My Home Gym
I can’t really have a web site based on having a home gym without really having one, right? So this page is the story of my home gym.
If you missed it, you can read why I decided to exercise at home here.
My first purchase was a set of Ironmaster adjustable dumbbells, along with their super bench.
I also purchased some attachments with the bench: the crunch sit-up attachment; bar dip handles; and the chin up bar attachment.
Later, I exchanged the chin up bar attachment for the leg extension/leg curl attachment. Initially, this was all I planned to have in my home gym. You can get a really good workout with just dumbbells, but to really mix up the workout and keep it interesting, you need some variety.
The Ironmaster dumbbells and bench took up very little room in the lower level of our tri-level home. I suggested to my wife half-heartedly: “Let’s turn the whole downstairs into a workout area” (ha ha)…and… SHE AGREED! (I knew I married her for a reason).
The next few weeks were spent researching and reviewing exercise equipment for the home. The centerpiece of any gym is the power rack. The power rack allows you to lift heavy weights safely by yourself, without a spotter. Most of the reviews I read were positive about the Powertec rack, and after using it I agree. Read my Powertec power rack review here.
To use the power rack, you need weights. The commercial gym I used to belong to had rubber-coated Olympic grip plates.
Rubber-coated Olympic plates are expensive so I decided to buy a cast iron set of VTX 300lb Olympic grip weights and a Body Solid Olympic weight rack to hold them. I later found an additional 187 lbs. of rubber-coated plates on Craig’s list to supplement my original set.
My next purchase was a Body Solid GFID31 FID (flat, incline, decline) bench. It’s nice to have two benches in your gym so you don’t have to drag one around.
I also have accessories in my home gym
such as handles for the power rack cable attachment and other handy gadgets such as a jump rope, medicine ball, calf raise block, wooden box, ab wheel, ab slings, preacher bench attachment, Perfect Pushup, a homemade T-bar row attachment and calf raise machine.
A fully-equipped gym also needs cardio equipment. I managed to find a decent used treadmill and hooked it up to a small TV with earphones. Another form of cardio is a rowing machine. Commercial ones were really expensive, as were the home versions, so I decided to make a homemade rowing machine utilizing the pulley system on the power rack.
Working out your legs in a home gym can be a problem. Sure you can do squats in the power rack, and lunges with a barbell or dumbbells, but to give yourself some variety, get a leg press machine. Now before you say they’re too expensive, or take up too much room, I found this one, Body Solid’s Leg Press machine, brand new, relatively compact, with no shipping or tax for $629! That’s a great deal.
No gym home or commercial gym would be complete without mirrors. I’ve heard you can get free mirrors through Craig’s list, but I had no luck with this. Instead, The Home Depot had the sizes I needed. I really wanted a mirror that went from the floor to the ceiling, but the ledge around my family room was in the way, so I ended up mounting them like this:
I found that equipping a home gym has become a fun and rewarding hobby. Not only do I enjoy researching and reviewing equipment, but also making my own (if I could weld, I’d be dangerous).
The two newest additions to my home gym: An infrared sauna and an ab coaster. Using the sauna, my muscles feel better, I recover quicker from workouts, my joints don’t ache as much, and areas where I had injuries improved tremendously. I’ve even found it beneficial to stretch while sitting there. The ab coaster is new and I'm still learning how to use it the best way.
Latest addition...To add even more variety to my training I wanted to add machines to my gym, but since space is extremely limited, I only have room for one machine and this machine had to be capable of many different exercises.
The Powertec Workbench Leverage Gym WB-LS was the gym I chose. I chose this machine because I wanted to lift REAL WEIGHT, not weight stacks like most machines have and most lifters quickly out grow.
If you have any equipment ideas or comments about my or your own home gym, please use my contact form or leave a comment below