Home gym hardships and equipment innovation.. :)

kronicmstrb8r

New member
Wanted to start this thread because it seemed like a good idea to share ideas about how to improve a home gym on a budget, for us guys who hate local gyms. Ive had my home garage gym for several years now and have accumulated several pieces of equipment for example, 5 olympic bars, 600lbs worth of plates, flat bench with adjustable catches, home made squat rack with pull-up bars Olympic rings and a few dumbbells. Now this is no match for a gym like say Golds. But with a little bit of determination you can over come this. Today I made a T bar row apparatus of sorts with one of my shitty barbell some hose clamps and a 1 1/2 inch steel bar. About a year ago I made a cable crossover like device on my squat rack that was removable. It was made from two pulleys, about 7 feet of jet cable and a few cable clamps for the loops for the weights and for whatever handles you wanted to put on it. Could be used for seated lat rows, standing bicep curls, and even tricep pushdowns. It was only one cable so couldnt do everything but still an improvement. Wish I had pictures to show everyone. Its alot more cool than it sounds. thank you for reading. looking forward to hearing other ideas.
 
In my experience the limiting factor for a home gym is space. If you keep checking craigslist there is so much stuff people are getting rid of because they are no longer using it. Those big multi-station machines sell for pennies on the dollar.

I've been refining my home gym for years and IMO there are really only a few essentials:

Squat rack with pins and j-hooks so you can safely bench press in it.
A bench with adjusting backrest
Barbells and plates, obviously
A set of dumbells (I have powerblocks for their low footprint)
Pull up bar, attachement for dips
High and low cable setup
 
My problem is that Ive met my limit on usable space, so now I have to multi purpose already existing equipment which can be sometimes dangerous lol. Hell I was doing great for a while with just an adjustable bench and the rack with hooks for incline and flat bench positions. But as I started lifting more then 300lbs with the questionable bench and the hooks "that were bending" lol I had to buy a flat bench so I didnt kill myself.

How do you have your cable system setup?
 
My problem is that Ive met my limit on usable space, so now I have to multi purpose already existing equipment which can be sometimes dangerous lol. Hell I was doing great for a while with just an adjustable bench and the rack with hooks for incline and flat bench positions. But as I started lifting more then 300lbs with the questionable bench and the hooks "that were bending" lol I had to buy a flat bench so I didnt kill myself.

How do you have your cable system setup?

I have a parabody power rack that has a plate-loaded pulley attachement in the back. Bought it that way maybe a dozen years ago. I've seen one for sale on CL for about $200 and it looked like new.
 
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