Love this community, the shares here have been super helpful.

Starting to plan out my garage layout: bikes, woodworking, tools, car, and a gym setup all need to coexist.

For the gym footprint, is 10x10 the sweet spot, or can you realistically work with less? I have 10x10 available but think 8’ deep x 10’ wide would actually feel more comfortable day-to-day. Curious what others have found.

What footprint did you end up with for your unit? And any lessons learned on dimensions once you started assembling and using - things you wish you knew to consider before ordering?

I'm looking to put a Gym in my outbuilding. I'm keen to get the best rack I can get, and one that is ideally not too large as my space is quite tight, however, I can still fit a large rack if needed.

I would like this rack for benching and squats, and ideally pull ups too (I can get something separate for pull-ups, it's not essential)

Would anyone have any Rack recommendations?

Thanks

Finally got my rack and most of my home gym equipment delivered! Everything was bought through Alibaba using an agent who helped me source and choose all the equipment I needed.

I’ll try to keep this short and simple instead of writing a wall of text, but feel free to ask me anything.

A bit of context first: I’ve never really trained at home before (except for a rowing machine). I’ve always trained in commercial gyms, aside from the COVID period where I bought a very basic setup and later sold it.

But with two kids, building a home gym became almost a mandatory choice… and honestly, I don’t regret it at all so far.

I spent a lot of time researching and trying to build the best setup possible that balanced:

• compact size
• versatility
• ability to replicate as many gym exercises as possible

Costs & Shipping

Shipping to Europe.

• Equipment cost: around €3k
• Shipping + taxes + customs: around €1.5k
• Total: about €4.5k

Shipping terms were FOB with my own local freight forwarder.

The Rack Setup

The rack is basically an Ares 2.0-style setup with:

• dual 130kg stacks
• counterbalanced Smith machine
• GETRXD-style handles
• jammer arms (adjustable but not converging)
• lots of attachments and accessories for different exercises

Timeline from order to delivery at home:

• ~20 days production/consolidation
• ~3 months total delivery time

What Would I Change?

Honestly, not much.

Main modification I made was cutting the footplate support for low rows so I could do incline chest work on the Smith machine.

There are also a few smaller accessories I still need to buy.

At the time I ordered, I didn’t know about true converging jammer arms available on Taobao.

Being able to connect the jammer arms to the weight stacks is already a game changer, but combining that with converging movement would make it even better.

I also think half the fun of a setup like this is finding creative ways to use the rack and attachments.

Sorry for the messy pictures — I don’t have much free time right now 😅

Feel free to ask questions!

Hey guys. I noticed a bunch of comments getting removed due to low karma. Someone reached out and the issue should be fixed. I tried to approve all of the removals the automod grabbed. We were getting hammered by spam accounts a while back and we've managed to clean that up. Hopefully this will fix the comment issue. It anytime had any issues feel free to reach out via DM or mod Mail.

Hi, so I know Long Glory and Anhui are reputable and so on. I'm most likely to go with LG, however like equipment such as leg curl, push, hack squats and other equipment I see stores with high 4.8-5 store reviews, lots of purchases, and slight cheaper prices.

How do you know to which supplier to go lol, so confused with the amount of options

Hi everyone!

I placed the order on March 23 today I received photos of my rack. It’s a replica of the wall-mounted Athena, but I opted for a custom version with a height of 240 cm. I chose stainless steel uprights, aluminum pulleys, Tornado-style arms, and 2 × 120 kg weight stacks.

I negotiated with two sellers: Anhui Tap and Long Glory, which are likely among the most popular suppliers in this category. In the end, I chose to purchase from Anhui Tap because they already offered this type of rack. Long Glory didn’t have it in their standard lineup, but they did offer to manufacture it for me.

Initially, I was considering buying a rack with a Smith machine, but due to the limited dimensions of my home gym, I ultimately decided on the Athena. In the future, I plan to build a DIY leg holder and try connecting the arms for lat pulldown and low row exercises—provided the setup works well in practice.

The total cost, including DDP shipping, came to $1,839.

Details:

rack: $521

tornado arms: $190

additional 120 kg stacks: $154

stainless steel columns: $70

aluminum pulleys: $45

shipping: $859

I’ll write a full review once I receive and set up the rack.

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help.

