How To Set Up A Home Gym

There comes a point in every dedicated exerciser’s life where they want to set up a home gym or at the very least get some equipment into their house for the days they can’t hit the gym. My home gym collection got started with a doorway chin-up bar and a couple bricks for handstand pushups (HSPUS). From there I thought I should get a hard medicine ball to roll out some muscle knots and trigger points in my chest, back and calves as well.

This little bit of of equipment I kept at home let me get in some pretty great workouts and it’s all about 15 feet from the computer I’m writing this on now. I did all the bodyweight exercises, flexibility work at home and kept the heavy stuff for the gym. THEN THINGS WENT FUNNY…

I’ve been personal training in Calgary out of a local gym since 2001 and became the house personal training company for that gym in 2002. It all came to a head in the last couple of weeks when new management came in. New ideas were in and my company was out. One door closes and another opens. I’m now opening up a private personal training studio here in Calgary Alberta.

It’s very exciting to buy toys! Setting up this home gym to train my companies personal training clients is something I’m really looking forward to and today I took the first many real steps that need to be taken with the hope that the stairs will appear when needed.

Here is the equipment for my home gym that I bought today November 4th 2008:

• The Northern Lights Power Rack System

When I was looking around a lot of people were saying great things about the ruggedness of the Powertec Strength Power Rack. I thought about ordering it from bodybuilding.com but decided in the end that I would go with the The Northern Lights Power Rack System for my home gym because it allowed me to do underhand chin-ups. I just did not like the setup of the front cross member and chin bar setup on the Powertec Power Rack. Having said that, with the Powertec Rack you can buy a separate attachment for dipping bars. With the The Northern Lights Power Rack System I opted for buying an extra olympic bar so I can put them side by side in the rack for dips as well as have an extra bar for multiple clients or for super setting two compound exercises. Just my preference.

If you’re the kind of person that will always pick a jacked up hummer over a 4 cylinder SUV even though you never go off roading then you may prefer the Powertec Rack.

• 400 Pounds Of Olympic Standard Plates
• 2 Olympic Bars
• Gaiam Total Body Balance Ball (Swiss Ball)
• Dipping And Chin Up Belt
• Small Personal Floor Mat
• Rubberized Flooring Mats

I’m very happy with this minimal home gym set up so far because it allows me to do everything that I do in my training at the gym with personal training clients except the standing calf raises done on the machine. That’s not a problem though because there are plenty of variations we can work our clients calves with in the rack or single legged on a step holding plates.

The power rack is such a versatile piece of home gym gear that almost anything else I add at this point will be for shear amusement and novelty. Definitely not because there is other gym equipment that can produce better results. We all know that results comes from properly applied effort and not the gear. At any rate, the power rack will allow us to do all the olympic lifts and power lifts with our clients as well as I can get some heavy training in when everyone goes home without needing a spotter or a trip to the local gym. Now that’s sweet.

Thats it for now. I am expecting my delivery soon and I will keep adding to this post as I review the gear and add new pieces to the home gym. If you have anything cool in your home gym or just want to share your home gym set up, drop a line in the comments below.