Aussie Gym Equipment

This question is for all Aussie T-Nation members out there.

I am going to set up a home gym and need your help in deciding what to buy for it based on your own experiences in buying equipment.

Unfortunately my budget is limited so I can’t afford to go overboard on costs.

If anyone has recommendations on the following equipment items could you please let me know what brand and price you paid? Also, where did you buy it?

I am in Sydney and I would obviously prefer to purchase locally, but I am prepared to look further afield if necessary.

The items are:

  1. Olympic barbell with revolving ends.

  2. Olympic sized weight plates.

  3. Bumper plates for O-lifts.

  4. FID Bench (with good weight capacity of at least 250kg, nothing flimsy!)

  5. Rubber matting for building an O-lift platform (or something equivalent like horse-stall mats).

  6. Due to space limitations I can’t buy a normal power rack and am looking at getting a more compact rack or squat stands made up by a local metalworking/welding business. Has anyone had anything like this made before, any business you can recommend?

  7. Following on from No. 6, has anyone built their own cable pulley system for pulldowns/cable rows to attach to a rack? Where did you purchase the cable and pulleys from?

That’s all I can thin of at the moment. Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Cheers,

Ben

seeing how you have space limitations heres an idea. you could maybe get a power rack and then have your bench go inside of it? that way you dont need extra room for both a rack and a bench.

[quote]catch2otwo wrote:
seeing how you have space limitations heres an idea. you could maybe get a power rack and then have your bench go inside of it? that way you dont need extra room for both a rack and a bench. [/quote]

Thanks for the reply, however I was not intending on getting a separate bench with the attached rack, just a portable “dumbell” bench which can adjust into an incline or decline. This bench would then be placed inside the rack for doing bench press.

My actual space problem is fitting in a normal power rack in the garage when the cars are parked in there. I have seen old style racks which aren’t as deep as modern racks, and this is what I was thinking of getting custom made. The bench can be stored against the wall when not being used.

Cheers,

Ben

get in touch with nsw weightlifting in burwood, its where the national weightlifting coach is based and he has the best connections when it comes to bumper plates, he also sells some second hand so should be the cheapest you can get.

I buy my stuff from http://www.lifefitness.com/

They have an outlet in brisbane so I’m sure they’ll have one in NSW as well.

Other than that, when a gym closes down or gets new equipment, they often auction off their old stuff. You can pick up some great deals at these things.

The Australian Barbell Company sells alot of great stuff. You should be able to get everything you need. They are based in Melbourne and have several different Olympic Barbells available to suit your budget.

Cain

[quote]mythwalker wrote:
get in touch with nsw weightlifting in burwood, its where the national weightlifting coach is based and he has the best connections when it comes to bumper plates, he also sells some second hand so should be the cheapest you can get.[/quote]

Great idea! I’ll give them a call.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Bump…

Does anyone actually have any brand recommendations, especially for the Olympic bar and the bench?

not that this will offer much help but…

i had the same space problem but decided that my fitness was more important than my car :smiley:

my car lives outside while my half of the garage (the wife still parks in there) is my gym.

i got a big bit of heavy duty carpet from bunnings. mirror across the wall from pilkington. a power rack, fid bench, wieght tree, bar and wieghts from crazycheapfitness in victoria. they were very cheap and great quality stuff.
the power rack has a plate loaded lat pulldown and low pully row attachment.
also dipping handles and a chin up bar on the power rack. the power rack was $600, lat attachment $200.
but no more gym fees and there’s not much i cant do with it

also got an exercise bike, skipping rope, mini trampoline and fit ball that my wife and I use.

love my gym! best of luck!

[quote]badboybody wrote:
not that this will offer much help but…

i had the same space problem but decided that my fitness was more important than my car :smiley:

my car lives outside while my half of the garage (the wife still parks in there) is my gym.

i got a big bit of heavy duty carpet from bunnings. mirror across the wall from pilkington. a power rack, fid bench, wieght tree, bar and wieghts from crazycheapfitness in victoria. they were very cheap and great quality stuff.
the power rack has a plate loaded lat pulldown and low pully row attachment.
also dipping handles and a chin up bar on the power rack. the power rack was $600, lat attachment $200.
but no more gym fees and there’s not much i cant do with it

also got an exercise bike, skipping rope, mini trampoline and fit ball that my wife and I use.

love my gym! best of luck![/quote]

This is exactly what I would do if I didn’t live in a townhouse complex. Unfortunately I have to park the car in the garage as there is no space outside.

This is why I need a custom made rack, something that is either less deep than a normal rack, or something modular that could be put together quickly, which would be a bit of a pain, but would allow for stuff to be stored against the wall.

I’ve looked at crazycheapfitness but I was always worried that the equipment might be a bit dodgy (Anything with “crazycheap” in the name usually is, lol!), it’s good to hear a positive endorsement of it so I might have another look. How much weight (including your bodyweight) are you using on the bench?

