One piece of home gym equipment to rule them all (considering Skierg)

[The AD]

i do not qualify

i'm also guessing that a majority of adult men don't either

What's the over-under on whether the majority of adult men in the U.S. can even do one pullup?

[Dantheman]

On a treadmill.

[babybear]

fwiw we had a skierg and never used it. I agree it just feels way more boring and indoor workouts are already lacking in excitement
I know there's a lot of peloton hatey-hatersons here, but I love it. we've had ours since 2018 and it's the most used piece of equipment. Especially when considering the many other workouts available on the app- weights, yoga, etc.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Get a pair of gymnastics rings.

[Not DJSapp]

Our gym has concept 2 rowers, air assault bikes, air dyne bikes, and the ski erg. The assault bike is by far the most devilish piece of equipment, followed by the rower. Intervals, sprints, or long hauls. Doesn't matter, those two will wreck you in a good way. The air dyne bike and ski erg motion just isn't full body punishment like the others and can't compete.

Jump rope is a solid cardo alternate, so long as your knees/ankles/feet hold up and you're coordinated. 2 minutes of unbroken singles isn't that tough with some practice and conditioning, 50+ straight double unders is a different milestone entirely. Equipment matters here more than one would think, but a good speed rope is $40+. Heavy ropes or drag ropes are a different challenge and will light your shoulders and forearms on fire. All fairly cheap and pack down to nothing.

Ratchet straps/tie downs + gym rings + a rafter beam is everything you need for ring rows, ring push ups, planks, and ring dips (pull ups and muscle ups if you have the head room). Get a rubber band to assist as needed. Cheap, effective, lots of variety for upper body, and packs down to nothing.

Tire tube + garbage bag as a liner + sand + zip ties for DIY sandbags. Great for carries, cleans, squats, lunges, and turkish get ups.

As far as pullups, if you can do 1, you can do 5 within a month of focused work. I haven't ever reached 10 straight, but I can do 30 in a tabata interval and do singles with a 20# weight. And I'm big. The single biggest boost here is a rubber band so you can get more reps in. You don't get the improvement by doing 1 or 2 strict at a time, you get it with bigger sets and learning the efficient muscles to use and getting the muscle memory.

[esseff]

Just add plates. Your back will thank you later.

[dan_pdx]

Get a pair of gymnastics rings.

I have some rings hanging in the garage, and do pullup sets 3 days a week. That's my only consistent strength training beyond plank / inclined plank, and it does seem to help. Having said that, you need a good place to hang them. Our garage ceiling is just barely high enough for pullups - I set the rings pretty far apart. If it was taller so I could have the rings on longer straps, I could do chinups too and take a stab at dips.

[exsparky]

What is "small"? Maybe do this without the ford?

[The AD]

I'm sure serious weight lifters would scoff, but I think the Total Gym is a pretty nice piece of equipment. You can do a very wide variety of exercises with a compact piece of equipment. If you think you need to bench press 300 lbs, it's probably not for you, but I think it suits the needs for the vast majority of people.

[stalefish3169]

We have a rowing thread.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...Bazaf0z7O5SIO3

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[Dantheman]

Our gym has concept 2 rowers, air assault bikes, air dyne bikes, and the ski erg. The assault bike is by far the most devilish piece of equipment, followed by the rower. Intervals, sprints, or long hauls. Doesn't matter, those two will wreck you in a good way. The air dyne bike and ski erg motion just isn't full body punishment like the others and can't compete.

I'm not totally following you here. Assault Bike and Airdyne are different brand names for the same thing.

Tire tube + garbage bag as a liner + sand + zip ties for DIY sandbags. Great for carries, cleans, squats, lunges, and turkish get ups.

Hell, you can do a lot with a couple $5 bags of tube sand from Home Depot. OP has KBs up to 24 kg, though. You can get pretty strong with a pair of 24 kg KBs.

What is "small"? Maybe do this without the ford?

Your garage probably is bigger than the OP's entire house.

[Not DJSapp]

I'm not totally following you here. Assault Bike and Airdyne are different brand names for the same thing.

Sorry, maybe we call it the wrong thing in our gym

Airdyne//Bike erg - no arms


Ass Bike - arm death

[Dantheman]

Gotcha. Airdyne is Schwinn's brand name for their version of the arms o' death: https://www.schwinnfitness.com/schwinn-airdynes/

[mud]

Just add plates. Your back will thank you later.

