Looking for Equipment in Aus.

Does anyone have an idea where to get some good equipment in Australia? e.g GHR, reverse hyper, power rack.

I can only find the elite and westside stuff which is great, but as I live in Tasmania the shipping will kill me.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated

I’m looking for equipment myself at the moment. Go to my “Buying Weights in Australia” thread in the Better Body forum, there are a few links some guys have given to me. Look for the one in New Zealand which has a GHR.

As for power racks they are quite common with a number of suppliers. Go to the yellow pages website and search for “fitness equipment” around the country, then you will have quite a bit of reading to do comparing prices!

I don’t know how many stores are down in Tassie but I’m sure that a few of the major franchises have stores down your way. I’ve actually found that a lot of the better stores are not in Sydney even though it’s the biggest darn city in the country, so you may be in luck.

Three ideas:

One, forget about the fancy equipment and do workouts structured around what you have. This can take you a very long way, with nothing more sophisticated than a bar and weights.

Two, find a friendly local metal shop and get them to make up some equipment for you. I’m pretty sure you can find plans for a power rack on the web. If you find a really good metalworker, they can probably knock up something like a GHR as well.

Three, improvise. Eg, for strengthening hams & glutes, get a couple of large, high boxes. Put padding on them, and place them sufficiently far apart so that your delicate bits fit in between. You also need a rail or similar to put your ankles under. Put a loaded barbell in front of the boxes, get up on top, lift barbell to behind your traps, lift body plus barbell up to horizontal. Repeat.

Fourth idea: there is a powerlifting association in Tas.
http://www.powerliftingtasmania.homestead.com/

Get in touch with them and see what they suggest.

[quote]sharetrader wrote:
Three ideas:

One, forget about the fancy equipment and do workouts structured around what you have. This can take you a very long way, with nothing more sophisticated than a bar and weights.

Two, find a friendly local metal shop and get them to make up some equipment for you. I’m pretty sure you can find plans for a power rack on the web. If you find a really good metalworker, they can probably knock up something like a GHR as well.

Three, improvise. Eg, for strengthening hams & glutes, get a couple of large, high boxes. Put padding on them, and place them sufficiently far apart so that your delicate bits fit in between. You also need a rail or similar to put your ankles under. Put a loaded barbell in front of the boxes, get up on top, lift barbell to behind your traps, lift body plus barbell up to horizontal. Repeat.[/quote]

sharetrader,

Seems like you know what you are talking bout, have you had experience in setting up your own home gym? I wouldn’t mind if you had a look at the thread I mentioned in my post above to see what I am planning to do, and add any comments you feel might help.

Whereabouts in Oz are you from? I’m in Sydney myself.

bg100, I am in Canberra. I haven’t got a huge amount of fancy gear myself - fairly basic adjustable bench with adjustable squat stands on the end, basic bars and weights, saw horses as safety for heavy squats (got these after I had to bail out of a squat and dropped a loaded barbell on the floor in my son’s room - put a 6 by 4 inch hole in the MDF!). Also have a milk crate for box squats, cheap dumbbell handles with those screw-on ends, a few odds and ends like platforms (got some modular decking at Bunnings). Also now have rubber horse stall mats for a lifting platform (not put into action yet).

I got my weights mostly at Sportsman’s Warehouse. I have only exercise bars (although including a shrug bar from Piedmont Design Associates [the guys who make fractional plates] which cost an arm and a leg). Deadlifts with this are similar in effect to squats, with the advantage you can go heavier and there are no penalties if you fail a rep.

I was in Sportsmans Warehouse recently checking out their Oly bars. They have reasonable ones (York) starting at $169 from memory. They have bronze bushes. These are OK if you aren’t into technique lifts. If you want to go heavy on snatch and C&J (full Oly style) you probably should go for a proper Oly bar with needle roller bearings to save your wrists. However, I wouldn’t recommend that without a goood coach, which means you will be lifting somewhere with the appropriate facilities.

I still have a hankering to get a power rack, but haven’t got round to it. If I do I will certainly be checking out the price to get one made up locally. Although it might not be as fancy, I think you could get a very solid rack for considerably less than the cost of a commercial one.

My strategy - start with the basics, only get fancy if and when you need to. The other thing worth doing is keeping an eye out for when the bigger chains such as Sportsmans Warehouse or Rebel Sport have a sale. You can get a lot of the gear at a considerable discount this way.

What brand of saw horses have you got? I’ve had a bit of a look around and can’t find anything suitable. What was the brand of modular decking at Bunnings?

[quote]sharetrader wrote:
bg100, I am in Canberra. I haven’t got a huge amount of fancy gear myself - fairly basic adjustable bench with adjustable squat stands on the end, basic bars and weights, saw horses as safety for heavy squats (got these after I had to bail out of a squat and dropped a loaded barbell on the floor in my son’s room - put a 6 by 4 inch hole in the MDF!). Also have a milk crate for box squats, cheap dumbbell handles with those screw-on ends, a few odds and ends like platforms (got some modular decking at Bunnings). Also now have rubber horse stall mats for a lifting platform (not put into action yet).

I got my weights mostly at Sportsman’s Warehouse. I have only exercise bars (although including a shrug bar from Piedmont Design Associates [the guys who make fractional plates] which cost an arm and a leg). Deadlifts with this are similar in effect to squats, with the advantage you can go heavier and there are no penalties if you fail a rep.

I was in Sportsmans Warehouse recently checking out their Oly bars. They have reasonable ones (York) starting at $169 from memory. They have bronze bushes. These are OK if you aren’t into technique lifts. If you want to go heavy on snatch and C&J (full Oly style) you probably should go for a proper Oly bar with needle roller bearings to save your wrists. However, I wouldn’t recommend that without a goood coach, which means you will be lifting somewhere with the appropriate facilities.

I still have a hankering to get a power rack, but haven’t got round to it. If I do I will certainly be checking out the price to get one made up locally. Although it might not be as fancy, I think you could get a very solid rack for considerably less than the cost of a commercial one.

My strategy - start with the basics, only get fancy if and when you need to. The other thing worth doing is keeping an eye out for when the bigger chains such as Sportsmans Warehouse or Rebel Sport have a sale. You can get a lot of the gear at a considerable discount this way.[/quote]

Thanks for the info. I’ll start looking !!