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Whar are your top must haves for a home gym?

I

itkbin

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I'm thinking about building a home gym because the nearest gym is about an hr and a half away. The long drive, not to mention the rising fuel costs is starting to feel exhausting and expensive.

For those who have their own home gym, what equipment would you recommend prioritizing? I want to invest in versatile, essential equipment that will let me get a solid workout at home. I'd love to hear your recos. Thanks!
 
Bench/barbell. Free weights. 20-100 lb dumbells. Some form of cable machine(not the cheap 1 pully bullshit off amazon) and a leg press/hack squat combo(mine is RITFIT and was $700 on Amazon) a chest press, a pull up bar and dip station, all in all ive spent about $6000 on my setup. But it could be done cheaper.
There are some nice stations on the market now that come with dual pullies, a Smith, leg extension etc
 
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I train only at home, and am able to hit everything very well with a half rack & adjustable bench, barbell & ez curl bar, lots of plates, adjustable dumbbells, single overhead cable/pulley with a plate loadable pin and plenty of attachments, leg press/hack squat combo, and a plate loaded leg curl/extension
 
TommyJam said:
I train only at home, and am able to hit everything very well with a half rack & adjustable bench, barbell & ez curl bar, lots of plates, adjustable dumbbells, single overhead cable/pulley with a plate loadable pin and plenty of attachments, leg press/hack squat combo, and a plate loaded leg curl/extension
Click to expand...
Literally all you need. The fancy machines are great but what you listed is all someone needs.
 
If you are building as you go I’d say start with some kind of power rack, adj bench, barbell and plates. Keep buying plates!!! You will be able to start either way squat, dead, row, bench, OH press, skull crushers, curls.
Next I’d add either adjustable dumbbells, or if you have the space and budget, a rack of dumbbells in weights you will use and expand into.
Next I’d look at a functional trainer. Plate loaded is fine, you will be collecting plates for fun.
After that it’s space and budget dependent.
As others mentioned, leg press, pull down, etc.

I started with adjustable dumbbells, the wife was begging for the rubber coated hex ones in specific weights. Finally got her some. Tried em out, sooo much better that the power block adjustable I had. Ended up going all in and got ‘us’ dumbbells up to 120lb. Then I got a couple handles that would hold up to 12- 20# 1” plates, and bought enough plates to load up 2 handles, along with 5,10, and 15 pond plates to fill in the gaps from 125-245# on each handle.
Fully loaded w 20lb plates next to a 20lb db. This made my wife laugh. “Why do you need so much weight?” - me: so I can lift it…

IMG_1364.jpeg
 
HAAM said:
If you are building as you go I’d say start with some kind of power rack, adj bench, barbell and plates. Keep buying plates!!! You will be able to start either way squat, dead, row, bench, OH press, skull crushers, curls.
Next I’d add either adjustable dumbbells, or if you have the space and budget, a rack of dumbbells in weights you will use and expand into.
Next I’d look at a functional trainer. Plate loaded is fine, you will be collecting plates for fun.
After that it’s space and budget dependent.
As others mentioned, leg press, pull down, etc.

I started with adjustable dumbbells, the wife was begging for the rubber coated hex ones in specific weights. Finally got her some. Tried em out, sooo much better that the power block adjustable I had. Ended up going all in and got ‘us’ dumbbells up to 120lb. Then I got a couple handles that would hold up to 12- 20# 1” plates, and bought enough plates to load up 2 handles, along with 5,10, and 15 pond plates to fill in the gaps from 125-245# on each handle.
Fully loaded w 20lb plates next to a 20lb db. This made my wife laugh. “Why do you need so much weight?” - me: so I can lift it…

View attachment 279917
Click to expand...
Those adjustables play hell on the knees when you need to press em lol. The rubber coated hex are so much better. I started with the adj as well...they get the job done and are cheaper but hex are so much more comfortable
 
You have 3 months? Buy shit from China. Perfect for a home gym.

#1 Get an integrated Smith Machine and Cable Stack. This alone can get you 80% of the way there.

Fast Follows
#2 Leg Extension / Curl Combo - I Have a Prime Clone
#3 Lat Pulldown Machine - I have a Bolt clone with sliding handles for Wide and Frontal Single Arm.
#4 Chest Supported Row or T Bar Row
#5 Some Squat Pattern - Pendulum is GOAT'd. But can always squat on the Smith if space is limited

Anything after this is really what you want
I have....
---Arsenal Incline Fly clone
---Flex Leverage Chest Press clone
---BootyBuilder Plate Loaded 45* Hyperextension
---SMRTFIT adjustable dumbbells
---Stive Preacher Curl - OG real model I got off Facebook

Want
Abductor/Abductor Machine
 

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