(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best exercise machine attachments

I got my attachments off of Amazon /u/_kc_mo_nster . Any 2x2 rack attachment should work. I got these padded j hooks They work well, but not a fan of the glue holding the pads on.

Also, got these Titan Fitness weight holders. Got 4 of those and use a set for dips as well. Works very well highly recommend if in need of plate storage

You can also try out Valor Fitness BD-7 attachment since those are all 2x2's too.

I was able to find a local guy selling his equipment as he was moving locations (squat rack, platforms, barbells, training blocks, benches). Another guy was selling LB plates to convert his gym to KGs. Another guy was selling a GHD and Reverse Hyper.
The best things I've bought off of Amazon:

1. https://www.amazon.com/A2ZCare-T-Bar-Plate-Insert-Landmine/dp/B06XGWKWF4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1521732154&sr=8-4&keywords=landmine
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CJHDTV8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
3. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BDLJ5G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
   
   I also bought my dumbbells from Walmart. It looks like they have a combo dumbbell & bench deal going on- it looks like a good option!! https://www.walmart.com/ip/CAP-Strength-FID-Bench-with-150-lb-Dumbbell-Set/55121654
   
   

Nice find! Looks like it's designed for 2" plates, too. Not an easy find.

I would love a lat pulldown or Archon cable tower, but nobody ships here and the units like this are too tall for my home gym.

Looking into one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RFLHRGL/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A344BPXE7OBWO9&psc=1

I think I'm visualizing what you're saying. By revolving handle do you mean one of these row handles?

Basically using using the lat machine to create a sort of a grip machine. I like it. A lot of lat machines don't have two pulleys, but some cable stacks do or the cable pec decks, it would work on those too, right?

Do you have a picture of sketch of this setup because it did take a while for me to visualize this from the description.

I think cable machines are an underutilized source of resistance among gripsters and there's some creative uses like this yet to be discovered. Unfortunately I don't have one to mess around with but I think these could be really useful for wrist levering/pronation/supination exercises because of the even resistance (as opposed to sledgehammers that get hardest at the end roms).

Hey all I bought a bag that for the first time in my life fits my squat pad (16-17" maybe wide), work laptop (15"), work clothes, gym clothes, water bottle, books and stuff and it was beautiful! (It was that dagne dover landon carryall in the beautiful bay blue). I adore it--however, I'm returning it because it really hurts to carry all of that stuff on one shoulder! But now cramming everything in my old backpack again is sad--it works, but I can't fit the squat pad, not even a bit.

Does anyone have any backpack that can handle a daily commute + gym to office life (and ideally somehow has room for one of these?

I have a feeling the pillow and coffee table are a large part of your issue! I've also found 4 risers to be the correct height for me. I make sure my back isn't too high on it, around shoulder blade area. I put a gym mat over the step/risers to make it soft. Look forward the whole time rather than up at the ceiling. These bar cushions are great- https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CJHDTV8/ref=twister_B07FF6S86T?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Ha thats exactly the stuff I got for my home gym a couple months ago. The squat rack is GREAT. I also got a Dip Bar and a set of 45lbs bumper plates for deads.

I got this adapter sleeve pair, but as I'm used to all my Rogue gear, the quality control is hit or miss here. One adapter sleeve was perfect and fits my bumpers fine, the other one has an end cap with was turned slightly and caused me to have to forcefully push the plates on. Using some pliers to turn it a bit fixed the issue to where I at least didn't have to sand the little bit down. Speaking of quality control, the welds/angles on the BD-62 weren't perfect, as I noticed one of the pulley pieces was slightly angled so I couldn't quite get the full 180 degrees of turning because the bolt contacted the inner side, but it's almost unnoticeable.

The resistance on the concentric portion is normal. I was kind of worried about the reviews saying it's not that fluid, and was debating on going with the Archon model that touts ball bearings, but couldn't justify the extra ~$150 (the BD-62 was ~$205 at the time which seemed low, so I pulled the trigger) just for that. Some BD-62 reviewers did mention greasing up their setup which fixed any qualms of lack-of-smoothness.

I bought some silicone spray while waiting for the thing to ship, and when it all arrived it seemed smooth enough already. I sprayed it lightly with the silicone anyway, it may or may not have helped, nothing substantial.

Tangentially the Archon does have a lower-mount and is taller (some people complain about the height of the BD-62, it's fine for me), but the height of the Archon was a dealbreaker for me because it was going under my garage door. I'm glad the rubber wedge keeps the BD-62 stable on the floor or else rigging a mount would have been a pain in the ass.

The eccentric part is not perfect in the sense that it's not like pulling on bands where you have instant tension on the eccentric portion. With the cables, gravity takes a split second to reverse the momentum of the weights, but I suppose this is going to happen with all cable machines.

In the end, I built my own pulley system before this, taking the Spud Inc stuff as reference, buying my own pulleys and custom length cables from National Gym Supply - which is definitely better than the Spud stuff because those custom cables are really nice.

However, I was (expectedly) too lazy to put them up and bring them back down, so they just sit in a corner. The BD-62 is already set up at all times, so I can very easily use it ad hoc, which leads to more use, which means it was most definitely worth me buying.

What's your ceiling made of? If it's made of standard roofing stuff you can probably just screw a couple of mounts into it a certain distance apart and you'll be good.

Something like this might work: https://www.amazon.com/Hipiwe-Ceiling-Anchor-Suspension-Resistance/dp/B01NAGFNYD/ref=sr_1_18?keywords=hammock+mount&qid=1557192748&s=gateway&sr=8-18

I am a c5 complete.

