Official Home Gym Building Thread

Leg attachment for the Bulldog bench came back in stock, so ordered that. That will allow for decline pressing, decline crunches and potentially a way for me to anchor my thighs for lat pulldowns.

https://bulldoggear.com/collections/bench/products/ab-02-leg-attachment

Edit:

Got an email, it's not actually in stock :(

Matt,
I apologize but the item you ordered was entered into stock by accident and is not available. You will be refunded for the purchase.
Nick
 
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That sucks :( At least they were upfront about the mistake

I have the Mirafit Adjustable Bench 2.0 which I got on FB Marketplace back last summer, it's pretty good though a little bit on the flimsy side, I can see myself replacing it someday. But it does have a leg roller thing on it for doing decline work and it's really nice for that

My 5kg coloured crumb bumpers just got here - you weren't kidding about how thin and bendy they are! But I figure it is going to be pretty rare that they are the only thing on the bar for any type of movement where it might matter (e.g. deadlifts). So now only need some 25s and I'll have a full set, but being a bit tight and waiting on those until I actually need them (not yet!)
 
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I don't know if I would necessarily want a wall mounted one versus one that is part of a rack - holding the weight ought to be fine provided you use good fixings, but it's the kind of weight that is being repeatedly loaded and unloaded and potentially with quite a bit of force/uneven-ness... That tends to do less well with wall mounting. But I'm probably being over-cautious

If anyone has bought the newer crop of Mirafit racks (the M100 / M200 range) I just noticed they've finally brought out some dip handles for them, just grabbed a pair for my half rack, should hopefully be here soon
 
Yeah, i'd much prefer a rack mounted one, but that would involve having a rack and i don't have space. This is mainly just an addition to things i can do at home. I very much doubt i can actually do a single pull up so there probably won't be a great deal of loading :p

Part of it is just to "hang" to help stretch my back out from sitting all day.

Our walls are around 70cm thick, so i figure with some long 150mm anchor bolts it should be pretty secure.

I've ended up getting this one, it's a little more expensive, but looks better made even though it still seems very "chinesey". The cross bar is a single piece for a start, many of the cheap ones seem to come in two parts which doesn't feel very secure!
 
I can't do a pullup either :D (well, I'm almost there but not quite). You should pick up some heavy duty resistance bands which will allow you to do assisted pullups as you work your way toward it. Can also do negatives (jump up and then lower yourself down slowly) but personally I don't really like them, feels like it hurts my shoulders or something doing that (versus using a band)
 
I can't do a pullup either :D (well, I'm almost there but not quite). You should pick up some heavy duty resistance bands which will allow you to do assisted pullups as you work your way toward it. Can also do negatives (jump up and then lower yourself down slowly) but personally I don't really like them, feels like it hurts my shoulders or something doing that (versus using a band)

Yeah i have a heavy duty resistance band i bought around 8 months ago for this purpose. Sadly the pull up bar i ordered from Mirafit got a resounding NO from the wife.

It was in a set of 3, and i've been using the other two with a few wall mounted hooks, so it'll be good to finally use the heavy one!
 
Finally done my first workout in far to many months as I was a bit over keen with packing up for moving. Going from a small garage full of stuff to a double garage has made all the difference... Still way too much stuff in there but I've cropped most of that out.

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Still in progress as I have mirrors to put up, I need to source a stand for my dumbells and still a lot of stuff to sort out post move but very happy with what I have in place now and so happy to be getting back into it.
 
I can't do a pullup either :D (well, I'm almost there but not quite). You should pick up some heavy duty resistance bands which will allow you to do assisted pullups as you work your way toward it. Can also do negatives (jump up and then lower yourself down slowly) but personally I don't really like them, feels like it hurts my shoulders or something doing that (versus using a band)

I would be wary of using a band for assisting pull-ups - they reverse the strength curve and provide all the help at the bottom of the pull-up and much less at the top, where you actually need it - would personally suggest (if possible) doing inverted rows off a set of rings or a racked barbell, but even that is not really matching a pull-up so would also put focus on other vertical pulling movements like lat pulldowns. Just my opinion though.
 
I would be wary of using a band for assisting pull-ups - they reverse the strength curve and provide all the help at the bottom of the pull-up and much less at the top, where you actually need it - would personally suggest (if possible) doing inverted rows off a set of rings or a racked barbell, but even that is not really matching a pull-up so would also put focus on other vertical pulling movements like lat pulldowns. Just my opinion though.

