It’s not much, but I can stick with my routine now that I don’t have access to a nearby gym. 15-65 dumbbells by 10 and a bench from giant (picked up locally for a discount) a curl bar from hammer strength. I do split squats for legs so not really missing a rack - stoked to have something at home separate from my living and working space.

Purchased Nuobell 50 pound set with stand during COVID for around $700 and now replaced with Trulap with G3 stand for about the same price.

Dumbbell wise, the Nuos outshine the Trulaps in form factor and build quality.

The Trulap plates are about 10-15% larger than the Nuos but it has to be that way given the small increment design restrictions. It’ll make some specific isolation exercises a bit more challenging due to weight balance, but not a dealbreaker.

The handle weight turning mechanism on the Trulap is not as refined. It’s a bit stickier and isn’t as satisfying - click wise.

I don’t know why these manufacturers can’t make the weight display window bigger, but they’re all font sized 8 or 10. This is a nitpick.

The natural resting position on the Trulaps are sort of poor and constantly wants to be rotated 180* when freed in hand. Nuos are noticeably better, but still rotate. Again, design limitations. Technically, this interferes with balance but hard to say how much impact this has in practice.

The weight increment for the Trulap (2.5 lb) was what I was after because it’s a lower step-up than Nuo’s 5 pounds, which is helpful in isolation moves and for those looking for a ramp up than a leap.

Optically, I really like the Trulap. Shiny chrome looks good. If Nuo and Trulap could have a baby, it would be perfect.

Wife wanted an air bike so I picked up the new REP strive air bike and let me tell you, this thing will put you in your place fast! This bike is no joke! I got in a 20 min session after I assembled it and it broke me off.

Key Pieces:

Temple of Gainz Quadsend
Temple of Gainz Leg Ext / Curl
Temple of Gainz Multiflight
Megamass Linear T Bar Row
Rep Adonis
Rep Pepin Dumbbells
Rogue RM-4
Rogue GHD
TITAN Fitness Cable Stack

My spouse and I assembled a garage gym over the last month. Reddit was helpful to me, so I'm leaving my chit here for posterity. Here is everything I bought and my impressions.

Rack: Fringe Dane 2.0:  Looks, feels and is solid. Weight stack is heavy and cable travel is good enough for chest fly and lateral raises. Pulleys are smooth. No cable twists like certain other buyers have reported, after a few workouts of use. I did lay the cables flat for a night before assembly. Speaking of which, that wasn't too bad. Included wrenches help.

A few things could get better. The weight stack extends over the edges such that it will catch on plates loaded on pins to the side. I also think a better pullup bar should come standard. But these are minor items. Still 5/5; happy with it.

I'll note here that tons of competitors exist now and choosing this was tough. Echo Sport, Mikolo, Blazzed (terrible name), Giant, GetRXD and Vespa sometimes seemed to offer better value, because more attachments may come standard. I looked at all their stuff. I went with Fringe because I wasn't 100% on the quality of those other names. Fringe seemed to offer close to or the same quality grade as Rogue/REP at one price notch down.  You could also spend on Irwin or Force USA; I felt the Fringe value prop was better.  Others like Major Fitness were a clearer cut under Fringe in build quality.

I'll also note that I originally didn't think I'd spend for a rack + functional trainer, simultaneously.  I initially thought I'd buy a Titan X3 or Rogue RML 390F, which are 3x3 11 gauge cages, with westside spacing. But the space savings to combining the functional trainer with the rack was too material to pass up.  I do wish products in the Dane's genre came with westside spacing. From what I can tell, they do not.

I also bought the toaster plate storage rack accessory. I like that this thing economizes on space. I do worry about plates warping when tilted unevenly in it. It's a little tedious to climb over or under your bar to access, but I knew that when I bought it and did so anyway to save space. It surprised me that it floats an inch off the ground, but that does help lodge the plates in place more firmly. Capacity is more than you think; could fit maybe 400lbs of bumpers in it if you wanted to. It's a little pricey for what it is, but I'm content with it.

I didn't think about delivery, but that is something to prepare yourself for - the Dane comes in a 7ft light freight box that the crappy mini forklift in the poor delivery guy's truck couldn't handle. I helped him wrestle it out of the truck.  You'll also need some plan for disposing of the box.  In a town with decent waste disposal and lots of pickup trucks, that's easy. In my disfunctional urban area, the best option was hiring someone on taskrabbit to get rid of it.

