Exercise equipment at home

[YOhio]

Yeah, I do; the Rogue stuff is really high quality...

Go with Rogue. Ohio company. American made.

[pelagius]

Go with Rogue. Ohio company. American made.

That reminds me; consider getting yourself a good bar if you buy a rack. Rogue makes really nice, reasonably priced bars. My favorite bar right now is this one:



Picked up the black Zinc one in June. Lovely bar, with great knurling.

[Surfah]

I have a basement gym. I went back and forth over which rack to go with. I ended up going with a Titan T6 (36" with 24" extension). I just couldn't justify the cost of the Rogue when the differences were mainly cosmetic. The welds are a bit sloppy and the powdercoat isn't as nice. But it's a rack. It's going to get scratched and dinged up. As long as it's structurally fine it's okay. My rack doesn't have any issues. It's solid. I have about 700 lbs stored on it and it's bolted to the floor.

Titan stuff is also improving. Their v2 racks and benches are much nicer. Cleaner welds and a powdercoat similar to Rogue. I have the V2 hefty bench which is a Donnie Thompson Fat Pad clone and it's super nice. I've benched on a Fat Pad and it's comparable

I also built a dedicated deadlift platform. I have a Hoist FID bench, spin bike, airdyne, treadmill, and heavy bag and speed bag.

I love my home gym. I second the Rogue OPB. I have a bare steel one. I love it. Hoping to pick up a deadlift bar soon.

[Jeff Lebowski]

We love our home gym. I have a nice weight machine, a Landice treadmill, a stationary bike, and some free weights. And I just replaced the old plasma TV with 58-inch samsung.

[bluegoose]

Rep Fitness has the reputation as a solid brand, but I've never used their stuff. Same with Vulcan Strength.

I have a bunch of Rep Fitness stuff, including a Power Rack and a jump box. I like it quite a bit. It's a fraction of the cost of Rogue, but still appears to be fairly high quality stuff. I also threw on a landmine press attachment which I use quite a bit.

[Surfah]

Get on Instagram and follow Coop on Garage Gym Reviews and Brandon Campbell Diamond. The /homegym subreddit is also an awesome resource.

Search Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or any other used marketplace for deals. Buy your weights on the secondary market. No reason to buy iron new.

[old_gregg]

I have a basement gym. I went back and forth over which rack to go with. I ended up going with a Titan T6 (36" with 24" extension). I just couldn't justify the cost of the Rogue when the differences were mainly cosmetic. The welds are a bit sloppy and the powdercoat isn't as nice. But it's a rack. It's going to get scratched and dinged up. As long as it's structurally fine it's okay. My rack doesn't have any issues. It's solid. I have about 700 lbs stored on it and it's bolted to the floor.

Titan stuff is also improving. Their v2 racks and benches are much nicer. Cleaner welds and a powdercoat similar to Rogue. I have the V2 hefty bench which is a Donnie Thompson Fat Pad clone and it's super nice. I've benched on a Fat Pad and it's comparable

I also built a dedicated deadlift platform. I have a Hoist FID bench, spin bike, airdyne, treadmill, and heavy bag and speed bag.

I love my home gym. I second the Rogue OPB. I have a bare steel one. I love it. Hoping to pick up a deadlift bar soon.

bolted to the cement floor?

[bluegoose]

Search Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or any other used marketplace for deals. Buy your weights on the secondary market. No reason to buy iron new.

I watched craigslist for a month and never had anything show up. But we are in a fairly small market. I ending up picking up 300 pounds and a barbell at Dicks for $189.

[Bo Diddley]

Thanks guys, good stuff. Going to turn an upstairs room into a weight room. I'll probably pull up the carpet, lay down some extra plywood and add some rubber flooring on top of that. Eight foot ceiling; I'll have to take measurements to see if I want the whole room, or combine it with my office. Ideally I can make my office footprint quite small, and put it on the wall where the door swings open.

I'll start with basic stuff, but could see this thing expanding. I'd love to get some vintage York plates to remind me of lifting in high school.

Do you think bolting the cage to the floor is a must?

[pelagius]

Do you think bolting the cage to the floor is a must?

No, plenty of racks out there are designed so you don't have to bolt it to the floor. Rogue's RML 390F (and the titan equivalent) come to mind. Also, bolting your rack into a plywood layers can work pretty well.

[pelagius]

Search Craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or any other used marketplace for deals. Buy your weights on the secondary market. No reason to buy iron new.

Unless you want calibrated plates. Then you are almost surely going to have to but new.

[Surfah]

Unless you want calibrated plates. Then you are almost surely going to have to but new.

Sure. But I see plenty of York milled plates which are accurate enough. There was actually a guy who was selling Rogue comp bumpers for a $1/lb. Sold em all before he responded. So you see them, but it is more rare.

Also, actual calibrated plates are nice but generally unnecessary for most unless they're competing.

The standard barbell plates (the ones that say standard not 1" plates) can be found for pretty cheap. The problem is they are super inaccurate. As much as 4 lbs +/-. A lot of guys buy them, weigh them, keep the accurate ones and resale the rest. Just something to be aware of when buying used.

[Surfah]

bolted to the cement floor?

Yes. I have 3/4" horse stall mats lining my basement concrete floor. Just used my hammer drill to go through the rubber and concrete and used concrete sleeve anchors.

[Surfah]

No, plenty of racks out there are designed so you don't have to bolt it to the floor. Rogue's RML 390F (and the titan equivalent) come to mind. Also, bolting your rack into a plywood layers can work pretty well.

Most of the flat foot racks that are designed so you don't have to bolt them down do not have holes for band pegs. This is the reason I didn't go that route. I do a lot of banded bench, squats, good mornings, etc on my dynamic days. My basement also had 9' ceilings so I can use a full-size rack.

[pelagius]

This right here is why Crossfit is actually a wonderful thing. Before the rise of Crossfit, the home gym market was dreadful. I think I payed about the same amount for my very mediocre Parabody rack in 2004 as you can buy a Rogue R-3 today.