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Any Ideas?

hawkeye

hawkeye

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Sep 19, 2011
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I've been looking at setting up a garage gym. Sometimes it's hard to get into the gym after 12-16 hour days. Was wondering if you guys have any ideas where to pick up dumbbells and free weights at a decent price. I'm assuming stuff is still pretty inflated due to COVID. The place I used to get my weights from in Jesup, Iowa is no closed. So, just wondering if any of you guys had any ideas.
 
ValeTudo8080

ValeTudo8080

VIP Member
Aug 31, 2011
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Yes i have heard of Jesup Gym...they sold Body Solid and other brands.

the shipping is now 5 times the cost of what it used to be but there are still deals out there if you look around...Rogue has them at $1 per pound now but nothing over 50 lbs in stock
 
DieYoungStrong

DieYoungStrong

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May 27, 2013
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Search craigslist and look for gyms going out of business. Happens all the time.

I got like $3500 worth of stuff for $1000 doing this to get my garage space going, and then slowly added some stuff from there. But I also set my garage gym up about 6 years ago now. The vid has sent the price and availability of home gym equipment skyrocketing.
 
hawkeye

hawkeye

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Sep 19, 2011
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Search craigslist and look for gyms going out of business. Happens all the time.

I got like $3500 worth of stuff for $1000 doing this to get my garage space going, and then slowly added some stuff from there. But I also set my garage gym up about 6 years ago now. The vid has sent the price and availability of home gym equipment skyrocketing.

Agreed. It's crazy how much free weight has skyrocketed.
 
R

rawdeal

TID Board Of Directors
Nov 29, 2013
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I didn't bother price-shopping too much back in 2020, so this'll be a little ot, but ............

You might wanna spend some time on youtube at the same time you shop around. Lot of self-professed Consumer Reports types there do vids comparing Racks, Benches, Bars ... you name it. Just about anything you might consider for a garage (or any other place in the home) gym has been reviewed and compared with competing companies.

While you're thinking about Iron, you'll probably want to think about flooring too. Some of the gym equipment companies sell this, but check out the places that sell stable mats too. You don't need to cover the whole floor, but the areas where a loaded barbell or dropped dumbells are gonna land pretty much need some cushioning.

If you're not doing OL or OL style assistance exercises ... and if you can resist the appeal of just throwing weights around for the fuck of it ... get cast iron plates instead of bumpers to save money. In some cases some bars or other equipment have limited sleeve length, and bumpers are thicker than cast iron of the same weight.

If you order online rather than acquiring locally, DO factor in shipping costs. If 2 different online places list similar stuff, similar quality, for similar prices, the company within 300 miles will cost a lot less than the company 3000 miles away. Ideally a place you could drive to yourself, but that's not always possible.

Lastly, if ordering online be a little wary of things indicated as "back ordered." Sometimes they will ship when the website says they will ship, and sometimes they go way past the "eta."

Rogue offers great variety and quality for "ouch!" prices (though a few places are pricier), BUT Rogue's website may be the best place to feel your way around the online market if you can't find what you want locally. They have charts showing the diameter and thickness of each weight plate they sell, if you dummy up a purchase in the shopping cart there is a calculator that tells you what your S&H would be ... it's an education even if you wind up going with someone else.
 
monsoon

monsoon

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Nov 1, 2010
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I set up my home gym in 2004ish so I can’t really help. My best advice would be to look for packages even if you don’t need some of the stuff because you can sell that off to defray your costs. Craigslist and facebook don’t have good deals anymore. It’s mostly businesses and scammers now. Beware of cheap Amazon equipmen. You will regret it. I think the best kept secret now is garage sales. With all the house sales and movin, people just want to get rid of stuff.
 
DieYoungStrong

DieYoungStrong

VIP Member
May 27, 2013
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To add to what the others are saying on the deals - I ponied up and paid for my rogue rack, texas power bar, duffalo bar, texas deadlift bad and Elite yoke bar. Also have a rogue reverse hyper - which is a great home gym piece of equipment because you can do a bunch of stuff with it besides rev hypers. But I bought this stuff piece mail (or however you actually spell it) over a couple of years, and was also still competing on the platform when I put my gym together. Where I'm at with training now I wouldn't use or really need half my stuff if I didn't have it. But I have it so I use it.