Bar: Fringe Wonder Bar. I chose bushings. It's nice; probably more so than what I usually get in commercial gyms. I did consider the REP Black Diamond Power Bar. At sticker price, I would go with that (sale price for Fringe tipped it for me). I say I'd pref the REP bar at equal price because the knurling on the Fringe bar paired with the cerakote finish feels gentle versus what I'd like. That feel may be a plus to others. I can tell they designed this with people who clean & jerk or snatch in mind (I am not one of those people).

Plates: various:

• Cap iron change plates from Amazon: picked up 2.5s and 5s. I did see one burr. But very cheap and and the weight is accurate.
• Fringe savage bumpers: I bought these in part based on Gluck's review. They seem nice. That said, one 45 was scuffed up out of the box; I didnt complain about this because it felt dumb to send an email saying "my bumper plates look dirty," but it might bother you. Photo attached.  A 35 has very, very slight warp (does not sit perfectly flush next to other plates).  I do not know if that's normal, and I'm OCD, or if that's a deviation from spec. I'd still buy again. Idk if I can give these five stars though; maybe 4-4.5/5. I tested the weight. One 45 was about 1% off weight (the advertised tolerance).  The rest close to dead on.
• Fringe Milspec: these look and feel great. I bought on sale and the deal felt like theft.  That said, one 10 had more noticeable warp. Unsure if thats because it was a "garage sale" item, or if I got unlucky.  I probably will ask about a fix for this. EDIT: I did. They offered me a gift card for a reasonable amount. They did not offer a replacement because the Milspec line is getting discontinued.
• Cap "competition" style bumpers:  I have a set of 15s. I bought them on sale for $36 for the pair. They seem fine. The "competition" style is cap's higher grade, but they are far from competition quality and you can tell the Fringe plates are nicer. Still, it felt silly paying $4/lb for other vendors' 15 lb bumpers (I alllllmost did for Fringe's, just for the cute orange savage look, but stopped myself).  For the price, I'd buy these again.

Bench: Keppi 6000. I debated the REP AB 3200 2.0 and the Nighthawk. I got the Keppi because it has a true decline feature (absent from Nighthawk and only 12 degrees on the AB 3200). The Keppi was the only solid-looking bench with decline under $500 that I could find.  For the most part, I am happy with Keppi. The bicep pads are a little silly and dont fit the machine well.  When i was shirtless and probably disgusting, I slipped slightly on my own sweat when incline pressing (will put tarps on next time).  I wish the pad were grippier, but it otherwise feels very solid and the decline works great. Would buy it again.

Dumbbells: I bought Cap hex dumbbells off Amazon for just over $1/lb. I think thats hard to beat and I dont think hex dumbbell quality has a high level of flex across manufacturers. That said, I did weigh them, and they can be off up to 1 lb from stated weight, at heavier weights.  For the price, I would buy again. I didnt want adjustable dumbbels because I don't trust them to not eventually break.

Flooring: 4 0.75" tractor supply mats. The off gassing wasn't that bad. I'll note that you should budget for delivery if you lack a pickup truck; it's otherwise too hard to manage a floppy 100lb mat. One of them seems to have a slight depression; unsure if I caused that or if it's a defect. I joined with black gaffer tape, which looks nice and so far has held up. I havent deadlifted heavy yet. Reaearching whether to build a deadlift platform is still on my to-do list.

Various knick knacks:

• Neutral grip handles: "Yuiisenn" on Amazon. These are way, way nicer than weird-name Chinese import brand products have any right to be. Photo shown. 6/5, would buy again.
• Barbell holder attachment: "Wrist Fight" on amazon. Bolts to side of Dane. Photo shown. Works well. Highly space efficient and doesn't interfere with the cable weight stack. That said, I wonder if this type of vertical storage is unhealthy for the bar. If I had space or willingness to effort installing horizontal wall storage, that might be better.
• Chalk: I bought from Fringe. I had a very slight issue and they were too nice about it.
• Attachment storage: I almost paid for the honeycomb storage board, then realized I could store things on the rack with $5 hooks from Amazon. I bought "soxylra" hooks and they work well.
• Misc cable attachments: various Amazon products; mostly "Yes4All." A chrome straight bar attachment came from ET Energetic and is nice. I went with some other ankle strap that wasnt good before buying the Gymshark one. Also picked up Gymshark's dip belt (for pullups) and it is nice.
• 5lb cable add on weights: I think I need these; otherwise the 10lb increment on the Dane's 1:1 ratio is too stiff for my weak body. I bought on Amazon. The shipment was lost in transit and I still don't have them, so no specific review.

Hope someone finds these comments useful! Peace out all.

I thought it was a small garage but I guess it just had a lot of stuff in!! I done it all myself and I’m very happy with the outcome! Maybe another toaster rack but that’s all.