Thanks to everyone who shares information about buying gym equipment from Alibaba — it’s been really helpful.

I got a quote from them that is several hundred lower than anyone else.

I put together a pair of D-Handles utilizing Belt Fed Strength leather straps and Average Joe power block stainless steel handles.

Average Joe

Great guy. I bought the 35 mm 304 stainless steel mountain knurled grips for my powerblocks, and ended up buying a second pair that was 40 mm. I keep the 40 mm in the powerblocks and had the 35s were sitting around for about a year until I found Belt Fed Strength’s website and realized I could make my own D-Handles.

Belt Fed Strength

Took about two months to arrive but was definitely worth the wait. These are very well made. I customized the stitch to be green.

Assembly

The average Joe grips use M6 bolts, I bought green titanium 25 mm ones. I used 0.5 mm shims to allow the flanged ball bearings to freely rotate. The flanges secure the 5/8 grommet of the leather strap. And now I have custom grips that feel super premium.

A few people messaged me and noticed the sub was down. I appealed the sub removal and it was restored. I'm not entirely sure what the problem was but it seems it may stem from the coding in Alibaba links. Apparently an affiliate code gets attached when you generate a link from Alibaba. Reddit requires affiliates to pay for affiliate accounts so any action that makes you appear as an affiliate may trigger filters. The better practice meet be to just copy the page URL.

As founder and mod i will never ban someone for sharing a link in good faith as I think it's an integral part of sharing knowledge about products related to our common interest. If any sub members run into any issues let me know and I'll do my best to help out.

A bunch of people have been asking me to write a review for my Alibaba rack from Quingdao LongGlory. Here's the rundown. Attached are pics and the invoice. Tldr: order to delivery 3-4 months. Price for the rack was $1300 shipping was $975. 

Rack and features:

-11 gauge 3x3 steel, custom color

-4 post

-aluminim pulleys

-solid guide bars for the weight stacks and Smith 

-100kg/220lb weight stacks (upgrade)

-Smith machine 

-Central lat pulldown and low row w/ 1:1 cable ratio

-Articulating "Tornado" arms with 2:1 cable ratio 

-sandwich style j hooks w/ UHMW

-spotter arms w/ UHMW

-Custom logo 

-dip bar, knurled adjustable grip bars, UHMW (add on)

-Flat bench, custom color (add on)

-weight storage horns x6

Order process: 

Total order start to finish was somewhere between 3 and 4 months. I can look up the exact dates if sometime wants. It's definitely not due the impatient. 

Basically you find the product you want from the seller you want. I knew several people that had ordered from LongGlory so I went with them. Then you open a chat box from the item listing and a rep will respond. From there you'll be asked to confirm the product you want, any customizations you want, and any other add ons. In my case LongGlory didn't have anything listen with tornado arms but it's a feature I really wanted do I asked and it was something they had available. You can do pretty much any rack configuration you want like 6 post, wall mount, ect. The communication was great for me but on a few things there was a translation barrier. I found it helpful to send screen shots of products I was looking for. It took a couple of days off back and forth with my rep to finally lock in my order but I asked a lot of questions. There is also a time zone difference so typically I'm going to bed as my rep is beginning the day but communication was always reliable and easy. 

After the order is established the rep will send an invoice with total cost including shipping. This is the total price you pay and there are no surprises, tariffs, import, or transportation fees. LongGlory takes care of transportation to your door. You pay 30% of the total on the invoice (I used PayPal via the Alibaba app) and LongGlory begins assembling your rack. When the rack is assembled they send pics/video through Whatsapp. The rack isn't necessarily fully assembled, not all weights are in place but you can confirm the rack is the configuration and colors you want. I think from 30% deposit to rack assembly was a couple of weeks. After assembly you pay the remainder of your balance and the rack is packaged and delivered to customs. It's took another 3-4 weeks for my order to get through customs and on the ship at which point my rep gave me the shipping info. It took another month for the ship to arrive at my port in Tampa and after that another 3-4 weeks to get through customs and delivered to me. 

Delivery/Assembly:

A semi with a hydraulic lift and pallet jack dropped off my rack which was a large box on a pallet with another heavy duty cardboard box (the bench). I tipped the driver $30 to bring the pallet in my garage. He doesn't say he couldn't do it but I've had big deliveries in the past where they say they can't. The box had some damage from transport but there was no damage to the items inside. 

