Designing a Home Gym

[nycgirl]

Good Morning,

I'm designing a home gym for my apartment. I'm dedicating a section of my place to this. So far, a treadmill (a sapcesaver one) is on its way. I ordered a flat bench that also inclines and declines (it collapses and can slide underneath my bed), 300lbs of weights (comes with a 7' bar), and a 3 piece bar set (2 dumbbell size bars and a curl bar). I also ordered flooring (enough for 24 sqft) to protect my carpet and the equipment.

The final thing I'm looking at is an adjustable squat rack that can be used for presses as well. It goes from 30" to 60"

Is there anything else I need?

 

[Guinness5.0]

IMO you've got the necessities covered. Perhaps once you start to use it you'll think of specialty items, but DBs, a bar, a bench and a rack are enough to cover 95% of what I'd ever want to do

 

[nycgirl]

IMO you've got the necessities covered. Perhaps once you start to use it you'll think of specialty items, but DBs, a bar, a bench and a rack are enough to cover 95% of what I'd ever want to do

Thanks. I think I may have to order extra plates (5s and 2.5s) for the dumbbell bars. Once everything gets here and I use everything, I will add the extra stuff.

 

[velvett]

YAY!
You're gonna love it.
I forget who made them - I'll go look but stackable boxes for step ups are pretty cool too. (You can also do calves on them)

 

[elitft_bouncer]

My home gym setup consists of a olympic bar, 6x20kg, 2x10kg, 2x5kg, 2x2.5L coke bottles with water filled in it, 1.25L coke bottles with water filled in it.
I use a metal chair as my bench rack and press on the floor.
I use my big ass tree in my back yard with chains+hooks attached hanging from a branch as a squat rack (a bit hard to explain how it's setup here).
So far I haven't needed to get DB's yet. Though I'm thinking of just buying one spinlock DB handle and perform exercises one arm at a time.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Nice! I have a "home" gym in my apartment too. My living room is...terrible wordplay in 3,2,1...pretty much a lifting room. I just wandered out there, and it looks pretty much identical to what you listed. Like Guinness said, you have the basics well covered.

One thing you don't have are microplates, which I really can't recommend strongly enough.

Also, I don't have dumbbell handles yet, but when I get them, I'll almost certainly also be buying power hooks.

 

[nycgirl]

Nice! I have a "home" gym in my apartment too. My living room is...terrible wordplay in 3,2,1...pretty much a lifting room. I just wandered out there, and it looks pretty much identical to what you listed. Like Guinness said, you have the basics well covered.

One thing you don't have are microplates, which I really can't recommend strongly enough.

Also, I don't have dumbbell handles yet, but when I get them, I'll almost certainly also be buying power hooks.

My current place and my new place (waiting to close) are 496 sq ft (studio). It looks like the dining table will have to go, but I don't care.

The rack doesn't have safety bars. But, I'm starting over (its been awhile), and I'm no where near needing safety bars.

What are microplates????Why do I need them? Power hooks???

 

[eat big]

My current place and my new place (waiting to close) are 496 sq ft (studio). It looks like the dining table will have to go, but I don't care.

The rack doesn't have safety bars. But, I'm starting over (its been awhile), and I'm no where near needing safety bars.

What are microplates????Why do I need them? Power hooks???

Power hooks allow you to put dumbells on a barbell they hang from the barbell and you can set the dumbells on them so you don't have to pick the dumbells up every time:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/cp/ph.html


And mircroplates are very small plates so you can step up the weight very slowly instead of by 5 lbs. everytime.

 

[musclemom]

I turned my formal dining room into the cardio area, cardio I do almost every day, eating family meals, eh, I'd rather go to a steak joint.

The one thing I really wish I had was the ability to put trays on my bench (and I wish mine declined, you're a smart girl!!!), so I could work heavier and not have to lift the dumbbells up off the floor, right now I can't do heavy dumbbell bench presses, just too awkward. I ONLY use my long bar for bench presses, THAT'S it. I don't have a cage so I only do deads (hey, mother's day is coming).

