Weights at home

Yeah, with hack squats I found it actually quite a tricky exercise at first. I had to work up slowly from low weights too, but that was much preferable to getting too keen and piling in.

I really like the movement now, but at first... gah! I was bashing the back of my hamstrings on the way up and my calves/achilles on the way down, having trouble keeping my knees from flaring outwards, forgetting to keep my back straight and not to hunch up. Glad I sorted all that with lighter weights on the bar.

There's a lot of room for error that could lead to knee and back injuries, so starting light, going slow and nailing the form is pretty important IMO.

Really love the hack squat now, though!

I do no cardio at all. Hate it, always hated it, will always hate it! So I really don't know about that one :)
 
Yeah I'm going to ask my wife to check my form next set to make sure I'm not going to astray, but was taking it slow on each rep to concentrate on my posture.

I stupidly was doing bar bench presses from the floor yesterday (not sure why I thought that was a clever idea), I think I'm going to swap that to db benches before i drop it on my neck!

I use to hate cardio, but for some reason I've just really got into running now. Usually 2-3 miles daily, but yesterday I only went for 1.5 miles so I could instead concentrate on upping my pace. Not going to break any records but was happy to get a 7.30 mile.
 
I priced up the gear for a home gym and it is over to £4k.

I'll be sticking to my gym for the moment!

Most of that it is rack, weights and barbell.

Then you add flooring bench and accessory items such as chains and so on it quickly adds up!
 
Take a look at the Bodymax CF415 for a low cost and portable squat rack, spotter catchers and also a dip station. For the price it is great and can be split apart to store if needed.

Combined with the CF415 I use a good incline/flat/decline bench (don't skimp on the quality imho), a barbell, dumbells and weights (preferably olympic if possible). Also a cheap pull up bar although I hate using one. With those I've managed to build a fairly cheap home setup and am making good progress. It won't compare to the good setups the experienced people on here have, but for a relatively low price it is very good indeed.

In my beginners opinion you don't need to replicate everything in a gym. You just need enough for the basics to start with. Concentrate on compound exercises where possible.
 
Freefaller said:
I priced up the gear for a home gym and it is over to £4k.

I'll be sticking to my gym for the moment!

Most of that it is rack, weights and barbell.

Then you add flooring bench and accessory items such as chains and so on it quickly adds up!
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Most places do interest free too, or even a credit card?

If you can manage interest free surely it would pay for itself compared to a gym within a reasonable time frame? Also giving you the opportunity to pay it back too, if you ever stop lifting and sell it off 2nd hand. Of course this depends on your commitment, space in your house and whether you prefer to lift in a gym or not.
 
You can get a decent rack, weights and barbell for £1k. I know you'll need more than the average user as you're over 200kg on some lifts Freefaller, but £4k seems a lot. What other expensive equipment did you price onto that?
 
Ayahuasca said:
You can get a decent rack, weights and barbell for £1k. I know you'll need more than the average user as you're over 200kg on some lifts Freefaller, but £4k seems a lot. What other expensive equipment did you price onto that?
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Aye, unless you're going to need specific machinery (leg press etc) on top of a rack, bench and weights I can't see you needing to spend no more than 2k.

Even going OTT:

Rack, £1200
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/bodymax-zenith-line-cf875-heavy-duty-commercial-power-rack.php

Bench, £230
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/bodycraft-f602-deluxe-f-i-d-utility-bench.php

Weights, £470 (235kg)
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/bodymax-olympic-rubber-radial-barbell-kit-235kg.php

Matting, £50-£100

That's approximately £2k. Maybe spend more on a bench and push the budget to £2.2k.

Unless your buying all Hammer Strength/Life Fitness there's no way you need to spend 4k.
 
Ayahuasca said:
You can get a decent rack, weights and barbell for £1k. I know you'll need more than the average user as you're over 200kg on some lifts Freefaller, but £4k seems a lot. What other expensive equipment did you price onto that?
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I need decent equipment. A barbell is over £500. Then all the plates add another grand at least excluding the rack. Clocks up!

I have no space for one anyway. But if you're going to invest you might as well do it right. No point in buying crap equipment.
 
Freefaller said:
I need decent equipment. A barbell is over £500. Then all the plates add another grand at least excluding the rack. Clocks up!

I have no space for one anyway. But if you're going to invest you might as well do it right. No point in buying crap equipment.
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A £500 barbell?! My 1500 lb rated barbell was nowhere near £500! Is yours covered in golf leaf?!

