LG John

I've been giving some consideration to getting back into the gym but I really loath paying gym prices and hate that you can't stop payments during quieter winter months when I can't be as bothered to attend. It occurred to me that I don't use any of the cardio machines because if I wanted to run or cycle I'd just run or cycle outside. I also rarely use any of the weights machines and instead prefer to use free weights.

That being the case I investigated how much it would cost to set myself up with a weights set up for the home that would allow me to do 95%+ of the exercises I do at the gym anyway.

I've figured that for about £500 I can get a split new power rack and 140kg olympic set with 7ft 20kg bar, a flat bench and a mat for sit ups, etc. The power rack allows for safe squats and bench press and has pull up/chin up handles. I could do squats, deads, overhead press, bench press, inverted rows, curls if I so desired and a fair few other variations with this equipment.

My question is: am I missing anything or would that equipment be enough to allow me to perform old school free weight total body work outs?

On the basis it's like £70 a month for the gym, then I'd be break even within 7 months and would still have equipment of value to use for many months/years afterwards or sell if I lose interest.

The Chief

I reckon around a grand to set up some thing half decent.

buy a smith machine with a lat attachment.

A good sturdy bench which is adjustable.

ez curl bar for biceps and triceps.

and tons of olympic weights.

This pretty much does most stuff and is compact...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNWMhrXnlT0

Devildog

Kenny,

Motivation may be your biggest issue. I always find it easier to train in a gym than at home.

Can't you find a cheaper gym?

The Chief

Thats a good point Devildog - i pay £3.50 a session, and i can always push myself more at a gym than i could ever do at home.

Sometimes i thinik i just dont want to go but once in the gym i'm away!!!

LG John

Actually, the idea would be to set this up in my Uncles garage which is about a 5 minute cycle from my house so I'd still have to 'go out' to go to the gym. Idea is to go halves with my cousin who is showing interest in weight training. Crucially though, at least if I lose interest I don't continue to pay month after month for something I'm not using as invariably happens when I lose interest in the gym.

Cheif, I don't like machines that support the weight for me as they give an inferior work out IMHO. I also don't believe a lat machine is necessary if you have a power rack that allows for pull up and chin ups.

My initial thinking is this with a basic flat bench, or maybe an adjustable one for incline/decline presses and a world of pig-iron; 140kg to start.

LG John

Most of the gym's around me are really poncy (david lloyd, etc) and expensive. The local gyms are woefully inadequate for free weights. There's a few great gyms in town with big free weight setups that are probably £3-5 a session and they'd be ideal but if you factor in travelling costs it works out more and I know that I'd often just stay in that drive 5 miles into town to chuck weights around.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

SB, I have done this, its a waste of time, unless you can persuade several fit women to ponce round in sweaty gear that you desperately try to impress and some blokes to get competitive with then you are on to a loser.

The Uncle's garage thing put me in mind of that rather uncomfortable bit from Gavin and Stacey.

The Chief

I agree that places like david Lloyd are not the way to go - gyms are for working out not sat there posing.

As for the machine debate, weight is weight, as long as that muscle is contracting. I see some hardcore weigh trainers using smith machines

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

Why not cycle the 5miles, and use it as your cardio warm up/cool down?

ronjeramy

iTrader: (1)

I think it's more about the way you lift the weight from what I've been told, free weights work more muscles or areas then on machines

LG John

I actually find the women counter-productive. I lost my count doing pull up's the other day in the gym (free week trial) when a fit lass bent over 10ft away! I take your point re: the competitive thing I suppose. When you see a guy rack up and bench 120kg with relative ease you can't help but want to try harder yourself. I don't think I could remain motivated myself to put in the work but with a training partner (cousin) perhaps it would be easier?

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Is this cos you have been sat in a darkened room playing online poker for 18 months and are now 22 stone and a fetching shade of semi translucent light blue ?

Matteeboy

Saxo - what are your goals? If it's to put on a load of bulk, you need commercial quality kit (home gyms are too flimsy and usually max out at around 90kg - not enough unless you are a squirt) and that's expensive. If it's to get/keep toned and fit then you need very little kit.

