questions for people with weight and exercise equipment

Yeah. Olympic bar for sure and weights aren't a wearable thing so buy used if you can. Weights is weights is weights... but I'm partial to the rubber coated ones since I'm a spaz and like to pinch my fingers. There are "adjustable" dumbells that might work out pretty great for a home gym. Instead of adding plates or buying a bunch of individual dumbbells preweighted you dial the weight and just pick em up off the stand.

If you're not expecting to do big weight then a home gym may be the way to go. Move and pin and done, plus you can incorporate a lot of things with cables you can't with freeweights. Problem with many home gyms is they don't get too heavy on the plates, topping out at just over 200 on the cheaper ones.

Punching bag... I'd stay away from the water filled ones. They move. Get a heavy bag you can mount to the ceiling. Much easier to use.

As far as other suggestions.... maybe some resistance bands and a swiss ball. They will add a lot of variety and are relatively cheap. Wal Mart has resistance band sets for under $30 with a dvd and I like the Gold's Gym swiss ball with the sand in it. Helps keep it from rolling all over the darn place.

Get an adjustable bench so you can do inclines, declines, seated press with full back support, etc.

A full squat cage is more expensive than a rack but you can use it to bench in and set the safety rails to catch the bar if you miss a rep or drop it or something. You can use the rack for other things too as you get more advanced.

Definitely look for used weights, but if you can't find them local, most sporting goods places have a starter 300lb Olympic set for under $100. An extra set of 45lb plates is nice to have too, much easier than loading up little ones for things like deadlifts and squats.

Rubber mats for the floor, at least 1 4x6 that you can deadlift and do cleans on and not worry about cracking the floor. Get those at a farm supply place, much cheaper than buying them from a fitness store. Mine are 1" thick, heavy as hell and were $30 each.

Depending on where you live, you might need a heater too. Those plates and bars get cold in the winter!

hammer strength equipment

Mats are important. Kettlebell is a good one. I just bought my weight at target but you can look on craigslist because they always have this stuff on there.

Chin up bar...

Lots of good suggestions posted already—I don’t have anything new to add! But here’s what I have in my basement home gym:

Bench w/ rack & attachments
Squat rack (ceiling is too low for full power rack)
Olympic barbell w/ 300 lbs of plates + a couple bumper plates
Dumbbells + kettlebells
Box/step
Flat bench
Resistance bands + swiss ball
Chin up bar (in the garage)

I put in heavy duty rubber interlocking floor mats to cover most of the room and then threw down a horse stall mat on top for a deadlift zone. For the fun/optional stuff, I have mirrors, a stereo, and shelves and containers to keep all my pins, collars and random stuff organized. I would like more dumbbells, kettlebells, and a decline bench…my wish list always grows! I’ve bought most of this stuff on Craigslist and at Play it Again Sports.

My profile pic shows my setup. Good luck!