I’ve been comparing home-gym layouts and some movements seem much more sensitive to the exact setup than they look on paper. A bench too close to the rack or a cable line that is slightly wrong can make a good exercise annoying fast. What exercise made you change how something in your setup was positioned?
Wasn’t expecting this at all lol. Now trying to decide to wkeep and install it, or return and get what I actually ordered.
Wall is solid brick/concrete if that matters.
Would appreciate advice from anyone, and is this actually decent quality or should I just return it?
i did a lot of research and decided to buy the white one which is sturdy for the workout, but i am not aware of the 2nd one
im 54kgs btw
What we have: Garage, Single skin walls, mini pier things, roof joists (not thick), concrete floor (unknown thickness)
I was initially thinking of just doing a wall bracket from the pier, but not sure how strong a pier is?
Don't trust the existing horizontal wood joist thing, should I double it up?
It doesn't look like the far trusses are actually resting properly on the piers?
Drill into the concrete with a freestanding post?
Was hoping for a 50kg bag at least. Don't want to cause cracks or structure issues.
Advice & insults please
Had my home gym finished for about a year and a half.
It's in my detached garage, 5m x 5m
It looks a bit messy but I find the positioning of stuff works well.
Equipment I have:
Power rack with integrated top/bottom plate loaded cable (only used for lat pulldowns) and built in pull up bar
Incline/decline bench with preacher attachment
Punching bag
Adjustable dumbbells (5-32.5kg) *these may need replaced soon*
An exercise bike (not used in a long time)
A plate loaded leg extension and curl station
A plate loaded duel cable machine with adjustable positioning with built-in landmine, (attachments; vbar, straight bar, lat pulldown bar, leg strap, rope, handles)
7ft 20kg olympic barbell
Ez curl bar
Assortment of plates which may need to be added to soon (4 x 20kg, 4x10kg, 2x 5kg, 2x 2.5kg, 2x1.25kg)
And a repurposed TV surround sound system
What improvements can I /should I make?
Am I missing something you would consider essential? Or a big QOL improvement?
This was the first thing I did when we moved into our new house 3 years ago, convert half the garage into a home gym.
Over the years I’ve added a few bits, mainly the folding treadmill which I store outside of the 3m x 3m footprint when not in use. The folding rack when put away leaves ample room and I found the best place for it was in the corner after trying it in different orientations.
Most equipment is from Muscle Squad with some of the bars being from Strength Shop. One thing that is great for OHP with low ceilings are the Strength Shop Cambered Bar attachments.
I’m thinking about setting up a home gym recently, and I’m curious what people actually end up training most at home — upper body, lower body, core, or a bit of everything for instance?
I’ve also been looking at newer smart resistance machines. Features like independent resistance, left/right tracking, and automatic load adjustment sound useful on paper, but I’m not sure how much they actually improve the experience in reality.
If you were starting a home gym today, would you recommend getting a smart machine, or sticking with more traditional equipment?
I’m looking to buy a mirafit m100 but just wanted to ensure that there is enough depth inside the rack to be able to use a bench for bench press without the back horizontal bar of the rack getting in the way of the bench?
Hi,
Would somebody be able to recommend a treadmill for home use?
I currently have a dynamax walking/running pad but i can’t use it for running as there is no bounce in it and just hurts my calfs.
I’m 37, not massively fit and want to use it to get to a personal goal of being able to run 10k in 60mins.
Any recommendations for something that I can run on and not hurt myself?
My budget is around £1k but maybe for my needs it shouldn’t cost as much?
I was looking at nordictrack T9 or a T10, but then there is also a T5 which might be ok. Also any other decent brand?
Facebook feed is now full of yesoul treadmill but looks like all paid reviews on facebook so not sure I can trust.
Hi, I recently joined the gym, and it has life fitness machines, but I dont know what the numbers actually mean.
I can ask someone next time I go, but until I go again I want to try and work out what I did today.
Can anyone help please with this type of machine.
Thank you!
Edit! Photo in comments. Whooops
I’ve been in the market for an assault bike for a while to compliment my C2 Bike erg. Found this one cheap on FB marketplace with a broken screen and clunky pedals and handles. Took a chance on it, picked it up, somehow managed to fit it into the back of my landrover and got it home.
Checked out the clunk first and there were loads of loose bolts so I thought I’d get it working in 5 mins or less. This helped the wobbly arms but didn’t fix the clunk properly. I noticed the link between crank shaft and the fan belt (pictured) seemed to be the cause. I took it apart and noticed the thread was stripped in the lower half of both sides. I had a few options here, buy a new one, drill and tap to a bigger size or put longer bolt through and a nut on the end. I emailed primal for spares but haven’t heard back, drilling and tapping might not leave enough material to torque it up properly so I opted for the simplest solution which was a longer bolt and nut on the end. Then a gave all the other nuts and bolts a good clean, lubricated all the moving parts and it’s running perfectly. Completely smooth through full rotation at high and low effort. Easy win!