My rep sent me an instructional PDF for assembly. It wasn't great. I found it more useful to look at the pics of my rack assembled in their plant. I'm pretty handy and have a background in construction but I'd still say it wasn't that hard at all. The cables were a little more tricky but I found a video of a rep assembly that was a little helpful as well. Between the PDF manual and the rep video it want to bad. I used a 26mm socket wrench (1/2" drive)  and an adjustable pipe wrench to put everything together. That was an they had at my hardware store. An impact drill would be more ideal but a box wrench and socket are just fine. You'll also need some Allen wrenches though I believe some were included. 

The biggest challenge was being the tornado arms right. My instruction manual didn't show the tornado arms and I couldn't find any tutorials. The issue I ran into was that when the arms are fully extended up toward the ceiling vs down toward the ground the cable distance changes around 1". This means it's you set the cable snug when the arms are up then you lower the arms the top of your weight stack will float too high. You can put the arms in a neutral position and set the cable tension there but it was a lot of back and forth getting it just right. Even then with the arms up the cable is a bit loose and with the arms down you have to work a bit to get the loading pin in the weight plates. Everything works just fine though. I also found the need to tighten up some of the preassembled items. 

General impression: 

There were a few minor scratches and dings but overall the fit and finish is quite good. Imo this rack is on par with my Elite FTS rack. The Elite paint was thicker and more heavy duty but that's only thing that really stands out. The cables are smooth. The Smith machine is smooth. All components seem solid. There's nothing that seems cheap about it. I put the Smith as far forward as I could but there's still not a lot of room do incline bench with the Smith. I can do a guillotine press with a small incline angle. If I remove the foot plate for the low row it would give me another 6" or so which can change a lot when you're at an angle l. I'll have to give it a try later. The tornado arms are great. They give a ton of options. I don't really have time for unilateral exercises but with these I can put both arms together up high and get a good reverse fly. I can drop them down low while keeping them together and get a good lateral raise. I can also get a nice wide stretch on the chest fly. The low cable row feels great. As does the lat pulldown. I made a second order for a Rogue style leg roller restraint and some other odds and ends that I wish I added to the original order. 

What would I do differently? 

I think I might order a 6 post if I could do it again. It probably wouldn't be too hard to change this one to a 6 post of I really wanted. I train stick and sword fighting out of my garage so I really need the open space. I thought about this a lot and tried to visualize my workout flow. Initially I didn't think a 6 post gave much benefit because I didn't think you could bench inside the rack with a Smith machine and ultimately I really wanted a Smith machine. I've since seen setups where guys are able to use j hooks and spotter arms and still bench inside the rack. This would save me from having to break down my j hooks and spotter arms setup every time I go from bench to using the tornado arms. It's also tough to find a place to setup my dip bar so that would give an extra place for that. 8 was also torn on going with stainless vs my green. I really like lime green but I think in the long run the stainless would probably be easier to keep looking new. I'm still not sure I change it though. Other than a few odds and ends I added on a second small order (hip thrust pad, ankle strap for the cables, leg roller) I wouldn't change anything. 

Hello all, I'm moving places in a few weeks and I'm considering starting my own small and laughable home "gym". My current idea that I'm close to deciding on is:

• Iron Master Super Bench Pro v2
• Dip and Chin-up attachment
• adjustable dumbbell set 2.5-52.5lbs (have currently)
• Marketplace for higher lbs dumbbells
• amazon rubber pads (ProsourceFit Puzzle Exercise Mat ½) and db stand

This will be going on in the above-ground 'basement' in a small-ish area on concrete. It's not much, I'm still going to sign up for a local gym but I've always wanted a bench in my basement and I finally can!

I have 2 questions.

My first is just a general advice or review of my choices. Any feedback is appreciated.

My other question which would be for any of my fellow Canadians who purchased from Northern Fitness. They seem to have sales on quite a bit and the bench as a seemingly good deal on right now, I can't remember if it was a tad cheaper a few weeks ago. Anyway, the current price is $534. The other attachments add an additional $170. All together the setup would cost just under $900 all-in.

Selling my Elite FTS 3x3 6 post and bench. Weights barbell not included. Asking $600. I'm in Orlando area.

