Necessity is the mother of invention. Its the truth, This workout room project came about when the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused the closing of all the gyms. I couldnt do anything about that, so I set about making a space for myself at home to continue my strength training and cardio workouts. I already had a treadmill and a crappy weight bench sitting in the unfinished area of the basement. It was unused because I went regularly to a gym, so while the variety of exercizes I could do dropped precipitously, I was able to maintain some continuity in my workouts. I definitely needed to expand my capabilities though. I had no idea how long gyms would remain closed.
So for the space itself I framed out the room, wired the walls for outlets, installed recessed lighting in the ceiling, hung the drywall, did all the taping, spackling, and painting. Still have to do the baseboard, but I left that for next year.
Shown below here with the cheap, consumer grade piece of junk weight bench that I continued to use throughout the project. Its crappiness only served to provide incentive to build a decent one ASAP. This thing was made from 16 gauge steel, and wobbled and constantly gave the impression it was going to collapse, which is not conducive to focus when holding a bar with 225 lbs over you. 🙂
Walls framed and wired
ceiling lights hung
drywall hung
Taped, spackled, and painted
OK, now with the room itself finished, that POS weight bench just had to go. I’m no pro body builder but I lift heavy and and I needed a lot of functionality in a small area, and I need it to be extremely strong. Commercial, consumer grade weight benches are made of 16 gauge steel, which is weak stuff, and in addition to being weak and lacking in features, it’s ridiculously expensive. Especially now.
I designed it all in CAD, bought the steel, and welded up a multi-function weight bench and a matching preacher curl bench. Between these two pieces of equipment I’m able to provide a huge variety of exercises, both free weights and cable/pulley type exercises. Furthermore, I built the equipment from heavier gauge steel, mostly 11 gauge, and some from 7 gauge. The weakest part can hold upwards of 3500 lbs. Far more than I could ever hope to lift 🙂
Below are some stills showing just a few of the many possible configurations for the weight bench. If you are curious how I built it, I have a separate thread detailing the entire build process for the weight bench. A word of warning on that bench build thread, though. Its a very detailed, long-winded, 6-page thread. If you enjoy the gritty details of how stuff gets made, you can see that process HERE
Standard flat bench:
Incline bench. I never bothered to count how many different possible incline positions I can set with this, but I do like to change it up week to week and not always do the same angles:
Decline bench press. Shown with fixed leg brace which can also be used for situps, crunches, etc:
Upright shoulder (strict) press:
Squat/power rack: for this the safety rails and bar flip over to the back side. Shown with comfort pad on the bar. I dont care for having the bar resting directly on my traps. Its uncomfortable 🙂
Removable leg extension/leg curl apparatus:
This add-on utilizes the existing bar catch and safety rails to add pulley/cable exercise functionality. It also uses my existing olympic weight plates so no added expense or space needed for additional weight stacks.
The bar catch and safety rails get moved to the very top positions, and this rig just sits on top, it uses nothing more than friction and gravity to to stay in place (which it does very securely) so it’s very fast and easy to put it up or take it down depending on the workout you are doing.
Heres the top unit set aside when not in use. Takes up very little room, and weighs only about 35 lbs so its easy to lift into position or take down.
An array of cable attachments for various exercises. I could have made these myself, but why bother. They are actually quite cheap. I got the whole lot for about $100. I could have saved $20 or $30, but the time and effort to make them are worth more than $30 🙂
The upper pulley, with the attachments, adds multiple exercises for back (lats), triceps, pecs, etc
To add or remove weight just unclip the carabiner slide the plates on or off, and reclip. Its simple, fast, and works like a charm.
A short cable extension adds a lower pulley which adds many exercises for deltoids, biceps, pecs, etc
The lower pulley locks into the same socket that the leg apparatus uses, and you can clip any of the attachments right on.
As you can see, the whole rig just sits right on top when the bar catch and safety rails are placed in the top adjustments. No clamps or bolts needed. Just gravity and friction.
I have one more trick up my design sleeve coming that will add wide-spread dual-pulley functionality for cable crossover type exercises, but that’ll come after I’ve sufficiently recovered from my shoulder surgery.
Last but not least, the preacher bench.
Unlike the weight bench, this is a one-trick pony, but by using different bars and dumbbell handles it definitely provided for a variety of exercises, shown here with my olympic ez-bar
Olympic triceps bar which can be used overhead and for skull crushers, and also for biceps hammer curls
an array of standard sized plates with spin-lock handles for configuring any sized dumbbells needed. At some point I intend to replace these with a rack of fixed weight dumbbell pairs, but for now these get the job done. The fixed weight bells dont add any capabilities, but they increase convenience by a whole lot 🙂
I have a 4′ x 8′ area padded where I do my deadlifts, t-bar rows, etc.
I used scraps from the bench to weld up a couple stands that make adding and removing plates easier.
Handle attachment slides onto the bar for t-bar rows
Of course there’s a need for cardio workouts as well. For this I have a treadmill. I prefer to not run. I raise the deck incline to 12% and walk very briskly uphill. Just as good as running IMO, but much less impact for hips, knees, and ankles.
So that’s it. Its a small space, but I can get a lot done here.
For the record, because a friend accused me of loading a lot of weight on the bar to look good in the pix, and because I’m not so old and wise that my ego cant prompt me to get irritated by stuff like that, I’ll stipulate that the weight shown for each exercise is in fact what I was using for my actual workouts. They aren’t one-rep max lifts either. Until I tore my supraspinatus tendon I was doing 8 rep sets with all of those. I’m old, but I’m also strong. I’ll do even better once I recover, and thats a fact 🙂
In my opinion, the biggest challenge to a successful home-based training program is simply that you are at home. Theres LOTS of distractions, things you need to do, things you want to do, etc. These things will pull at your attention and at best they will distract you, and at worst they will cause you to abandon your workout to get that other “thing” done.
One of the biggest keys to success in any home-based training program is, if possible, have a dedicated space to work. Dont try and fit some crappy gear into the laundry room, or whatever. Make a space that is just for training. If you can use a room just for that purpose, thats the best. You wont be as distracted if you cant see any distractions. A chaotic space will also wreck your focus, so try and keep it neat and organized.
The other key is that in my opinion pretty much any solid program designed to build a lot of core strength starts with 4 fundamental exercises.
- Deadlift
- Bench press (flat, incline, decline)
- Shoulder press
- Barbell squats
These 4 exercises are hands down the best if your goal is to simply build overall body strength. Strength that’s actually useful in life.
Now that’s not to say that’s all you should do by any stretch, but those should be the core. I do a LOT of different exercises, and I change them up a lot from week to week. I like variety, and muscles respond best when you aren’t always doing the same things, but these 4 are always in the mix for me every week, and the fact is that at 56 years old I’m the strongest guy I know. Before the gyms closed I saw a lot of young dudes at the gym making a lot of noise and flinging testosterone around, and it does my crusty old ego good to set up next to them when they are lifting and grunting and hooting at each other, and then watch them watch the old dude next to them bang out some sets that are 50-75 lbs heavier than their best lifts.
What could be more gratifying than that? 🙂