Weight Lifting Equipment

Weight Lifting Equipment
Equipment you need for WLC!

Weight Lifting Equipment is a wide topic that I will cover as well as I possibly can. I am going to discuss the equipment I like best and why. I am not going to discuss all the different machines because there are way too many for that! I will discuss a machine if I think it's a good piece of equipment. Or I may mention a machine if I think it's a bad piece of equipment.

I also want to discuss what weight lifting equipment you should have in a home gym. A home gym is a great place for weight lifting, and I prefer it strongly over anything else. I use a home gym most of the time myself. You will get addicted to a home gym once you give it a shot. Nothing beats it!

You might want to read about my recommended Home Gym Equipment before you go any further. This will give you a good idea of what you need to build a good home gym.

Focus on Free Weights

I also want to mention that Beginners should focus on free weights only. I would prefer that everyone use free weights, but some of the intermediate and advanced guys will get good results from machines.

I have always used free weights and have only experimented with machines when I first began lifting weights. Nothing is better than the feel of free weights to me! And free weights have built me a whole lot of muscle. So why take a chance?

I like to build my home gym around weight lifting equipment that uses free weights. Then I add in other equipment. I do have a smith machine with my power rack because I like to use it for calf raises, which are very important to my physique. I bought it with the power rack because I got a great deal on both together. I also use it for doing rack chin ups and some stretches.

The Smith Machine

Please don't ever use only a Smith Machine for your exercises. I think it will eventually lead to injury. I could be wrong, but I don't want you to take a chance. Free weights give you a natural motion and don't lock you in to one plane of motion.

If you are doing multiple exercises for one body part like some programs have you do, then I think you may be okay using it for one of the exercises. As long as you don't use it as the only exercise for a body part, you should be fine. You need some free weight exercises too because your stabilizer muscles need to be worked.

I have tried some exercises with the Smith Machine. I really don't like doing squats with the Smith Machine. My knee started hurting directly after the set. I think a lot of it depends on the person and how you're built. I just wouldn't take the chance because free weight exercises are superior anyway! I just don't see the Smith Machine as a very good piece of weight lifting equipment.

Weight Lifting Equipment for Home Gym

If you want to build you a home gym, I am going to tell you the weight lifting equipment you need. You can have you a great set up that will keep you progressing for the rest of your life! You don't have to have a huge space for this weight lifting equipment either. A good power rack doesn't take up very much space and most all of your exercises can be done inside the power rack.

Power Rack
This should be your main piece of weight lifting equipment. This should be your number one priority when building a home gym. Nothing else can beat this piece of equipment.

Olympic Barbell Sets
You're going to need some barbells to lift some weights, right? Barbell sets are best to buy locally unless you can get them shipped with another piece of equipment and the shipping price doesn't kill you. Usually, olympic barbell sets come in 300 pound sets including the bar which weighs 45 pounds.

Olympic Weights
You've got to have extra weights to add to that barbell. None of your weight lifting equipment is any good without weights! You're going to need more than a 300 pound set for convenience. Get you multiple 2.5 pounders, 5 pounders, 10 pounders, and 25 pounders. When you get stronger, you're going to want mulitple 35 and 45 pounders.

Dumbbell Sets
I actually love dumbells and have a pretty large set. They give you so much more variety than a barbell alone. I like the cheap hex dumbells the best but right now even those aren't cheap. There are some tricks to cut down on the cost, though.

Adjustable Dumbbells
Adjustable dumbells are going to be cheaper, but they will take you much longer to get ready. I used adjustable dumbells for a long time but got so tired of exchanging weights. You can use these for the heavy dumbells if you don't feel like paying so much money for the heavy ones. Just make sure you get a good set of handles that will hold a lot of weight.

Trap Bar
A Trap Bar is definitely not a required piece of weight lifting equipment, but I love the trap bar for a few different exercises and they aren't trap exercises. Trap Bar Deadlifts are one of my favorite exercises and can be a good replacement for Squats if someone can't do Squats for a certain reason. Never replace Squats, though, if at all possible.

Adjustable Bench
You've got to have a good quality adjustable bench. This should be another priority for your home gym. I would get one that is very easy to change positions and one that will adjust all the way to decline and all the way to a full 90 degree seated position. I hate the benches that you have to unscrew a pin to get an adjustment.

Various Bars
I like to have various bars available to give exercises a different feel. I use a triceps bar for my hip belt to do certain exercises with. I never use it for tricep exercises. Learn about other bars that I use.

Various Handles
I like to have a set of handles available to me for adding a slight variation to an exercise. See all the different handles that are available and how they can be used.

Hip Belt
The Hip Belt is one of my favorite pieces of weight lifting equipment. I absolutely love the hip belt. Not too many people know what the hip belt is, but you should definitely check this piece of equipment out. Especially for a home gym, this is an almost must have.

Chin Up Station
You've got to be able to do Chin Ups somewhere. Most power racks will have a Chin Up Station with them. I like Chin Up stations to be at a certain height because I like to do my back width stretch in a certain manner to stimulate more of a stretch. A chin up station should be one of your higher priorities when purchasing any weight lifting equipment.

