New member...New to lifting...Need help

[Toby from MO]

New member here…my wife and I are looking for some advice on home gym equipment. There is so much to choose from we don’t know where to start. We both work full time. We have two children and a household to maintain. Like most…out time is valuable.

We’re having trouble finding equipment that will fit our budget while being user friendly for both of us to use and/or to match our different lifting needs. She would like to tone/shape her body. I would like to do the same while progressing towards building muscle. At minimum, I’d like to get the most of what we buy…efficient use of our time and as many “full body” type lifts as possible.

I currently have an incline/decline bench press with leg extension/leg curl, preacher curl and lat pull down. I have a curl bar and a couple dumbbell bars. It’s all very cheep equipment but it was free. My current lack of sufficient weight means I have to move weight around weight a lot…not very efficient use of our time. We have both used this equipment enough to determine we’re ready to invest in something that better fits our needs.

We’ve already determined we are buying a set of adjustable dumbbells. So far the Bowflex models seam to get the best reviews but they are expensive….plus $150 additional for the stand. Turbo Bells Dumbbell Set looks to have some merit, affordable, but I cannot find a single review on them.

Our budget for a home gym is approximately $1000…trying to exceed $1250 at the most.

From what I’ve seen…A power rack, smith machine and/or one of the leverage machines would most likely fit my needs but a multi-station home gym would most likely fit my wives needs…much easier for her with not moving weight.

What do you all think…anyone have a good point of view on the +/- for each different type system? Home Gym, Smith Machine, Leverage Machine….I have been looking at Body Solid and BodyCraft home gyms… BodyCraft is a little expensive. I’ve noticed Smith Machines are hard to come by in my price range but Dicks Sporting Goods has one…Life Fitness…which appears to have a lot of free weight, cable weight, smith machine functionality and it has gotten many good reviews for the money. I know nothing about the leverage machines but everywhere I look they are getting decent reviews as well.

If anyone has some experienced insight in to this, i.e. the +/-, different machines, different models, different manufactures, please let me know…I appreciate it.

Thanks,
Toby

[Cynic]

Originally Posted by Toby from MO

Our budget for a home gym is approximately $1000…trying to exceed $1250 at the most.

From what I’ve seen…A power rack, smith machine and/or one of the leverage machines would most likely fit my needs but a multi-station home gym would most likely fit my wives needs…much easier for her with not moving weight.

A power rack will serve both your needs, not just yours. The musculature of women is no different than a man's.

First forget the bowflex DBs. Too limited and too short a warranty!

Since you live in St. Louis, MO, you should have a "Play It Again Sports" (PIAS) near you. Look there for some equipment. Also look on craigslist.com and e-bay.

Let me see if I can price up some options:

Powertec w/ cable station: $700 This is going to be the most expensive piece. This is ideal IMO, because it includes dip and pull-up bars, so you don't need to buy a seperate VKR station. Bodybuilding.com has it with free shipping if you decide to go with a brand new powertec.

Look at PIAS for a bench that will lay flat, incline 30, 45, 90 degrees. Also, look there for std DB bars and plates. You'll want 4x2.5lb, 4x5lb and the remaining as 10lb plates. These should be pretty cheap. If you can get them with spring collars rather than spin lock collars, that's better.

You might also find a good power rack at PIAS.

I'll put money down you'll find one on craigslist too.

This looks like a pretty decent deal:

Commerical Quality Squat Rack with Lat Pull Down

Here's a used powertec. If you and your wife are serious, call this guy and ask if he still has it.
Powertec squat rack;bars,bench,and weights

It should look similar to this:

[LisaS]

In my opinion, your wife should be doing the same exercises as you and using free weights. no need for the cliche girly stuff for her - check out some of the ladies training logs here or some of the threads in the New Rules of Lifting for Women forum to see what I mean.
Power cage, olympic bar and weights, bench or adjustable bench, dumbbells (adjustable or fixed), cable station, pullup bar - all good stuff. You ant to be able to do squats, deadlifts, some cable exercises (pulldowns, rows, pull throughs, wood choppers), presses of various kinds.

Smith machines are not highly thought of here. Conventional squats are a better exercise.

[Toby from MO]

Sorry..."cliche girly stuff" was not my intent. I understand our workouts should be/will be similar, if not the same.

When it comes to the lifting aspect of our fitness routine I am the more serious individual but I do not want to discourage my wifes involment, no matter how serious she is.

The reason I mentioned the home gym fitting my wifes needs is because she struggles with moving weights. She doesn't like moving weights. She would rather not move weights. She feels her limited time is better spent lifting vs. moving weights.

Because we are both trying to lift, we only get about 45min each to complete our workout while the other tends to the household. Our schedule is very tight...we typically have only 1.5 hours between finishing dinner and the kids bath time, reading time, homework, bedtime...some nights the household needs, school projects and/or kids extra curricular ativities prevent us from working out all together. We do our running on treadmills beginning at 4:30am in the morning prior work...prior to the kids being awake.

Like both of you said...I'd rather have a totally free weight system...with a high and low pulley system for the added functionality. I have been reading some of the threads about the New Rules of Lifting routine and I'm interested in giving it a go..getting ready to buy the book.

I'm just trying to find something that will fit our life style, our lifting needs while not discouraging my wife from participating.

Is there such a thing?

Thanks for the replies.
Toby

[Cynic]

I've seen people here recommend Turbulence Training for people with limited time. I've never done or even looked into TT, so I don't know if it even uses weights.

Look into it, see what it requires for equipement.

There is also Ross Enamait's "Never Gymless," which may be good for people with tight schedules since it uses minimal equipement, there may be less time taken with exercise setup.

Also, since it is 1.5 hours a day, a 3x/wk full-body workout, with you on Mon, Wed, Fri and your wife on Sun, Tue, Thu may work for you. That way you both get a full workout on your respective days and someone in watching the kids.

[LisaS]

She might like to look at NROL for Women. Most of the workouts there setup as 1 Barbell exercise with the remainder of the workout DB, cable-based or bodyweight. That would minimize loading and unloading of the barbell if that's an issue. The challenge becomes dealing with different db weights - so either separate DBs or speed/ease of changing the adjustables will come into play. We have a set of Hoist adjustables and they do adjust pretty easily - but if two exercises are supersetted and the weights are quite different you do spend alot of your rest interval changing the weights with that system - so we've supplemented with some fixed DBs at the lower weights for me (3,5,10,15, etc) so I only use the adjustables for 17.5 & higher.

On the cable or pulley systems, if you are interested in those, I'd suggest one with integral plates rather than one where you use the weight plates. Much easier to change up and if you don't have plates to spare to dedicate to the pulley, much less loading and unloading. A few years ago we got a squat rack with a pulley system and started off with the kind where you load plates. That was a bad choice for us - limited room to get back there to change things and a lot of wasted time and efoort changing weights. Last year we upgraded to a weight stack and it has been much better.

The programs Cynic suggested are also excellent and require little equipment but give you a great workout.

[Lisa~]

This thread on the same topic might also be helpful:

Home gym help requested

No matter what program your wife begins, the basic equipment remains the same. She can choose exercises that match her willingness to work with the equipment, even choosing mostly bodyweight movements if that's what suits her best. She'll still use the bench and power rack for support for bodyweight movements. She might also get started with a program like NR4W and decide she feels totally empowered and start to love the Olympic bar. It's happening to a whole bunch of women!

[LisaS]

I forgot to mention before - kudos to you for being concerned to make sure your wife is encouraged and supported rather than discouraged in this new adventure.