What to buy if you want to work out at home (besides a home gym)

PoPPeR

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2002
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Besides things like dumbells (how heavy should one get anyways?), what are some decent individual items you can buy if you want to do basic workouts in your home? I don' thave any room for a complete home gym so I'd rather just buy different things separately
 

nightowl

Golden Member
Oct 12, 2000
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A padded bench that has an adjustable back on it. It would probably be the most useful along with weights.
 

amcdonald

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2003
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I good padded bench and dumbells should be enough to provide a good, fairly in-depth workout routine.
The amount of weight depends on your current strength. You'll at least need different weights for different excersizes/muscles. Go to a gym to try it out, and get an idae of how much weight you'll need to lift to stress your muscles at home.
 

DrVos

Golden Member
Jan 31, 2002
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Get a stability ball. It will help you strengthen your abs, butt and back as you work out-- which helps reduce the risk of injury.
 

blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
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for cardio, a heavy bag and a jump rope aren't very expensive and can make for good workouts.

can you afford a treadmill?

i second the bench/dumbell suggestions. i've heard that bowflex, albeit cheesy, does offer a decent workout, but ymmv.
 

PaperclipGod

Banned
Apr 7, 2003
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Just curious - why not join a gym?

For the price of all the equipment you'd need to buy just to get a decent workout at home, you could have a membership for several years to a gym that has loads of top-notch equipment.
 

mflacy

Golden Member
Aug 8, 2001
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Treadmills are expensive, but they give a great cardio workout with the right progammed workout. As a cheaper solution, consider a good exercise bike for your cardio.

Dumbells and a weight bench are really all you need for a good muscle workout.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
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Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
for cardio, a heavy bag and a jump rope aren't very expensive and can make for good workouts.

can you afford a treadmill?

i second the bench/dumbell suggestions. i've heard that bowflex, albeit cheesy, does offer a decent workout, but ymmv.
I bet you didn't realize how freaking expensive a bowflex machine is ;)

For about $1k you can get some real equipment for your home - I mean a cage, adjustable bench, olympic bar, heavy dumbells, etc.

You can make do with less but the equipment I just mentioned will allow you to do all of the true compound basic lifts like bench, squats, deadlifts, and the majority of other lifts a person is likely to want to do all the way from military press to bicep curls. Anything else is just a luxury :)

If all you want is to bench press and get some biceps a couple hundred bucks will get you some basic low-end stuff.

 

blackdogdeek

Lifer
Mar 14, 2003
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Originally posted by: Skoorb
Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
for cardio, a heavy bag and a jump rope aren't very expensive and can make for good workouts.

can you afford a treadmill?

i second the bench/dumbell suggestions. i've heard that bowflex, albeit cheesy, does offer a decent workout, but ymmv.
I bet you didn't realize how freaking expensive a bowflex machine is ;)

holy cr4p! you're right, i did NOT realize how extremely expensive a bowflex is. stick with a bench and dumbells.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
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Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
Originally posted by: Skoorb
Originally posted by: blackdogdeek
for cardio, a heavy bag and a jump rope aren't very expensive and can make for good workouts.

can you afford a treadmill?

i second the bench/dumbell suggestions. i've heard that bowflex, albeit cheesy, does offer a decent workout, but ymmv.
I bet you didn't realize how freaking expensive a bowflex machine is ;)

holy cr4p! you're right, i did NOT realize how extremely expensive a bowflex is. stick with a bench and dumbells.
Yeah I thought they looked decent until I realized a low end one is around $1k and they just shoot right up from there! Unless room is a MAJOR problem or you for some unknown reason hate weights there isn't much of a reason to buy a bowflex.

 

peterskm

Member
Jan 24, 2002
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I agree with some of the others. Get a weight set and a bench. Dumbells are a good choice as, IMO, they are better (and harder) to do bench presses with.
 

amcdonald

Diamond Member
Feb 4, 2003
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dont buy a treadmill/excercise bike/heavy bag.
Save money and go running and buy a jumprope. the rope is going to give the best cardio workout and is the cheapest...
I've Heard that the boxflex severely lacks quality... also the weight isn't distributed evenly during the the repitition, like an exponential curve.
 

PoPPeR

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2002
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I'd like to be able to work out without driving someplace, it's just more comfortable and less of a hassle for me if I can just walk 20 feet to my garage or backyard and get a pretty decent workout. I got a punching bag (are they the same thing as heavy bags?) for free from one of my friends, it's about 100 pounds or so, so I"m going to latch that onto the ceiling outside, then just put a bench and some dumbells. It'll be like prison :) (or at least seem like the prison's in the movies, without the extras).
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
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Originally posted by: PoPPeR
I'd like to be able to work out without driving someplace, it's just more comfortable and less of a hassle for me if I can just walk 20 feet to my garage or backyard and get a pretty decent workout. I got a punching bag (are they the same thing as heavy bags?) for free from one of my friends, it's about 100 pounds or so, so I"m going to latch that onto the ceiling outside, then just put a bench and some dumbells. It'll be like prison :) (or at least seem like the prison's in the movies, without the extras).
If you get a serious setup it's sweet :) I bought all my equipment after years of dreaming a few weeks back. I'll post pictures perhaps tonight, or soon anyway. I'm about to go use it now :)

 

PoPPeR

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 2002
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my friend has a 2000$ one, top of the line, and yeah they are very sweet... but I figure i'll start slow at first, invest a couple hundred and if I'm actually motivated enough to continue working out then think of investing in a better home gym type of thing.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
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I figured I post a few pics of my humble home gym...

I've got a nice incline/decline/flat/military bench. A nice variety of dumbells. An excellent treadmill, and an exercise ball that I use to work on flexibility and stabilizer muscles.

gym1
gym2
gym3
gym4