Official Home Gym Building Thread

mattyg said:
We got an ex commercial gym Startrak for about 700....
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Cheers mate. I went with a second hand Jet300 for £300.
Used it and its decent enough. Needed a folding one due to space by the rack so whatever I bought was not gonna be commercial level due to that pre-requisite.

when I move to another house (3-5 years), I'm gonna buy one of those massive fixed ones.. I think Nordic do one.. the ones with a CRAZY incline.
 
jb7 said:
Can anyone recommend me a good home bench? I've had terrible luck so far:

- 2 x Mirafit M3 benches = both arrived faulty. Seat holes in the wrong place
- 1 x Bodymax bench = also arrived faulty

About to give up. Looking to spend £350 max on the bench
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I'd reccomend Iron King's new benches. I checked them out at their HQ.
commercial, rated up to 350kg, incline, slimline, wheels. they looked good.

dont think they're on their website yet but give them a call.
 
utajoker said:
Anyone got an opinion on the mirafit cable machine?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mirafi...all-or-rack-mounted-cable-pulley-machine.html
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200sols said:
Yes, its never in stock. Been waiting months.
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I gave up waiting after 6 months and bought the cable machine from Primal Strength:

https://primalstrength.com/primal-s...ZfyY7Z9_8Px6WChJs0ZQ8QI97Oh5ebcRoCHtkQAvD_BwE

And it seems good to me - it's actually even more compact too, if you care about such things
 
Anyone recommend a decent exercise bike? I know there's the thread for zwift etc but Im not interested in the racing side of it all. When I built the home gym initially I spent a bulk of the budget on the rack/weights and got a cheap cross trainer to go with it as the other half likes cross trainers. Shes stopped using it now and I much prefer bikes for cardio.

Budget I'll be honest I don't know what gets decent gear on the bike side of things, monitors/a basic LCD would be nice But I have a mount for my iPad to watch stuff on so it offers an iPad mount that'd be a big bonus.
 
Snookums said:
Anyone recommend a decent exercise bike? I know there's the thread for zwift etc but Im not interested in the racing side of it all. When I built the home gym initially I spent a bulk of the budget on the rack/weights and got a cheap cross trainer to go with it as the other half likes cross trainers. Shes stopped using it now and I much prefer bikes for cardio.

Budget I'll be honest I don't know what gets decent gear on the bike side of things, monitors/a basic LCD would be nice But I have a mount for my iPad to watch stuff on so it offers an iPad mount that'd be a big bonus.
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Get some form of air bike. I have an Airdyne 8 and it’s a killer!
 
Snookums said:
Anyone recommend a decent exercise bike? I know there's the thread for zwift etc but Im not interested in the racing side of it all. When I built the home gym initially I spent a bulk of the budget on the rack/weights and got a cheap cross trainer to go with it as the other half likes cross trainers. Shes stopped using it now and I much prefer bikes for cardio.

Budget I'll be honest I don't know what gets decent gear on the bike side of things, monitors/a basic LCD would be nice But I have a mount for my iPad to watch stuff on so it offers an iPad mount that'd be a big bonus.
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We have the Life Fitness IC4 - it's not cheap (of course expense is pretty subjective) at about £1.2k but we went for it because:
* It's a real proper gym-quality bike that should last ages and is rock solid
* It's the cheapest model of theirs which actually has magnetic resistance that should never wear out
* It's a model with no computer/LCD at all, the IC5 is the same model but with a very basic computer and it was £400 extra just for that

To remedy the lack of computer I bought a little £30 Garmin cadence tracker and it's attached by one of the pedals - hook that up to a free bluetooth enabled cadence reading app and you've basically got your computer on your phone/tablet.

Don't regret the purchase at all we've had it a year now and it's as solid as the day we got it

Edit: Search my posts in this thread if you want to see it in-situ as I did take some pics of the gym a little while ago
 
Kreeeee said:
Get some form of air bike. I have an Airdyne 8 and it’s a killer!
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Air bikes all seem like dual action which I'd rather not go for tbh.

uncle_rufus said:
We have the Life Fitness IC4 - it's not cheap (of course expense is pretty subjective) at about £1.2k but we went for it because:
* It's a real proper gym-quality bike that should last ages and is rock solid
* It's the cheapest model of theirs which actually has magnetic resistance that should never wear out
* It's a model with no computer/LCD at all, the IC5 is the same model but with a very basic computer and it was £400 extra just for that

To remedy the lack of computer I bought a little £30 Garmin cadence tracker and it's attached by one of the pedals - hook that up to a free bluetooth enabled cadence reading app and you've basically got your computer on your phone/tablet.

Don't regret the purchase at all we've had it a year now and it's as solid as the day we got it

Edit: Search my posts in this thread if you want to see it in-situ as I did take some pics of the gym a little while ago
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Looks like an impressive bit of kit but a bit more than I expected. Seeing things like APEX for £900 I assumed a decent bit of home kit could be grabbed for 400-600 range. I've been working today so not been able to do too much research but it looks like magnetic is best.

Now I have a more helpful budget of 400-600 any recommendations?
 
Do you have an actual bike?

I'd be tempted by a cheap bike and a turbo. That way you have a bike if you ever wanted to use it, but also the indoor bike. You mentioned not wanting to race on Zwift, but there are lots of other programs you could run for a bit more immersion, or just have it as a dumb stationary bike.
 
Martynt74 said:
Do you have an actual bike?

I'd be tempted by a cheap bike and a turbo. That way you have a bike if you ever wanted to use it, but also the indoor bike. You mentioned not wanting to race on Zwift, but there are lots of other programs you could run for a bit more immersion, or just have it as a dumb stationary bike.
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Yeah I've got a hardtail. Not sure how effective MTBs are on turbos and I get out on it as much as possible (wet and cold doesn't bother me, rain does it's annoying) so I'd rather not have to keep setting it up and taking it apart all the time.

Cardio for me is more about throw on a tv show, movie, video w/e and just go. That's why the racing and immersion doesn't fuss me.
 
Martynt74 said:
Do you have an actual bike?

I'd be tempted by a cheap bike and a turbo. That way you have a bike if you ever wanted to use it, but also the indoor bike. You mentioned not wanting to race on Zwift, but there are lots of other programs you could run for a bit more immersion, or just have it as a dumb stationary bike.
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I looked into these a bit more, direct drive ones seem to take seconds to switch over so I think you’ve got me on board. They seem to be better value for performance than full on exercise bikes too.

what trainer would you recommend for the budget? Any good bf deals you’re aware of?
 
You’d be better in the Zwift thread I think. The Tacx flux2 could be had around £500 which I believe is pretty good. Otherwise the Wahoo Kickr core was similar for a reconditioned on I think I saw.

Just note you’d need to buy a matching cassette for it too :)
 
Any recs for some standard cable attachment handles? They’re always being used/lost in the gym next to work so I need a pair of my own to stick in my gym bag.

The ones on Amazon all look cheap and nasty but conversely I’m not sure I need to pay £40 for the Spud Inc. ones which I know will be tank-like. Don’t want the all-metal D type ones.
 
Somnambulist said:
Any recs for some standard cable attachment handles? They’re always being used/lost in the gym next to work so I need a pair of my own to stick in my gym bag.

The ones on Amazon all look cheap and nasty but conversely I’m not sure I need to pay £40 for the Spud Inc. ones which I know will be tank-like. Don’t want the all-metal D type ones.
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Replying to self but I see the ones Strength Shop sell are identical to these but black and £10 cheaper so might get those.
 
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