Hi all, a twist to the garage gym scenario. Currently live in a UK small house with a yard and I do basic barbell workouts. I don’t use much equipment at the gym and 50% of the workout time I’m either traveling to and from or waiting for kit.
The kitchen has wood floors and I was wondering if anyone has had success with a bare bones set up: barbell, plates and rubber matting? I’ll be getting it out each time. Already got kbs, chin up bar and bands.
Wait a sec, are you training in your kitchen or your yard?
Get rubber mats meant for horse stalls. They’re cheap and tough enough to stop 22 rounds.
And heavy enough that packing them around is a workout in itself 
Kitchen in bad weather, yard in good. The yard is quite sheltered so it’s doable, as much as an outdoor workout in northern England can be.
Going to move in a year, just don’t know if I’m purchasing now with heart or head
His kitchen. His yard is where he cooks. Try to keep up…
I know I’m not helping here with my vagueness or ambivalence. I know that a good garage gym would be ideal, however due to space this is gonna be bare bones. My main question is about whether dragging kit in and out of rooms works, and what have others learnt from having done this?
Bonus question, what’s a decent <200£ barbell in the UK for general use. Will be used for cleans, deads, and presses? Most of the budget barbells reviewed aren’t available here.
So wait, you just wanna know if it works out to move equipement between rooms based on the weather?
If you’re wondering if you can get big and strong with the somewhat limited equipment you have, then yes, you absoulutely can.
Do you see yourself doing that 4 days a week or what ever is required? Or having a specific use space (kitchen) all dicked up with mats, barbell, etc.?
That’s the biggest determinant.
I would get plate loaded dumbbells. Indoors or outside.
It’s a year.
Presses
Rows
DL
Squats
Cleans
Clean and press
Curls.
Compound or isolation.
Add some bands around a door pull up bar.
Your imagination is your limitation. Add some body weight stuff.
I think you can get plenty strong. Unless your squatting, benching, or DL really big weights,so that DB work is impractical.
Spend your time training, not hauling stuff and setting up. When a more conducive situation arises go to the barbell, but keep the DBs.
Of course you can get strong but it’s whether you can be bothered with having to shift weights around rooms. Most folks can’t get shit done when this hurdle isn’t there. That is going to give you another excuse when you don’t want to train
Also, cleans in the kitchen? Not sure about that one. And if you have steel plates without a flat edge you need to start thinking about damage to the floor.
Do you have craigslist in the UK? Or Facebook marketplace? If you’re willing to be patient you can always find weights for very close to free. That’s how I got 90% of my home gym.
Guys quit lifting or kids move out of their parents house and they just want it out of their basement. Independent gyms sell their old stuff when they replace equipment or (more often) go bankrupt.
Never buy new weights unless you need calibrated stuff to compete imho. With a decent scale and a borrowed dremel and welder you could “calibrate” your own plates if you so desired. If you’re patient that £200 will go pretty far.
Just checked Craigslist for the local area and all it sells is… People! Escorts etc.
I think FB marketplace might be the answer.
It’s this sort of thing I’m working out. Btw what I mean by kitchen is joined kitchen diner with some open space. Any cleans would involve matting and bumpers. But even then?
The current gym I’m in, which is right near work, you have to take part in a daily hunt and gather of plates which is worse than moving them about the house. Big gym, very few plates but scattered everywhere. Recently I found barbell in a rack with 2*20kg on one side, nothing on the other! It was teetering like a trap.
If you had your own kit and didn’t want to put it in storage and didn’t want to pay for stuff that is just doing the job of stuff you already own then I’d get this but why not go to a better gym?
Even if you go to your current gym, surely hunting plates is a far better option than having to move weights into and out of rooms each time you need to train. Also rubber mats are a pain, they stink for a long time and are heavy as fuck. I guess you could get the tiles but you risk marking your floor.
Cleans from the hang position, are fine with iron plates
What is this thread.
Have you considered lifting weights in the bathroom? A bath mat should provide enough padding for the floor…
Casseroles and cleans. Showers and strict ohps doesn’t have the same ring.
I know its close to ridiculous, the idea started to germinate when I saw a you tube clip of someone making a platform for CrossFit in their apartment. It looked like a cupboard but folded down neatly.
How about squeaky clean and power cleans?
Conditioners and conditioning?
You could box squat using the toilet…and when you finish your 20 rep set, turn around and puke right in the toilet.
Heck, there’s already a mirror in the bathroom, that’s one step towards a gym right there. Turn on the hot water in the shower and you could turn it into a steam room.
More and more the bathroom seems to be the superior option.