Cheers,

Ben

what sort of bar you get will depend on what your using it for, for the O lifts a nice spring snappy bar is wanted such as Ivanko, Uesaka, Eleiko ect (a good one is quite pricy) where as more powerlifting training wants a stiffer bar,
O-lifts also want quite a good spin on the collars too, but realisticly any bar in good nick should be ok unless you get specific in your training. platform wise just go for the DIY option.

squat racks might be an option as they can just be placed in a corner when not in use but a power rack is much more versitile

[quote]bg100 wrote:
I’ve looked at crazycheapfitness but I was always worried that the equipment might be a bit dodgy (Anything with “crazycheap” in the name usually is, lol!), it’s good to hear a positive endorsement of it so I might have another look. How much weight (including your bodyweight) are you using on the bench?

Cheers,

Ben
[/quote]

i can only speak for the power rack and bench from crazycheap.
It is good stuff and seeems more solid than some of the more expensive set-ups ive seen in other shops.
The bench and rack seem to me to be of similar quality to what you would find in a gym. It all seems good and solid to me, but i’m no steel specialist.

[quote]mythwalker wrote:
what sort of bar you get will depend on what your using it for, for the O lifts a nice spring snappy bar is wanted such as Ivanko, Uesaka, Eleiko ect (a good one is quite pricy) where as more powerlifting training wants a stiffer bar,
O-lifts also want quite a good spin on the collars too, but realisticly any bar in good nick should be ok unless you get specific in your training. platform wise just go for the DIY option.

squat racks might be an option as they can just be placed in a corner when not in use but a power rack is much more versitile[/quote]

I need an O-lift bar. I was thinking of the York bar, which I have found at a store for $180, as it is quite reasonable in price and for the pathetic amount of weight that I do in O-lifts any inferior quality of the bar compared to say an Eleiko bar probably won’t matter. I can understand that at heavy weights the bar does make a difference.

[quote]badboybody wrote:
bg100 wrote:
I’ve looked at crazycheapfitness but I was always worried that the equipment might be a bit dodgy (Anything with “crazycheap” in the name usually is, lol!), it’s good to hear a positive endorsement of it so I might have another look. How much weight (including your bodyweight) are you using on the
bench?

Cheers,

Ben

i can only speak for the power rack and bench from crazycheap.
It is good stuff and seeems more solid than some of the more expensive set-ups ive seen in other shops.
The bench and rack seem to me to be of similar quality to what you would find in a gym. It all seems good and solid to me, but i’m no steel specialist. [/quote]

I’ve bought plates from crazycheap and purchased a multi-gym for my parents (rarely used of course but when I assembled it the design was simple and solid, not like some of the other crappy overpriced stuff that is around).

I got nothing but good things to say about crazycheap. The dude who runs it is a good bloke too.

It is more expensive to go the olympic plates/bar route however might be worthwhile in the end.

Remember that anything you buy is with you for life, and your kids’ life, and on and on for a bloody long time.

I cannot recommend highly enough a powerrack, you should be basing your plan around that. A powerrack and a bench that inclines/declines.

I have seen some pretty good deals on ebay for these things, check it out.

Pulley systems, you can get components from maritime stores (ships rigging) or probably more convenient, from rock climbing stores - they have all sorts of pulleys etc… and cords of incredible strength, just make sure you tie the knots right.

As for mats i “borrowed” mine from the nets of the local cricket club its a good thickness and is easily long and wide enough for lifting.

[quote]cain wrote:
The Australian Barbell Company sells alot of great stuff. You should be able to get everything you need. They are based in Melbourne and have several different Olympic Barbells available to suit your budget.

Cain[/quote]

I 2nd that but they won’t sell to you direct. You’ll have to contact a distributor like the life fitness guys.

I also recommend getting everything nice as you’ll have it for the next 20 years. I have all olympic equipment and rubber disks with grips. I wouldn’t worry about a snappy bar unless you’re getting a lifting platform installed and are very serious about the olympic lifts.

I just bought the cheap chinese bars. They’re fine for most things.

And that guy who stole his mat from the local cricket club, you’re a prick mate! Think of all the kids who you stopped from playing cricket whilst they had to replace the matt you flogged. Nice one.

I have a pretty well equiped gym in my garage.I have about 600kgs of Olympic plates,2 Olympic bars,400kg of regular plates,7 bars,20 sets of DB’s from 5lb to 100lb,squat rack,bench press,chin bar,dip bars,hyper bench,flat bench,stack of Ironmind gripping implements,wall to wall rubber mats.

I use the Australian BB company bars and plates,rubber coated,I buy direct from them in Braeside.

I leave my Nissan GTR and Nissan Silvia S15 outside.

if your on a tight budjet i have one word for you mate, EBAY !

your in sydney so you’ll probably be able to pick up most of the stuff so no shipping charge. you should be able to get a power cage + incline/decline bench + olmypic barbell + 140kg olympic weights, all brand new for under 1k.

i am getting this stuff off ebay for my own home gym and am almost at that budjet myself and i live in perth !!

Was digging around T-Nation and found this link

Good site. Videos etc… and some links. Also had the link to australian barbell co

Which I was looking for before.

Enjoy!