Official Home Gym Building Thread

CaptainRAVE · 21 Aug 2020 at 14:43

Bars are like gold dust, especially at that price. They’ll be gone. They arrive well packed.

uncle_rufus · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:04

LiE said:
I'd buy the bar now, it comes well packaged so you can just store it.

CaptainRAVE said:
Bars are like gold dust, especially at that price. They’ll be gone. They arrive well packed.

Alright, you've talked me into it - does look like a smart bar and I know I'm going to need one eventually. All the more motivation to press on with the painting

Trying to work out mats, thinking I will get the 18mm thick version of these: https://www.arkmat.co.uk/gym-mats/easy-clean-gym-flooring-mats/easy-clean-gym-flooring-mats.html

For insulation purposes I'm just going to cover the entire floor of the garage, which I make 2660mm wide and 5250mm long (or just under 9ft by just over 17ft long). The mats are 6 x 4 ft and I figured I would lay them in a sort of brick pattern. So I'd put whole mats alternating each side - 4 strips of that would give me 16ft of the length, requiring 4 bits to be cut to fill the leftovers (each of those will be about half a mat ~ 3ft x 4ft so that's 2 extra mats) and that leaves an odd little section at the end. Which would be 7 mats total (I think?) for £285 which doesn't seem too bad. I don't think I'll have to stick them down or anything as they weigh 40kg each!! But probably get some tape to run along the seams between the mats. Presume I can cut them with a decent stanley and a piece of timber to prop the edge up on? Will just have to be careful with the measurements as I'd like them to butt up to the walls as tightly as possible

fireisdangerous · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:09

Thanks for the feedback chaps, sounds like hex plates are the sweet spot for durability and functionality. I would like to use them on dumbness at some point as well.

fireisdangerous · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:15

Part of a group on facebook and there all raving about a company called muscle squad who have stock of weights and bars. Terrible name mind you!

https://musclesquad.com/collections/all/products/musclesquad-6ft-olympic-barbell

LiE · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:17

fireisdangerous said:
Part of a group on facebook and there all raving about a company called muscle squad who have stock of weights and bars. Terrible name mind you!

https://musclesquad.com/collections/all/products/musclesquad-6ft-olympic-barbell

6ft and 15kg aren't worth it.

lowdown · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:20

uncle_rufus said:
Trying to work out mats, thinking I will get the 18mm thick version of these: https://www.arkmat.co.uk/gym-mats/easy-clean-gym-flooring-mats/easy-clean-gym-flooring-mats.html
Presume I can cut them with a decent stanley and a piece of timber to prop the edge up on? Will just have to be careful with the measurements as I'd like them to butt up to the walls as tightly as possible

Get a stock of extra blades - you'll go through a few cutting that many 18mm mats.
I've got the 12mm smooth mats and just cutting a bit off a small edge section blunted a blade.
https://www.arkmat.co.uk/gym-mats/1...gym-mat/12mm-smooth-black-rubber-gym-mat.html
Sounds like you've got the technique down though - all the US redditors say to prop the mats on something to allow the weight of the mat to help with pulling the cut open.

CaptainRAVE · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:21

LiE said:
6ft and 15kg aren't worth it.

Agreed.

fireisdangerous · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:21

LiE said:
6ft and 15kg aren't worth it.

Wanted a 6ft to save space, why not worth it?

LiE · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:25

fireisdangerous said:
Wanted a 6ft to save space, why not worth it?

You'll either have issues with it in the rack (too short) or they cannot hold enough weight due to smaller sleeves.

uncle_rufus · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:25

lowdown said:
Get a stock of extra blades - you'll go through a few cutting that many 18mm mats.
I've got the 12mm smooth mats and just cutting a bit off a small edge section blunted a blade.
https://www.arkmat.co.uk/gym-mats/1...gym-mat/12mm-smooth-black-rubber-gym-mat.html
Sounds like you've got the technique down though - all the US redditors say to prop the mats on something to allow the weight of the mat to help with pulling the cut open.

Are the 12mm thick enough? They're obviously a bit cheaper and I don't plan on doing any extreme powerlifting drops onto the floor... but felt like thicker would be worth it?