Next was the screen. I’ve found replacement screens online as cheap as £40 and as much as £140 but thought I’d take a punt at getting it going myself. I opened it up and the battery connection terminals were completely corroded and the cables connecting them to the circuit board had broken loose. I ordered a new battery terminal box that I bolted onto the back of the screen, soldered it in and it worked!
All in, I paid £120 for the bike itself, £4 for the battery box and I had the nuts and bolts lying around already so I’m pretty pleased with the outcome. Just in time for the next heatwave! lol
I’m planning a compact gym measuring roughly 2.5m × 2.7m internally, with around 2.4m headroom. I’m 6 ft 1.
A proper treadmill for running is non-negotiable.
I’d also like to squat and bench safely, do pull-ups and store some weights. I train alone, so safeties are important.
I’m open to folding racks, half racks, squat stands or more unusual space-saving options. The room has not been built yet, so wall reinforcement can be added.
What equipment and layout would you recommend? Exact UK-available products and photos of similarly sized gyms would be really helpful.
The attached image is only a rough concept.
To give some background, I used to be a semi-regular martial arts practitioner, doing boxing for under a year and having trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for 2 years and competing nationally a few times. I'm about a 5'6 brown man and at my strongest was approx 68kg of mostly muscle with a tiny amount of visceral fat (just enough that I didn't have visible abs despite having enough muscle for it and very clearly feeling them). My lifts were approx 180kg deadlift, 150kg squat and my bench wasn't great.
I stopped training three years ago due to getting very busy with something's that I considered more important such as travelling, only doing occasionally bodyweight exercises (pull ups, dips etc) some dumbbell and kettlebell lifting. As a result I lost a significant portion of muscle and even got fat for a bit (although now I'm just skinny-fat with some base still there). A few months ago I stepped back into a gym after years and did 70kg bench, just about gassing out on 80kg although I was very close and potentially fatigued from the previous lifts.
I have a 12kg kettlebell in my basement and tbh it's not the biggest challenge, I just get tired if I do a lot of reps or sets but the weight is quite manageable for the most part (I'm not able to fully play with it like it's a toy, but most swings are pretty easy).
I found a very good deal for a 24kg and 32kg kettlebell for £100, only a 30min drive away from me and am considering getting, do you think it's worth the purchase or potentially dangerous?
just started going to local puregym for two months but decided to get equipment at home instead as travelling to gym is becoming time consuming and costly and kinda stinks and have to wait.
at the gym i do
lat pulldowns, chest supported rows, dumbell shoulder press, dunbell lateral raises, reverse fly, floor dumbell chest press, cable tricep pushdown, plank, leg press, bulgarian split squat, standing hip thrust, glute kickback machine, hip abductor, hanging knee raises, dead bug, seated cable row, single leg press, dumbell curl, standing cable crunch, incline pushups.
i am female petiteish at 5’3 120pounds and mostly use 3-6kg weights. except for lat pulldowns at 25kg, reverse fly at 11kg, leg press at 32kg, standing hip thrust 20kg, glute kickback 14kg, abductor 23kg, floor seated cable row 17kg, single leg press 11kg, standing cable crunch 15kg
i was planning to just get bowflex adjustable dumbells or muscle iq 40kg ea dumbell, rep fitness ab3000 bench and a doorway no drill pull up bar from amazon hoping it would cover all the things im already doing and perhaps doing alternative and need some advice.
for hip thrust im doing standing one at gym as i dont like the feeling of things touching my pelvis area but i guess with just dumbell and bench there isnt really a good alternative workout to do?
my question is, could i please get advise on the home gym equipment i should get. i dont really have much space it will be putting it in my bedroom and just the three items above will fit well. also any idea which specific brand and model to get. and second question is any idea what alternatives i can do that at home gym with these limited equipment that is basically the same as what i did before like working the same muscles
i only workout threetimes a week.
I’m comparing how people think about a UK home gym where room size and damp garages can affect choices before and after they understand what gets used regularly. Things like compact racks, benches and storage can look equally important at the start, but space and day-to-day convenience usually change the order. I’d be interested to hear what you would prioritize differently if you built the setup again.
Currently looking at the primal strength mrx 5.0
Keen to hear peoples thoughts as I hear the primal strength customer service is poor
