I want to get myself a nice home gym. I found a kick ass Marcy cage with a nice bench for $799.00. it comes with 300 lbs of weights. This machine looks like it does everyhting i will need to bulk up a little, and looks like it will hit everything i need muscle wise. What else is out there? Is Marcy any good quality wise? I am looking to spend around $800. Also does anyone else have a link where I can find good deals on equipment? I decided to give up on the Ti Force full system and get a nice home gym. Thanks alot for the help guys http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif

If you are looking high end I would consider Tuffstuff (tuffstuff.net), parabody or paramount as far as brands go. The CFM555 from tuffstuff was just rated a consumer digest best buy. The retail is $1095 but you can easily get it for $900-$950 if you shop the retailer. It has the high/low pulley, leg ext/curl, adjustable press bar that will do a flat, incline, shoulder press and a seated row. If you are looking for something like a power rack or a cage as you mentioned I would go with the Tuffstuff TPR265. Retail is $495 and an incline/decline bench will run you about $300. You can later outfit the cage with a high low pulley system with a weight stack for $500. As far as your free weights are concerned I wouldnt skimp on this part. Youre going to have this stuff for the rest of your life potentially. A 600lb capacity bar sounds great and everything and is what I went with for the first bar I owned. Over the course of about 4 years the bar has bent very very slightly. If you can get something wth a 1000-1500lbs capacity go for that. Expect to pay about $90-$150 for a decent bar though. The plate weight is all overseas now but I would stay away from Cap. They suck ass and the weights are always off. American made weights are few and faw between and usuallystart at $.89/lbs. If you ever want dumbells and want to save some room and money look into a company called intellbell. They make what they call the powerblock. Its an adjustable dumbell that can adjust anywhere from 5-125lbs per handle in 2.5lbs increments. A set that is 5-45 in 5lbs increments will run you about $190-$200. If you have any questions send me a pm

Why work out at home? I really don't think you'll be able to get the same quality workout that you would get if you had access to all of the equipment and weights at a gym. Not to mention the opportunity to meet people that are interested in health as just as much as you. I tend to push myself harder when I'm at the gym because of all the guys around that are bigger and lift more weight. If you're going to spend close to 1000.00 on a home gym you may as well just join a gym. You can get a full years membership for around 300.00 plus you have access to 10 times the weights and equipment and some clubs have pools, trainers, and etc.

Just my 0.02. Sorry if it wasn't what you were looking for.

You have some good points that the gym is going to have more equipment and hopefully the equipment will be better than what most people are willing to pay for thier homes. Also the social environment is helpful and I can totally agree with you that I pushed myself harder when some hot ass blonde was looking on or my buddies were around. However, considering that you are sharing every piece of equipment in the place with all the other members you are bound to have to share, work in or skip that machine quite a bit. For me this was why I left the gym. Now I have a squat rack, bench, db set, high/low pulley and I can do every single exercise I was doing in the gym at home. I can time myself between sets without having to worry about people jumping in. I found that this was much easier to monitor progress because all the rests inbetween sets are the same. To each his own I suppose.

I see your point. It really depends on what your goals are I guess. I think to get huge I would have to be in a gym surrounded by big mofo's all of the time but if I already was happy where I was and I could workout at home and maintain my size I would go for it.

Well, we have an awesome gym on base. It has an indoor pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, sauna, tons of machines and lota of free weights. It is free, but the only problem is the hours that I work dont always coincide with theirs. The gym is usually closed alot this time of the year because of the friggin snow, and usually closed on holidays and such. I just figured if I had a nice home gym, I could do most of my regiment in the comfort of my own home. It is agrivating getting stoked about a good workout only to find the damn gym is closed yet again http://www.gixxer.com/forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

That really sucks man. Good luck with whatever way you decide to go.

i owrek out at home because i cant stand people...i get distracted vey easy and i would rather focus on my workoput instead of lookign at the ladys ass acroiss the room....