Gift ideas

[Oscar_Actuary]

for me.

I'm looking for training related items to augment my quickly growing, yet extremely basic gym. Some stuff in the under $80 category. What I have:

Power Rack, (soon)
Olympic Bar and 250 lbs - obviously, more plates, but that's sorta lame for someone to give, "Here's your weight plate, dude"

Standard Bars, straight (uses clamps) and Curl (threaded), only 70 lbs plates
2 sets of standard dumble handles
gloves
large dufffle
smaller duffle bag
11 bags of 10-12 lbs of pea gravel
inexpensive flat bench
more stable and adjustable bench shipping now
resistance cables, (pretty much use now to augment the dumbbell work - Im a bit nervous about the risk of snapping and leading to injury, including shoulder dislocation)
wall mounted pullup / chin up bar
treadmill.

I will be having a floor and Rack built soon. I guess I was thinking along the lines of grip work, or weight vest, sled ? + belt, oh, maybe good shoes for lifting.

Thoughts?

Thanks for help! Dad needs some ideas!

[hoosegow]

The Prowler - and what is wrong with "Here's your plate?"

Chalk

[Jungledoc]

I'd be happy for more plates if I were in your position.

Grippers?

Chains? Or would that be lame, too?

If you have good-quality bands, you don't have to worry about breaking them. If you can break them, you don't need them!



BTW, if I had gloves in my home gym, I wouldn't admit it here!

[dale2177]

how about some FATGRIPZ ? they're on my list this year, bands like the good doctor suggested, a pair of chucks? foam roller?

hmmmm.... in fact i want all of these things if anyone is feeling generous!

[Nevage]

I've been meaning to buy chalk for the last 6 months, cheap and instantly effective. Bit of a weird one but mirrors? In my gym at home, mirrors make a load of difference, I can't imagine squatting or deadlifting without them, sort of motivates me.

[Jungledoc]

I've been meaning to buy chalk for the last 6 months, cheap and instantly effective. Bit of a weird one but mirrors? In my gym at home, mirrors make a load of difference, I can't imagine squatting or deadlifting without them, sort of motivates me.

This is a joke, right? I'm a bit slow, but I though you were serious at first!

[Jebus]

I've been meaning to buy chalk for the last 6 months, cheap and instantly effective. Bit of a weird one but mirrors? In my gym at home, mirrors make a load of difference, I can't imagine squatting or deadlifting without them, sort of motivates me.

This is a joke, right? I'm a bit slow, but I though you were serious at first!

I think he is serious.

[Oscar_Actuary]

I've been meaning to buy chalk for the last 6 months, cheap and instantly effective. Bit of a weird one but mirrors? In my gym at home, mirrors make a load of difference, I can't imagine squatting or deadlifting without them, sort of motivates me.

This is a joke, right? I'm a bit slow, but I though you were serious at first!

I think he is serious.

I'm not sure, but you know, I had considered having the gym-builder install one.
Thanks for some great ideas guys. As far as "Here's your plate" yeah, it is what I will never have too much of, but as far as Christmas ideas they are expensiue to ship (my sis) and my pop actually picked the OLY weights up for me when I sent him out on a Craig's List run. So, he's been there for me on that once before. I'll use cash mom-in-law gives us. Plus, I think plates are great thing to buy used.

Heh, I used my gloves less than 15 times but figured I'd list them. Maybe I should have left them out to see if anyone mentioned "get gloves!"
So Chalk is what you use to help with bar grip ? I suspect it's not to draw around me after I collapse?

What I have are cables, not bands. Come with a nice red bag and flimsy bar and some leg straps and hand grips. One day they'll peel and split and rip at the anchor, during a face pull no less. Ok, maybe good quality Bands would be an idea then. Do you all use Bands when you have access to your free weights and cage, etc. ? Or are they just a substitute for days you can't get to gym ?

Chucks - you mean Chuck Taylor Converse? I hear they make a great shoe for lifitng , you know, not that i'ts made for lifting, but it just ends up being good for that, right? Another good idea there. I have these all black Avia -a325m, so yeah, I could do better.

ok thanks all!

[Nevage]

I've been meaning to buy chalk for the last 6 months, cheap and instantly effective. Bit of a weird one but mirrors? In my gym at home, mirrors make a load of difference, I can't imagine squatting or deadlifting without them, sort of motivates me.

This is a joke, right? I'm a bit slow, but I though you were serious at first!

Haha! Well in my home gym, it started off with a few weights, training to a brick wall and I had no idea what my technique was like really. A couple of years ago I got a full length mirror covering the back and side wall. I know you're meant to keep neutral when lifting but I use them a lot to check on form, especially the side mirror during little things like seated cable rows to make sure I'm not leaning too much, use it now and again to reset on deadlift to check my angle and on my warm up always have a look over to see that I'm definitely parallel while squatting just to reinforce good technique.

As for motivation, when I'm grinding up a last press and I just have to lockout, just seeing my arms slowly succeeding drives me better than staring at a dull brick wall, in the freezing cold!

What I don't do is take my top off after a session and pretend I'm the hulk sporting a 'most muscular' pose (much).

Lastly, chalk is surprisingly effective. I used gloves when I first started out as a teen, don't know why but chalk just makes the bar stick to your hand and you get a good grip on it. Gloves are too bulky, callouses make me feel more manly anyway.

[Jungledoc]

http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2010/10/why-yo ... -a-mirror/

When I went on her site to get that link, I saw her new post:

http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2010/12/callus ... r-sissies/

[Rik-Blades]

and what is wrong with "Here's your plate?"

...the other plate for the other side!

[Jungledoc]

http://squatrx.blogspot.com/2010/11/hol ... -your.html

[Oscar_Actuary]

thanks Doc.

[Oscar_Actuary]

Well, I'm very blessed and a bit lucky. Coming up to TN, the local used sporting good retailer had better prices and more selection on Oly and Stnd weights.. Long story short, coming home, in total, I now have the following (some from Dad, some I bought )

Oly Plates ( 1 Oly barbell )

2 - 45 lb
2 - 44 lb
2 - 33 lb
2 - 22 lb
2 - 11 lb
4 - 5.5 lb
2 - 2.75 lb


Standard Plates ( 1 Barbell, 2 Db handles, 1 Curl Bar )

8 - 2.5 lb
8 - 5 lb
18 - 10 lb
10 - 25 lb

and two containers of chalk,
I'd say that's just about a perfect mix of plates under the circumstances

I think, Shoes woudl be next,but man, I'm sitting pretty. So happy, I'm pretty much annoying my wife. Obviously, talking and typing is the easy part, now, I jsut need to continue and make progressions with the expanded equipment.

Feel free to lock this thread, I may be getting too self indulgent. :)

[Jungledoc]

Nice! You are pretty set for a long time on weight.

Don't worry about shoes if you are lifting at home. God gave you the ideal lifting shoes on the day you were born. Well, earlier than that, but you get the idea.

I'd say a rack is the next thing to save for, or to put on a wish list. You can get simple ones new for under $500, so I assume you could find one used for less then half that.