Why a Home Gym?

Early on in my return to working out, after deciding to go with Old School New Body as my attack plan (details on my decision here ). I was all fired up to start my workouts!

Only to find that whenever I went to the gym and there was a wait for all the benchs and machines… I would go right after work and this would happen to me ALL the time!

My muscles would cool down between exercises and my workout would take twice as long as it should. Not to mention my enthusiasm would be taking a hit all the while.

Eventually I said “Enough!” and started researching what I needed to set up a home gym.

How did I come to that decision?

If you’ve ever been up late at night, I’m sure you’ve seen an infomercial with some strange contraption saying

this is the greatest new invention in exercise since forever!

or

wear this while you sleep and watch the pounds melt away!

I’ve never found any of these claims to be true. There are only so many ways you can move without getting hurt and they’ve been figured out way back in the day.

In other words:

Simpler is better!

Keeping it simple and remembering new isn’t always better was that I kept in mind when I was researching what equipment to get for my home gym (I set it up in my garage).

The Search

Also something I had to keep in mind was the cost and space needed (the garage has lots of other stuff in it…)

So many options to choose from

• Free weights
  • Dumbbells
  • Barbells
• Resistance Bands
• Workout Machines

Eventually through a lot of research I found that the “good” home workout machines tends to be limited and the value of them just wasn’t there… Could have gone with bands to start out but I decided that good old free weights would be the best path forward!

So for the convenience of working out at home safely I started my search for some weights and a bench!

Weights

I chose to get dumbbells and I wanted an adjustable set. Having 20 pairs of dumbbells would have taken up far far too much room…

I checked out a few different brands of adjustable dumbbells, even the Sports Authority branded ones (when they were still around). Two names kept coming up in my research, people would recommend as being high quality and easy to use, PowerBlock and Ironmaster.

Eventually I ended up getting the 45 pound Ironmaster adjustable dumbbell set. It was close between the Ironmaster and PowerBlock but I preferred how much simpler the Ironmaster’s were.

Though I did like how quickly you were able to change the weight of the PowerBlocks, I didn’t like how the dumbbells fully enclosed my hands. It felt like I was lifting a cage!

The feel of the Ironmaster in my hands were great! They are sturdy and extremely high quality.

Bench

The first bench I got was actually from Craig’s list. I would actually recommend craigslist for quite a few fitness items. Just a few months after New Year’s tends to have lots of just slightly used fitness equipment for some reason 😜

BTW you can get your weights from Craig’s List. I couldn’t find the Ironmaster’s for much cheaper than new, so I just bought them new.

A simple adjustable bench is all you need and maybe a flat bench if you have the room. The used one from Craig’s list lasted many years but eventually I purchased a higher end one from Ironmaster 😄

With just these two sets of equipment you can do 99% of ALL the exercises you could ever want! All from the convenience of home, no travel time and no waiting for equipment!!!

Though I don’t get to see sights like this anymore:

Not that this actually ever happened… but it could have!!!

So with the equipment, the plan and eventually the diet all dialed in. I was finally ready to go into overdrive!