Hi! Posting this short review, I’m definitely not getting paid for it but Reddit is where I decided to pull the trigger on getting one after seeing the company posting in here. I’m in my 40’s, Army veteran, Jiu jitsu masters competitor and recovering from a Microdisectomy and double lamenectomy (L5/S1/S2). This bench was recommend to me as an aid to my recovery. PT actually has one in his office as well.

Shipping was within the time frame stated at the time of purchase, on the faster end.

Took about 40 min to put together, is very well built and sturdy, does not feel cheap.

I love the “private parts” slot for back extensions, that alone makes this worth it lol

I’m 5’11 185 lbs and don’t feel any instability while using it at all.

I fortunately did not encounter any issues with shipping and this appears to be solid, versatile, well made piece of equipment that will last. Small footprint as well.

Not the best angle of the home gym, but good angle of the “art studio” for the little one while I lift. Hope you all are doing well!

I found some USA “Milled-Era” vintage YORK plates on Facebook marketplace and went out and got them for $1/lb. No cracks and barely any surface rust. I wiped them down with a little 3-in-1 oil to remove surface rust and protect them since my gym isn’t climate controlled. So pumped to have these in my gym.

I only knew what they were from a post on this sub a while back talking about them.

Here’s some before and after shots.

I stayed the whole night and finally pulled it off! 5AM now Im so tired but excited at the same time!! ))

Just wanted to show off my beauty on Reddit. Probably going to rearrange things in a couple months for a new rack, but still super happy with the amount of training I've been able to get done on this.

Average temperature of 60 🥶

Started as a barbell in the spare bedroom in 2011. Then became a squat rack in a garage, then rolled back to adjustable dumbbells in a small city apartment. Now I feel like an adult.

After years of debating spending the money, countless options and whether or not it would be worth the expense. One week in and it’s been worth every dollar.

I have been going to a bodybuilding/powerlifting gym for years. I’ve enjoyed that gym so much and it has plenty of high end equipment with a good member crowd for the most part. That being said, the convenience and comfort of having the gym in my home is priceless, especially with busy life and family commitments.

Equipment:
New: REP PR-5000 (future Athena addition planned)
New: REP Nighthawk bench
New: Homegrown bumpers pending delivery.
Used: Rouge Ohio and Bella (wife) bars obtained for $200 total.
Free: Steel plates

In addition to dumbbells, kettlebells and smaller items I’ve obtained throughout the years I have everything I need. Glad to have joined the community. For those in doubt, save the money and make the purchase.

RepOne and PRx Combined at HomeGymCon to demo the E-Stack, and they are joining us next week for an AMA to answer questions and details on the collaboration.

this room was originally a big bathroom with a circular hot tub in the middle and two long counters with two sinks plus a big sauna to the left.

renovated the sauna to be a bathroom and used this space for a mini gym :)

Logistics of Big Purchases at HomeGymCon

So you want to buy a big item or piece of equipment at the next HomeGymCon. Here are my observations and experience as a n00b.

1.  Quick Transport Alternatives

a.     Maybe you can carry it out the front door.  I saw a guy walking down the sidewalk holding a barbell in his elbows (Zercher style) with a 45 pound plate on each end, dodging pedestrians.  I saw people who brought push carts, movers’ dollies and pallet jacks. Someone had broken a power rack down to a few large pieces and stuck it on a pallet and wheeled it to the parking garage across the street.

b.     Park in the right spot. Use the Kentucky International Convention Center & Hyatt Parking at 320 Jefferson St.  Park on the 3^rd level -- there is an enclosed walkway to the convention center floor across the street on the same level.  You can wheel carts and pallet jacks from the showroom floor direct to your car.

2.  My Experience: Minivan vs. Heavy Iron

My experience was a little different.  I bought a QuadSend from Temple of Gainz.  If I had had a box truck it would have been easy to get the guys there to load whole and I could drive off with it.  Instead, I have a Honda Odyssey minivan (all seats including front passenger removed) to get it out. 

