Home Gym: Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine

[Allentown]

Double post:

I've now had to replace both the coated cables of my pulley system. Not sure if the pulleys are junky (they are, $5 can't be a quality piece of equipment) or the wire was junky (it was, $10 for 30' can't be quality) but I might just use uncoated wire until the pulleys fall apart then pick up higher quality stuff?

[James]

Coated cables won't stand up to the pressure of a pulley system and smaller pulleys shread thinner cable. I made the same mistake when I first made mine.

Just get bare cable and some 3" pulleys.

[Allentown]

Coated cables won't stand up to the pressure of a pulley system and smaller pulleys shread thinner cable. I made the same mistake when I first made mine.

Just get bare cable and some 3" pulleys.

New ones are 2". Hopefully they work.

[Allentown]

Update- don't forget to finish tightening down the nuts on the cable clamps once you have everything set up to the lengths you want them. Might create a bit of a surprise during lat pull downs.

The medium width neutral grip MAG bar is fantastic, BTW.

[Skander]

I'm a huge fan of climbing accessory rope. You need slightly larger pulleys (kind of, it works fine even in a v shaped pretty small pulley), but you don't have to worry about the coating stuff or clamps and it's rated for a gazillion pounds. Cut to length, then just do a bowline knot on either end.

[KOTJ]

Got 3 machines for cheap.

Paramount selectorized lat pulldown and seated row. Both with articulating arms and rotating handles.

Tuff Stuff proformance leg extension and curl.

[mouse]

Viking press loading...

[KOTJ]

[Cleverusername]

Viking press loading...

Clever

[TravelGuy1]

I was just setting-up a mini gym at my house and it is really cool. I will upload some photos here.

[Renascent]

I was just setting-up a mini gym at my house and it is really cool. I will upload some photos here.

Will you log your workouts as well?

[KOTJ]

The articulating arms and rotating handles on these back machines are the fucking shit/bees pajamas.

Way better than a lat pulldown. I can't believe I scored these for cheap.

[KOTJ]

wanted to show the leg press/hack squat combo that arrived yesterday...except when i unpacked it, it was not the item as described: rollers, not linear bearings.

at leas the ebay seller replied within 12 hours to load it back on the pallet, wrap it, and they'll send a truck then refund everything.

looks like i need the newer model with a bigger footprint. such is life. hopefully can have all this resolved in the next 2-3 weeks.

[SnakePlissken]

@KOTJ speaking of homemade belt squats

I made a poor man's edition based on one in an Omar Isuf video. I'm making pulling blocks as well, but threw this in since I was already at the store.
Bought (1) 4x4 x8'L and cut it down into a 6' and 2' section. Got some generic L-Brackets and used them with general const. screws to fasten and added wood glue. Used a 1/2" x6"L eyebolt with a nut and washer with a shackle to attach to my dip belt. For the plate holder, neither Lowes or Home Depot had 1-1/2 NPT black pipe, but they had 1 NPT (cut down to 18"L) with a threaded flange so I got that instead. The PVC is 1-1/2 NPT and I think I'm going to experiment with a way to use it as a sleeve that doesn't move. May try expanding foam at the top with a neoprene coupling at the bottom. Also need to add a 2x4 on each side where the pipe is so the plates can be stable, but the board has a wave in right where I mounted the pipe and didn't realize until after. I need to borrow my dad's planar to fix that before I can add them.

All in all this portion costs me about $50 with about half of that being the pipe and flange.



Reference: belt squat is at about 6:57 in the video

[broseph]

The PVC is 1-1/2 NPT and I think I'm going to experiment with a way to use it as a sleeve that doesn't move. May try expanding foam at the top with a neoprene coupling at the bottom.

I did this. I just wrapped a ring of electrical tape (thickest tape I had laying around) around the black pipe until it matched the inside diameter of the PVC. For whatever reason, I used that method for the top end, and expanding foam at the bottom- maybe to help connect the PVC to the floor flange?

[SnakePlissken]

The PVC is 1-1/2 NPT and I think I'm going to experiment with a way to use it as a sleeve that doesn't move. May try expanding foam at the top with a neoprene coupling at the bottom.

I did this. I just wrapped a ring of electrical tape (thickest tape I had laying around) around the black pipe until it matched the inside diameter of the PVC. For whatever reason, I used that method for the top end, and expanding foam at the bottom- maybe to help connect the PVC to the floor flange?

I like the electrical tape idea. I have a ton of it from when the previous owner of the house left a ton of junk when they were fixing it up to sell.