I did the weight gain thing over a period of 5 years at a gym (having failed at home) but now just do fitness/maintenance stuff with dumbells, a pull up bar and some other cheapish kit. Has been working well for 3 years now and I never get bored because I can blast my own music as loud as I want which helps no end.

jonc

You'd be hard pressed to get the same amount of varied exercises from a home gym than you get from a fully equipped gym. With that in mind, you'd get bored quickly. At least thats what I found. I have a gym in my garage, squat rack, with upper and lower pullys for lat pull downs and cable rows. With it theres a incline/decline bench with preacher attachment and another for leg ext/curls. I have 140kg 6ft barbell/dumbell set. I used it for about a year and now sits gathering dust in the garage and instead go to a proper fully equipped gym. I found it harder to keep motivated using a home gym.

LG John

Initially we'd probably do stronglift 5x5 to build up a core of strength. I'd stay on this until I can bench my body weight or more and squat 1.5x my body weight or more.

My longer term goals would be to add some mass, tone up, look better and be stronger. Don't think I'd ever plan on more than 2-3 sessions a week of 1h maximum. I'm married and 30 so I'm unlikely to ever be motivated enough to be on the cover of mens health or to be really big and bulky but I'd live to be well shapen, strong and fit.

hux309

I know an ex miss 'o' and she said most of the pro's use machines as well, saves on injuries plus they're that big they only need to keep themselves topped up.

What the chief suggested is excellent, it'll do 95% of what is needed whilst barbells can cover the rest, im always on the smiths whether it be skullcrushers or close grip bench press, it's the most used piece of equipment in my gym and rightly so.

LG John

This is kind of my point though.

The setup you describe I've priced brand new for about a £500 budget. Even if my cousin and I used it for 12 months and then lost interest we could probably still sell it on gumtree for £200. That's £300 costs (£150 each). My local David Lloyd is £84 per month if you sign up to the 3-month contract with rolling 1 months after that. That's just over £1k for the year. Their 12 month contract is £69 a month but you must give 3 months notice so it's a minimum of £828 if you can hand in your notice 3 months before the 12 is up. However, I suspect it's actually 15 months minimum no matter which way you work it in which case it's £1035.

The local Edinburgh Leisure Gym is £6.80 per session at the gym or £5.60 with a £50 leisure card. Assuming I went twice a week for 40 weeks of the year at leisure card rate then that's still £500 and the strong lift program is based on 3 visits a week anyway meaning it would be more.

What I'm driving at is that I'd not be making a financial mistake in buying equipment vs going to gym provided I/we used it for more than a few months. After that it's effectively a free roll.

The main question of my post is whether such a set up would allow me to meet my training goals which, in fairness, I didn't really detail until post 15

Matteeboy

Saxo - think you will need to shell out a fair bit or find a cheaper gym - £70 is a lot!

How far off your initial goals are you? Toning is "cheap", adding mass isn't!

Just consider that with big freeweights you must have a spotter to help you do them properly.

Otherwise it's machine time.

LG John

Cousin is there so we can spot each other although technically the power rack could be set so that the 'spotter bars' stop the bar 1cm or so above your chest. Not ideal, but prevents injury and the same can be done for squats. My current equipment list would look something like this:

Power Rack, £190 delivered
140kg Olypmic Weights Set £250
Flat Weights Bench £50

That's £490 and you are up and running. Surely with that equipment you can get a good all body work out?

LG John

Miles, until last week I've not set foot in a gym for about 2 years and it shows

Matteeboy

Saxo - seems a decent enough set up and 140kg should be sufficient unless you really go for it (might be a bit light for squats quite soonish).

Just sounded like you weren't sure if your cousin would be up for it in the long term?

Have you got dumbell bars already? You'll need some.

jonc

If its down to costs, then home gym is the way, but as I said, I found it harder to keep motivated. So yes you could use it for a year, then get to a point where you can't be bothered to use it any more, sell it. Loose shape the following year and then buy another gym back into shape again etc etc. Thats my experience and why I prefer a proper gym to stay motivated and therefore stay in shape.

