What is the cheapest home gym equipment for a newbie?

[doukkali]

What is the cheapest home gym equipment for a newbie please? A bench with a barbell or just dumbbells without any bench? My Goal is to gain muscles and lose fat. I am a male.
Thanks you guys.

[KenDowns]

If you are comfortable with a saw and a drill or nail gun you can build a bench for about 20 USD in lumber that can hold 700+ pounds.

Weights seem to run $1/pound retail in US. A cheap complete barbell system can be had at the major retailers for 200-300 USD.

[Matt Z]

You can also make you're own power rack out of 2-by-4s if you know what you're doing.

By the way, you'll need to know the rating of your barbell. Some inexpensive bars have low ratings, and you may eventually need to replace it as you get stronger, although there's no reason you can't continue to use the plates from a cheap barbell set.

[robertscott]

They're not cheap, but PowerBlocks dumbells and an adjustable bench would be pretty much all you'd ever need

[ephs]

just buy a barbell + bench and build a rack like that out of wood: http://homemadestrength.blogspot.de/201 ... tands.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

just be careful to keep a squat stand made of wood in a room with normal temperature and normal humidity, otherwise the wood could soon be dry or wet and break. or you have to paint it with some of the safety liquids (don't know english word), but this would make it more expensive.

[Oscar_Actuary]

eh, I'm not so eager to recommend building your own power rack, given the relative price of a good used one.

craig's list
sand bags inside a duffle bag carried around various ways
tires
throwing heavy rocks, or that duffle bag

[Jungledoc]

Rocks. You can press them, you can clean and jerk them, you can curl them, you can squat them. Or, as Oscar says, throw them. They come in a wide range of weights and shapes, and can often be obtained free. You can weigh and label them if you want, or you can go by "this one feels a little heavier than that one, so I'll use this on next" approach.

You can make a good circuit by cleaning a big rock, then throwing it as far as you can, running to it, clean it again, and so on. You can go around a pre-determined course, keeping track of time, or trying to minimize the number of throws, or see how far you can get in a given number of steps.

It looks cool.

[ephs]

awesome idea with the rocks. that's how the old greek worked out, very tough!

[KenDowns]

Toss the rocks into the old rusting wheelbarrow shell and you have a sled.

[robertscott]

if you live in an apartment in the city, where are you going to find loads of rocks of varying size?

[KenDowns]

if you live in an apartment in the city, where are you going to find loads of rocks of varying size?

Depends on the city. In many US cities, which are in a state of permanent decay, broken concrete is all over the place, sometimes in huge piles. Along with bricks.

[Jungledoc]

Yards, gardens, parks. Of course, some rocks are brought in to be part of the landscaping, so the owners would probably resent you taking or even moving them. Depending on the local geology, there might be loads of them at construction sites which are due to be trucked away, in which case the owners would likely not mind. If you live in an apartment you might have problems with a place to keep them. Every situation is different, but stones are an idea that might be good for many people.

[pdellorto]

I'd buy a basic Olympic barbell set, and look into a cheap set of racks and/or a bench. You can get really far with just a 300# weight set and some determination to use it.

[KenDowns]

I'd buy a basic Olympic barbell set, and look into a cheap set of racks and/or a bench. You can get really far with just a 300# weight set and some determination to use it.

Agreed. I bought a 300# set for $300.00.

Within 6 months I had bent the bar, but the plates are those handle types and will last a lifetime.

[JasonJones]

I'd buy a basic Olympic barbell set, and look into a cheap set of racks and/or a bench. You can get really far with just a 300# weight set and some determination to use it.

Agreed. I bought a 300# set for $300.00.

Within 6 months I had bent the bar, but the plates are those handle types and will last a lifetime.

I third this. You can hit most of the fundamentals with just a barbell and enough weight. You can front squat and press as much as you can clean, and you can row and pull as much weight as you can load on the bar. You don't even really need a bench.