Home Gyms. Any good?

APoc184

APoc184

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After shedding 13kg in two months I now want to start building a bit of lean muscle and get better definition.

Going to a gym like Virgin is not an option unfortunately. It will have to be done at home.

I've been doing 100 push ups and 100 sit ups every second day but that only gets you so far. I do plenty of cardio as well. Boxing and "running on the Orbitrek"

Now, stores are full of these all-in-one Trojan home gym combos but are they actually any good?

The guy at Makro told me that for building muscles they are not that great and that I should rather look at a separate bench and weights. He says that the weights on these combo machines are just not enough for somebody like me who wants to build muscle and will only be good enough for general fitness. And he said the pulley system also reduces the actual weight you are lifting/pushing/pulling.

I'm a complete noob when it comes to this so I have come here for help. Last time I was in a gym was back in Grade 10.
 
Those all in one gyms pulley systems are just not designed to carry a lot of weight.
A bench and a bar with weight and some free standing weights are probably the best solution
 
I don't know if this is cheap, but I got the 50kg set with the bar and dumbell bars along with the weights for R 1500 from Mr Price Sport. If you buy them separately it works out more. Comes with 4 x 5kg weights and the rest are 2.5 and 1.25kg.
 
Buy yourself a set of dumbells and download a few dumbell only workouts and give them a try.
The bench would also be nice but you can use a yoga mat in the short term.

You can do a lot with just dumbbells.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

I will look into getting a set of dumbbells to start off with.
And what is the long bar called? For bench pressing? I'll definitely get one of those with extra weights.

Getting healthy and fit is certainly not a cheap exercise. Anybody know of places with reasonable prices on weights? Will check out Mr Price as per D3nz
 
A barbell. And if you plan on taking it seriously, get an Olympic bar that can handle real weight
 
Try game, makro, mr price sport. Just check that you can buy extra weights for it as some of the kits have thiner bars than the spare weights they sell.
 
I got a set las year November at Oriental City in Centurion, at the shop at the back which is not part of the actual building, it was a 50KG set, which includes 2 dumbbells and a barbell for R950, worked out much cheaper than anything else i could find.
Loose weights MR Price was the cheapest, was R199 for 10kg plate, but its those weird plastic plates.
Try Junkmail/OLX/Gumtree as well, there are a few bargains. Got a brand new bench + 30KG barbell set for R500

Also try Cash Crusaders/Converters or any other secondhand shop.
 
I got most of my stuff from http://www.medi-iq.co.za/

Get a bench, barbell and a bunch of weights.

Start slowly and expand as needed.

Also look at getting some mats.

The trick is in the discipline at home: it takes a while to form the habits needed
 
D3nz said:
I don't know if this is cheap, but I got the 50kg set with the bar and dumbell bars along with the weights for R 1500 from Mr Price Sport. If you buy them separately it works out more. Comes with 4 x 5kg weights and the rest are 2.5 and 1.25kg.
Click to expand...

+1

Get a bench too. A few bricks + a wood beam can work, but gets eina.
 
APoc184 said:
After shedding 13kg in two months I now want to start building a bit of lean muscle and get better definition.

I've been doing 100 push ups and 100 sit ups every second day but that only gets you so far.
Click to expand...

Well done on the weight loss!

Calisthenics exercises might be a good option for you, doing just pushups will give you body dismorphia.

Can you jog in the evenings? I don't know what on Orbitec is but I would think actually jogging would be better, plus with today's smart phones it is easy to track process so that you can keep track.

If you do the calisthenics exercises you can later add weight to it for more resistance.

Lunges, crunches and calf raises ect.

Hope this helps :D
 
Jogging is a big no no for me.

I have bad knees and I'm scheduled for my 6th knee operation later this year.

I tried P90X a while ago but the cardio workouts were just too much for these brittle bones of mine.

Orbitrek is basically an elliptical trainer. So there is no impact on the joints.

Thanks for all the advice guys.
 
Cash converters or Gumtree ... there are a few sets going at the moment.

If you just starting out, you don't need anything major or heavy, you can do most exercises with 2 dumbells, a barbell and a bench. You can find those 50kg or 75kg sets going for easily under R2000. Macro/Sportsmans Wharehouse best places to look if you want advice and or new equipment.
 
APoc184 said:
After shedding 13kg in two months I now want to start building a bit of lean muscle and get better definition.

Going to a gym like Virgin is not an option unfortunately. It will have to be done at home.

I've been doing 100 push ups and 100 sit ups every second day but that only gets you so far. I do plenty of cardio as well. Boxing and "running on the Orbitrek"

Now, stores are full of these all-in-one Trojan home gym combos but are they actually any good?

The guy at Makro told me that for building muscles they are not that great and that I should rather look at a separate bench and weights. He says that the weights on these combo machines are just not enough for somebody like me who wants to build muscle and will only be good enough for general fitness. And he said the pulley system also reduces the actual weight you are lifting/pushing/pulling.

I'm a complete noob when it comes to this so I have come here for help. Last time I was in a gym was back in Grade 10.
Click to expand...

Buy a 16 kg kettlebell. That is all you need.
 
Batista said:
Buy a 16 kg kettlebell. That is all you need.
Click to expand...

You must be joking.

As several other people stated get a bench and some adjustable free-weights OP. Then you'll be klapping gym like a kiff oke my charna.
 
Buy yourself a power rack, an adjustable bench, a bar, and some olympic plates. Powerline has a decent rack for R4350. That is all you need. Do you really want to waste your time with pissy little weights if you want to build muscle? No. What's the point of lifting weights if you just get fitter and don't even look strong? Squats, deadlifts, benchpress, shoulder press. That's the base of any good muscle building routine.
 
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