An excellent set of weights is the cornerstone of your home gym along with a good bench and a good piece of cardio equipment.
The benefit of a strength training program is undeniable, free weights give you a full range of movement through the exercise and ensure that a machine doesn’t do any of the work for you!!!
Standard free weights tend to set you to see in most high street stores; they have a one-inch diameter hole in the weight plates.
Olympic free weights have a two-inch diameter hole in the plates and the barbell will be solid and heavy. It is often said that an Olympic set offers more safety.
* Solid Barbell
* Strong collars to hold the weight plates in place on the bar
* 2 x 20 kg weight plates
* 2 x 10 kg weight plates
* 4 x 5 kg weight plates
* 4 x 2.5 kg weight plates
* 8 x 1.25 kg weight plates
* 8 x 0.5 kg weight plates
The above will give you a good level to start with and will allow for plenty of combinations. After using this set for a while, you may want to add a couple of 25 kg plates and a couple of 15 kg plates.
You have a few options with dumbbells from dumbbell handles that you then add free weight plates to, these can sometimes feel a little unstable. An option if money is no object is to invest in a full rack of dumbbells such as the type you may see in a commercial gym, these offer a fantastic feel and will last a lifetime. We recommend the Powerbock dumbbell system; this gives you a range of weights within one dumbbell system yet has the stability and quality of fixed dumbbells.
When coupled with a good bench a cage will give you basically all you need for a full and massively effective workout. A power cage offers ultimate safety when training alone and allows you to ensure you work the muscle to exhaustion.
A power cage allows you to do squats, bench presses, shoulder presses, and any other exercise where you would ordinarily use a ‘spotter’ or training partner to help take the weight from you when you have worked to exhaustion.
The better power cages will also consist of a chin-up bar, a set of dip bars, and often a lat pull-down machine, these then give your workout more flexibility.
* Weights belt
* Training gloves
* Spare collars
* Training logbook