I think If I were starting all over again I'd give serious consideration to just getting big adjustable dumbells, entirely skipping a long bar, use a trapbar for deadlifts, but that's me (if I could only find a rack that would hold my EZ Curl bar, frankly THAT's more comfortable to put on my shoulders). Changing plates is SUCH a PITA I've ended up buying additional dumbbells and TONS of small plates, I have plates as low as 1.25 lbs., the 2.5 lbs and 5.0 lbs get used the most.

Microplates are so pricey, if you go with all olympic stuff you can get extra olympic collars, they weigh exactly one pound each, spring collars are a lot quicker to deal with overall though.

 

[eat big]

I'd check out bands as well.

 

[Cynical Simian]

A few things about the rack:
1. When you say "squat rack", do you mean something that's essentially a bench rack with additional higher positions? Unless your ceiling is less than ~7 ft, just get a basic power rack, which would also take care of...
2. Whatever you do, get something with safety bars.

 

[nycgirl]

Changing plates is SUCH a PITA I've ended up buying additional dumbbells and TONS of small plates, I have plates as low as 1.25 lbs., the 2.5 lbs and 5.0 lbs get used the most.

Microplates are so pricey, if you go with all olympic stuff you can get extra olympic collars, they weigh exactly one pound each, spring collars are a lot quicker to deal with overall though.

The 300lb plate set comes with a 7' olympic bar, 2 of the following: 45s, 35s, 25s, 10s, 2.5s and 4 5s (and 2 spring collars). The DB bars and curl bar comes with international collars. I will likely get an additional set of 10s & 2.5s.

Eat Big - Why Bands? I've never used them before.

Cynical - Yes, I believe so. Here is the link:

http://www.megafitness.com/bsi0014.html

A power cage can get in here. I will wait until I move to my new place, its on the first floor (curbside delivery only). I can do deads & SLDLs for now.

 

[musclemom]

The 300lb plate set comes with a 7' olympic bar, 2 of the following: 45s, 35s, 25s, 10s, 2.5s and 4 5s (and 2 spring collars). The DB bars and curl bar comes with international collars. I will likely get an additional set of 10s & 2.5s.

Eat Big - Why Bands? I've never used them before.

Cynical - Yes, I believe so. Here is the link:

http://www.megafitness.com/bsi0014.html

A power cage can get in here. I will wait until I move to my new place, its on the first floor (curbside delivery only). I can do deads & SLDLs for now.

I have NEVER moved my 45s, seriously I put them on the rack on the bench and have never moved them, not even to put on the deadlift bar, I use 25s on that (if I put 45s on the bar I'll need to stand on something, trap bars have a raised handle).

I have at least ten 5 lbs plates, and I have had them entirely tied up on occasion.

A woman can never have enough smaller plates

Find used sporting goods stores for extra plates! Every penny you save can add up.

 

[eat big]

Bands help you gain when your weight is stalling. They are great for stretching, benching, squating, lunging and basically anything with a barbell. They place the most resistance where your sticking point is. For example, on bench, if you attach bands, the resistance the bands add when you are touching your chest with the bar is say...90 lbs. When you are extending, the resistance increases as you extend your arms and thus extending the bands.

They help with sticking points and add weight so they are great for home gyms if you don't want too many huge plates everywhere.
http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=138&pid=246

 

[eat big]

View this thread for how to set-up bands when squatting. It's basically the same set-up for benching too.
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=478462

 

[macrophage69alpha]

 

[fortunatesun]

Jacuzzi?

 

[nycgirl]

Jacuzzi?

Um, I wish. I'll get one of those fancy shower heads.

Thanks for everyone's input. It looks like bands, a box for step-ups (and squats) and additional weights are the only things I need to add for now. I'm just happy I'm within my budget.