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Hamster

Hamster

Hamster

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I'm planning to build a small home gym and was after opinions from those who have any experience or knowledge of it:

The equipment will be:

1. Elliptical cross trainer
2. Treadmill
3. Recumbant cycle (recumbant due to occasional back pain)
4. Multigym

Space is a constraint as i'm converting what's left of my garage after an extension. The space is about 8'2 * 11'

After a little research and planning, i have specced the following:

1. Elliptical cross trainer: Tunturi C60 (£759)
http://www.exerciseequipment.co.uk/...-C60-19-Crosstrainer-NEW-for-2008-/p_266.aspx

2. Treadmill - Tunturi T20 Folding Treadmill (£779)
http://www.exerciseequipment.co.uk/...T20-Folding-Treadmill-NEW-FOR-2008/p_242.aspx

3. Recumbant cycle - Tunturi E30R Cycle (£549.99)
http://www.exerciseequipment.co.uk/Exercise-bikes_All-Exercise-Bikes_Tunturi-E30R-Cycle-/p_530.aspx

4. Multigym - Multigym - Marcy Apex Personal Trainer (£499)
http://www.totallyfitness.co.uk/Strength/Multigyms/ESC-APEX.htm

This is a room plan to scale with the above equipment.




Dimensions are in cm. The door will be on the right hand side at the bottom and ventilation/light will be via remote velux roof window.
Any comments or suggestions on the above please?
 
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Yes, cardiovascular fitness and the multigym for general toning. In time, if i get serious with the anaerobic side of things, i will replace that with freeweights.
 
500 quid for that!
please please please, get a bench, a power cage, a oly bar, some db bars, shd loads of weight. you clearly have the money to spend, you should be able to do the above for not much more than what you are allocating already.

what do you mean if you get serious? you already are, otherwise you wouldnt be spending that sort of money on it all. you will get much more benefit from a decent weights workout than that multi gym, trust me.

and no, you wont just suddenly turn into a competition standard bodybuilder just because you squat or whatever :]
 
Morba said:
500 quid for that!
please please please, get a bench, a power cage, a oly bar, some db bars, shd loads of weight.
Click to expand...

First off, i am new to all this but am all ears!! I've never done freeweights since i put my back out around 10 years ago!! At the gym have always used the machines which i know are more dedicated than the multigym. What exactly would i be gaining from freeweights that i won't achieve with that machine?

So looking at the alternatives:
I'm not that lazy to google; i now know what you mean by a cage :) but what kind of equipment would you recommend? I don't really want to be spending much more than i am already and as you can see from the plan, space is a constraint.
 
machines are more dedicated, thats bad, it means for a single exercise you work a single muscle and little else say a bicep curl in a machine, nothing else gets any work done. Doing a bicep curl standing up with freeweights, you are working all your stabilising muscles, that means, shoulders, neck, upper and lower back and abs, butt, legs, basically all your muscles to some degree. Ok its not a huge amount, but essentially, doing 100 exercises on every single weights machine known to man will be the only way to work out every last muscle you have, think of the time that takes. A good set of squats works most of your major muscle groups AND all the supporting ones, stabilisers, core muscles, the lot. SO you're essentially doing 58.7X the workload, in the same single set. By doing lots of freeweight compound exercises you basically miss very few muscles and can do a work out in a much shorter space of time which is, firstly very good for you. Testosterone levels dip massively after a certain amount of time, most people its between 40 mins and maybe 90( most closer to the lower end). You'll find you'll make much faster, much better all over gains from freeweights, save time, money, be stronger, get stronger faster, etc, etc, etc. Theres simply no downside, except that you'll lift less weight, though that won't make you stronger. If you can curl a 50kg weight on a machine, you'll likely find you can only do 30-40kg freeweights, because you are working that much harder basically.

Ask any athlete, trainer these days and they should tell you free weights are the best thing for you.

UNfortunately freeweights ARE harder to keep form and easier to hurt yourself with, so the key is start low, make sure you get perfect form, i mean perfect, and work up slowly, eventually you work out what weights you can do for every exercise, safely and build up from there. A problem with machines is they often give you the false idea of what you can lift freeweights, and this is what often leads to injuries.

Freeweights, cheaper, MUCH better, more effective, basically can do any muscle group you can think of with them in a tiny amount of space with very little equipment.

Now if you have a specifically bad injury machines can be very useful to ease back into things, and they still have their place for doing certain exercises more safely so I don't write them off at all. But frankly to get a real all over body workout and being able to exercise all core/stabiliser muscles you need a proper gym because the amount of machines is simply huge.


Afaik theres plenty of good quality foldable options for most equipment so thats definately a decent way to go in terms of saving space. Really how much you want to spend on anything is up to you, I would say, treadmill is the place to not skimp, you want a powered one if you can afford it that has incline options simply as magnetic ones are a complete pain in the ass to keep going and run on without holding on to the bars.plus its the real impact cardio exercise so better padding and quality means easier on joints and so on. Fairly tempted to get a power treadmil but can't find anything in my price range at the moment.
 
