Spec me some exercise equipment.

InsomniaCalls

InsomniaCalls

InsomniaCalls

Soldato
Joined
20 Jan 2005
Posts
2,722
Location
Whitley Bay
Hi guys.

I'm moving house shortly and will have a garage - this seems like a good opportunity to have a home gym.

I'm not after anything too flash and expensive but certainly not crappy equipment.

Looking for:

Recumbent exercise bike (or comfortable upright - the seats always hurt after about ten minutes :( )
Rowing machine
Weight bench

Already have weights, mats and a cross trainer.

This should take care of cardio + weights as I never use any other machines in my local gym anyway.

TIA

Si
:)
 
Get a squat rack and a adjustable bench. That way you can use the squat rack for both squatting and benching.

That along with some spinlock dumbbells, a straight barbell, pleanty of weight and the cross trainer if it suits you is all you will need.

Oh, a determined attitude is essential too ;)
 
Hi guys, i'm interested in this as well, assuming i have nothing what would you recommend i get to start off? weights, bench, rack etc
 
If you're buying any equipment the most important piece of advise i would give is to try it out first. Most of the Powerhouse fitness branches will have a massive selection of equipment for you to try, for example on X-trainers the foot plate position varies massively, i tried all the machines up to £2k and settled for a model that was about £700 as it 'Felt right' for me. I also tried weights benches out before buying them, so i could get one i felt compfortable lying on, some have really thin benches others were too thick for me so trying out 6-7 makes gave me the chance to select one just right for me.

The one thing i didn't try out was buying spotter catchers for benching off, i went off the recommendation of the guy selling them that they would be ok, first time i came to use them i nearly pulled my shoulder out of joint, so went back and got them to set up a bench with a few differen't types of rack until i found the one i wanted.
 
everyone says the concept2 is the rower to go for and i agree totally partly because I use one a lot and the fact i've never seen anything but a concept2 in a gym or indoor rowing event.
 
It's all down to budget, space and what you use them for. Is it not possible for you to go to a local gym? I only say this because i struggle at times to lift sufficinet weight safely in my home gym compared to being spotted at a proper weight training gym, if you're starting out also those places can be invaluable to learning different ranges of exercises for body parts (although it is different now due to t'internet than when i started out 16 yrs ago). You'll also get a feel for if you like it or not, have a look in your local supermarket at how many sets of 'Weights + Bench' adverts are in the local free-ads from people who have boiught them and they just get shoved in the garage or in the loft because people never use them.

I went for a 140kg olympic barbell set from powerhouse fitness, mainly because i got an alright deal on it, and i had already been the proud owner of numerous sets of York plastic stuff and spinlock (god i hate them, you spend more of your time spinning the locks off than doing weights). I got a 7ft bar, you need to be careful with these though as they take up a hooooge amount of room. The Olympic plates are easy to swop and are kept on with a nice quick release collar).

For dumbells, if i had the money it would be a set of 10-40kg going up in 2kg when i could afford it. For now i bought a pair of olympic dumbell handles and just use the smaller plates from the set above. It's not ideal but does the job.
 
mrmoose said:
everyone says the concept2 is the rower to go for and i agree totally partly because I use one a lot and the fact i've never seen anything but a concept2 in a gym or indoor rowing event.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but one thing to note. The concept 2 is a 'commercial grade' rower, it is designed to be used for 10+hrs per day and last at least 3 or 4 yrs if maintined properly. For home use, you would be pushed to do 5 hrs per week so it's a bit of overkill. It's like saying buy a PC with a gazillion GB of processor, memory and disk when all you are doing is writing word documents utilising about 1% of it's true potential, which is fine if you can afford it i suppose, just not for me.

Again, i would say get down to a showroom (try google or Yell to find one locally) and try out differen't makes/models to see which ones you prefer and is within your set budget.
 
in interested in this route as i dont really have the money for a monthly fee at the gym. I am confident i would keep it up and would get it set up in the garage.
 
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