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Home gym, Half Rack vs Full cage + opinions on equipment.

  • 28-05-2025 10:16AM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 637 ✭✭✭


    HI, building a home gym room in the garden. 6x4.3m2 in total. Currently training out of a power cage I bought about 15 years ago and I am at a stage now where I want to upgrade my set up. Budget would be arond 5000. This needs to include flooring too so I would be looking at just putting rubber mats over the concrete base.

    First thing is the centrepiece of the home gym. This is the Cage / Rack. There is a good few pieces of choice here from both irish companies and those in the UK.

    https://rpmpower.com/product/half-rack-renegade/. This half rack stood out to me, expensive enough but it has a pretty nice 1:1 latpulldown / low row attached to it. 75x75mm upright and 3mm thickness too which is good. This can accomodate a dip attachment but not something like a jammer arm. THis also comes with a smith machine which would add another possiibility for training in a home gym for burnout sets on bench presses, triceps or squats it would have its place despite the negative reputation smith machines seem to get.

    I am used to training in a full cage however, and I see strengthshop have now been releasing their new modular riot racks. These also are 75x75 3mm but with smaller hole sizes as they use westside spacing. I would be under the impression that these will be getting a good few attachments for future upgrades. Things like monolifts, maybe a lat pulldown machine, dip attachment, jammer arms etc although right now their list of attachments are pretty much just extra spoting arms and bar holders.https://www.strengthshop.ie/collections/new-products/products/riot-mrr-compact-racks.

    I was just wondering what peoples opinions would be on these two options?

    I am also looking at adding in some ironmaster equipment to the gym. I would love to get their dumbells as they can go pretty heavy now with additional kits and their bench looks really good for a home gym with the ability to add on a leg curl / extension, crunch attachment for ab training, and many more.

    What do people think of Ironmaster? I dont see much competition really for adjustable dumbells here and unfortunately ordering from the UK has more choice but we have the fees and duties to think of..



Comments

  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 3,522 Mod ✭✭✭✭Black Sheep


    If you search for older threads on home gyms on the forum, there are a few. I've posted may 2-3 times on home gyms, discussing half-racks vs full cage, and various UK/IE providers. Might be of some use.



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