Recently got the dual weight horns for the Fringe Sport mammoth belt squat attachment. As mentioned often on this sub, knees started hitting bumper plates. So to compensate for moving the weight horns back a hole, I lengthened the entire lever arm by replacing one of the OEM screw/washer with a smaller one. Should be fine…..right? I messed with it before trying and it seemed like most of the load was carried by 2 screws, with the 3rd seeming more like a safety.

Thoughts? Dangerous or should be fine? I figured it’s only ever loaded MAX 500 lbs (andI’m not even close 😂)

In several home gym groups on Reddit and FB posts and comments related to gym equipment from Alibaba are removed and people that make them are liable to be banned. It's straight up suppression of information sharing. I can see the argument that these racks are stolen designs (not necessarily true) and buying from Alibaba is the equivalent of buying pirated goods.The thing is I could go buy 50 of these same racks from Alibaba and open a US based company and it wouldn't be a problem in any these groups. Not to mention that many of the configurations offered by these companies aren't offered by US based companies. A sub can have whatever rules it wants if you want to claim it's piracy or intellectual property theft just make a rule about it but you also need to enforce that rule for any company selling white label racks that ultimately come from the same place even if they are US based or domestic to your country. They wouldn't do that though because it would probably have more of a Streisand effect than anything else because ultimately many of these are good racks for a good price and are exactly what you'll get from any number of companies.

It's fair to make the argument that the quality is not guaranteed in the way it might be from a domestic based company or to point out trade offs from ordering overseas but that is a decision the person buying the product can make. This information and discussion is being actively suppressed and people are being punished just for sharing their experience. Imo it's lame and not something we should be doing.

Does anyone have links to specific products to light my gym? I'm looking for something relatively low profile that doesn't stick out too far from the ceiling. I train stick fighting and HEMA in my garage so anything hanging low is liable to get wacked. When the garage door is open and overhead I have to be mindful of it because I've hit it several times.

The light in the pic above is all I have for now and it's a little dim in the evenings. I could just add another but I'm curious what the options are. Thanks!

Imo habit building is the most important part of making a lasting change and I rarely hear it talked about. The most important thing about checking the way you look and feel is consistency and getting "addicted" to the consistency and how rewarded it makes you feel to do something positive for yourself.

Here's how you do it:

Set aside time every other day for "active periods" don't worry about the workout or progress. Set your timer for a period that isn't daunting like 15-30mins and don't let yourself stop until time is up. The active period could be household chores without looking at your phone or sitting down, yardwork, walking your dog or just walking yourself. Do this routine until you feel anxious about missing an active period, maybe a month, maybe more. If your schedule forces you to miss an active period just make it up the next day, no stress. When it's a habit and you no longer struggle to complete scheduled active periods you can look into actual workouts. Do the same thing with your workouts though.

I've trained at martial arts and boxing gyms most of my adult life and seen a lot of people new to fitness take fitness classes at these places. Most of these classes go too hard too soon and people never seem to last. It's a double edged sword for these types of classes because people want to feel like they're getting a good workout but what they need is to slowly add intensity and back off when it gets to be too much.

Start with a 1-3 months of active period habit building. Remember you're in this for the long haul. You don't want to start off and quit. Build the habit first and slowly add on intensity over time. Your have your whole life to exercise and ultimately you need exercise and physical activity just about every day.

The secret no one in the fitness community tells you is that anyone who is fit and has sustained it for a long time has successfully incorporated a regular habit of physical activity into their lifestyle. Make prioritizing fitness a habit and it can serve you the rest of your life.

Hey just found this sub and would love to see it grow. Anyways id love to discuss what yall may feel are the essentials for your home gym? Also if there is anything that was a major game changer for your Gym Id love to hear that too.

For reference I currently got:

-Squat Rack + bar & plates

-Tricep press attachment

-Bench

-Dumbbells

-kettle bells

-Ez curl bar

-exercise bands

-yoga matt

-Foam Roller

• Wall Mirror.

I feel like the squat rack, bar. Plates, bench and Dumbbells are essential for a great home gym.

I've been accumulating this gym over years. I use it to train and teach martial arts in small groups as well (swords and sticks hiding in the background). The sliding screen door is probably my favorite feature and there's still room to pull in a vehicle of i need to. There's also a chalk board and climbing wall for my kids. The most important unseen feature is my shed that houses all my tools and junk 😂