Setting Up a Reasonably Priced Home Gym
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toddlyons
Posts: 73 Member
Got tips on setting one up on the cheap?
Primarily, my home gym is comprised of free stuff I collected from other people who gave up on exercise: a Weider home gym, an exercise bike, a manual treadmill, a weight bench, 8 hex dumbbells and 4 regular dumbbells (from 8-30 pounds), and a padded vinyl exercise mat with exercises illustrated on it.
I did add a 300 pound Olympic barbell to this system last week (for ~$300) and I will be upgrading the bench to one with a wider spacing and higher capacity (so I can lift more weight safely), but I lost 25 pounds with free equipment, and could probably have been satisfied with a free barbell system had I found one I liked.
Craigslist, Freecycle and Kijiji are your friend.
- My barbell set is from Fitness Depot Ottawa. They're a franchise-owned store and their prices are higher than the corporate entity that runs their website and most of the brand stores. Still, if you complain a little about their higher prices and buy enough, they'll discount (though not to corporate's level). But the quality of equipment of high, and you could spend the same at Canadian Tire for lesser quality stuff.
- My new bench will be from Costco. Their Marcy benches are well rated, and I know the return policy will be good if I have a problem.
- I've just ordered a chin-up bar and an EZ curl / tricep combo weight bar from Fitness Avenue. A bit scary ordering a bar over the Internet, but the price is right. I wish I'd ordered a stability ball too, because for the shipping cost (which is reasonable) it's better to order several items at once.
Who else is worth checking out?
Primarily, my home gym is comprised of free stuff I collected from other people who gave up on exercise: a Weider home gym, an exercise bike, a manual treadmill, a weight bench, 8 hex dumbbells and 4 regular dumbbells (from 8-30 pounds), and a padded vinyl exercise mat with exercises illustrated on it.
I did add a 300 pound Olympic barbell to this system last week (for ~$300) and I will be upgrading the bench to one with a wider spacing and higher capacity (so I can lift more weight safely), but I lost 25 pounds with free equipment, and could probably have been satisfied with a free barbell system had I found one I liked.
Craigslist, Freecycle and Kijiji are your friend.
- My barbell set is from Fitness Depot Ottawa. They're a franchise-owned store and their prices are higher than the corporate entity that runs their website and most of the brand stores. Still, if you complain a little about their higher prices and buy enough, they'll discount (though not to corporate's level). But the quality of equipment of high, and you could spend the same at Canadian Tire for lesser quality stuff.
- My new bench will be from Costco. Their Marcy benches are well rated, and I know the return policy will be good if I have a problem.
- I've just ordered a chin-up bar and an EZ curl / tricep combo weight bar from Fitness Avenue. A bit scary ordering a bar over the Internet, but the price is right. I wish I'd ordered a stability ball too, because for the shipping cost (which is reasonable) it's better to order several items at once.
Who else is worth checking out?
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...an EZ curl / tricep combo weight bar from Fitness Avenue. A bit scary ordering a bar over the Internet, but the price is right.
I worked out with the EZ curl combo bar on Wednesday night. 20 pounds of solid, chromed steel. Perfectly balanced. A wonderful bargain for $40! Glad I shopped around. Will definitely order from fitnessavenue.ca again if there is something I can't get locally.
http://www.fitnessavenue.ca/item.php?id=113
My only qualm was that the spring collars didn't stay on the smooth bar ends too well. So, I swapped a pair of T-Bolt screwed collars that I was using on my 7 foot barball. Great idea, because the spring collars were much better suited to that bar (which has threaded ends that the spring collars grip well!). Double bonus!0