ateamer
01-09-2005, 13:03
Who else has a home gym? I still keep my commercial gym membership because my partners train there; I lift with them twice a week and at home the other two days.
I have about $1,000 invested in my home gym for the following equipment:
-Power rack
-Adjustable bench
-Olympic bar with good, sharp knurling
-About 850 pounds of Olympic plates
-120 pounds of chain (increases weight as the bar goes up, thereby defeating improved leverage and forcing the lifter to be more explosive)
-Jump Stretch bands (very heavy rubber bands - not Thera-Bands - same purpose as chains, but more eccentric (downward) tension)
-Dumbbell handles and about 120 pounds of plates for them
-Swiss ball (do situps where your head goes all the way to the floor with up to 100 pounds held across the chin and your abs will get strong like crazy)
-Glute ham raise bench (similar to a hyper bench, but with a curved hip pad, pads both above and below the ankles and a plate to push the feet against; mine was a cheapy that a training partner and I modified to have the proper hip pad angle and a fullsized footplate, along with band attachment hooks to increase resistance; once I finish enlarging the pad, it will be just as good as a $700 unit for a total of about $250)
-8'x8' platform (doubled sheets of 3/4" plywood)
-E-Z curl bar
-Neck harness
-Dip belt
-Dragging sled for general physical preparedness (homemade from plywood)
-Squatting box
-Ironmind Captains of Crush grippers #1-3. (I can do 8-10 reps with the #2 and get the #3 halfway closed - I think that with doing negatives, I will be able to crush the #3 before the year is over.)
All of this is squeezed into approximately 10'x12' in my garage. Oh yes, there is also a boombox with CD player for my death metal. (Hard to get a good workout with wimpy music - silence is better.)
I want to add a few things, such as another Olympic bar because I bent mine doing rack pulls (deadlift lockouts). The next bar will be a Texas Power Bar, $200, takes at least 700 pounds to start bending, never seen one that was permanently bent. Other additions will be more 45 pound plates, a new bench (heavier-duty, nonadjustable because I haven't done inclines in 10 years) and Reverse Hyper. (A Reverse Hyper is a machine that you lie face-down across, with a swinging arm underneath to which weights are attached. The feet attach to the swingarm through a nylon strap. The machine is for developing and rehabbing the lower back. It really is better than any other method, because it allows the spine to open up and fluid to re-enter the discs. It was invented by powerlifting innovator Louie Simmons.) Also, I'd like some slightly thicker, longer dumbbell handles with enough weight to go up to 180 pounds or so each.
I have about $1,000 invested in my home gym for the following equipment:
-Power rack
-Adjustable bench
-Olympic bar with good, sharp knurling
-About 850 pounds of Olympic plates
-120 pounds of chain (increases weight as the bar goes up, thereby defeating improved leverage and forcing the lifter to be more explosive)
-Jump Stretch bands (very heavy rubber bands - not Thera-Bands - same purpose as chains, but more eccentric (downward) tension)
-Dumbbell handles and about 120 pounds of plates for them
-Swiss ball (do situps where your head goes all the way to the floor with up to 100 pounds held across the chin and your abs will get strong like crazy)
-Glute ham raise bench (similar to a hyper bench, but with a curved hip pad, pads both above and below the ankles and a plate to push the feet against; mine was a cheapy that a training partner and I modified to have the proper hip pad angle and a fullsized footplate, along with band attachment hooks to increase resistance; once I finish enlarging the pad, it will be just as good as a $700 unit for a total of about $250)
-8'x8' platform (doubled sheets of 3/4" plywood)
-E-Z curl bar
-Neck harness
-Dip belt
-Dragging sled for general physical preparedness (homemade from plywood)
-Squatting box
-Ironmind Captains of Crush grippers #1-3. (I can do 8-10 reps with the #2 and get the #3 halfway closed - I think that with doing negatives, I will be able to crush the #3 before the year is over.)
All of this is squeezed into approximately 10'x12' in my garage. Oh yes, there is also a boombox with CD player for my death metal. (Hard to get a good workout with wimpy music - silence is better.)
I want to add a few things, such as another Olympic bar because I bent mine doing rack pulls (deadlift lockouts). The next bar will be a Texas Power Bar, $200, takes at least 700 pounds to start bending, never seen one that was permanently bent. Other additions will be more 45 pound plates, a new bench (heavier-duty, nonadjustable because I haven't done inclines in 10 years) and Reverse Hyper. (A Reverse Hyper is a machine that you lie face-down across, with a swinging arm underneath to which weights are attached. The feet attach to the swingarm through a nylon strap. The machine is for developing and rehabbing the lower back. It really is better than any other method, because it allows the spine to open up and fluid to re-enter the discs. It was invented by powerlifting innovator Louie Simmons.) Also, I'd like some slightly thicker, longer dumbbell handles with enough weight to go up to 180 pounds or so each.