Home gym machine weight

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Pickcupcakes
Pickcupcakes Posts: 9 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm looking at getting one of those home gym machines with all the different weight exercises you can do. It goes up to 50kg. Does this sound like enough weight for a moderately fit female? I don't want to find that it doesn't have a high enough weight as I get stronger

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  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,483 Member
    edited July 2021
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    Knowing what machine would help, how you plan to use it, your goals, and programme.

    Personally as a fit-ish 5’1 100lbs woman, who lifts recreationally, I would time that out on lower body, and not get years of use upper body. YMMV.

    Cheers, h.
    (Speaking as someone whose preference is the barbell, but versatile when needs must).
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 910 Member
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    knowing the machine would help a lot. many (in my experience, most) home weight machines have a 1:2 ratio, so that would mean that for each 50kg weight, you only lift 25kg. 25kg would be enough for upper body as long as you don't want to build much muscle or get much stronger. i found getting stronger was helpful for things like carrying bags of groceries, water bottles and so on.

    when i first started working out, i was not particularly fit, but i found i could do 250 pound leg presses and 200 pound calf presses. and that's as a not fit beginner. after all, your legs carry all your body weight and for many steps - they're stronger than you think. so are abs. if you want to do weighted ab crunches or lower back extensions, 25kg would help at the beginning.
  • SnifterPug
    SnifterPug Posts: 746 Member
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    I third the request for more information on the machine and your aims.

    I've just purchased adjustable dumbbells going up to 24kg each side. I know they will last me a long time because I also have a barbell and 140kg of plates for that. So if the dumbbells eventually get relegated to isolation work, that's fine.

    The dumbbells I had before (only ones available at the time) only go up to 18kg and even to get that I had to load all the plates onto one and could not use them as a pair, so I was outgrowing them. I know an extra 6kg may not seem like much but for what I want them for, it is plenty as my progress is slowing right down (as expected).

    You will probably make pretty fast progress at first, so while it may seem you have oodles of weight when you first get the machine, you may quickly find that you are running out of road. If you can just buy more plates, that's not so bad, but if it's an expensive machine that can't go higher you may regret it.
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,971 Member
    edited July 2021
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    For me, it would not be enough (female, 43, 5'7") but I enjoy lifting (NOT a body builder by any stretch of the imagination!), but also prefer free weights for a wide range of reasons, so something fully stationary wouldn't appeal to me to begin with.

    It's not my ideal set up, but my current little "rack" has rack like abilities (so squats, bench press, etc), and a high and low cable and gets the job done for me. With some dumbbells I can do * most * things I want to do, or can find an alternative that gets the job done. I found it used on FB marketplace with a good range of weights for really reasonable for what I got.
  • Pickcupcakes
    Pickcupcakes Posts: 9 Member
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    As I was expecting it sounds like it won't work for what I'm after. Thanks everyone for the input

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