A home gym is quite limiting in that the equipment can only provide limited range of exercises hence you do the same exercises over and over again and get bored doing it. It doesn't "grow" as you grow. At least with a proper gym it provides enough equipment and weights and allows you to vary your exercises as you get bigger/stronger, plus the eye candy is better that staring at the garage wall!! Get yourself an iPod if you want to listen to your own music.

njkmrs

Saxo ,I would give the home gym a go .As you have said over a few months it will cost next to nothing .
I have a running machine in my garage and have been using it again since Jan.Lost a stone and feel much better .
A mate is giving me his home gym which I will use to tone up .

It is more about getting on and doing it ,as a former member of gyms ,I found I would not go for months and still be paying the subs,which I got fed up with ,so home exercise is far cheaper and can still be rewarding .

It can be just as difficult persuading yourself to go to the gym as opposed to going to your garage and getting it over with much quicker,with no travelling .

Go to it .!!!

LG John

Maybe we could put some totty up on the garage wall

I'm nowhere near a 140kg squat so I'd be sorted for a while but a few extra 20kg plates wouldn't break the bank at some future time.

Seems the key concern expressed is motivational. It's a fair point I guess and we are each different in the way we motivate. For me I guess much of the reason I hated going to the guy was having to get there on a cold, wet, dark night fanny about getting through reception, changing, locking away my stuff, doing my work out and then reversing the process. At least doing it from home (or from a nearby family members) cuts out a lot of that.

As for the wimmin. I honest find them distracting. I'm the worlds biggest pervert and I just don't need sexy girls around when I'm trying to concentrate. The thing with the gym is I find I always joined under the dillusion that I'd use the other facilities such as teh sauna and jaccuzzi to sooth my worked muscles. In reality I'd turn up, lug free weights around for 1-1.5 hours and then leave.

Matteeboy

Saxo - I have massive motivation (not sure why) and don't do anything physical by halves - was a 4 times a week gym goer and now do less at home but run, cycle and surf a lot more.

I honestly don't miss the gym, although I definitely needed it for at least two years as I was on a mega mission. It worked then but no need now. I don't miss waiting for the right set of weights, I don't miss the egos (often misplaced), I don't miss having to get there and back, I don't miss shelling out lots of cash. And if it's a "proper" gym and not a shandy drinkers "light film of sweat" gym, then there won't be any decent totty anyway - unless you like them with **** off great biceps!

One of my favourite gyms was in our apartment block in London - really good kit, almost never anyone there and a pool and a sauna for post workout soothing. My most hated was by far the most expensive (in Bristol).

WRX_Dazza

pyjamaman, post up a pic of you benching 300lbs with just your fingernails

SPEN555

PMSL! putting collars on a smith machine! WTF for??????

Matteeboy

Dazza - I'm no hulk so maximum lifts were never that big. Just got a good power to weight ratio (can bench just about twice my bodyweight, do 30+ pull ups, lots of press ups, etc, etc, blah, blah, just to upset everyone, blah, blah, blah...). Never had any desire to be a slightly porky "powerlifter"

They seem like similarish "goals" to what Saxo Boy has, hence the posts. If it was about power lifting, I wouldn't try and contribute.

SPEN555

That power rack looks a bit flimsy.

Be very careful of buying off looking at pics off the net. When you get it and assemble it there always seems to be something that really pi$$es you off about the equipment which had you seen it in person you would not have bought it. For example, the catchers on the power rack are unsuitable for benching or the catchers don't go low enough etc. Be careful as it could prove costly.

CupraT

What you are suggesting sounds good, you seem to have a good knowledge of what to do.

I much prefer free weights as the transfer of strength to other sports (and real life lifts) is much better than machines. You 'routine' would give you are great foundation to work from.

As an alternative to the rack, this one is good

Power Rack (Powerline) PPR200

Doesn't come with the pull down but I have had the same for 8 years and still going strong (had 300kg on there for rack pulls and it's taken the weight fine).

Additionally, look on eby, I have saved a shed load on weights over the years.