Home Gym advice please

will56

Hi All.
The father is looking to invest in a home gym set up for himself and my younger siblings (I currently use a Ben Dunne gym beside work)
He was initially looking at the multi-gyms which are on sale at the moment along with other fitness gear for the New Year Resolutioners
We were browsing last night and also came across some power rack bundles which seemed to be good value.
Would this be a good set up for someone starting out strength training ?
Rack, pull-down attachment, adjustable bench and olympic weight set ?
Should he also be getting dumbells as well ?
The one we seen was €650 delivered for the above and it included an olympic barbell and 80kg of weights.
http://www.powerhouse-fitness.co.uk/deluxe-strength-package.php

Does anyone know of any irish sites where I could get a similar or better bundle ?

marathonic

What is your budget? I ordered from PowerHouseFitness last year and am very happy with the products - but I ordered a more expensive rack (BodyCraft F430).

Make sure to order via http://www.fatcheese.ie - you'll then get a 10% rebate on your order. If your budget stretches that far, you could get the more expensive package here. With the 10% discount factored in, it's a bargain and you'll be progressing much longer before you need to order more plates.

will56

No real idea of the budget yet Marathonic, want to make sure I'm getting the most value for his money.
I also don't want to reccomend more than would be used, incase the strength buzz wears off him.
If it was me buying I would definitely get the bigger bundle, especailly for that extra 45kg in weights, but I don't see them needing the bigger rack.

Whats the spacing like for the safety bars in the F430 ?
Its things like that I'd be a bit concerned about when buying off the internet.
Also had you any problems with PowerHouseFitness, seen some pretty dodgy reviews when i was searching this morning.

marathonic

Before deciding on the Bodycraft F430, I’d looked at a lot of racks including the Bodymax CF375 and CF475 – the two cheaper options from PowerHouseFitness. I also looked at the two options from Irish Lifting.

I was turned off the Bodymax CF375 by this post: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=123957191. When buying a rack, I want to be confident that the rack will support the weight should I fail and that thread didn’t inspire confidence. There’s a chance it’d be fine but, having read the above, it’d always be in the back of my mind and affect my training.

A useful site for comparing racks is http://bodybuilding.wikkii.com/wiki/Power_Racks. In this site, you’ll see that the Bodymax CF375 is 101lbs in weight (about 46kg). The Bodymax CF475 appears to be a better option at 152lbs (about 69kg). This is quoted as the same weight as the lighter of the two Irish Lifting racks – their racks are the TDS models.

Given the choice of the Bodymax CF475 or the cheaper of the Irish Lifting racks, I’d probably go for the Irish Lifting one because it’s an Irish site, the price difference is minimal, you get free delivery if you order over 500 euros worth of equipment and, perhaps most importantly, I believe the spacing between the holes on the rack is smaller on Irish Lifting’s rack – meaning there’s a better chance of a good fit when adjusting the safeties.

If you ring Irish Lifting, they may also be able to do a deal for larger orders.

With PowerHouseFitness, the only problem I had was that the initial delivery was missing 50kg of the 235kg weight set. The plates missing were the 2 25kg plates.

When I got in touch, they said that they were out of stock and it would be a week or two before they got them back in. They offered to either send plates of different sizes or wait and send the 25kg plates.

As I wanted the bigger plates, I decided to wait and received them a couple of weeks later.

will56

Is it work paying extra for the pulley system ?

marathonic

It really depends on what you want to use it for. I haven't used it yet as I'm just doing the standard Olympic lifts but, if your planning some accessory work, it may be useful.

Also, take into consideration the fact that the pulley system sticks out the back of the rack (mine's does so by about 18 inches). This may be a factor if space is limited as you can't push the rack as close against a wall if you need to.