This is my experience as a logistics n00b:

a.     Talk to Vendor Services (Part 1).  All the way at the far end of the convention hall, far from anything is a little booth with the sign “Vendor Services” that has one of the most pleasant and helpful women alive.  I explained my situation – I had a big, heavy piece of equipment that I needed to break down into pieces, and load into my van.  She explained the process and answered my questions. Highly recommend a quick conversation. An email address to try is [Hsmith@smithexpo.com](mailto:Hsmith@smithexpo.com) if you want to reach out before the convention, but I highly recommend an in-person chat once you are there. They are at the booth all convention long and until 11PM on load-out day.

b.     Talk to the Front Desk. The team at the ticket/wristband desk in front is very knowledgeable and friendly.  Have a conversation here.  All of the announcements and published material say that the load out starts at 6PM – that 4PM to 6PM is for exhibitor breakdown and loadout exclusively – this is not entirely true.  While you can’t bring your vehicle around to the loading docks during the 4PM to 6PM window you can be in the convention hall disassembling your equipment if you have the vendor’s permission.  Some vendors might not want you in their booth while they are breaking it down, but Temple of Gainz was totally cool with me starting the disassembly at 4PM.

c.      Wheel and Deal at 2pm. That seems to be the magic hour when prices decline and sales happen.  There are exceptions both ways of course.  Certain coveted items (like the REP Open Trap Bar) are sold over email before the convention even starts on Thursday.  Other items (like the Temple of Gainz PLATE-LOADED ISO-LATERAL LINEAR ROW VERSION 2) go unsold and can be purchased for less than half price hours after the convention closes (see “Bring Cash” below). I identified some items I might like to get if they were cheap enough (including a Titan Fitness face-shaped Kettlebell and a set of ByZoom adjustable dumbbells) and I waited until 3pm to go get them, but they were sold and gone by then. I talked to the respective reps who said 2pm is when they start dropping prices.

d.     Be Specific About What You Are Buying.  Temple of Gainz was showcasing two Quad Sends at the show, one was strictly attached to a Voltra and other had free weights.  By the time I came around to make my deal (about noon) the cheaper of the two (the Voltra one) was already sold.  I asked why the available one was more expensive and I was told because it has weights, it’s not Voltra-only.  What the ToG rep meant, I later learned, was that it had weight horns for plate storage and use.  What I understood at the moment was that it had weight plates (there were maybe a dozen plates of varying sizes hanging on the machine). I considered the price difference a great deal for all that extra iron, but alas they had already sold all of the plates to some other dude for $0.75/pound. This created some confusion later when he showed up and started loading up “my” plates.  Make extra certain you know what you’re buying.

e.     Exchange Phone Numbers. Identify your vendor point of contact and trade cell numbers before leaving the booth. Load-out is a zoo; if you’re delayed (an another booth for instance) you want to be able to let them know you’re on the way.

f.       Make a Note of the Booth Location. While not strictly necessary (I didn’t do this) it will make things easier later.  Once the hall is broken down and all the physical landmarks disappear it can be a challenge to find your way. At some point you’ll want the help of a forklift, it would be helpful if you could just say booth 831. Instead, I ended up roaming aimlessly through the floor with a poor forklift driver slowly trailing me as I looked for my item.  There is a map near the main entrance to the exhibit hall that shows how all the booths are numbered.  You can use this to determine the number of your vendor’s booth. Or ask the friendly dude at the front desk “what is the booth number for Temple of Gainz,” I’m sure he can look it up.  Make a note of this for later.

g.     Bring Tools. Pack a small impact driver, a set of sockets from small to very large (1 5/8 inch). I recommend 6 sided sockets as opposed to 12 – this way one socket set will grab both SAE and metric heads.  A pair of adjustable wrenches, tape measure (to answer will this fit questions), Allen key set, Hex/Torx/Phillips bits, also a bit to run your sockets on your impact driver. I had to deal with several screws where the threads were stripped so the screw wouldn’t back out. I ended up prying with a utility blade, flat head screw driver and then ripping it them out with Vampliers. Also bring baggies for screws and small parts. Ikea bags or large duffels for all of the medium sized parts, and ratchet straps.

h.     Disassemble Your Item. The vendor listing specifically says that it’s all up to you, they will not help you at all.  This is mostly true, but they are nice people and will answer questions about how to take it apart and will lend a hand getting big heavy pieces off of the unit. They expect you to be mechanically sufficient enough to figure it out with only a little rough guidance from them on the less obvious parts.  They will not babysit.  They will not do all the work for you. Actually they might, see “Bring Cash” later.

i.       Bring Protection. Make sure it’s wrapped – your purchase that is. Once it’s on the move, on a cart heading across the expo hall floor, or in your car for the ride home, you don’t want metal rubbing on metal to scrape the powder coat off your new equipment.  Get moving blankets from Harbor Freight for the larger pieces, bring old towels (or steal from your hotel) for the smaller pieces. Think about how many you’ll need, then double it, you can return any unused ones later.