[Skid]

@KOTJ speaking of homemade belt squats

I made a poor man's edition based on one in an Omar Isuf video. I'm making pulling blocks as well, but threw this in since I was already at the store.
Bought (1) 4x4 x8'L and cut it down into a 6' and 2' section. Got some generic L-Brackets and used them with general const. screws to fasten and added wood glue. Used a 1/2" x6"L eyebolt with a nut and washer with a shackle to attach to my dip belt. For the plate holder, neither Lowes or Home Depot had 1-1/2 NPT black pipe, but they had 1 NPT (cut down to 18"L) with a threaded flange so I got that instead. The PVC is 1-1/2 NPT and I think I'm going to experiment with a way to use it as a sleeve that doesn't move. May try expanding foam at the top with a neoprene coupling at the bottom. Also need to add a 2x4 on each side where the pipe is so the plates can be stable, but the board has a wave in right where I mounted the pipe and didn't realize until after. I need to borrow my dad's planar to fix that before I can add them.

All in all this portion costs me about $50 with about half of that being the pipe and flange.

I made a belt squat beam similar to that but welded it out of steel. The issue with the vertical weight holding pipe is getting 45's 55's off it. It's hard to separate the plates to get them off. I'm modifying mine to have the weights hang off the side so the weights can be easily removed. In addition, with the weights off the side I can turn the beam upside down and add a t handle so I can do t handle rows. I'll share a picture when done.

[Hardartery]

@KOTJ speaking of homemade belt squats

I made a poor man's edition based on one in an Omar Isuf video. I'm making pulling blocks as well, but threw this in since I was already at the store.
Bought (1) 4x4 x8'L and cut it down into a 6' and 2' section. Got some generic L-Brackets and used them with general const. screws to fasten and added wood glue. Used a 1/2" x6"L eyebolt with a nut and washer with a shackle to attach to my dip belt. For the plate holder, neither Lowes or Home Depot had 1-1/2 NPT black pipe, but they had 1 NPT (cut down to 18"L) with a threaded flange so I got that instead. The PVC is 1-1/2 NPT and I think I'm going to experiment with a way to use it as a sleeve that doesn't move. May try expanding foam at the top with a neoprene coupling at the bottom. Also need to add a 2x4 on each side where the pipe is so the plates can be stable, but the board has a wave in right where I mounted the pipe and didn't realize until after. I need to borrow my dad's planar to fix that before I can add them.

All in all this portion costs me about $50 with about half of that being the pipe and flange.

I made a belt squat beam similar to that but welded it out of steel. The issue with the vertical weight holding pipe is getting 45's 55's off it. It's hard to separate the plates to get them off. I'm modifying mine to have the weights hang off the side so the weights can be easily removed. In addition, with the weights off the side I can turn the beam upside down and add a t handle so I can do t handle rows. I'll share a picture when done.

Drop a 2.5 on top of each plate. It adds a little weight, but keeps em separated.

[SnakePlissken]

@KOTJ speaking of homemade belt squats

I made a poor man's edition based on one in an Omar Isuf video. I'm making pulling blocks as well, but threw this in since I was already at the store.
Bought (1) 4x4 x8'L and cut it down into a 6' and 2' section. Got some generic L-Brackets and used them with general const. screws to fasten and added wood glue. Used a 1/2" x6"L eyebolt with a nut and washer with a shackle to attach to my dip belt. For the plate holder, neither Lowes or Home Depot had 1-1/2 NPT black pipe, but they had 1 NPT (cut down to 18"L) with a threaded flange so I got that instead. The PVC is 1-1/2 NPT and I think I'm going to experiment with a way to use it as a sleeve that doesn't move. May try expanding foam at the top with a neoprene coupling at the bottom. Also need to add a 2x4 on each side where the pipe is so the plates can be stable, but the board has a wave in right where I mounted the pipe and didn't realize until after. I need to borrow my dad's planar to fix that before I can add them.

All in all this portion costs me about $50 with about half of that being the pipe and flange.

I made a belt squat beam similar to that but welded it out of steel. The issue with the vertical weight holding pipe is getting 45's 55's off it. It's hard to separate the plates to get them off. I'm modifying mine to have the weights hang off the side so the weights can be easily removed. In addition, with the weights off the side I can turn the beam upside down and add a t handle so I can do t handle rows. I'll share a picture when done.

Very good point I didn't think about when making this. Maybe a pipe horizontal across mounted with a routing clamp and something else to stabilize it. I'll try RevA before I go onto that though.

[Skid]

I made a belt squat beam similar to that but welded it out of steel. The issue with the vertical weight holding pipe is getting 45's 55's off it. It's hard to separate the plates to get them off. I'm modifying mine to have the weights hang off the side so the weights can be easily removed. In addition, with the weights off the side I can turn the beam upside down and add a t handle so I can do t handle rows. I'll share a picture when done.

Drop a 2.5 on top of each plate. It adds a little weight, but keeps em separated.

Took me a couple sessions to figure that out myself