Official Home Gym Building Thread

Squidward said:
Make sure to regularly check your screws and bolts on this bench. I literally had bolts falling out of mine on the silver plates on the side from regular usage. Bulldog gear stated this was normal.
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Will do. It's usually good practice to check any bolts/screws on gym kit occasionally as they do work a little loose. My concept2 rower states in the manual to recheck the bolts.

Squidward said:
my only complaint is the adjustment for the front seat slider (horizontal not tilt) is screw fit where the rest of the bench is push pin.
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I find that I only need to do turn the screw a couple turns, the push pin part holds it really well. Especially on flat, I've never needed to screw it in.
 
LiE said:
Will do. It's usually good practice to check any bolts/screws on gym kit occasionally as they do work a little loose. My concept2 rower states in the manual to recheck the bolts.
I find that I only need to do turn the screw a couple turns, the push pin part holds it really well. Especially on flat, I've never needed to screw it in.
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Just to be clear, are we referring to the same mechanism. The seat angle, and back pad angle are push pin and holds well.
The seat slider for the zero gap adjustment has a screw type fitting that has to be undone to move it, are you saying that yours only has to be unscrewed partially to get it to move?
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Squidward said:
Just to be clear, are we referring to the same mechanism. The seat angle, and back pad angle are push pin and holds well.
The seat slider for the zero gap adjustment has a screw type fitting that has to be undone to move it, are you saying that yours only has to be unscrewed partially to get it to move?
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It's a pull pin, which also has a screw to make it extra secure. I find for the most part I don't need to use the screw part when flat and only partially screw it for any other non-flat positions. Is yours not a pull pin with added screw?
 
LiE said:
It's a pull pin, which also has a screw to make it extra secure. I find for the most part I don't need to use the screw part when flat and only partially screw it for any other non-flat positions. Is yours not a pull pin with added screw?
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Omg! I always assumed it had to be unscrewed! Pull pin is so much easier! Thanks
 
I'm putting together a garage gym and want a power rack. Interested n choosing between the Iron King SR70 or the Extreme Fitness EX PR 400. Does anyone have any experience of either of these? I have an Olympic bar, 155kg of plates and matting already.
 
DV95 said:
I'm putting together a garage gym and want a power rack. Interested n choosing between the Iron King SR70 or the Extreme Fitness EX PR 400. Does anyone have any experience of either of these? I have an Olympic bar, 155kg of plates and matting already.
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I would personally get the Mirafit M3 over the above. Its functionally identical to the iron King SR70. The main difference is 60x60x3mm on the m3 vs 70x70x3mm on the iron King. If you want to go higher end get an ATX rack.
 
tbyeah said:
Any recommendations on dumbbells? I've found these which look decent with the stand https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353606139709?hash=item5254917f3d:g:E9cAAOSwS8dhCd6X
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Those are basically the same as the Nuo Flexbell dumbbells which I had. Very slick mechanism. My concern was if that failed the entire thing becomes useless, and there’s no real way to know how robust it is.

Personally I’d go with hex dumbbells at sensible increments.

For £600 from Mirafit will get hex dumbbells in these increments: 7.5kg, 10kg, 15kg, 20kg, 25kg, 32.5kg


https://mirafit.co.uk/mirafit-dumbbell-hex-weight-set.html
 
It's tough, there's always a tradeoff. With a fixed set there's the space and cost consideration, and with any Flexbell replica there's the durability doubts. Plus both have quite large jumps in weight.

I've been looking at the Bowflex 1090 replicas which are around £300-400 a pair, which I like because of the small weight graduations (around 2kg per dumbbell up to 40kg) but they are absolutely MASSIVE. No idea how much that would bother me
 
Went for the 32kg Flexbell replicas, I'm happy with them so far

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They feel more solid and beefy than I expected and the stand is rock solid. The black bits at the end of the silver rails being plastic is not ideal, but all the plastic feels very sturdy
 
I managed to buy some more stable mats for surprisingly cheap. They'll more than do for the remainder of the garage floor. Unfortunately they absolutely stink.

Has anyone successfully cleaned rubber stable mats for the gym floor? We tried a weak bleach solution on two mats and they're airing out overnight. I'm a bit concerned about using something that will damage or degrade the rubber.
 
Cadder said:
I managed to buy some more stable mats for surprisingly cheap. They'll more than do for the remainder of the garage floor. Unfortunately they absolutely stink.

Has anyone successfully cleaned rubber stable mats for the gym floor? We tried a weak bleach solution on two mats and they're airing out overnight. I'm a bit concerned about using something that will damage or degrade the rubber.
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If they are dirty then a mop and soapy water will do it, if you mean the new rubber smell then there is nothing you can do. It fades fairly quickly (or at least I've gotten used to it quickly :p


Just hit 155kg x 8 for deadlifts, that 200kg single is going down soon :cool:
 
tbyeah said:
If they are dirty then a mop and soapy water will do it, if you mean the new rubber smell then there is nothing you can do. It fades fairly quickly (or at least I've gotten used to it quickly :p


Just hit 155kg x 8 for deadlifts, that 200kg single is going down soon :cool:
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Congrats on the deadlifts, I'm some way away from that.

Unfortunately the mats smell from what appears to be years of use in a stable prior to being used in a home gym (prior to me buying them).

The weak bleach solution hasn't done the trick.
 
Cadder said:
Congrats on the deadlifts, I'm some way away from that.

Unfortunately the mats smell from what appears to be years of use in a stable prior to being used in a home gym (prior to me buying them).

The weak bleach solution hasn't done the trick.
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I believe the rubber is porous - so it'll be very difficult to get rid of the smell quickly :(
 
Hi there,

I’m planning on building a home gym in my garage and I will be getting the Mirafit M3 rack.

It’s the bench I’m a little undecided on as ideally to keep things space friendly I would ideally like it to have a preacher curl and leg attachments if possible. So I’m wondering what’s the best rated utility benches to get?

Also for lat pull downs etc I’ll probably get the body solid plate loader, although the new M3 lat device you can attach to the cage looks interesting.

Cheers
 
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Popped into my local fitness superstore over the weekend and was having a look at some their benches but also noticed some of the racks they had.

What are the Powertec power racks like? From what I could tell it seems just as thick as the M3 rack I was thinking of getting but had a few more features and accessories for it. I was quite impressed with the bolt on last pull down system for it also. If anyone’s had one I’d like to know your thoughts!
 
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