Home gym equipment suggestions

[tomskarda]

To all,

Still working on my outdoor home gym. So far I have an adjustable heavy duty bench, Squat stands, a York heavy duty bar, 500 lbs of bumper plates, a reverse hyper, a glute-ham raise, both a portable pull-up/dip station and a wall mounted pull-up bar, kettlebells from 12-70 lbs, set of adjustable block shaped dumbells from 10-90 lbs, and a bunch of different forearm tools.

I'm not interested in a mono-lift and I don't need a rack with the squat stands.

What else should I buy?

[Jessie_OSI]

What else should I buy?

You don't need much - or anything, really - to get your work done. You're perfectly equipped to handle the bread and butter, the meat and potatoes. May as well go for something fun, right? Maybe a swiss bar or a log press. A yoke and farmer's walk handles are always great. Or some sandbags or atlas stones. Or, if you can find a lot of used kegs for cheap, those will substitute perfectly fine and can be fill to a desired weight.

[Ken Edwards]

Foam roller? Sounds like you'd make good use of it with the rest of that awe-inspiring setup.

[tomskarda]

I've got a couple of different foam rollers and some mats. Though thanks for the tip.

I know it is pretty complete. Still doing my craigslist checks.

[Rockfella]

Does your squat stand has some sorta safety latch or something to hold the bar when weight gets too heavy?

[TomF]

Just for fun I'd add a heavy bag, and a climbing rope. Neither's necessary, but other than something to spot your squats and benches, you've covered the crucial bases.

[Charlie Davies]

Are you spending your own money? You sound like someone trying to burn a departmental budget before the end of the fiscal year.
What exercise do you want to do, that you can't due to lack of equipment?
Does weather prevent you from working out sometimes? Maybe a patio heater, or a fan, or a rain/sun awning, or insect netting are required.

[tomskarda]

Thanks for the advice on the prowler. The road infront of my house has a nice incline (hill) on it and is made out of gravel. Not sure if the prowler would work with that or not.

I am slowly building my equipment out of my own pocket book. Luckily by ruthlessly scouring the craigslist and local auctions I've been able to build my gym on the cheap. I highly recommend this to most folks out there as well if you can take your time. I do recommend going to the pre-sale inspection period if you can afford the time off from work though. Especially when it comes to looking at bars. These are bent more often than you would think.

If you are dumb enough to harbor a private fantasy of opening your own small scale black iron gym/private members only club this is definitely the way to go. Just keep in mind that everything will look used. Not a problem if you want to run a dungeon, probably a problem if you want more mainstream clientel. Alot of used equipment houses offer refurbishment service for a fee, but frankly you are probably better off going directly to York and getting 35-40% off their book prices by ordering wholesale. Also, they practically throw away treadmills, rowers and even Airdyne bikes at auctions. But moving them is a pain.

For example, the professional grade York glute-ham I bought cost me $240 at a going out of business auction. The reverse hyper is an older model from the 90s by Westside. It belonged to a private individual that only used it for a year or so after back surgery 20 years ago and is practically new. Added bonus, it only cost me $100 and came with four 25 pound plates as well. The bumpers I paid $1 a pound for from a crossfit place that was upgrading its equipment and were only a year old.

The squat stands do not have safety bars and are making me think about buying a power rack, but for personal use is okay. They are well made and rate to something like 700 lbs. Way more than I will need anytime soon.

I can usually find olympic metal plates for about 33-50 cents per pound if I look carefully. Power racks can usually be found for a couple hundred bucks at auctions ($200-300) but you need to bring your own tools and a friend or two to tear it down and get it on a truck. This can be tricky as it usually occurs during the work week. That said, you end up with a professional grade unit that would cost you $1500, or more, if bought new. I would advise building your own platform as moving these is a bear and the used ones I've seen look beat to hell, but you could get lucky if you look around enough.

Buying good used bars is tricky as the people buying these know what to look for and bidding can get out of hand. Sometimes it can get pretty near to retail costs, but you do save on the shipping if bought locally.