Reply With QuoteWith faggot?Originally Posted by Tahiti
I was just going to ask if that was 'Bulletproof' coffee and I was close.
With faggot?
Exactly. Gravy. Mmmmmm.
Is it ops able to join a gym close to work, when I moved in with the wife she has a gym in her apartment complex but I found it hard to get the motivation to spring out of bed or come in from work and use it.
I did find that two or three times per week a mid morning trip to the gym worked for me and simply added an extra half hour or hour to my day to balance the time, this had an added benefit that if I was on for a beer or two after work that I drank less as I arrived a bit later....
Obviously might not work for all but might be worth considering.
Good luck to the OP with plans to train at home. I have been using a home set-up for a few years now and find it very useful. I'm still a member of a gym next to work - I've learned that sometimes an enthusiasm for training when leaving the workplace at the end of the day has entirely dissipated by the time I get home!
I would recommend what others here have already said - a mixture of weights/resistance training, circuits and hard aerobic or interval work. The latter might be running, cycling or rowing etc. Tabatas and HIIT are great, but interval training done properly is horribly hard work and very effective.
Again as others have said, you don't need much kit to start with. The rings in my barn cost about £15 on ebay and I use them for ring pushups, ring dips, ring rowing and ring pull-ups every week. All are harder than static equivalents.
Here's my torture chamber:
Training partners are invaluable, especially a son 30yrs younger than oneself! Here's mine in the 'downstairs' gym:
And get outside for a change whenever the weather's suitable!
Best wishes,
Martyn.
I set up a home gym in the garage at the start of the year, the opposite reason as you as I wanted to put on weight and also get a bit fitter.
My set up is spinning bike, Concept Rower, weight bench and free weights.
I use it at least 3 times a week if not more even now, at the start nearly every day, and it has worked wonders!
I was coming back from illness and a knackered wrist and shoulder at the start of this year, I was given a 12 week "kick start" programme from a PT and it was superb, I went from benching next to nothing to doubling that weight in 12 weeks (still not much but with a knackered wrist and shoulder there is only so much you can do).
It works well for me, even the Wife uses it, plus I hated the idea of the gym as it is full of twenty something roid heads in my local one anyway.
If you are to get one piece of equipment I would say get a Concept 2 rower, it can be used for cardio and also strength with a switch in routine, a very good one which kills me is 10 sets of 250m sprints, all completed in less than 55 seconds. That each day alone will work wonders!
Good luck!
I appreciate the effort people go to when creating and using these home gyms
But I do have a little whimper to myself every time I think of another car without a proper home.
My garage is a proper working garage. Though some of the kit in it may well not look out of place in a Gym !
All power to your elbow though OP.
My garage is a standard single although it goes back much further than a standard and has a work bench (the previous owner used it as a workshop for his boats), sadly my car is too wide to fit through the door opening!
If it did it would have pride of place in there and the gym moved in to the house!
Core Gym in Greengates Bradford will be my new training ground.
Opens in January,so if your anywhere close have a look online,looks good.
I doubt the view will be as good in the garage
How disappointing ;-)
It used to be home to my car, but with the amount of commuting I do on public transport, my own personal car was sold years back. The wife will never park in the garage - with young kids, you cannot offload them in the garage so it gets left on the driveway. Besides, she's a lazy sod when it comes to parking!
Thanks to all for the encouragement.
The Concept Rower is on my "to look at" list now too (if anyone has tips on where to get it from and what to look for, please PM me)... I used to go to the gym three times a week (for a number of years) and I somehow forgot how much I enjoyed rowing. It's looking like the rower may be my starting point (from a budget perspective) and if that gets used, a bit more spent on a bench and weights or a multigym as the next step.
Oh, and for clarity, I do enjoy a drink and some food and although happy to consider tweaks, a full on cutting out alcohol and the odd curry is more likely to mean I give up than succeed. One step at a time...
One of my friends actually hired a Concept 2 for 3 months prior to buying to make sure he used it enough to warrant the purchase. Think he used a company called Rowgear as they also did manufacture refurb Concept 2s and that kept the cost down.
Last edited by Olly; 20th November 2014 at 01:49. Reason: Not linked to the company mentioned and also poor grammar.
Interesting. Thanks.
On the other hand his watch won't get nicked from his locker.
That is exactly what I did, spent a few quid more a month to get a new one then rang them and they gave me a cracking deal to buy it, which I jumped at!
The price I paid, circa £650 from memory, was far less than ones on e bay much older.
We had a baby a couple of years ago, and my wife went back to work full-time. Going to a gym just isn't practical when you have very limited windows of opportunity, so I kitted out my single garage. I can squeeze in 45 mins a day, works well for me.
You don't have to spend a fortune, keeping an eye on ebay and gumtree will save you piles of cash. Bear in mind that you are much better off buying good quality equipment second hand rather than brand new cheap stuff.
I have built up my gym over a couple of years, nothing that I've got goes unused. Here's what I paid (for rough price guidelines):
Garage walls and ceiling plasterboarded and insulated - £900
Jigsaw mats - £75
Concept II - £450 used
Power rack - £220 new
Decent olympic bar - £180 new (had a £40 cheap used one, traded up)
300kg olympic weights - £400 (used and new)
300kg fixed dumbbells + rack - £200 used (had adjustables, traded up)
Flat bench - £50 new
It might seem like an outlay, but here's the beauty of weights; if you buy decent quality equipment second hand, you can use them for years and they retain 100% of their value. It's really no different than hiring everything for free, or buying a used Omega/Rolex. Have it, use it, sell it if you want, you'll not be out of pocket.
