home gym help?

cjbh

Hey guys. I’m thinking of setting up a gym (just weights) in a shed at home. Just wondered if any of you can give me some advice on going about this.

I’ve been going to the gym regularly for the past year (and on and off before that) and have had some good results (my goal is muscle building). I’m moving back home to a small town without any really good gyms, so that’s why I’m thinking of doing this. Plus I’ve had enough of trying to fit my hours around gyms’ opening hours, gym being crowded, grunty people LOL.
So this is where I see problems:

Working legs – how am I going to do this? Realistically I’m not going to be buying a squat rack. Will deadlifts be enough to train legs? at the moment, I use leg press to train legs and have made good progress. I don’t know how much weight I press, but I always do the full stack in every gym I go to (and I do proper, full ROM reps). Can you guys guess from this how much weights I would need to buy (minimum) in order to get an effective deadlift at home? I know how to deadlift, but I’ve never tried it seriously, so I don’t know how much weight I need.

Working calves. Right now, I do calf raises on the leg press. I want to keep up the progress I’ve made here, but I can’t think of any proper, hardcore routine I could do at home to hit my calves. Holding dumb bells in my hands while doing calf raises would just not be intense enough, IMO. Any ideas?

Working abs. Recently I started doing seated cable crunches (on the lat pulldown machine) and finally I’m starting to see the beginnings of a six-pack (even if I do say so myself)! How can I work my abs at home using a weights-based approach? I’m not interested in body weight exercises – I don’t want to be doing like 40 crunches, I’d rather do 5 sets of 8 reps with heavy weight. At least that’s how I’ve made my recent gains and I don’t see why I should train abs differently to any other muscle. are those 6-second ab device thingies any good

Lastly, where is a good place to buy weights? What is the minimum amount of equipment and actual poundage I would need to buy for a total body routine? Is there somewhere where people sell 2nd hand stuff?

Do you think this is feasible – or would I need to still supplement the home gym with trips to an actual gym (for access to leg presses, etc.)?

OK guys sorry about the long post, but I appreciate any advice you can give me.

BrianD3

What's your budget? I know you say you don't want a rack/cage but perhaps you have overestimated how expensive they are. There is a big choice of power cages on www.irish-lifting.com they also have pretty much everything you'd need for a home weights gym. If buying weights, buy the 140 kg Olympic set and get more plates if and when you need them

Re: abs and unwillingness to do Body weight exercise - not every BW exercise is as low resistance as a crunch. For instance the standing ab wheel is a tough BW exercise adn the equipment is cheap, if you can do one rep that is an achievement and there are easier versiosn that allow you to work up to it

Another idea for an ab exercise is the one handed suitcase deadlift.

You could also look at putting in a decent chinup bar in your shed and maybe a set of rings too.

podge57

there is no way to tell how much weight you will need for deadlifts, you havent mentioned anything that would give any idea
deads and dead variations are good for hamstrings, but wont do much for your quads, you could do lunges, front squats, etc

there a loads of things you could do for calves and abs, google is your friend

as for basic equipment, a lot can be done with a rack, bench, bar & weights

rubadub

BrianD3 wrote: »

You could also look at putting in a decent chinup bar in your shed and maybe a set of rings too.

Yes, and the racks often have chinup bars on them, and dipping attachments. I now see irish lifting are selling gymnastic rings for €60.

I’m not interested in body weight exercises – I don’t want to be doing like 40 crunches, I’d rather do 5 sets of 8 reps with heavy weight

I like BW exercise but never do crunches. You can L-sits and ab rollouts on the rings, and tricep pushups/extensions on the rings really hit my abs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpz8sww86g

Dazd_N_Confusd

Just curious, why is a power rack out of the question?

cjbh

thank you so much for that link - i've always wanted gymnastic rings but had no idea where to get them! deffo looking forward to doing L-seats on them (i'm sure they will take a while to master though!)

perhaps i have been hasty to rule out buying a rack
budget wise - i suppose i would be willing to pay for whatever is necessary (just want an idea of what is good value)

so if i buy the following:
-rack
-adjustable bench (don't need the bench press thingy)
-olympic bar with say 100kg to start
-dumbbells
...how much would i be looking at?

Mickk

rubadub wrote: »

Yes, and the racks often have chinup bars on them, and dipping attachments. I now see irish lifting are selling gymnastic rings for €60.


I like BW exercise but never do crunches. You can L-sits and ab rollouts on the rings, and tricep pushups/extensions on the rings really hit my abs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpz8sww86g

Just noticed the special wasn't working, they are 49.99 now

Dazd_N_Confusd

cjbh wrote: »

thank you so much for that link - i've always wanted gymnastic rings but had no idea where to get them! deffo looking forward to doing L-seats on them (i'm sure they will take a while to master though!)

perhaps i have been hasty to rule out buying a rack
budget wise - i suppose i would be willing to pay for whatever is necessary (just want an idea of what is good value)

so if i buy the following:
-rack
-adjustable bench (don't need the bench press thingy)
-olympic bar with say 100kg to start
-dumbbells
...how much would i be looking at?

You could get a good power rack and 140 kg barbell set for €640 from Irish-lifting.com:

http://www.irish-lifting.com/product_info_equipment.php?cPath=1_11&products_id=197

http://www.irish-lifting.com/product_info_equipment.php?cPath=1_15&products_id=259

In regards to the bench, I was planning on making one out of a bunch of 2x4s, before my parents said they weren't gonna let me build a new shed.

I'm not sure about dumbbells either but barbells are more than enough I think.