Noted, thanks :) Hopefully once I get my lat pulldown/cable tower (if it ever comes back into stock!) I'll be able to more easily focus on it. For the meantime it does feel like I am progressing at least a little bit using the band to do it - but that also being the other problem with using bands for anything; it's a bit subjective and hard to tell exactly how much assistance the band is giving
 
Finally done my first workout in far to many months as I was a bit over keen with packing up for moving. Going from a small garage full of stuff to a double garage has made all the difference... Still way too much stuff in there but I've cropped most of that out.

Still in progress as I have mirrors to put up, I need to source a stand for my dumbells and still a lot of stuff to sort out post move but very happy with what I have in place now and so happy to be getting back into it.

How do you find the bike? I'm still deciding on mine and I see that one is in stock at £450 which is a fair bit less than I'd been looking at? Any downsides?
 
How do you find the bike? I'm still deciding on mine and I see that one is in stock at £450 which is a fair bit less than I'd been looking at? Any downsides?
I only got it delivered a week ago and only managed a couple of light rides on it, so far I'm very impressed, the handle had a tiny bit of movement buy it's very solid.

Pre lockdown it was rated as one of the best low budget bike options as it's magnetic resistance and a 20kg flywheel.

The delivery time was stated at around 3-4 weeks and it arrived in less than a week so that was a big positive but obviously I might have been lucky.


I will be clear though, I am not a cyclist in the slightest so the seat is uncomfortable for me despite being very well padded and I don't have experience to compare it to. I got it mainly to do something other than rowing as a cool down/warm up as I find my arms don't hold up well on the rower after a session.

Have a look on YouTube there was a video comparing it to a pelaton - it was some thing along the lines of "cheap pelaton alternative" the guy ended up getting a pelaton anyway but had a lot of positive comments about the JLL IC300 pro
 
I only got it delivered a week ago and only managed a couple of light rides on it, so far I'm very impressed, the handle had a tiny bit of movement buy it's very solid.

Pre lockdown it was rated as one of the best low budget bike options as it's magnetic resistance and a 20kg flywheel.

The delivery time was stated at around 3-4 weeks and it arrived in less than a week so that was a big positive but obviously I might have been lucky.


I will be clear though, I am not a cyclist in the slightest so the seat is uncomfortable for me despite being very well padded and I don't have experience to compare it to. I got it mainly to do something other than rowing as a cool down/warm up as I find my arms don't hold up well on the rower after a session.

Have a look on YouTube there was a video comparing it to a pelaton - it was some thing along the lines of "cheap pelaton alternative" the guy ended up getting a pelaton anyway but had a lot of positive comments about the JLL IC300 pro

Thanks, I'm also no pro but I do expect to be spending roughly an hour at a time on it, that said I have zero interest in the apps etc as I'll be sat in front of a big TV watching whatever I want so trying to avoid overspending.
 
I've got a rack, olympic bar and olympic EZ as well as bench.
Are there any decent low-profile / easy to tuck away cable pulley kits that olympic plates can be stacked on?

Something to do tri pull downs and cable curls?
 
I've got a rack, olympic bar and olympic EZ as well as bench.
Are there any decent low-profile / easy to tuck away cable pulley kits that olympic plates can be stacked on?

Something to do tri pull downs and cable curls?

Most power racks have an optional extra high-low pulley system that takes players, like the one @GTanny showed a few posts back.

I find mine invaluable and you can even do mid height exercises such as face pulls and rows if you lie/sit on the floor.
 
I've got a rack, olympic bar and olympic EZ as well as bench.
Are there any decent low-profile / easy to tuck away cable pulley kits that olympic plates can be stacked on?

Something to do tri pull downs and cable curls?

You could make your own using a combination of a plate pin, caribinas, steel cables and pulleys?
 
Have someone hopefully buying my old bulldog rack tomorrow. Basically want to get rid of it, so selling it for £200. The number of ridiculous offers I’ve had boggles the mind - then they’re shocked that I don’t get back to them.
 
Yeah, it's mad. I'm selling my rack at the moment, to replace it with a Mirafit M100. Put the feelers out for £200 if someone can collect it half disassembled (can't be bothered fully dismantling it). Had about 30 messages within a couple of hours to take it at asking, and a few of them offered to give me as much as £300 if they can have it over the person who got in there first.

Cannot wait for the gyms to open properly and stay open (hopefully), should get a decent amount of equipment for cheap from all those who have got stuff set up in their house and need the space back.
 
Indeed. You’d expect a load of gym equipment to flood the market once gyms reopen.

Well the old rack is gone, that was easy. The demand still seems to be there. Probably could have sold it for more, but glad to have the space back. The guy got a bargain there.
 
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