I got the deal on plates, bands, chains, DB's, some KBs and all the little accessories you need. A huge crossfit type of gym was closing about an hour from my house. The put a post on facebook that you could show up and make a cash deal on the spot for whatever you could put in your vehicle. I flew down there and gave him a grand a absolutely loaded my truck with shit. It was huge score.

I built my own deadlift platform and platform for under my rack. Got my mats at a tractor and farm supply house.

I just added a nice plate loaded Hi/Low pulldown/row machine, and my space is pretty much full now.
 
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MR. BMJ

MR. BMJ

Senior Moderators
Staff Member
Sep 21, 2011
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You can get dumbells from Walmart at $1/# or just above. Everywhere else is going to charge like $1.5/# and upward. Hopefully the WM's in your area are priced the same. I got my dumbells from there up to 40#...they may have 45# and 50#.

I got my 50/80/95# dumbells from a guy in my area selling stuff when covid started. I bought my 45# plates (and 25's) from hjim as well. He was charging like 1.8/# at the time.

I got my adjustable bench, barbell, and a leg curl/extension machine from the company Xmark. You can find them on Amazon or go to their site.

I'm not sure where prices from other places are right now the last many months.....so....
 
JackD

JackD

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Staff Member
Sep 16, 2010
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see if anyone posts anything on the next door app. Otherwise everything is so inflated you might want to wait.
I would have given you my Power block dumbbells when I moved a few months ago.
 
HDH

HDH

TID Board Of Directors
Sep 30, 2011
3,386
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You can get dumbells from Walmart at $1/# or just above. Everywhere else is going to charge like $1.5/# and upward. Hopefully the WM's in your area are priced the same. I got my dumbells from there up to 40#...they may have 45# and 50#.

I got my 50/80/95# dumbells from a guy in my area selling stuff when covid started. I bought my 45# plates (and 25's) from hjim as well. He was charging like 1.8/# at the time.

I got my adjustable bench, barbell, and a leg curl/extension machine from the company Xmark. You can find them on Amazon or go to their site.

I'm not sure where prices from other places are right now the last many months.....so....
The walmarts in my area are usually low to no stock. It may be a good idea to order from the net and have them ship to the store. They sometimes have more stuff available like that too.

It would probably work like that at any store, target, sears, bells, pennys, etc...

Free shipping if nothing else.
 
hawkeye

hawkeye

VIP Member
Sep 19, 2011
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Great answers fellas. There is a place about 4 hours away in Wisconsin (Dynamic Fitness) that isn't horrible. ($650ish) than to have it shipped to my residence ($600)!!! Luckily, I grew up on a farm and my dad has a truck and livestock trailer, and besides the drive, it would be much more feasible to drive there and negate the shipping costs all together. I already have a Body Solid Power Rack that is their heavy duty version that I purchased a long time ago. It's held up tried and true. Along with that, I have Body Solid Incline/Decline bench. Really the only thing I'm missing is the dumbbells and free weights and a bar. I def will be just getting cast iron as I am less about Oly lifts and just want to train. It's a bit of a pipe dream but with the crazy hours I work, I have learned that training at home is the best option for me as I just find it hard to get to the gym. My thinking is, with it being in the garage, even on days I cannot get a full workout in, I can still get work in. Granted, the other side of it is it could be very easy to blow off. Honestly, I've been always fortunate to be motivated and had better lucky training at home than I did than in a gym.
 
BD Cool

BD Cool

VIP Member
Dec 1, 2011
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Search craigslist and look for gyms going out of business. Happens all the time.

I got like $3500 worth of stuff for $1000 doing this to get my garage space going, and then slowly added some stuff from there. But I also set my garage gym up about 6 years ago now. The vid has sent the price and availability of home gym equipment skyrocketing.
This.
Also, check ebay... they often have commercial gym equipment for sale including plates and dumbbells.
 
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