is a home gym worth it?

[epidox01]

thinking about getting a half rack and stuff

worth it?

[SmashinYoungVag]

Depends.

Are you sometime who would miss having a leg press, hack, hamstring curl, hammer strength sh*t etc

Cause unless you got 100k to blow your home gym will never be as well stocked as a decent gym. But if you’re a power lifter than go for it

[TheCore84]

Yes absolutely, even more so now with COVID. I only work out at home.

[firjam]

Yes. End of story.

[MajorTendonitis]

Personally for me I love having a home gym.
BRB maybe feels like I could do another set and go back downstairs.
BRB not sick anymore. Went 10 years without a cold after quitting Golds .
BRB not waiting for equipment
BRB not worried about other people not cleaning equipment
BRB it’s a great hobby adding equipment and changing layout
BRB not having to drive to a gym anymore.
On the negative, I guess I’d add that I do miss the comradely .
Actually felt like I had people from the gym who would watch my back in the bar if it came down to it .


I started out small , a squat rack ,bench and Olympic set of bumper plates and just added as time went on .
Next thing you know I’m expanding my area , as I ran out of room . Only wish I had a decent house ,but trying to do the best I can under the circumstances.

Btw everything yellow is being phased out to Orange eventually

[jasticus]

I built one wirh everything I need. Train 2-4h a day. I will say it’s nice but now 6m of using gets a little boring especially with zero interaction. Plus there’s some stuff I wish I had.

[Dan916]

Something like 90% of home gyms go unused after a few months, so depends on your outlook.

[MajorTendonitis]

Something like 90% of home gyms go unused after a few months, so depends on your outlook.

Never found that problem at all , but I’m sure it’s common . I really need resistance training at my age , so there’s no choice

[GordonXXX]

Personally for me I love having a home gym.
BRB maybe feels like I could do another set and go back downstairs.
BRB not sick anymore. Went 10 years without a cold after quitting Golds .
BRB not waiting for equipment
BRB not worried about other people not cleaning equipment
BRB it’s a great hobby adding equipment and changing layout

I started out small , a squat rack ,bench and Olympic set of bumper plates and just added as time went on .
Next thing you know I’m expanding my area , as I ran out of room . Only wish I had a decent house ,but trying to do the best I can under the circumstances.

Btw everything yellow is being phased out to Orange eventually

1. how many of those dumbbells do you actually use? was it overkill to buy that huge set?
2. do you ever miss the social aspect of the gym?
3. what about access to cardio machines and bodyweight/core devices - pull-up bar, Captain's Chair, etc.

[MajorTendonitis]

1. how many of those dumbbells do you actually use? was it overkill to buy that huge set?
2. do you ever miss the social interaction of the gym?
3. what about access to cardio machines and bodyweight/core devices - pull-up bar, Captain's Chair, etc.

1.Actually like having all the dumbbells I have . I have tendonitis in my forearms from benching for years with a barbell , and I think using a suicide grip did not help things at all .
Using dumbbells has really improved my tendon issues and the problems with my right rotator.
2 . Yes very much . I have ran into members in malls and bars on occasion, and we typically look after one another

3. You can’t see it well , but I sort of built a lat machine . I have not welded the post that will have an additional pulley at the bottom, and adjustable padding to hold you down .

For cardio I’ve tried them all , and not have a Rower

[ChaoticReignPbt]

After over a decade of commercial gyms I cancelled my membership and built a gym in my basement. I started when they first started discussing lockdowns. At first I had just intend to get a few basics to get by. Added a few things at a time and fell in love with the convenience and decided to go all in. Have been training at home exclusively since April. No intentions to ever go back. Will add more equipment as I go. It's most of the way there but there are still some little things I would like. It was a big investment up front but good equipment holds its value pretty well and lasts pretty much a lifetime.

[GordonXXX]

1.Actually like having all the dumbbells I have . I have tendonitis in my forearms from benching for years with a barbell , and I think using a suicide grip did not help things at all .
Using dumbbells has really improved my tendon issues and the problems with my right rotator.
2 . Yes very much . I have ran into members in malls and bars on occasion, and we typically look after one another

3. You can’t see it well , but I sort of built a lat machine . I have not welded the post that will have an additional pulley at the bottom, and adjustable padding to hold you down .

