buying weights advice please

fothers365

Hi,

We have just moved house and I have been wanting to start the program for a while but now we have a cellar (basement) we are hoping to equip it with weights.

I have been looking at Amazon (UK) to try and find a set to buy and a squat rack. I have found a 50kg (110lb)cast iron set that gets good reviews- do they look ok?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/YORK-Black-Unisex-Adult-Weights/dp/B002SYY46W/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1420232284&sr=8-5&keywords=barbell+york

I have quite a physical job and am used to lifting heavy stuff around so not sure how soon I will need more but I think you can buy fractional sets that I could get to add on

Any advice would be great before I make a purchase!

Thank you

Fittreelol

If you have a physical job a 105lb set will be outgrown fairly quickly. I recommend an Olympic set instead of a standard set for reasons I'm too lazy to type on my phone.

canadianlbs

i don't know anything about buying weights, but after doing the conversion i realised the biggest plates in that set are 11lb (5 kilos). which is fine, but 11lb plates don't have a very big diametre, so you may need quite a big height boost to get the right geometry for your body with deads and rows.

- on the plus side though, it's kind of nice to have 1-pound plates for the upper-body lifts that can be so hard, i.e. ohp and bench.

and bear in mind that 50kg is only 110 pounds and probably includes however much those little dumbbell bars weigh, so you might be needing extra plates pretty fast at least for deadlifts and/or maybe squats. just so long as the bar doesn't have any strange proprietary diametre that will lock you into only buying one brand of additional plates.

probably doesn't, and/or maybe wont' matter to you as it's not like york is some obscure brand nobody's ever heard of.

you've gone and started me window shopping as well. not that i'm buying - my landlord would have sixteen versions of syncope, and i'm not sure if i trust these floors that much myself anyway.

canadianlbs

oh. and a short bar MIGHT be an issue for you later if you decide to invest in a rack. i know i once tried using the 5' bar on the standard rack at my rec centre when all the long bars were being hogged by other people, and nearly cracked a collarbone because the fatter ends of it didn't sit strongly onto the pins.

Sumiblue

Go for Olympic weights and bar if you have the space. The bar is long and weighs 45lbs. An olympic weight set is usually sold as 300lbs and will serve you well. I just found a power cage, bench and set of olympic weights/bar on Craigslist for $325. I've been using Olympic weights/bar for a few months now and I don't think I'd ever want to go back to the little 1 inch bar.

fothers365

Great advice thanks. I have started to looking into Olympic barbell sets instead and a 7 foot bar if possible as the bench I like is a wide one. It has a squat rack on the back and has safety catches for OHPs. It gets great reviews but people advise a longer barbell.

Need to wait until the end of the month though- we get paid early in December making January a looooong month!