So you’re basically giants, right? [84kg /191ish cm here]
Ms. KJDH-Hill (~52/53kg) only lifts tiny pink weights, so I’m ok with 45lbs or 20kg+/- on the bar as a base weight. I just need to get every lift so those 45s don’t ever have to come off the bar, even for warmup sets.
At some point, its life simplicity, and not ego. I’m approaching the point, maybe it’ll be complete in 2022.
It’s an expensive investment. If you are going to use it in the long term it’s worth it, and btw a complete home gym can cost less than an high level bike. In my opinion the minimum is a barbell, the rubber plates, dumbbells, some rig/rack, a bench and a rubber floor. After that if you see that you like that you can gradually upgrade it with new tools, like kettlebells, gymnastics rings and whatever you want.
I did it and I really like it. I’d avoid rigs, racks and benches from Amazon because usually those aren’t good, but like someone else suggested to you, you can find very good used stuff, that’s like new. I bought a lot of rubber plates that were used but really like new, I’m talking about competition rubber plates that I’ve paid about 4-5 € /Kg. Today I’ve bought other rubber plates, not for competition but very good ones at 3 € /kg; used but like new. If you’re patient you can save a lot of money in this way.
The fact that you have your own gym doesn’t exclude that from time to time you can go in a gym, it’s always good to have the opportunity to receive feedbacks from professional coaches.
So in point of view, the pros are:
Time saving
Availability of tools
You can focus better on exercises
Cons:
Social aspect
No feedbacks from coaches or other people ( I suggest to film yourself while doing exercises)
I would have put that in the pros. 
Guess I’ll be able to answer it myself. I got pretty excited after all the positive answers and Rogue had everything in stock so I pulled trigger on the RML-3W rack, Alpha weight+bar package, matador dip bar, basic bench.
I think its about 2 years worth of membership dues but what I’m looking forward to is just being able to hop downstairs after my kids go to bed and work in a few sets of squats.
A serious question, as someone who hasn’t done serious strength work in 30 years…I see a lot of comments about the ability to “squeeze in a few sets”, between meetings, after the kids go to bed, etc. Is this beneficial for strength training? As a cyclist, I would never say, “I can squeeze in 5 minutes on the trainer”. Genuinely curious as I am considering adding strength to my schedule and trying to figure out how to fit it into an already busy life and being in my 50s without my cycling time suffering.
very good kit. Why the dip bar? I mean, don’t the rings allow you to do very similar exercises?
You’ll like the rack. And the bar. When I ordered I had to piece-meal the rubber plates from different series to get what I wanted/needed and I still need to get some change/fraction plates and some clips.
When I telework, recently its been from the garage, so I can literally type an e-mail, get a warmup set, read the reply, and increase to full sets.
@pbase,
Well most people here are cyclists primarily rather than strongman competitors or body builders, so any weight lifting for “us” is like any cardio for “them.”
But yes, including a warmup, I can do a form set, a warmup set and 5x5 “heavy” squats in about 15-25 minutes. Its not enough to get yoked, but can still lead to improvements with consistency. No supersets or complimentary exercises like someone focused on muscular strength/size but it has definitely lead to a stronger core. I used to be severely limited by a tight back two or three times a year, but since I’ve started squatting and deadlifting, I’m down to less than once a year and the incidents are more an annoyance rather than really impacting my quality of life/performance.
I’d start with basic body weight stuff, and low volume to start. Think 10 good pushups every half hour if you’re working from home, or even at your office. The next day, 5 walking lunges every half hour. Once you’ve cleared the starting-back DOMS and figured out a pattern that works for you, its not a huge commitment to bring those volumes up to 25… Some co-workers laugh at me or roll their eyes, but if I cared what they thought I wouldn’t commute to work by bike 9-12 months of the year.
The same on the half-hour principle can work when I telework with my own equipment. Instead of getting in 5 sets of 5 reps during a 15-25 minute workout, I can get 12x5 in around work requirements. Doesn’t impact work because of the nature of my work, or ride time as long as I don’t overdo the leg work.
Despite being double vaccinated, I won’t be going back to the gym for a couple of more months (pre-paid membership) as the gym has low ceilings and very old ventilation. In the interim, a friend turned me on to TRX training. It’s pretty amazing the breadth of upper body, core and lower body work you can do with it.
My side of the garage has my trainer set up and my wife’s Peloton (see picture). [The other side has her car]. The TRX goes over a 4ft x 6ft mat we use for stretching and rolling. I use a bicycle pulley to move the straps away after use (30 seconds to set up; same to put away).
Bottom line: The $250 total investment was well worth it. I plan to continue using TRX regardless of going back to the gym.
The weight package I got doesn’t include rings (or I don’t think so). Bonus if it does. My wife also will be using that and no way she can do ring dips yet.
What is this social aspect you speak of? Yet to go to a gym which is not just everyone with headphones acting like people around them don’t exist.
Once upon a time I went to a gym where people were friendly, it was a long time ago though. In that gym I saw people talk to each other about topics not related to the use of the gym or the equipment. I don’t know how or why they did it.
Get a used multipurpose machine. I got a great deal with my recent purchase.
Is worth it to setup home gym. The money saved from gym membership can reinvest in the home gym. Will take few years to breakeven the cost of membership. Benefit of home gym, less distraction, can do workout anytime you want when you at home.
From a simple question to reality! Thanks for all the comments and inspiration to get this done. Just finished building it up today. The home gym has begun.
I’m considering dishing out some $$$ to get setup with a proper olympic lifting setup at home
All you need as a minimum are an Olympic barbell and some weights and a floor you can drop the bar/weights on after a lift. Ideally add a squat rack and you’re set for doing snatch/clean & jerk, squats, deadlifts.
For those who invested in a home gym, why did you do it? And was it worth it for you?
I was competing when I got my barbell, weights & squat rack. For sure it was worth it.
While simple, those are at the pricey end of things to stand up to the dropping of Olympic lifting. You need space with overhead clearance (my basement doesn’t qualify), a good barbell not a generic one, bumper plates which are double or more the cost of cast iron, which have doubled in price during COVID, and rubber flooring or platform, again wood and mats have doubled in price with pandemic pricing.
This is exactly what I got and it ended up costing me around $2600 CAD or roughly $2100 USD.
@mathieurrr that’s a nice looking setup.
I’m just glad that I picked up most of my stuff pre-COVID pricing and I am not doing Olympic lifts, and built my deadlift platform last year before plywood and rubber mat pricing went insane. I didn’t need Rogue level stuff so I was able to do it on a budget, mostly Amstaff stuff from Fitness Avenue in Barrie, but picked up a few pieces locally from Fitness Depot.
I have gotten away without needing bumper plates, although I just picked up another 100lbs worth (2x10, 2x15,2x25) specifically for deadlifting. There’s a guy in town who brings them in in batches for ~$3Cdn/lb
Those are nice to have but not all required. I bought a cheap bar, it lasted 6 years. I have the overhead space in the garage but I didn’t get any rubber or wooden flooring. You don’t necessarily need expensive bumper plates, It cost me about $1000 AUD back then for barbell and weights, another ~$150 for squat rack.