For cardio I’ve tried them all , and not have a Rower

i like dumbbells too, that's all i use. i was just curious if you needed to buy the whole set. i only use the 50s and 25s myself.

[MajorTendonitis]

After over a decade of commercial gyms I cancelled my membership and built a gym in my basement. I started when they first started discussing lockdowns. At first I had just intend to get a few basics to get by. Added a few things at a time and fell in love with the convenience and decided to go all in. Have been training at home exclusively since April. No intentions to ever go back. Will add more equipment as I go. It's most of the way there but there are still some little things I would like. It was a big investment up front but good equipment holds its value pretty well and lasts pretty much a lifetime.

Awesome looking setup . What I’d give to have a higher ceiling like you and all that space

[frezKo]

After over a decade of commercial gyms I cancelled my membership and built a gym in my basement. I started when they first started discussing lockdowns. At first I had just intend to get a few basics to get by. Added a few things at a time and fell in love with the convenience and decided to go all in. Have been training at home exclusively since April. No intentions to ever go back. Will add more equipment as I go. It's most of the way there but there are still some little things I would like. It was a big investment up front but good equipment holds its value pretty well and lasts pretty much a lifetime.

WHy on earth would you buy a smith machine?

waste of money


mirin none the less

Get a cable station so you can hit pull movements, chest flies, and hit tricep pulldowns.

repped

[MajorTendonitis]

i like dumbbells too, that's all i use. i was just curious if you needed to buy the whole set. i only use the 50s and 25s myself.

I use the 5lb to warm up my rotators ,but that could be done with plates .
I start with 25’s for warm up sets when benching , and go up in 10 pound increments till I get to the 80’s .
I was deathly ill in March and lost a lot of strength,but hopefully with muscle memory I will be back to 90’s .
May put the 5 and 10 pound dumbbells elsewhere someday , and buy a pair of 95 and 100 lb dumbbells to complete the set .
But as I am getting older , it may not be necessary

[BishsBMirin]

During these crazy times, I’d say it’s worth it. You really don’t need a lot. I got so lucky buying a bunch of equipment last fall before Covid. I went to a private gym and the owner lost on a huge investment so he raised all of our prices to $250 a month from $125 and everyone bailed and I was sick of commercial gyms so I found a guy selling a squat rack, bench, incline bench, trap bar, small cable pulley setup, a dip bar, a vertical leg press (dude literally made it himself and it actually works), leg curl, leg extension, 4 barbells, preacher curl setup, curl bars, over 1,000lbs in iron plates, etc. Half of it was older quality but still perfectly fine and has held up nicely. That was last fall so I used it over winter and during the shut down. If he sold it when the shutdowns first started, he could have made several thousand more than what he sold it to me for. However, as soon as the normal gyms opened back up, I started going to them again. So if you’re not going to use it as your primary gym regardless of whether we are shut down or not, then keep it simple.

Also, very nice setup to the poster above^^^Mine is so unorganized and looks like a dungeon lol

[Unstumpable]

It's worth it even if you don't use it all the time.

[ChaoticReignPbt]

WHy on earth would you buy a smith machine?

waste of money


mirin none the less

Get a cable station so you can hit pull movements, chest flies, and hit tricep pulldowns.

repped

Brah that smith combo has a 200lb weight stack with a chest fly attachment, low row, and pull down. I only use that pull down for tricep work though. It's a $3k piece of equipment I bought off Craiglist for $500. (https://www.bodysolid.com/commercial...es_7_smith_gym) It was too good a deal to pass up. The Rep Fitness Rack is my main rack and also has a pulldown along with a leg bar attachment so I can actually lock in. It's plate loaded but it's a much better system. The only thing I really need is dumbbells. Will eventually snag 125lb commercial powerblocks when they become available again.