Would agree with the ditch the multi-gym comments. With regards the cardio equipment my advice would be to try before you buy, i had my heart set on a £1200 X-trainer, went to try it and it just didn't 'feel' right with regards the foot plates positions, ended up trying out about 10 machines before i decided on one that had the right feel to it.

PS, don't forget the wall moounted telly and sky tv, MTV/Sky Sports are good things to watch to keep you occupied whilst on the cardio equipment.
 
drunkenmaster said:
machines are more dedicated, thats bad.
Click to expand...

Why is it bad, really? Sometimes its great to hit that specific muscle, not only from a hypertrophy POV but from others like rehab (which you do mention further on).

Ask any athlete, trainer these days and they should tell you free weights are the best thing for you.
Click to expand...

Ask any athlete who has a clue and I would hope they would say 'a combination of both machine and free weights would make the best routine' ;]
 
Personally I'd ditch all the cardio eq and get a good rower instead. That way you'll have more room for the drinks machine, stereo and mirrors. :p
 
JoeMama said:
First off, i am new to all this but am all ears!! I've never done freeweights since i put my back out around 10 years ago!! At the gym have always used the machines which i know are more dedicated than the multigym. What exactly would i be gaining from freeweights that i won't achieve with that machine?

So looking at the alternatives:
I'm not that lazy to google; i now know what you mean by a cage :) but what kind of equipment would you recommend? I don't really want to be spending much more than i am already and as you can see from the plan, space is a constraint.
Click to expand...

I like you, not scared of google :D
The cage (when used properly) will act as a big support for you in terms of safety. Coupled with a nice bench it wont take up that much space at all. You will be able to do more exercises with more variations and overall get a better workout than sticking to a multigym.

Easy to add a chin/pullup bar, easy to make dip bars.

Cost will be defined by how much weight you want really. As you are new you would probably be able to get away with buying second hand plates and bars in your local free ads paper (bonus :D )

There has only been one multigym thing that I have liked in the last few years, i think someone on here has one actually. Its a behemoth of a yellow contraption but still uses normal weight plates instead of a stack iirc.

Multigyms like the one you are looking at have a fixed amout of weight. After a while you will outgrow this, or, you will find that the plane of movement of a few exercises will not suit you any more.

The last thing you want to do is buy a big contraption then feel the need to sell it on and lose a bit of money on it :]
 
Regarding your back, go talk to a physiotherapist or even your GP. If you're shy of it when training you'll severly limit your potential when the best thing you can do for a bad back is strengthen it. It's important you get it right and work it so get professional advice.
 
I'm with Morba on this. A GP would more than likely just point you in the direction of a physio anyways, as to be fair they simply don't know that much about it.

Seated good mornings and a strong core will do you the world of good, combined with correct posture during the day you should be ok, but i'd seek some advice from a professional first :)
 
If your going to be serious about working out and trying to build muscle, then you need to get...

Dumbell set..
Barbell + Weights set...
Power Rack (for squats)
Bench
Pull up bar.

With those you can hit every muscle more than adequately. Machines are seriously rubbish in comparison. Anyone who regularly goes to the gym will tell you that machines are a joke in comparison to free weights. Everything a machine can do free weights will do better, and cheaper. The only difference is youhave to research about excersises, but with the amount of informationon the internet this is hardly a problem.

With a multi gym you probably would be lucky to be able to hit half of your body's muscles. With the list above you can hit every single muscle, better.

It depends on what your goals are. But personally if i was making a home gym, I would use all the space on weights. For cardio you can run outside or take walks.
 
I'm with Morba on this. A GP would more than likely just point you in the direction of a physio anyways, as to be fair they simply don't know that much about it.
Click to expand...

Some of us do ;), but I would agree that physio would be the preferred option, and would be what most GPs would suggest. There is little I can do in a 10 minute slot other than print some exercise sheets for you :D
 
Morba said:
Why is it bad, really? Sometimes its great to hit that specific muscle, not only from a hypertrophy POV but from others like rehab (which you do mention further on).



Ask any athlete who has a clue and I would hope they would say 'a combination of both machine and free weights would make the best routine' ;]
Click to expand...

Given the choice of space for free weights, or machines, trainers would say freeweights. infact in other threads I've said machines aren't bad, and they have their place. I made the point that sometimes you get stuck for gains because one muscle might be holding you back, where hitting a machine to hit one muscle for gains, can lead to being able to lift that extra 5lbs in something, which causes the other muscles to start gaining again. But this is more a limited situation and as I said the sheer number of various machines you need to make sure you have isolation exercises for every last muscle(as you never know which muscle will be the problem one) is what a expensive gym is for, while free weights is easily the best option, and plenty safe with the right equipment, for a limited space at home. ;)
 
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