My Home Gym! Need Buying Advice.

[mmcgaw]

Fitness Depot

A Cap barbell 300 pound set: $248.00
shop.fitnessdepot.ca/300-LBS-Olympic-Set-AVAILABLE-IN-STORE-ONLY-P507.aspx
One 7' Olympic Bar
Two Regular Spring Collars
Olympic Standard Weight Plates:
2 x 2.5Lbs
4 x 5Lbs
2 x 10Lbs
2 x 25Lbs
2 x 35Lbs
2 x 45Lbs

Northern Lights Power Rack / Full Cage: $488.00
shop.fitnessdepot.ca/Power-Rack-Full-Cage-P141.aspx

Flat Bench: $198.00



OR

Fitness Town

Olympic Bar and Weight Set:
fitnesstown.ca/All_Departments/Strength_Equipment/Olympic_Bars_Plates/300lb_Olympic_Barbell_Set/Product.aspx?ProductID=717&DeptID=31&

-45lb Olympic Bar
-2 X 45lb plates
-2 X 35lb plates
-2 X 25lb plates
-2 X 10lb plates
-4X 5lb plates
-2 X 2.5lb plates
-1 X pair of spring collars
= $247.00

Impact Power “Power Cage Pro”:
impactpowerfitness.com/list.asp?ProdId=BFC112#

= $ 499.00

Total for both + tax = $835.52

Anyone Buy from Either of these Companies? I live in Vancouver Canada, so I pick up from local to save money and not pay a shipping. As for bench just getting a basic flat bench.

[PaulWog]

I've purchased from Fitness Depot as well as Fitness Town. Here's the rundown on them: Fitness Depot has been doing poorly and has shut down their Langley location (due to lack of business) and is only running one location now. They have alright deals on some stuff. Fitness Town has multiple locations, and they're good, but watch out for some of their shadier business practices: They claim they still sell TKO-brand merchandise. If you go into their store, however, they will tell you that they no longer carry TKO, and they now carry no-name brands (which are cheaper and in some cases worse quality; it's all practically identical stuff but sometimes a bit worse). For example, their 700lb test barbell is actually 600lbs and it's no-name with no center knurl. They've been doing this since November last year, so it's not just recently. That all said, Fitness Depot and Fitness Town are good for particular things.

My opinion: Don't go with either 300 pound set. Craigslist for the Vancouver area is usually terrible, and is absolutely impossible when it comes to finding deals on plates and barbells, so really buying new is going to be your most viable option. The problem with both 300 pounder sets is you're going to end up with barbells that bend with 300 pounds on them as if they had 500 pounds on them, they won't stay straight for longer than a couple months (they'll be straight enough but they won't keep perfect straightness), and the knurls are terrible. They give you an $80 retail bar that they could sell for $60.

I'd go for a 1000 or 1200 pound test 7-foot barbell that has a decent knurl in the $120-$180 range, and then buy Fitness Depot's rubber-coated plates at $1 per pound (they're actually decent; even one of the Steve Nash gyms uses them), or if you really really want to save money they do have $0.67 per pound plates there too.

As for the squat rack: If you can get that squat rack shipped to you for a decent price, then it looks good. However, if you can't, a place called Great Life Fitness (out in Surrey) sells Powertec merchandise and you can get a Powertec squat rack through them for $550.