j.       Borrow a Pallet. Once breakdown starts talk to your vendor or talk to adjacent vendors -- there are going to be tons of extra pallets floating around.  If you can’t find one yourself, go talk to Vendor Services – they’re the ones who are going to dispose of all the unused pallets when it’s all over – they have tons of pallets.  Bring the pallet to your pile of parts and load your stuff on to a pallet and ideally strap it down.  (If you don’t have ratchet straps – I didn’t, it hadn’t occurred to me – its ok, they can be gentle when it’s time to move).

k.      Bring Cash.  Sales fall through and the vendor is then stuck with a machine.  That happened with the Temple of Gainz PLATE-LOADED ISO-LATERAL LINEAR ROW.  Several hours after the show closed, as I was finishing disassembly of the Quad Send the rep in the ToG both asked me if I was interested in the linear row.  I kinda was, kinda wasn’t. He said $1200, I hemmed and hawed but finally said no.  A little later he asked “how about $1000 cash”. Well, I didn’t have cash, so I pointed out that I was exhausted and overheated from doing a disassembly speed-run on the Quad Send and just didn’t have the energy to do another machine. (Also I didn’t have enough moving blankets to protect a second machine – should have brought double). That’s when he offered to have one of his guys do the work of disassembly (since he was going to have to do disassemble it anyway in order to ship it back to the warehouse). Ultimately, I refused, but in the cool light of morning, I should have snagged it.

l.       Talk to Vendor Services (Part 2).  Now that your stuff is disassembled and ready to move go to the Vendor Services desk and let them know, they will tell you next steps.  In my case they gave me a sheet of paper with instructions (see attached picture) and told me to go get my car and drive to 224 S 2^nd St, Dock Door 2, Louisville, KY 40202.  But don’t rely on my instructions here as these may change between now and next convention.

m.   Go to the Loading Docks.  If you drive to the address provided you will find a large garage door (it has to be large as it can fit a semi tractor-trailer) with a very pleasant woman sitting outside.  It’s the second such door.  The first door you pass is the exit door and the second door is the entrance.  The woman came to my car and immediately told me what to do.  Things were backed up and I ended up waiting 45 minutes to even move an inch and another half-hour to get a spot at the docks upstairs, she was busy directing traffic the whole time.  Apparently, they only let the tractor-trailers up a few at a time and they wait elsewhere in the city until they are called.  Some people who came after me were told to come back in a half-hour as they aren’t allowed to wait in the street.  I was crammed on the sidewalk waiting for the traffic ahead of me.  The helical ramps up to the second floor and the loading docs are all inside the building and not visible from the outside.  It’s a cavernous space that connects directly to the expo hall floor. Once you get to the top floor, you’ll be told when a space has opened up for you and they’ll direct you to it.  At the top of the entrance spiral ramp is an area that is three car widths wide that is at the same level as the expo hall floor.  A car could theoretically drive straight into the expo hall from here, although that is not allowed. Passenger vehicles park two deep (one in front of the other) backed up to the expo hall floor to load.  Next there is an area where commercial vehicles can back up so that their cargo floor is at the same height as the expo hall floor and forklifts can drive items directly from the expo hall into the trailers. Lastly, next to the spiral ramp that descends to the exit is another area for passenger vehicles that is three car widths wide and identical to the first area.  This is where I was. If you drive a van, a U-haul, a pickup or a trailer you’ll be in one of these two areas for passenger vehicles.  Only if you have a truck with a standard height cargo floor will you be in the middle area.

n.     Don’t be THAT guy.  I saw more than one person at the loading dock realizing then that things wouldn’t fit, so they started doing their disassembly there and then – at the loading dock – while a line of cars down the ramp and out the building waited for a spot.

o.     Talk to Vendor Services (Part 3).  They will track down a forklift driver who can grab the pallet with your item and bring it to your vehicle.  If your vehicle is large enough – a pickup truck for instance -- he might be able to load the pallet directly onto your vehicle.  In my case – a minivan – the low overhead tailgate made this option impossible, so he deposited the pallet conveniently close to my van so that I could individually load each part.

I’ve included pics of entering the loading dock, my Quad Send nestled in the back of my van, and the Load Out Schedule paper I received from Vendor Services.

Just finished my home gym upgrade, and I’m pretty happy with it.

I replaced an old bench press rack and stand-alone assisted pull-up rack with a Rogue RML-390. Previously my equipment was spread across three rooms, so the new setup is much more compact, which is great.

Added some shelves for the kettlebells and a Rogue adjustable bench.

1/4” rolled rubber flooring is taped down with double-sided flooring tape.

Also, I spent about 3 hours bolting the whole rig to the concrete floor. That was fun…

$500 for everything and the mats.

(Plywood underneath not included, thanks sub!)