CaptainRAVE · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:25

lowdown said:
Get a stock of extra blades - you'll go through a few cutting that many 18mm mats.
I've got the 12mm smooth mats and just cutting a bit off a small edge section blunted a blade.
https://www.arkmat.co.uk/gym-mats/1...gym-mat/12mm-smooth-black-rubber-gym-mat.html
Sounds like you've got the technique down though - all the US redditors say to prop the mats on something to allow the weight of the mat to help with pulling the cut open.

Tell me about it. I was trying to cut a small corner of a 20mm mat with a kitchen knife. Took me ages. Worth having strong, thick mats though - you just have to go back a few pages to see the result of a 200kg deadlift landing on a 20mm mat on my patio

- I now deadlift on 40mm mats.

CaptainRAVE · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:28

uncle_rufus said:
Are the 12mm thick enough? They're obviously a bit cheaper and I don't plan on doing any extreme powerlifting drops onto the floor... but felt like thicker would be worth it?

Thicker the better. Protects your floor, feels better under your feet, insulates better etc etc.

lowdown · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:30

LiE said:
For all shoulder and arm cable work I have hex plate 10s, 5s, 2.5s which are super quick to add/remove, especially with the handle. They are placed next to the cable machine for quick access. They have the added benefit of being used on my various oly bars as well.

https://mirafit.co.uk/mirafit-hex-olympic-weight-plates.html

When I do seated rows, I switch to using my bumpers, but I don't do any drop/super sets.

You can see the plates here in my gym.

You've got a pretty well organised setup. If I could source a bunch of pancake 5kg standard plates and some wall storage I suspect I'd be satisfied with the lat/low row.
I'm a bit restricted on space - my plates and dumbbells are all on the floor at the moment. I'm trying to work out some storage but space is a premium. I'll get some pics up of my dungeon!

fireisdangerous · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:33

LiE said:
You'll either have issues with it in the rack (too short) or they cannot hold enough weight due to smaller sleeves.

ha, i was measuring the bar length vs width of the rack oops! rather than length of the middle bit, cage is 123cm wide.

lowdown · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:38

uncle_rufus said:
Are the 12mm thick enough? They're obviously a bit cheaper and I don't plan on doing any extreme powerlifting drops onto the floor... but felt like thicker would be worth it?

For me , yes. I'm lifting in my garage with a concrete floor. Silly as it may sound I was also concerned the extra 6mm would interfere with headroom for the rack if I went with 18mm.
My max deadlift is 210kg but for now after a year of lax/sporadic lifting I'm working back up so my working sets are currently only 140kg and I don't drop the bar (touch wood).
If I had the space I'd probably build a platform just to be extra safe but for my current lifts I'm happy with the 12mm.

LiE · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:40

fireisdangerous said:
ha, i was measuring the bar length vs width of the rack oops! rather than length of the middle bit, cage is 123cm wide.

You can get 6ft bars that fit in racks, but you do get smaller sleeves.

https://www.gymratz.co.uk/olympic-squat-rack-bar-6ft-black

https://www.fitness-superstore.co.uk/body-power-6-olympic-bar-fits-olympic-width-equipment.html

https://www.thegymrevolution.co.uk/...ars/international-olympic-6ft-bar-chrome.html

lowdown · 21 Aug 2020 at 15:42

fireisdangerous said:
ha, i was measuring the bar length vs width of the rack oops! rather than length of the middle bit, cage is 123cm wide.

You can get rack-friendly 6ft bars - usually called 6ft International Olympic bar. I've got one from fitness superstore. It was cheap (pretty sure I paid £70-odd at the time) but I'm only using it for benching and it's fine.
https://www.fitness-superstore.co.uk/body-power-6-olympic-bar-fits-olympic-width-equipment.html

fireisdangerous · 21 Aug 2020 at 16:00

Thanks chaps i shall have a look.

fireisdangerous · 21 Aug 2020 at 16:05

lowdown said:
You've got a pretty well organised setup. If I could source a bunch of pancake 5kg standard plates and some wall storage I suspect I'd be satisfied with the lat/low row.
I'm a bit restricted on space - my plates and dumbbells are all on the floor at the moment. I'm trying to work out some storage but space is a premium. I'll get some pics up of my dungeon!

Im trying to be creative with storage for when I get more weights. We had a spare Ikea trofast unit the kids didn't use anymore which I added some heavy duty wheels on it and gave it a lick of paint and will use to store weights and the top is handy to use to hold phone, water bottle etc.

CaptainRAVE · 21 Aug 2020 at 16:31

Or just store them on the floor/base of the rack. No problem if they have handles.