight for you to squat. you are limited to things like lunges and hack squats
use exrx.net if you dont know what exercises im talking about.

i have the same equipment as YO! and it seems sufficient to me, you'll know if youre doing things right if you eat healthy, gain weight and find yourself buying more weights each month.

 

[quik.]

seems to me that janny is interested in the aesthetics of the hobby. if thats the case you shouldnt be bothering strength training. imo stick to a bulking/cutting routine. dont waste your time.

theres two main problems i think that people with home gyms encounter
1) theres no spotter. this is going to inhibit how much you bench, particularly with barbells etc. dumbell equivalents are pretty good though. without a spotter just go 1 or 2 reps shy of failure for barbell bench and all that stuff.

2) the other problem lies with squats. unless you have some sort of rack (which can easily cost >$1000) then its extremely difficult to mount the right weight for you to squat. you are limited to things like lunges and hack squats
use exrx.net if you dont know what exercises im talking about.

i have the same equipment as YO! and it seems sufficient to me, you'll know if youre doing things right if you eat healthy, gain weight and find yourself buying more weights each month.

For 1 - Most racks (if not all?) have safety/spotter bars. Bench liftoff is the only potential inhibition with a rack.

For 2 - My rack (which I believe is the same Powertech one that the above guy put a pic of) is rated to 1000 pounds, more than anyone but the elite powerlifters will ever get close to / go over. It cost 750, prob even cheaper now. The lowest rated rack I saw was 400 pounds, which if he never plans to dive into strength training, will suit him fine for ages.

 

[Pace_T]

sorry i dont think i was clear with my post. i meant that the spotting problem would arise *without* a rack. (a simple "benchpress + dumbells" set up)
racks are great to have so that you can get to failure on big compound lifts.

 

[Riet]

Instead of an exercise bike buy a real bike, ffs.

 

[quik.]

sorry i dont think i was clear with my post. i meant that the spotting problem would arise *without* a rack. (a simple "benchpress + dumbells" set up)
racks are great to have so that you can get to failure on big compound lifts.

My bad, thought you were saying not to get a rack cos they were expensive.

 

[Nat3skiz]

So should buying weight plates and the like from Rebel Sports etc be avoided completely, without a doubt?
Is it that much cheaper to buy online?

 

[Pace_T]

what ive gathered is that <$2/kg is a good price. someone confirm pls?

 

[jannny]

where to buy online tho instead of ebay

 

[kati85]

hmm. I've just been doing my own research online (which is how i stumbled across this thread. Thanks, google!)

<$2 per kg sounds like a good benchmark.

I've been looking up workoutworld & elitefitness & www.comfitness.com.au as these all have stores in Sydney's inner-west. Hope this helps someone...

I have a 10kg dumbbell set from Rebel Sport and it seems ok. I was going to go back and buy the barbell (50kg one) as they are the same style, I thought it would be more convenient if I needed to swap heavy/light weights around on the barbell & dumbbell. But now I found all these online sites... haven't made up my mind yet.