I’d been thinking about it for a few weeks now and when that happens, it usually follows with about 20 hours of homework for options. It doesn’t matter what it is that I have my mind on, I am thorough. This time it was replacing my home gym equipment.
Swapping from this
It was far from useless, in fact I was using it every other day for quite a while. It just limited my movements and isolated muscle groups. Even though I was getting better at the exercises on the machine I felt I was losing in regular day to day activities. Compound exercises are the way to go, and you need free-weights. So I’m selling the above and swapping to the below.
That’s a power rack and bench I got from Treadmill Express. Buying fitness equipment in Canada is not the easiest…holy cow. There are at least 10x the providers in the states and usually the shipping is included. Anyhow, I bought on Sunday, it shipped out on Monday and was at my door Tuesday. That’s impressive.
I spent about 2 hours Wednesday putting it all together. That was a workout in itself. Now I need to go and get an Olympic weight bar and some plates to complete the gear swap. That’s also something that’s not the easiest to come by, since you know, shipping 300+ lbs isn’t cheap. Thankfully there’s a store in town I can get a set for a good enough deal. Then I can enjoy squats, lunges, benches and lifts galore. And unless my math is wonky, all for under $1000. That’s about 15 months of a gym membership. Or half a gaming PC, hah!
That should set me up for this weekend and getting really into the stronglifts 5×5 program. I’m much to rusty to lift anything more complicated. It’ll be sore but it’ll be fun.
Leo's Life 
Awesome rack! 5’s are a great program to get strong quick. Most of my workouts are of the “Starting Strength” 5 rep variety. Good luck with your training and reaching your goals!
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Amazing. That is exactly what I did. I took a nice “best compound workout” contest list from Bodybuilding.com and have been doing it for 12 weeks. It’s an awesome routine that I can get done in under an hour every day (with warm up, stretching, and one added exercise and/or abs day). All you need are the basics and you will never need to go to the gym again!
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The only thing I’d be “missing” is a lat/pull down, but then I’d be back in the isolated workout again…so yeah, barbells tomorrow and a new pair of shoes and I’m all set.
No comments about the colors on the walls huh? Aren’t you in Montreal? 🙂
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I’m in Kingston but a huge Habs fan. I was just going to follow up with that. Well done.
Do you have headroom? I do pullups (x40 -45) chinups (x40 – 45) and bent over barbell row for back day. It’s killer. Going to add a weight belt soon. I don’t have a ton of headroom but enough to do them.
I feel like we lead somewhat parallel lives and interests, ha!
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I have a doorframe bar, but this rack has an angled complex pullup bar (http://www.treadmillfactory.ca/fit505-power-rack) the 3rd pic, so I put it in upside down. Plenty of room.
40 pullups is impressive. I feel like dying on sets of 8.
And yeah, one of us must be the evil twin of the other! You’re apparently the more fit version.
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@ Isey: Whoa – 40 pullups that is impressive. One set of 40? Or split up into multiple sets?
@ Asmiroth: A friend of mine gave me a chin-up / dips contraption and I already I have a simple bench press with some free weights as well. Since I had the makings of a home gym I quit my gym membership, but I find that it’s hard for me to get motivated to train at home, whereas when I go to the gym I can get into the right mindset to work. Still working at trying to get a regular routine going.
Good luck with it!
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Catching up on my reading. I did strong lifts a few years back…probably 7-8 years ago. It was great. Piece of advice though, make sure you get the form right early. I did a number on my back because I was doing some movements wrong. If you get the movement right from the start, you won’t have any problems at all. Good on you for doing it!
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