Dip Station
A Dip Station might be a little harder to find. Some Power Racks will have bars that you can add for doing dips, but not too many will have this option. I would just buy a dip station because Dips are a truly awesome exercise. The upper body squat is what some people like to call Dips.

Cable Station
I like to have a cable station for cable rows and a back depth stretch. I may also use it for a few other exercises if the time is right. A cable station definitely is not a required piece of equipment.

T Bar Row Station
A T Bar Rowing station is very easy to make with an olympic barbell, a parallel grip handle, and a sturdy corner. Or you can spend some money on a bracket for T Bar Rows. I always just use a corner of my basement.

Leg Press/Hack Squat Machine
If you have the room and extra money to spend for this piece of weight lifting equipment, I would spend the money. I love the machine for the calf raise variations you can do on it.

Lying Leg Curl/Leg Extension
I would get an attachment with your adjustable bench for doing leg curls. At one point in time you're probably going to stall on stiff legged deadlifts and you may want to try something else. You'll need lying leg curls at some time, but I don't ever want you doing leg extensions as your only quad exercise.

Other Advantages to a Home Gym

I love my home gym because I can listen to whatever music I want and turn it up as loud as I want. No ipod wires in the way for me. No annoying people bothering me or trying to tell me I shouldn't do squats below parallel because they are bad for my knees. Even my wife knows not to come downstairs and try to talk to me in the middle of a set.

My gym is a gym meant only for hard workouts and nothing else. No cell phones. No talking. Only concentration and hard work. No waiting to use any of the weight lifting equipment in your home gym. You use it when you want.

I suggest a home gym if at all possible because many people do not realize what a commercial gym does to their success in weight lifting. If you can block everything out, you will do just fine in a commercial gym. I'd just rather not take a chance.

I'm the kind of person that likes to do what I want on my own time. I have that with my home gym. No waiting for other people to finish their sets. I don't have to change my workout around because I can't do squats due to all the people doing barbell curls in the squat racks and power racks. I don't have to pay to enter my home gym. All that it costs is the initial investment on your weight lifting equipment.

Commercial Gyms

A good commercial gym should already have the weight lifting equipment you need and then some. I wanted to talk about commercial gyms because some of them only like to have machines available with no free weights. I would not choose a gym that doesn't have free weights! Especially if you are a beginner. I suggest that all beginners start out using free weights.

Is it worth it?

I personally do not like most commercial gyms because you have to deal with so much crap. I just hate all the distractions. You can learn to ignore all the distractions, but then you'll just have new ones pop up. Most of the people in commercial gyms stay the same year after year due to all the distractions that they can't deal with.

If you can find a good gym with a lot of serious big guys and some serious women, then you probably have found a good gym. The big guys usually put a stop to most of the distractions because they will not deal with them!

Then you may have to deal with the personal trainers trying to tell you that you don't what you're doing. They say you shouldn't be using this piece of weight lifting equipment, or they'll tell you need to be doing isolation exercises if you want big arms. Personal trainers from the gym are simply annoyances and probably don't have their facts straight. I just can't deal with annoying people! There may be a few good ones out there, but they're definitely hard to find in a gym. The good ones will be booked up!

Then you have to deal with the gym owners or attendants when it's time to renew your membership. They will always raise the membership cost on you no matter what. You might get lucky sometimes, but a home gym yearly fee never changes! The only time you will have a fee with a home gym is when you purchase new weight lifting equipment or accessories.

The only advantage a commercial gym has over a home gym is the variety of weight lifting equipment available. I don't think this is a huge advantage as a home gym with a few accessories should give you plenty of exercises for life. With the WLC program on your side, you shouldn't need a huge variety of equipment to continue progress.

Weight Lifting Music

I had to write about weight lifting music in this weight lifting equipment section of the website. I didn't know where else to put it, so I put it in this section because I see it as another piece of weight lifting equipment. Weight lifters are always looking for that "thing" that will give them a little extra push in the gym and music is the equipment for the job!

I think music is very important to weight lifting for many reasons. Music can take you away from the pain you feel while doing a tough set of calf raises. Music can give you the little extra burst of strength you need to get that last rep up. Music can do so many things for your weight lifting. Now that I am used to listening to music while I workout, I don't think I could go without it and do as well.

I grew up listening to country music because of my Dad. I am from Kentucky so you can imagine that country music is rather popular here. I love country music still, but I am a big fan of heavy metal music for lifting weights. I mix in a little country too, but heavy metal is the way to go for me. It all depends on your taste in music. Any music that gets you going and makes you feel good is some great music to listen to while working out.

Click here to take you to my page on Weight Lifting Music!

Music is an incredible way to get you instant strength gains. Music can take you back to a memory in your life that gets you fired up. It can take you right to that moment in your life and you'll get an instat rush of adrenaline. I've used this technique for many years and it works!