Took my body to the limit today

[The Annoyed Man]

That's an idea.  What's it take to build a usable gym in one's garage?

It wasn't terribly expensive.  I bought two Reebok benches at Target.  One is adjustable with brackets for a 6' or 7' bar.  The other is an adjustable bench with no brackets for if you're using dumbells.  Also, I got a Reebok Stayball from Target as well to use as a stability ball, some Pro"something" brand mats that piece together like a puzzle to form a nice 7'x7' or so padded space for doing stuff lying down or for pushups.  Also, I got some thick rubber bands with handles (supposedly rated at 20 lbs each) at a fitness store and you can use more than one together to make it heavier.  I'll use them for some back exercises.  I got solid bars from the fitness store in 6' and 7' straight, as well as a solid curved bar, and a solid skull-crusher type bar from Sports Authority.  I got 2 racks for plates from Target and 10x 25 lbs plates, 14x 10 lbs plates, and then something like 20 each of the 5lbs plates and 2.5 lb plates.  I got a dumbell rack from Target also by Reebok and all of their solid dumbells from 5lbs - 25 lbs (I mainly only use the 25 lb one from the rack, but bought the others for my family to use).  Mainly for dumbells I use adjustable dumbells (also from Target) and then put plates on them.  They're threaded so you just screw the caps on after the plates.  I got 2 sets of those so I can leave them set up in two different weights.  Pretty much everything minus the bars was from Target actually.  They sell bars at Target, but I don't trust them because they're two halves of a bar that fit together and are held together by 2 aluminum pins.  That just seemed like a safety issue.

This setup is good for a lot of stuff, but I can't do much on my legs in the way of weight, so I figure to keep up the leg strength, I'll do as much as I can at home once I transition over, but will probably buy a day pass every other week just for legs so I can use the machines and go heavy.

I think all of the equipment cost about a total of $1,500 or so.  The whole thing maybe took a weekend to put together as the benches and racks all come in pieces and you have to assemble them.

For cardio - I hate treadmills.  I figure if I'm walking, I should go somewhere.  So I mainly use a bicycle or kayak for cardio, and the trainer wants me to get a 100 lb punching bag to add so I'll probably do that this weekend.  I've already given the gym my notice, so I should transition over entirely by the end of this month with the exception of going maybe 2-3 times a month for going heavy on my legs.  Oh, and I'll go walking with an Ipod too.

Also, the Target Reebok stuff has pros and cons.  The pros are that the benches are rated for taking the most weight out of any of the benches I saw in the retail stores with the exception of one at a fitness store that was $1k.  The cons are that they don't adjust to all the way straight up but do everything else.  Also, a con is that the plates come in 25 lbs max, but that's not a big deal since you can just put a bunch on.  I don't know why I really got the 5 lb and 2.5 lbs weights other than I just figured it couldn't hurt to have them on hand.  I got a lot of plates though so I could leave some stuff set up.  Oh, and a nice feature of the plates is that they have handles, which is good if you want to do ab crunches with a plate or two on your chest.  You can hold on to them more easily than standard plates.  Lastly, one last nice feature of the Reebok stuff is that it's all rubber coated around the rims of the dumbells and plates, so no loud sounds when you put them down (good if you want to work out late at night and don't want to wake anybody in the house up).

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

It wasn't terribly expensive. 

I think all of the equipment cost about a total of $1,500 or so. 

I think you and I have different understandings  of "not very expensive".

 

[GigaBuist]

At first I thought I was going to pass-out, then I felt chills, then I started trembling, and then I vomited about 6 times over the course of a minute.  Then 45 seconds later, I felt fine.

If you were feeling fine 45 seconds later, I'd say you haven't hit "the limit" yet.

About 12 years back I was in a locker room for a wrestling weigh in.  I had about 7 or 8% bodyfat at the time and was going from 134lbs to 125lbs.  I did that for a couple of weeks without any real problem.

Then one Friday a buddy is checking my weight on the scale.  I've got my glasses off so I can't read the numbers.  He tells me I have a quarter pound to go.  I slide off the scale and sit on the locker room floor putting my drawers, sweatpants, t-shirt, etc back on.  I didn't even manage to get dressed.

I fell over on my side; didn't really say anything I guess.  Somebody did a "WTF dude?!" and I just said I was tired and needed to take a rest.  Older guys on the team ran like hell out of the room to get Coach.

Coach gets there, probably within 30-60 seconds, and I'm curled up in a ball.  Every major muscle in my body is cramped up.  Knees are at my chest, hands look like bird beaks, and my speech is so slurred I sound like a drunken mongoloid.

Coach has a few guys toss me up on a table and sit me upright, tells somebody else to get some water.  The dude that weighed me earlier pipes up, "No! Throw him on the scale!  I was just f-king with him, he made weight!"  Dick.  We're still friends, BTW.

Anyway, Coach nixes that idea right away.  He's pulling my arms down and spreading my fingers apart and then telling me to hold onto my knees.  Didn't work.  I couldn't keep my hands from turning into bird beaks.  Plus I was pretty incoherent.  He kept asking me how I felt and I kept saying, "I'm just tired.  It's like at the end of a race."  We started getting some water in me, and I had some food I planned to eat after the weigh in handy too.  I shoved 5lbs of food and water, mostly water, down my throat in the next 30 minutes.

If there's a level of exhaustion beyond that, I don't want to go there.  That was scary enough.

[roo_ster]

In my case, getting some large guys to help spot me on the more precarious lifts makes it worth it.

Also, competing with the roid monsters whilst not partaking myslef is amusing.

[El Tejon]

That's an idea.  What's it take to build a usable gym in one's garage?

HTG, I built a gym/kwoon in my basement.  The only expensive stuff I have is a 150lb Everlast heavy bag and my mook jong (built by Geoff Anderson at Decker's furniture on Old Romney Road).  You can get used weights at Play It Again Sports very cheap.  But I have sand jars and phone books and goofy stuff like that.  The celing is high enough that I can jump rope and there is plenty of space for stretching and some forms (well, I can't do my Long Fist stuff, but I can do the Wing Chun stuff and some mantis stuff).

Smigel from TWCA has a very cool set up at his place in Foxwood Estates (by I-65 in that deep ravine).  I work out there every Tuesday and Thursday after yoga.  There is a sublime joy about working out in the garage.  Takes me back to being 14.

[The Annoyed Man]

Also, competing with the roid monsters whilst not partaking myslef is amusing.

Those guys are nuts.  I've gotten to the point from just observing often where I can pretty much identify who is dosing and who is not.

I think you and I have different understandings  of "not very expensive".

Oh.... whoops..  sorry about that.  I'd bet you could do it all for less than that with different equipment.  Those all-in-one cable-machine gyms can be reasonably had at fitness stores or Sports Authority, they just don't go up too high in weight.

I considered 1,500 or so to be not that bad because that's more or less the cost of an LMT AR-15 build with rails and accessories.

[yesitsloaded]

I only did the vomit thing back when I ran the 800 in HS. I do get cool shakes in my left arm from residual nerve damage though. I think it's amazing I have a left arm at all, much less still lifting. Pretty sweet scar and story behind that one.

[The Annoyed Man]

I only did the vomit thing back when I ran the 800 in HS. I do get cool shakes in my left arm from residual nerve damage though. I think it's amazing I have a left arm at all, much less still lifting. Pretty sweet scar and story behind that one.

Feel free to share if you'd like.  I'm sure I'm not the only one intrigued.

If you don't want to - that's ok though and totally understandable.