A few bits of advice:
As previously mentioned, cardio and weights have a negligible effect on fat loss, that's done in the kitchen not the gym. However if you want to look good when you lose the fat, you should be lifting heavy things off the ground.
Follow a program. There are a lot of great guides out there, using them will give you results, stop you injuring yourself and drive your motivation. "Starting Strength" is a perfect place to start, it gives a great introduction to the compound lifts and will get you into the right mindset.
If you're going to bench press alone, you need a rack or at least a stand with safeties. Without someone to spot you, it's good to have something to stop you dropping the bar on your face or crushing your chest on a failed lift.
I'm the wrong side of 40 now, but have never been stronger or fitter. I can't recommend it enough.
Best post so far. Would like to see photos of your setup as I do Starting Strength and Olympic lifts but have always assumed a decent set of weights and bar would be too expensive.
^ ^ Agreed, good post.
Also, if you like to learn some interesting stuff about lifting and general exercise, I recommend 'liking' Poliquin Group's and also Phil Learney's Facebook* pages so you get them on your NewsFeed - tonnes of good articles on nutrition, lifting and training. Read the detailed stuff or just skim but there's lots to learn!
*See, Facebook is not just a place to nose through other people's business or advertise your own. Lots of good stuff out there!
Things get a bit more expensive with Olympic lifts, you'll need a quality bar and decent bumper plates. Because they're a bit more specialised they rarely come up on the used market. Expect to pay at least £1.50/kg for plates and at least £150 on a bar. Keep an eye on strengthshop and Wolverson Fitness for clearance deals.
Great setup, like the power rack.Things get a bit more expensive with Olympic lifts, you'll need a quality bar and decent bumper plates. Because they're a bit more specialised they rarely come up on the used market. Expect to pay at least £1.50/kg for plates and at least £150 on a bar. Keep an eye on strengthshop and Wolverson Fitness for clearance deals.
What type of bike do you have? I'd personally sort that out as I love cycling and have lost loads of weight doing it. I love rollers too - doing the sufferfest videos. If you've got a road bike I'd recommend Schwalbe Durano Plus tyres - I've commuted to work for > 1 year and not had a single visit from the spontaneous deflation fairy - and if you've got a mountain bike I'd recommend Schwalbe Marathon plus - I've commuted six years and had one puncture only. So I'd recommend getting your bike sorted and using that. Then I'd recommend cycling to non-contract gym e.g. Pure Gym. If this has been recommended previously apologies; gotta cycle home!
I hate to say it, but I have a York Multigym in the garage that's mainly used for drying my dive kit and my daughter's riding gear!
I did use it a fair bit when I first got it and it had a bit of a renaissance when I broke my knee and couldn't really get about, but as a result of that injury I started visiting the local sportscentre gym and, honestly, I prefer the environment to my garage.
I should probably sell or giveaway my stuff as I don't think it's likely to get used, but I keep thinking 'maybe' it will (My daughter has the odd phase of using it still).
M.
Pity you're not nearer. I'd be happy to help you free up the space
Mountain bike (Carrera in case that matters). I wonder if it's a problem with the wheel itself as I kid you not, EVERY time I take it out, it goes wrong. I've changed tubes etc rather than patching to no avail too (it's currently sat in said garage gathering dust!).
The Schwalbe Plus tyres are amazing. I've been using them since Feb, Durano Plus, put over 4000 miles on them and not a single puncture. I don't even check them for embedded flints etc!
£650 total for a new one?
I might have to look into that myself...
the 'how' is easy if you have a strong enough 'why'
What worked for me when I was using a concept rower was to set a distance that was challenging 1000km
then set up a charity giving page, let everyone I know, know about it (so I was committed to it) set a loose deadline
I travel at least 2 hours home every day, and stay away often, so what worked was to get changed into rowing gear as soon as I got in then grind out 10KM in about 40mins whenever I could
which was approx 4 times a week. then eat afterward. Having punished the body for 40 mins make me reluctant to then eat trashy food or too much.
As someone said you can also blast out really high intensity sessions if your short on time - buts its important to build up to these...
Diet has most impact on weight loss as muscle is heavier than fat and as you lose fat you will be putting on muscle.
I have to say horrible at the time but leaves you feeling like an immortal for the other 23 hours of the day.
Good luck.
Thanks for this, I hadn't heard of it before. I'm going to use it to get my fitness up for going skiing at the end of February.
Try your best, dont slack and you'll see results in no time!
Let us know how you get on.
Wow lots of good info here, thanks everyone.
Does any one here use the TRX system at home, or have used it anywhere? Just wondering how people get on with it?
Tried post ACL injury but didn't really get on with it during rehab as felt that the resistance bands didn't provide me with enough stability and felt that I was going to reinjure myself. Sure others will have had better experiences.
Dont use it at home, but have used it at the gym honestly didn't see what the fuss was all about in fact the only thing I really see the benefit in them is for the rows, but tha'ts only because I cant usually be fussed to mess about with the racks, as I think you would have to be pretty strong in the first place to get a real decent work out from them.
You will need to be pretty confident with the attachment to the wall if your doing it at home, no reason why you cant just get a cheap set of rings from Ebay and loop them over the chin up bar in the garage (as that's got to be a staple part of the home gym in my view)
Failing that, https://www.strengthshop.co.uk/kettl...l-classic.html
and a few KB books on amazon for about a tenner will give you all you need to make a huge difference on your fitness.
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