I couldn't find where this has been discussed already, but I suspect it has :s

Title says it all really.

After a brief search online it seems a home rack, bench, plates and bar would pay for itself after around a year of saved gym membership fees. (This could be nearer 18 months)

I just want to find out what people's thoughts are on owning your own aquipment and working out in your garage. What's the longevity of the equipment? Are there psychological reasons not to workout at home or anything I might not have considered?

It would take me 12 years worth of gym fees to equal the bare bones of what I need to squat, bench, deadlift, and olympic lift. So either your gym is crazy expensive or you're looking at some really cheap and crappy equipment.

Meh, I kinda disagree Doug. My ****ty gym was $65 / mo and didn't have bumper plates, only had one squat rack, had 0 power racks, and limited other facilities (It DID have basketball however, which is sadly rare in SF and the reason I paid for it).

While I'm sure I could get a 24 Hr Fitness membership for a bit cheaper, I started my garage gym with a Body Solid Multi Press Rack and got a good deal on 300 lbs of plates and a bar, spending maybe $650 total which I've more than made up for over the last couple years.

That said, if I were to do it over, I'd probably skip metal plates, shell out the extra for the bumpers that I use for everything now, get a nicer bar to start with, and perhaps the same rack as it's been very versatile (though I did bend one side of it missing a peg while racking after squats, and it's now significantly less pretty, but works just the same).

Its all personal preference imo.

I love my home gym. I dont have any idea how long it will take to recover the cost difference between my Golds membership and my equipment, but it doesnt matter to me.

The equipment I have is superior to the crap they have at Golds with the exception of their heavier DBs.

I have so much other more useful stuff than they have, I never have to wait for idiots finishing curling in the squat rack, dont have to drive there & drive home, etc.

Maybe it's a Boston thing, but there are like 4 gyms within a 10 minute drive of my house that are $30 a month each with plenty of bumpers, KBs, racks, etc. I think it'd probably cost $1500 to $2000 to buy what I need for the home, so that's 4-6 years payback period. If I weren't as picky I could probably hunt down a workable used home gym setup for around $1K, but if you're pricing it much lower than that I think you'll find the equipment is somewhat junky.

Yeah I pay $30/month and my gym has 3 cages and 5 benches. It's tough to justify a home gym unless you have some very serious goals(Like wanting to be a competitive powerlifter) against that.

Consider, though, that if on your gym trips you only go straight to the gym and back you have to add in the cost of gas.

A $300 bar, $600 cage, a bunch of weights, flooring, it adds up quickly, and that's if you have the overhead space to do things like press and chin-ups.

grunch

- Obvious a heavy pain in the ass to move if you move house. Terrible idea for renters imo.
- Need a decent amount of free space

fwiw, standard gym membership in aus will probably run you ~700/year, so yeah, I think a basic home gym setup would pay off in 12-18 months.

Ok cheers for the input guys. I have decided to get the stuff at home since my bro can use it too and I drive to the gym.

What would people reccommend in terms of quality of equipment? Like, what does a $200 bar do that a $75 doesn't? I don't know anything about evaluating plate quality, I love those tri-grip coloured ones and obviously it's a bit of a pain picking up 25kg metal ones, what should I probably go in for wrt plates?

Some of these videos with Rippetoe might be helpful, he talks about the quality of different bars etc:

And FWIW, it's not about money it's about time. Not having to haul your ass to and from the gym and not having to wait turns to use the equipment. Also avoiding seeing old men **** in the locker room is a huge plus.

the $200 bar is going to be thinner (29mm vs like 32 or whatever those crap bars are). It also won't break when you put too much weight on it (kinda unlikely with those crappy bars). IN addition, if you are planning on doing power cleans or snatches you will need a quality olympic bar.

For equipment I definately recommend getting the PowerTec power rack. It is pretty inexpensive and decent quality.

con - you'll get too strong

do tell. I had a hard time googling around.

op,

don't skimp on a bar.

Use Craig's list for olympic plates & DBs if you're looking to save money imo. You might be able to find a good rack on there too.

Hmm. Considering the bar doesn't start whipping much until you're moving 160k (I think?), calling a quality olympic bar a necessity is bs imo. Especially if he's gonna be squatting in a rack, don't wanna destroy the knurling.

Don't discount the price of your sanity in the equation (eg, not having to deal with idiots a la the General Gym Observations thread).

+1. I have the Powertec rack and love it.

+1 million. I use Kijiji (craigslist is barely used here) and have put together a pretty decent garage gym setup for around $1000. I've done some buying and selling to get that number fairly low, but I enjoy that part of it, too. For many pieces of equipment, you'd be nuts to buy new.

I also say don't skimp on a bench... my housemate got one of those incline/decline ones and of questionable quality. It's so sh*t to bench on. Get a solid, flat, non-adjustable bench.

meh, adjustable makes a lot of sense imo. You can get solid, non-****ty adjustables that are just fine.

Yeah, ok, change my post to put more emphasis on the "qaulity" aspect of the bench than the "adjustable" then.

This bench is so sh*t to bench on... it's too high, it rocks slightly, it splays out wider at the "feet" end of the bench so you have to get your legs out way to wide to use it, it's got those places to hook your legs that get in the way... Just all kinds of sh*t.

I was pretty surprised to discover how big the difference can be between your standard commercial gym bench and an actual solid one. Shouldn't be "slippery"/smooth at all.

Fwiw - I have a Body Solid adjustable bench that's served me very well for about 11 years now. My bar / metal plate combo set also ended up being Body Solid (from CSN Stores), and my Multi Press (half rack I think?) is Body Solid as well. I didn't purchase any of the items specifically because of the name, however the more I looked, the more their products were well priced good quality (except for my bent rack side thing - but that was operator error).


I'd add that I'd never be where I am (not that that's really anywhere in particular) if I'd had to motivate to actually go to the gym. Not only am I fairly self conscious of the dumb faces I make and occasional grunts, but just not having any excuse NOT to lift as it's a few steps away really helps me get it done.

It's weird, I have the complete opposite problem, where I'd have huge motivation problems working out unless I'm driving to a place where the only thing to do is work out.

Not that I wouldn't get it done at home, but I'd probably find eight million other things to do first, and wind up starting my workout at 11pm or something. Or wind up taking a 20 minute break between sets because I start watching something on TV and don't have the pressure of having other people standing around waiting for the equipment.

+1

I have the behavior of a 400 lb unemployed man when I'm at home.

Thanks for the vid, it was realy helpful.

The Powertec Power Rack looks good.

How about bumper plates vs. metal ones?

Bumper plates are f*cking expensive... but very nice for deads and really, really nice if you are doing cleans.

My housemate has two bumpers and the rest are iron plates so you can load the bumpers on the inside for deads, etc to get the right hight and not destroy your plates/floor when you put it down or if you drop it. He also has some rubber matting that most gym suppliers will sell.