Best home gym available? (bench press, gain, burn, working out)
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I'm wondering if any members here could recommend any home gyms that have worked for them?
I'm looking for:
< $1000
Easily assembled, that doesn't take hours and hours to put together
Ideally be ordered online and shipped to home
Able to work many areas of the body in just one machine, an "all in one" of sorts. Meaning, chest, leg press, lat pulldowns, biceps, ability etc.
If anyone has one of these, do you like it much? Pros/cons? It appeals to me because a lot of workouts could be done in your own home. Not having to drive to the gym, wait in line for certain machines, playing whatever music you want in privacy, all big perks to me. I am also willing to pay more than 1K for the right machine that has all the right workouts included. I've checked on Amazon but it seems that the ones I liked had difficult assemblies and I'm not that great at doing that but could probably figure it out.
Squat is the most important exercise you can do. It's hard, exhausting, and even scary. That's why most people don't do it. Leg muscles help us stand, balance, walk, run, and circulate blood through our body. Doing heavy squat at home by yourself requires safety precautions. I think a smith machine is a safe bet for doing heavy squat at home alone. When I was a young man, I did heavy squats and went down too low a couple times and couldn't get up on my own. Fortunately, there were people in the gym who helped me. Later on I just used the smith and hack machines for safety reasons.
Don't neglect your legs. There are already too many guys with legs as small as their arms.
Squat is the most important exercise you can do. It's hard, exhausting, and even scary. That's why most people don't do it. Leg muscles help us stand, balance, walk, run, and circulate blood through our body. Doing heavy squat at home by yourself requires safety precautions. I think a smith machine is a safe bet for doing heavy squat at home alone. When I was a young man, I did heavy squats and went down too low a couple times and couldn't get up on my own. Fortunately, there were people in the gym who helped me. Later on I just used the smith and hack machines for safety reasons.
Don't neglect your legs. There are already too many guys with legs as small as their arms.
In the above weight rack. Do a practice squat with just the bar and set the safety bars one notch below the bottom of your squat. Then the weight cannot fall to the ground / roll over you.
I suggest you can get an excellent workout in about the space of half an average size spare bed room. About 10x10 or 10x12 feet if you want to set up a permanent workout space.
In this space I would put the following.
Good matting that can often be bought in 'puzzle pieces' to cover what ever size floor space you need. This gives you good traction, is more sanitary than carpet, not as hard a concrete etc.
A small table with your music source, perhaps a small TV or computer if you like videos, note pad and pencil for your routine, etc.
A set of individual dumbbells for your current fitness level. 2-30 pounds in 2.5 or 5 pound increments if you are starting out, add up to about 60 pounds if you are pretty good shape. If you need more than 60 pound dumbbells, you need a bigger gym. You can fit these on a rack or just sit them along the wall.
A good bench. Don't scrimp on it. It should be heavy duty with an adjustable incline. Other attachments such as leg lift, bar racks and such take up more space and do not add any function or muscle groups you can not exercise in other ways.
Think about suspension training. TRX is a great whole body exercise system that fits in a small bag. You just need a good anchor point on a wall or ceiling.
To this you can add small things like a jump rope, Bosu ball, exercise ball, resistance bands and so on.
Finally, a big box store generally has inexpensive full length mirrors for about 5$ each. Get about 6 of them, place them around a corner or along one wall so you can see your self to see improvement and monitor your form.
That's it. You have a home gym that is flexible, takes a relatively small space, cost a thousand bucks or less and allows you to do a full body work out in 30-60 minutes a day.
In my opinion, most of the multi exercise machines, especially the cheap ones, are poor quality, take up a lot of space and are designed more to take your money than build fitness.
If I were going to add one large piece of equipment that cost a bit, I would buy a good cable machine. With two pulleys that adjust from floor level to above your head and various weight selection and grip attachments, there is almost no body part you can not exercise.
Squat is the most important exercise you can do. It's hard, exhausting, and even scary. That's why most people don't do it. Leg muscles help us stand, balance, walk, run, and circulate blood through our body. Doing heavy squat at home by yourself requires safety precautions. I think a smith machine is a safe bet for doing heavy squat at home alone. When I was a young man, I did heavy squats and went down too low a couple times and couldn't get up on my own. Fortunately, there were people in the gym who helped me. Later on I just used the smith and hack machines for safety reasons.
Don't neglect your legs. There are already too many guys with legs as small as their arms.
I do not disagree but.....
You can do squats holding dumbbells in each hand. You can also do lunges, or one legged squats by balancing the unused leg on a bench behind you. There are several 'tough' leg exercises you can do without a full size squat rack.
I do see some guys in the gym using leg press sleds with 400 to 600+ pounds. Unless you have been lifting for a while, you are not going to need this kind of weight. If you just want to stay physically fit, you do not need this kind of weight or equipment. Now if you happen to be a 6'6" mountain man, maybe you do.
I suggest you can get an excellent workout in about the space of half an average size spare bed room. About 10x10 or 10x12 feet if you want to set up a permanent workout space.
Correct! And you'd still have room for a computer desk!
Nearly every muscle group can be worked in the rack pictured above. You can do calf raises off one of the bottom rails, the extra 1-2" boost lets you dig deeper down with your heel lower than if you were standing flat.
The only thing I'd suggest not doing with the bar inside the rack is power clean, where you might need an extra step forward or back to stabilize yourself if going heavy.
I'm wondering if any members here could recommend any home gyms that have worked for them?
I'm looking for:
< $1000
Easily assembled, that doesn't take hours and hours to put together
Ideally be ordered online and shipped to home
Able to work many areas of the body in just one machine, an "all in one" of sorts. Meaning, chest, leg press, lat pulldowns, biceps, ability etc.
If anyone has one of these, do you like it much? Pros/cons? It appeals to me because a lot of workouts could be done in your own home. Not having to drive to the gym, wait in line for certain machines, playing whatever music you want in privacy, all big perks to me. I am also willing to pay more than 1K for the right machine that has all the right workouts included. I've checked on Amazon but it seems that the ones I liked had difficult assemblies and I'm not that great at doing that but could probably figure it out.
Now that's awesome and so much better than the first thing posted here with the squat rack. A cable system is probably the best, you can do most everything on there.
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