Top 7 Best Pieces of Bodybuilding Training Equipment for Home Gyms
Posted by muscled1 on 15th December 2007
From Hugo Rivera,
Your Guide to Bodybuilding.
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If you are a highly motivated bodybuilder then you can get awesome results from bodybuilding training at a home gym. The benefits of doing so are that you have no crowds, it takes no time to get to the gym, you can wear whatever you want, train anytime and listen to any music you like.
Now the question becomes: What equipment is necessary for a good home gym? Listed below, with #1 being the most important, are the pieces that you will need in order to be a successful home gym bodybuilder.
1. Adjustable Dumbbells
Adjustable dumbbells are the most important piece of equipment for your home gym. Dumbbells are versatile and allow for a wide range of exercises to be performed. In addition, exercises performed with dumbbells produce the greatest results as the body has to use an impressive amount of muscle fibers just to stabilize them. My favorite sets are the PowerBlocks and the IronMaster Quick-Lock Dumbbells as these save space and are easily adjustable.
2. Olympic Barbell Set
An Olympic Barbell set would be the second piece of equipment that I would get for a home gym. With a barbell you can perform some pretty heavy exercises in addition to adding variety to your workout routines.
3. Adjustable Bench With Leg Extension/Leg Curl Attachment
An adjustable bench in essential for long term home gym training. While barbells and dumbbells will get you far, the adjustable bench now gives you the ability to do incline bench presses, seated dumbbell shoulder presses, incline curls, leg extensions, leg curls, and a whole range of other free weight exercises. Also, if you get one with a pulldown bar attachment you can pretty much do almost every exercise there is available.
4. Adjustable Squat Rack with Chin-Up Bar
As you get more advanced, dumbbell squats will no longer cut it as you’ll be too strong for your set of dumbbells. This is the time to add a squat rack to your arsenal. With an adjustable squat rack you can perform some pretty heavy exercises as you can self spot yourself by adjusting the safety bars on the side to a height that will catch the bar and protect you should you fail to be able to lift it. Also with the chin-up bar you can start working on getting an even bigger back.
5. Dip Station
For a massive chest and powerful triceps, the dip station is king. Once you get to the advanced level, this piece of equipment has to become a permanent fixture in your home gym.
6. Standing Calf Raise Machine
For a while you’ll be able to get away with one legged dumbbell calf raises and barbell calf raises on the squat rack. However, in order to get enormous calves, a standing calf raise machine is really useful. Mine is loaded with free weights so I always have 1000 lbs on it. Because of the calf block on the machine, I can get a full stretch and a full contraction, which are absolutely necessary for complete calf development.
7. Miscellaneous Items
While the items mentioned above are the most essential, you can also buy other smaller items in order to add variety into your workouts. For instance, you can buy a single handle for your lat pulley so that you can do one-arm cable crossovers, high pulley rows and cable biceps curls. You can also get an e-z bar to work arms with a more comfortable grip. Also an exercise ball is the best abdominal piece of equipment that you can get so I would make that part of my home gym from the get go.
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