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cjet79  2mo ago (text post)   2804 thread views

Maker's Monday

Trying out a new weekly thread idea.

This would be a thread for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers. We can coordinate weekly standup type meetings if their is interest.

@ArjinFerman, @Turniper, and myself all had some initial interest.

Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.

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I don't have anything to add but I really approve of a thread like this. So much of the internet world is about tearing things down and not building things up.

Ok, I'll half arse this. Here is my recently built 'home gym'. I sourced this from multiple suppliers and got it for a reasonable price (<US$700).

This is 'project complete' so don't need any support. I strongly recommend others to build home gyms for convenience and lack of ongoing costs. They work best for introverts, although I don't know where I'd find one of those around here.

Is this at all possible if you don’t live on the ground floor?

Yes within reason, if you live in a modern construction with a concrete slab under you. You should be fine with a setup like this as long as you don't start powerlifting. I don't intend to ever lift more than 100kg/220lbs. If you're really worried and have timber floorboards you might want to do some research on maximum weight, but its really unlikely to be problem.

Also you need to make sure that you have some floor protection if you're in a rental (see my flattened cardboard even though its a bare concrete slab). Ideally you would use rubber tiles (~1m x 1m x 10+mm) for a permanent fitout. Things can be mitigated by using rubber coated plates like I'm using the picture and also by making sure you don't ever drop the bar unless its an emergency. This is both to make sure the flooring doesn't get damaged and also that you don't annoy your downstairs neighbors.

I'm constantly tempted to get more home gym stuff, now that I have a home. I thought it would be dirt cheap second hand, but even heavily used, people expect $100's for a simple bench, bar and plates.

I do have a sizeable collection of kettlebells I use at home though, which has been nice because they store easily.

people expect $100's for a simple bench, bar and plates

A proper 20kg barbell not made of chinesium can easily go couple of hundreds of dollars. And is forever and there is almost no difference between new and used 10 years in a gym. So it keeps its value well. Same with plates, dumbbells and kettlebells.

Chinesium is other story, but probably one shouldn't use them if they care about safety.

Weight plates seem to only go up in price. So you can buy new and then sell used 10 years later for a profit.

Although, I did recently buy some "Chinesium" plates off Amazon that were pretty cheap so maybe this trend won't continue going forward.

There's some absolutely delusional sellers asking for ridiculous prices for their plates. I suspect they are looking to offload their bags after they bought at inflated pandemic prices. These days you can get a set of chinesium bumpers from Walmart for $1/lb shipped. Imo, there's no reason to pay more than that for rubber plates, and rubber plates are perfectly serviceable for 99% of recreational lifters.

What's up with this, by the way? I have also recently discovered that weights cost more than I'd expect. Aren't they just barely-machined iron pancakes, sometimes covered in rubber/some kind of plastic? Is there a gym equipment cartel fixing prices on them?

I think it's just demand driven. Home gyms are cheap compared to ongoing gym fees so buyers are willing to pay more. The plates also keep their value as long as they're functional, which is years and years unless treated badly or left exposed to the elements. Even with cosmetic damage they are perfectly functional. They're just heavy things to be lifted. Once purchased there is rarely a need to buy more.

I sold a similar home gym about 5 years ago when moving long distance. I had bought it for $US450 and sold it for about $380 after 3 years of use. The buyer rang the same day it was listed and picked it up an hour after his call paying in cash. It wasn't an opportunistic reseller, but a young guy with his girlfriend looking for a home gym.

I'm not sure. I was pretty shocked at the prices when I went to Dick's sporting goods thinking, stupidly, that it would be better to pick up the weights in person than to have them shipped. There is a pretty big name brand markup. Serious lifters probably feel cool having Rogue plates, and then filthy casuals also go out and buy Rogue because they think if they drop $2k on a home gym they will actually work out for once.

The Chinese plates seem fine and (as @sarker noted), are really cheap to get shipped to your door.

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