Tell us about your home gym...

For those of us who work out at home, I was wondering what everyone' s using- I see all kinds of setups available out there, some of them with a lot of useless looking bells, whistles and gimmicks, and then there are the home gyms that look like they' re more than worth the money- And the space they take up. I' ll be in the market for a new home setup soon, and I need some feedback.

Currently, I have the following- A small cage, a fully adjustable stand alone bench, a collapsible dip station, a stair master and a set of olympic weights, 360 pounds with a barbell, set of dumbbells, and an EZ curl bar.

I like having the cage and the stand alone bench because I can postion the bench in the cage according to what exercises I' m doing- Plus, if I' m in the mood, I can move the bench to the living room and workout with dumbbells while watching a movie. The cage itself makes me feel safer when doing heavy squats- And it makes other exercises easier- With my old bench, if I adjusted it to a fully upright sitting position, there was no way I could reach back and grab the weight off the uprights. With the bench/cage setup, I can just move the bench right under the weight. I' d like to keep this feature in my next home gym, so any ideas or help would be great. Thanks!

Cpl,

Now that sounds like a nice home-gym setup. Mine was just a simple soloflex. No free weights. The only free weight type exercise I was able to do were hanging sit-ups.

But honestly, you should post some pictures of your setup. Seriously.

It sounds GREAT. Very professional. Plenty of weights. The cage is totally good for heavy squats and safety. Most people neglect their legs even in a full gym. You' ve got a setup that can do just about anything without too much work.

The only thing missing from your description is:

How do you work your back? Does the dip station also have a pull-up bar?

I' m thinking you could easily do some dumbbell rows. And possibly pull-ups. But what about some type of weighted row? Or lap pull-downs?

Otherwise, I think you have a very nice setup. Any chance you can post a few pictures of it to give others who come across this thread an idea of what a home-gym setup might look like?

Great job! [sm=tongue.gif]

Marc C. David - NGA CPT
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding
www.nobullbodybuilding.com

I' m not sure most people would view this as a good home gym setup. It does take up a lot of room, can' t really fit into the basement (The rack' s height makes this a little awkward) I' m in the process of moving, which is why I' m going to be in the market for a new setup, since this one will be too big for the place I' m moving to. Either way, I love the setup though.
As for your question about my back exercises, I' m lucky enough to work in a school- The gym' s equipped with one of those multi station machines, I get my lat pulldowns in on that- They also have a decent set of free weights and a bench, which is nice. I can plan my workouts differently depending on the day- Work out at home or at work on my lunch break. I have to do my back workouts while at work though, since I don' t have the lat pulldown at home. As far as rows go, I do bent over rows. The machine does have a row station, but it stinks.
I' ll see what I can do about some pics, but pls keep in mind I' m in the middle of moving- Excuse any clutter you might see...

Your setup doesn' t much matter.. it' s the fact that you:

1) Have all the necessary equipment
2) Seem to understand that you want to hit all the major bodyparts and make arrangements to do so

Given your circumstances, I think you are doing what you can.

If you are going to be limited on space soon, I' d recommend a Bowflex or Soloflex.. although Bowflex requires less work in my opinion and keep a set of dumbbells around for some variety.

That squat cage is going to be your most missed piece of equipment you have. Hands down.. not even a machine can simulate a good set of heavy free weight squats.

But hey.. you do what you gotta do given the space issues.