At home weight training system?

[mrhappy]

What equipment do you guys recommend to get started weight training at home?

Would you recommend getting a system that does a crapload of exercises like this:

- OR -

Just go with the old bench and free weights?

The only reasons why I'd do the home gym is because it can support so many different exercises and you don't need a spotter.

 

[Fly]

Personally I'm undertaking the same journey now, and I'm going with free weights.

Firstly, thats a lot of money.

Secondly, if I wouldn't use it in the gym, I won't use it at home.

Thirdly, can't see how you can do squats and deadlifts with it. And if you aren't doing squats and deadlifts at some point in your routine, your not working out right.

 

[dcjoey]

I had this same dilemma back in february and eventually built up a mini home gym in 1/2 of my garage. i bought a used squat rack / pulldown / row-pull machine with adjustable arm heights. this gives me a plethora of exercises to do. i then supplemented that with a used total gym, works out muscles completely differently. throw in a curl bar and some dumbbells and youre good. about the deadlift thing, i am contemplating putting down some wood boards over the interlocking softmats i have to cushion the concrete.

 

[malkore]

free weights, preferably an olympic barbell and adjustable bench with some kind of power rack, and a pull up bar. that pretty much covers everything...no cable station, but you can do anything with freeweights really.

 

[mrhappy]

free weights, preferably an olympic barbell and adjustable bench with some kind of power rack, and a pull up bar. that pretty much covers everything...no cable station, but you can do anything with freeweights really.

What is a power rack?

 

[Fly]

I believe it allows to train alone, doing things like a benchpress 1RM without fear of stomping your own bodyprint into the floor.

 

[mrhappy]

I believe it allows to train alone, doing things like a benchpress 1RM without fear of stomping your own bodyprint into the floor.

I see. What do you do, slide your bench under it?

 

[Cynic]

What is a power rack?

I prefer to categorize the pieces as racks or cages.

Here's an example of a rack (I own this one):

Here' an example of a cage:

Cages are more like enclosures.

 

[Hawk]

2 dumbbell bars with wide grip.
2 dumbbell bars with standard grip.
1 barbell bar.
1 bench.
1 dump truck full o' plates.


If you cant hit the goals with those, it cannot be done.