Bench, Rack, weights

Latest (and last) update:
Decided on a Bally's membership since it was the cost of the smith machine we WANTED to get, but was a little on the expensive side, $1300. We actually got a deal for two people at Bally's, it'll be a little less than that for a 2 year membership, and after that it's only $12/month so it's a steal if you ask us.


EDIT:
Well, I hope I didn't get anyone too excited about where this thread was going to be going, but today I broke the bench of the smith rack. Having finally put it together, I broke the bench while doing leg extentions. "Rated to 250lbs." apparantly was a joke, I was warming up with 180lbs. when I heard a crack and then my legs came flying down. The seat broke where my right leg was and my left leg was nowhere near ready to support that much weight. I'm lucky that I didn't hurt myself. Benches shouldn't be made of wood. The one at the store wasn't wood. Perhaps they use a bait and switch to sell the stupid machines.

The machine didn't have good rapport with me after bumping my head a few times while doing calves either (I'm 6'3"). So, we're going to take it back tomorrow and visit Bally's for a 30 day trial membership to see if we can't find some good equipment which we like and want to invest in (Bally's is 30 minute drive each way, not worth it so far in our opinions, but that may change).

More to come later.







Original Post: Well over the xmas break my lifting partner and I decided that instead of going to a gym all the time and wasting 30 minutes travel time (out of our way) and the expensive monthly costs, we decided to buy a bowflex. Well, that is going back to the store this weekend when we actually have time to dismantle it and we were going to get some new equipment which we can't break in a 6 week period.

We were thinking, ideally we would want a smith rack a bench which does both incline, decline and flat, a 300lbs. weight set, some extra 45lbs plates, and probably a tree to be organized.

The problem we are having as well as wanting to know if our gym would be essentially complete is...we both do heavy leg extentions, way more than the 250lbs. that every bench we've seen goes. Does anyone have personal experience with a bench that will go beyond that safely?

Thanks a lot for your help.

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I use this. Not sure if it goes beyond 250 for leg extensions. Not sure if you'll find a bench with enough support at all, let alone padding, to support that much weight. You might want to email different manufacturers. On mine, I have about 140 on each side of the bench for storage. It is pretty sturdy even if I empty out one side. I might go with something like this, only maybe made by a better company, and better construction.

"Try and fail is the manner of losers. Try and learn is the way of the strong." -- Unknown

[image]http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8302/opensuse2oi.jpg[/image].

find a closer gym. around here they're everywhere and it seems like the best one's are always in a place that looks like someone's basement. lol. look in the yellow pages and ask around.

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Oh I did, I found a few gyms, but they don't have anything in terms of free weight areas. I figure if I'm going to be spending $1500/year on gym memberships when the only thing I want to use is the weights, I'd rather spend that much on a good home system and save the hassle.

I think I found some good deals today. There is a Smith Rack at Sportmart for $300 which includes a bench (narrow back), and very smooth motions. Would be great for what I was thinking, and apparantly they have added a bunch of extra things to racks these days. It has a pulldown bar and butterfly station. The leg extention only holds 250 pounds, but I was going to put a hook through it and be able to attach the extra weight from the pulldown bar. I'm going to do a search and read up on it tomorrow morning and hopefully can find some pictures to take and post for you people to see. And of course if I get it, I'll take pictures of any modifications that I do to accomodate more weights.

And they have 300lbs. Olympic barbell sets for $100 until tomorrow as well, so I think that I'll pick up two of those as well.

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A few updates:

I ended up getting 260 lbs. of freeweights (with nice handles) at a little less than I expected due to a 20% discount, and we opted to go with individual weights without the 45lb. bar since we get a bar with the Smith Rack.

Weights look like this, but hold the MAX name.
http://www.irongrip.com/products/olympicplates_igx.asp


The Rack is by a company called Tracker, model 737, and I'm going to try and take pictures periodically as we put it together this evening and post them. Can't find any pictures of the rack yet, but I'll try to get some real pictures soon.

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I have CAP Barbell weights. I wish they had grips like those do. And the paint on the actualy barbell and dumbbells is peeling off each time I slide the grips around.

Think I'd almost rather have a solid weight than one with grip holes. To me, it seems the weight would be more evenly spread with a solid weight. Whatever. A weight is a weight...LOL.

"Try and fail is the manner of losers. Try and learn is the way of the strong." -- Unknown

[image]http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8302/opensuse2oi.jpg[/image].

Well slayerboy, they were about a dollar more than the ones you linked online at the store, but after the 20% discount, they were actually less expensive.

Updates: The machine is so far kind of difficult to use, there is some resistance issues due to the bar, plus we are perhaps also used to the CrossBow machine we used to have. The bar is only 15 lbs., but feels like 45 or so when lifting. Anyways, we're going to use it for 3 weeks before making a decision on it. The only problem we are seeing right now is the height difference between us, where I am 1 foot taller than my lifting partner, we have to adjust the bench about 1 foot in between sets. Kind of a pain, but I'll keep you updated.

When we figure out where the single bolt we dropped went and put the rest of everything together and I'll put pictures on my website.

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Just remember that Smith Machines don't give you a full range of motion on some lifts, and your stablizing muscles don't get as good of a workout. The Crossbow was probably better at this because it gave you free range of motion. The best is to go free weights. Since you have a spotter, I would opt for those versuse a smith machine. I use free weights, and I train by myself, I just don't max out.

"Try and fail is the manner of losers. Try and learn is the way of the strong." -- Unknown

[image]http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8302/opensuse2oi.jpg[/image].

Yes, that is true and we were thinking the same thing due to the weird angle that we're going to end up getting for certain exercises. The reason we got that though was because I had knee surgery last year and wanted to ensure that my knee stays perfectly healthy, and should anything happen, I would not die due to weights falling on me.

Plus it was a lot cheaper than a rack (plus bench) of similar size, but now that we actually are using it, we feel that perhaps a rack would be better for squats and have a seperate bench and also get some more dumbells.

ORIGINAL: slayerboy

Just remember that Smith Machines don't give you a full range of motion on some lifts, and your stablizing muscles don't get as good of a workout. The Crossbow was probably better at this because it gave you free range of motion. The best is to go free weights. Since you have a spotter, I would opt for those versuse a smith machine. I use free weights, and I train by myself, I just don't max out.

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For dumbbells, I just use a regular dumbbell that I can add plates to. It takes a little more time, but it's cheaper.

And if you had knee surgery, I'd be more apt to go with the free weights versus smith. Like you said, weird positions.

Oh, and grab an EZ Curl bar. Best investment I made. I only use it for Curls right now, but I have used it for shrugs and upright rows.

"Try and fail is the manner of losers. Try and learn is the way of the strong." -- Unknown

[image]http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/8302/opensuse2oi.jpg[/image].

Today is leg day #2, which means squats, so I'll know if the machine provides weird positions or not. The reason I wanted to use a smith machine in the first place at home was I feel more comfortable with the extra protection that the machine provides in terms of safety.

By the way, that's a great idea for the easy curl bar when using it for shrugs. I have been wanting to alleviate the extra pressure on the wrists when I shurg using the straight bar, since I'm prone to use heavy weights and lots of repetitions. I'll have to pick one up immediately for that purpose.

Thanks again.

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