I went to gyms for decades before starting to use a trap bar.
In less than two months of use the results were eye opening, I would probably get the power tower for its versatility if I was limited with space but if you really want to strengthen your core those trap bar deadlifts are legit.

[exsparky]

Titan isn't bad for the money. I like the raised handles better.

[AEvospace]

Get a barbell and find a way to rack it the way you need without a big rack I guess. make something out of wood or whatever. I've been building a small home gym, and was using the barbell without the rack for a while, and developed some elbow tendonopathy I never had from trying to get the bar up into different positions. A rack has almost cured my tendon pain, I found a power rack on sale locally from $800 down to $200 and jumped on it. Takes up less space than I originally thought, and worth it for the minor injury prevention.

IMO, mainly from what I've been told, you should get a regular barbell first, but I do like those hex or "trap" bars. If you got the cash, get both because neither take up much space.

A few PhDs have told me the barbell DL requires a more natural, and more difficult, hinge motion that we need to recorrect. Maybe something along that lines. Plus you can do the ultimate Clean and Press, idk how you do with the trap bar. This exercise rips you up

[satori]

Thank you all for the advice. After thinking about your experiences and advice, I have decided to skip getting a skierg or rower and get a power tower and jump rope instead. I think your points really hit the nail on the head and since I have a smart trainer for cycling indoors, I realize I need to go another route. At this point in time, I fail to own a man card but once I get my power tower I will work on it. You're only as strong as your weakest link and I know I need to work on pull-ups, dips, leg raises etc.

Cheers!!

[Cruiser]

I'd bet that less than 5% (perhaps much less) of adult men in the developed world could do a single dead hang pull up much less a set or multiple sets.

[Dantheman]

Good call. With the trainer and regular trail running another cardio machine really didn't make much sense.

Good luck with a pullup. Chin ups are also totally legit. They're a little easier for most people to get a single but reps are just as hard.

Cruiser - A test isn't invalid just because it has a high failure rate

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Be careful going all in on pull ups. Doing too many has always resulted in elbow pain for me (and many other). Doing 4-5 sets sets of 2 to 4 weighted pull ups will get you all the strength with less risk of tendonitis. Less reps = less pain. If my fucked up left elbow still hurts I do weighted chin ups.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

As far as trap bar vs barbell deadlift goes, the advantages of one over the other are minuscule or irrelevant to most people except for this: It's easier to learn and harder to hurt yourself with a trap bar deadlift.

[zion zig zag]

Be careful going all in on pull ups. Doing too many has always resulted in elbow pain for me (and many other). Doing 4-5 sets sets of 2 to 4 weighted pull ups will get you all the strength with less risk of tendonitis. Less reps = less pain. If my fucked up left elbow still hurts I do weighted chin ups.

If you are hanging too long with a bent elbow, I think that’s where the tendonitis comes from, ie struggling in the last few and pausing with the elbow at 90ish degrees. Back when I was a climber I was struggling to get some gear in and was hanging from one bent arm for a while and it fucked up my elbow for months.

Dan, what’s the metric for dips for a man card? I can only do about half as many dips as pull ups. That seems out of balance.

[Dantheman]

Dan, what’s the metric for dips for a man card? I can only do about half as many dips as pull ups. That seems out of balance.

Apparently it's anything >0

[AEvospace]

As far as trap bar vs barbell deadlift goes, the advantages of one over the other are minuscule or irrelevant to most people except for this: It's easier to learn and harder to hurt yourself with a trap bar deadlift.

I've always found myself, as well as heard from coaches and read online that the barbell DL activates the posterior chain significantly more. I haven't seen any actual studies though, idk if any exist. I do feel it, I feel like I'm using my quads at least a little more with the hex, not that my feelings are great data.

You definitely can blow out something in that posterior chain easier too lol, with a barbell. I'm not against the hex bar at all, it's in every gym for a reason.

But how the hell do you get better at clean and press with a hex bar?

Dare I say the barbell is a lot more versatile? I haven't actually looked into the other exercises people do with hex bars.

[RootSkier]

I'm not against the hex bar at all, it's in every gym for a reason.

Because people are too scared to DL with a real barbell. And they think the trap bar replaces real squats.