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LOL .. okay I don't have room or money to have any more big equipment. Regarding the pull/up chin up bar lol... I am so far away from being able to use that lol. That one I will hold out on for now lol. The space I am working with is around 5-4 m. Not too big, but I can't take up the entire basement. Thanks again to everyone who provided some ideas.
I had a stationary bike but it was boring and it didn't provide much exercise compared to a regular bike or the elliptical, so I got rid of it. I had a spin bike and that did provide a huge amount of exercise, but my kids wanted to use it too and I didn't feel like it was safe for them.
I had a Bowflex because the hubby and I grew up watching the commercials and so we always wanted one. It was neat looking and you could fold the bench to save space, but it didn't feel like it was doing anything for us. We used it for about a year and then got rid of it and bought an older Precor machine. Used the older Precor machine for 9 months, noticed that both of us were gaining muscle but wanted to take things up a notch, so we sold the old Precor and bought the newer one which had about twice as many things you could do with it. Bringing it home was pretty difficult...it filled the entire bed of the pickup and we couldn't put the tailgate up. It was really heavy and even though it was partially assembled already, it took a lot of muscle and effort to put it together. If we'd had to move it further than the garage, I don't think we would have managed it. So if you ever get a big machine, buy it somewhere that you can have it delivered, and pay for the assembly, it's worth it.
I think a kettlebell works a lot of muscles for being a fairly small, fairly inexpensive piece of equipment. If you drop it, you'd break the tiles, but depending on what you were doing, you'd probably injure yourself too, so you just have to make sure not to drop it. I'm fairly clumsy but I've never dropped mine.
Rower is the best cardio but its one of those hate it or love it pieces of equipment...really not that popular at all
I have one... well I left it at my parents' house... and honestly it's just so hard on your hands after 10 minutes. They're supposed to have a decent resale value so i may try to sell it at some point.
Home gyms have been an utter fail for me. I much prefer actual gyms, where I have access to everything and am responsible for nothing (maintenance wise). All for $10/month.
A regular bar is 7'. They make 6' and 5' bars if space is tight, but you can't fit as much weight on them and you'll be limited to squat stands. A squat rack with pullup bar takes up about 4' in the other direction, so you're looking at a minimum of 9'x6'. Add in an adjustable bench and dumbbell handles and you'll have everything you need for weight training. Since it's just a bunch of metal, buying everything used will save you 50% or more.
If you're limited by space and/or money, the super cheap route is to get squat stands and one of those standard bars that takes concrete filled weights.
As for the flooring, if you have something like a Tractor Supply Company nearby, they sell 4'x6'x3/4" mats cheap that work very well for gym flooring.
Home gyms have been an utter fail for me. I much prefer actual gyms, where I have access to everything and am responsible for nothing (maintenance wise). All for $10/month.
I would prefer going to a gym too, but between a 60 hour work week, being a parent, wife and trying to have as much of a social life as possible, my physical fitness time boils down to walking as much as possible during my work day and in doing recreational activities. I literally have a window of between 11 pm and 1 am to workout and don't live in walking distance to a 24 hour gym so a home gym is my main option. Plus I don't have to drag workout clothes and shower stuff around with me and can watch TV or listen to music without headphones.
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