I'm guessing a thousand on plates means you've got some fancy bumpers? Mine are "only" cast iron :(

:p
 
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spoffle said:
A £500 barbell?! My 1500 lb rated barbell was nowhere near £500! Is yours covered in golf leaf?!

I'm guessing a thousand on plates means you've got some fancy bumpers? Mine are "only" cast iron :(

:p
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It depends of you want a decent bar or not. It's not just about how much you can load on it ;)

Yes I'd want bumper plates - best for deadlifting, and doing cleans etc... if I have to bail I don't want the plates cracking which happens very easily with cast iron plates. :)

Having used cheap £200 bars vs really nice Eleiko bars there's a huge difference. Now obviously I wouldn't buy an eleiko bar as they're VERY expensive (over £1k for the bar alone!). But investing in good equipment which will stand test of time and abuse is worthwhile.

However my gym has top equipment with racks/bumper plates/proper bars/flooring so I have no need for my own kit. This is purely theoretical.

Anyway for a beginner as the OP you don't need expensive gear, but then I personally wouldn't waste your money on average gear - just invest in learning on how to lift in a gym which as all the right equipment you'd ever need. Then when you've taught yourself how to lift and you have the space for it, as others have mentioned you'd only need £1.5-£2k to get yourself a well equipped gym. Which is not very much for a long lasting investment.
 
What sort of differences are we talking about? I know some bars have more flexibility so that they can "whip". I've never used anything Eleiko, though I do know that their stuff is very expensive.

I would like to have some bumper plates for olympic stuff, though I've never had an issue deadlifting with iron plates, just as long as they're on a rubber matt! Though saying that, some iron plates have a smaller circumference than regulation olympic (like my cast irons), which means the bar sits lower to the ground.

My gym is also well equipped, they don't have bumper plates but they are dense rubber and can take being dropped no problem. But bumper plates just look nicer. :p
 
Nice bars have better knurling, flex the 'right' way (I.e. they can flex a lot but are also quite dstiff), have sleeves that spin nicely, and allow you to 'feel' what the weight is doing.

I have tried cleaning with a standard nasty gym bar which was really stiff to the point of being unresponsive, and then almost decapitated me as the sleeves didnt spin. :)

I use a Jordan Elite at home and an Ivanko at work and the difference for weightlifting is quite obvious:

- Squatting over 130kg and the Jordan starts to slide down my baxk because of the bend;
- Better power transfer to the Ivanko as it is stiffer...
 
Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about the collar's ability to spin, though I would chalk that down to a crappy bar, or cheaping out, rather than expensive. As ball bearing collars aren't *that* expensive to produce. I think a lot is down to branding, and maybe you're buying them knowing they are calibrated properly, so actually do weigh 20KG instead of approx 20KG?

I would say the flexibility is also not necessarily related to cost as such, but more to do with its intended use, which sometimes does come with more cost. I do however have a few cheap bars that bend, but not much until there's 180KG+ on the bar, but aren't "springy" or slide down my back when loaded up.

The knurlings though, they can be bad. I've got one bar that requires gloves to be used with it, otherwise the knurlings leave grooves in my palms, and and another where it's an exercise in itself to hold the bar (without gloves) because the knurlings aren't grippy enough at a bench press width.

The knurlings on the bar at my gym are much better, the bar's also a bit thicker and is much more comfortable to bench press with without gloves.
 
Manufacture and type of steel play a big role in the behaviour of the bar: forging a bar that will wind up as a higher content martensite steel (strong and flexible) is hard work and expensive.

However, Eleiko are expensive because they are Eleiko. It is possible to get perfectly awesome bars for half the money or even less. Pendlay, ivanko and Taishan are all vrry skmilar quality for a much lower price bracket.
 
If you go to a decent gym then yeah to replicate that at home it's going to cost you a fair bit. The gym I went to had pretty dated equipment so it was a step up for me when I bought my own stuff.
 
I've always gone (bar David Lloyd) to "proper" gyms so I guess I've been spoilt, but also I believe that to make progress you need the right equipment - or at least once you get to a certain level.

My pricing though wasn't for Eleiko stuff, but just for good quality stuff, and over 250kg of bumper plates, a decent rack and bench and decent flooring.

I agree with mrthingyx thought that Eleiko stuff is just branded and slightly elitist - but it is nice ;)

But yeah collars, knurling and bar quality/steel quality is important to me. :)
 
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