[dankydank]

Posting in between sets in home gym crew. 100% worth. One thing you won’t realize, home gym equipment mogs the fuark out of commercial equipment. I went to the highest level Gold gym in my area and now I realize how **** tier the gyms equipment was. Flimsy, wobbly, short benches with high height. Squat racks preset safeties and fixed bar holders. Benches with set bar holders and 0 safeties. Dog **** tier barbells. Home gym equipment isn’t that expensive for how good it is.

[dunnie]

you can get a decent setup for 1000

olympic bar
bench with incline option
weight

with that you can do anything , even squats, you can do them from the bench since most bench with the incline option allows you to adjust it high enough for the ability to rack the bar to do squats

[ChaoticReignPbt]

Posting in between sets in home gym crew. 100% worth. One thing you won’t realize, home gym equipment Mogadishu the fuark out of commercial equipment. I went to the highest level Gold gym in my area and now I realize how **** tier the gyms equipment was. Flimsy, wobbly, short benches with high height. Squat racks no preset safeties and fixed bar holders. Benches with set bar holders and 0 safeties. Dog **** tier barbells. Home gym equipment isn’t that expensive for how good it is.

100% true. Unless you train at a hardcore specialty gym the typical commercial stuff is crap compared to quality equipment you can setup at home. My Rep Fitness rack is much nicer than any rack I've used elsewhere. It's part of what sent me down this rabbit hole. I have a belt squat at home. Never saw one in any of the local commercial gyms. When you're building a gym based on your training preferences you can setup something way cooler than the local offerings.

[MajorTendonitis]

It's worth it even if you don't use it all the time.

I get asked why I spent so much when you could just get a gym membership. I’ve posted reasons in a previous post , but besides that I’ve seen guys spend 30K on a turbo charged snowmobile .
It’s all about what your hobbies are

[Peacening]

Way harder to motivate myself to lift at the home gym. If I have a gym membership all I have to do is go get in my car and start driving there. Once I'm at the gym obvi I'm gonna lift some chit because I'm at the fukking gym. But if I'm on my couch and my squat rack is 20 feet out my front door it's a lot harder to transition from chilling out maxing and relaxing to straight up squatting about 350. That's a much bigger transition and skipping workouts is a lot more enticing when you don't have that easy buffer of driving to the gym.

[tnel00]

Yes phaggot

[ChaoticReignPbt]

I get asked why I spent so much when you could just get a gym membership. I’ve posted reasons in a previous post , but besides that I’ve seen guys spend 30K on a turbo charged snowmobile .
It’s all about what your hobbies are

It was two things for me...buying back my time, and a fun project. I get to customize my dream gym with specialty bars and equipment I didn't have access to and I'm also getting back the 40 minute round trip drive I was making 4 to 5 times a week. I'm now also somewhat insulated from the unexpected scheduling issues that would come up in the past. Any day that looks a little too hectic I can just get up an hour earlier and walk down to my basement.

Another unexpected perk is that my wife has been using it consistently. She never liked going to public gyms but enjoys working out at home.

[pakmansc300]

100% worth it especially with Covid.

Workout whenever I want without waiting for equipment? hell yea

[MajorTendonitis]

1. how many of those dumbbells do you actually use? was it overkill to buy that huge set?
2. do you ever miss the social aspect of the gym?
3. what about access to cardio machines and bodyweight/core devices - pull-up bar, Captain's Chair, etc.

Better pic of Lat machine . As mentioned it’s not finished . Because of limited room, I just wheel a bench in front to sit on as needed .





Because of limited height , I had to build racks that have pulleys in them between the ceiling joists .










A poor attempt at sketchup to show how it will look when finished



The rower on the other end of gym. Tv needs to be lowered ,and I have a 32” Samsung qr 4K to sit up high if I’m watching tv between sets

[QuentinSutpen]

A home gym, with dumbbels and barbells, seems expensive; and the setup would take up a lot of space.

For home gym, I would just invest in resistance bands

[QuickShotSteve]

somewhere around $10k here. Not a bad setup, but not same as a commercial gym. But save a ton of time driving to gym, makes you get more creative and trying new dumbell programs. I only built starting in march when gyms closed down. Wish I could go back to commercial gym but I feel ive invested too much and need to commit.

[mesobuild]

looks awful. Why would I want to take care of all this without even earning money from it?