Home Fitness Center?

[Black Blade]

Who here has a home "fitness center"? I go to a local 24-hour gym but it would be convenient for me to have a room set aside for weight and aerobic equipment. Just curious at what set up some of you here may have and the pros and cons if any. Still, I would prefer an at home "fitness center".

During the winter months I do some skiing but there are times in subzero temps, late hours and biting windchills when that just isn't practical. I work out at the gym and local dojo and spar with friends. In the summer months there is hiking and mountain biking. Here is where I work out to keep physically fit as best I can during the winter months and in bad weather. These are the four exercise rooms and there are other smaller rooms with free weights and boxing/martial arts equipment.

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/jhwarner1/Gym1.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/jhwarner1/Gym2.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/jhwarner1/Gym3.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/jhwarner1/Gym4.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/jhwarner1/Gym5.jpg

Right now I get a chance to do some reading ("Unintended Consequences"). Here I do some bike sprints for a couple hours in the late or early morning hours when I often have the place to myself (note the Ruger LCP I keep in my shorts). I tend to suck down a couple bottles of iced Crystal Lite lemonade to stay hydrated and keep loaded with some electrolites.

[sunshine05]

We have a small home gym, I guess you could say. We have a treadmill and a weight bench. I hope to add more equipment in time. I love having them here. I live nowhere near a gym.

You may want to reconsider the Crystal Light. It has aspartame (nutrasweet) I think. It's really bad for your body. I used to drink diet drinks until about 7 or so years ago when I read some articles about how bad it is. I felt a lot better after giving it up.

I love your avatar:)

[VX1]

I’ve gone to the gym regularly all my adult life, despite never being convenient to one, so, having to fight traffic at least 30 minutes each way, and also, the $700 year fee for my wife and I. I finally got fed up with it all, with the wanna-be gangsters that seem to run the clubs, and with them closing down without notice (usually, not long after a bulk payment). Five years ago, we got a place large enough to hold a gym, so right now, we use this 14’x10’ room. It holds a smith machine and an elliptical stair-stepper. You can find these smith machines for $300, and I got mine on clearance for less. There’s pretty much not a single exercise I used to do at the gym that I can’t do with this one machine. The home gym really has saved me a ridiculous amount of time, money, and aggravation. The picture doesn’t do it justice; there’s more room in there than it looks.

Oh, and thanks for the reminder to put “Unintended Consequences” on my reading list. I’m currently making it through “Web of Debt” and “The Antiterrorist Handbook”, and the next one just got delivered today, “The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook”.

[johnlvs2run]

I always exercise from home, use the following and never go to a gym.

run outside
treadmill - $300 seven or eight years ago from the W
bicycle $60 used in 1984 on wind trainer (2nd one) $75 a few years ago
~230 pounds of weights - $100 a long time ago
handweights - 5 lbs each
ab roller - made for $10 twenty years ago
ab straps - $10 from ebay
elliptical - free
nordic track - free
thigh & bun machine - free

I usually just do some stretching to warm up, run, and do singles with the weights.
I used a concept2 rowing machine for quite a few years, but sold it a year ago.

[Grog]

No space in the home. So i paid $350 for a year, in a newly built gym with 24 hour keyed access. Love it. I wish I had the room at home but this works for me and is pretty cost effective.

If I were to do it at home, a treadmill would be a must have. But that is me.

I like the gym I'm at because it is on my way home from work, has showers, and is modern and secure. (and no distractions that would be at my house, ie kids.)

[skid]

I welded up my own squat cage. With a flat bench I can do all the heavy exercises (squats, bench presses), and not get pinned underneath, as I added safety bars. I added pull up bars to the fronyt of the catge as well. Unfortunately, since I have to much junk in my basement now, I am not able to use it until my garage build is complete...

[Gknowmx]

I have a Marcy Total Gym system and a Concept II rower. I have considered an e*motion frame from 1UPUSA http://www.1upusa.com/1upusaemotionroller.htm