You can use a pair of light ankle weights on the wrists for many different types of shoulder exercises. I do that, and I also have a set of resistance bands that I have mounted to my wall (https://www.amazon.com/CoreMount-Resistance-Training-Storage-Vertical/dp/B06WP6JX2V/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Resistance+bands+wall+mount&qid=1562955373&s=sporting-goods&sr=1-6). You can use padded ankle cuffs (like https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018Y6OQ56/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) to attach the resistance bands to his wrists so that it doesn’t hurt your wrist as much when pulling on the bands. The key is to mount the resistance bands at the right height and get the right resistance set up. For me, once that was taken care of, I can now work out at any time by myself and do bicep curls, internal/external shoulder rotation, rows, stretch my shoulders, etc. I can roll up to my bands and get the wrist cuff over my hand and then use my mouth to tighten the wrist cuff above or below the big wrist bone depending on what exercise I am doing (closer to the hand for bicep curls, internal/external rotation, stretching & further up the arm above the wrist bone for most all other workouts so it doesn’t feel like my hands are going to pop off.

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I don’t know if this is the information that you are looking for, but maybe it may give you some ideas to try for his case. Let me know if you have any other questions!

I'm looking to mount rings to the joists in my garage. Would there be any noticeable difference between a mount like this one where the straps will be in carabiners which can move slightly or a mount like this one where that's not the case? I like the idea of being able to use the carabiners to quickly take the rings down without having to mess with the straps.

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Best of both worlds seems to be this mount but it's wicket expensive for two.

I really love this attachment - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SFXBTC2/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use it twice per week, once with a narrow grip and once with the wider

Copying and pasting a comment from a previous thread -

I did a DIY setup, with everything coming from Amazon except the carabiners, which you can pretty much find anywhere. Here's the links for the parts:

Steel Cable: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YDK49M/

Wire Rope Clips: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00III7IP6/

Pulleys: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BD6BSQ/

Thimbles: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0038YY3LW/

Tie-down Straps (for hanging pulleys from the rack): https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AS5QC1C/

Loading Pin: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IRY5U14/

Assuming you have some tools around, this should be everything you would need. I recommend a bolt cutter if you don't already have one. I thought I would be able to cut the steel cable with the wire cutters built into my pliers and it was not happening. Ended up having to make a trip to the tool shop this morning to get that.

^ That described my fears with it pretty well.

On amazon you can find a standlone lat pulldown / row machine plate loaded for around 250.

The T3 looks around 430.

You can find 300 lbs of weights with a beater bar at Dicks for 200.

A cheap curl bar you can get for 30 bucks on amazon.

Landmine attachement for the rack $30

Incline / decline bench
The bench you were getting for 410:
https://www.amazon.com/BodySolid-GFID71-Heavy-Duty-Bench/dp/B000EB7O2M/ref=sr_1_14?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1504630563&sr=1-14&keywords=Body-Solid+bench

However you can find a decent one for 310
https://www.amazon.com/XMark-Incline-Decline-Weight-XM-7604/dp/B0080QZKHE/ref=sr_1_13?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1504630426&sr=1-13&keywords=incline+decline+bench


This puts you at 1250 / 1350 depending on your bench

you are missing 100lbs of weights and lets assume the cheaper bench, so add 100 for the weights at $100,
1350

Add in a better bar:
Rogue B&R for 300 (less aggressive knurl than the ohio power, but still has a center knurl) Do some research on a bunch of bars if you do go this route.

1650


From here maybe go with some adjustable dumbbells.
These are singles, so a pair for $70
https://www.amazon.com/Barbell-Solid-20-Inch-Dumbbell-Handle/dp/B0010YOBB4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504631135&sr=8-1&keywords=olympic+adjustable+dumbbells

You will want decent clips, rogue is suggesting to use these with their dumbbells, so https://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-oso-barbell-collars 50 there.

I think we are at 1770.
From here I would get more 10 and 5 lb plates, since you have the dumbbells you will want more than one pair and that is what the 300lb set gives you. so 3 more pairs of 10s and another pair 5s. That should be around 70lbs, worst case scenario $100.

That puts you at 1870. I probably missed some small stuff (handles and such for the lat pulldown / landmine) that would close the gap to 2k, but if not maybe add the dip bar to your rack (if you like dips)
https://www.titan.fitness/cages-and-racks/t-3-racks/t-3-rack-attachments/titan-t-3-y-dip-bar.html

that would put you at 1940. You are still missing a preacher curl station, but I personally don't feel that is necessary.


Edit missing handles:
https://www.amazon.com/Special-Sales-Yes4All-Tricep-Attachments/dp/B013JL05O2/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504632159&sr=8-1-fkmr1&keywords=lat+pull+down+close+grip+handle

https://www.amazon.com/Yes4All-Combo-Package-Straight-Rotating/dp/B00HHED20C/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1504632233&sr=8-5&keywords=lat+pull+down+handle

I would use the first one for the landmine handles aswell. I personally like that grip a lot more than the landmine specific ones.

Those two combined are $55
Now at 1,992 not including tax. However I don't think your quote included tax either so I think its comparable.

Realizing how far the 2k went, (assuming my math is somewhat decent) This is the route I would go and would suggest. Even if the pull down system in that cage works flawlessly I still think this is a better setup since your getting dumbbells, a better bar, a better rack, I think more weight (although very cheap)

Edit: The only thing I would consider changing is switching out the 300lb iron set for cheap bumpers at $1 / lb. maybe 3 pairs of 45s as bumpers. (270lbs). Then still get the 25s, 4 sets of 10s and 2 sets of 5s, and 2 sets of 2.5s as iron. Rogue Echo looks to be $1.3 / lb. This would bump your weight cost up to 500ish. We were at 300 on weights, so 200 over. If you drop the dip bar, closer to 100 over. This would make your deadlifts quieter and easier on the floor. The only drawback is the width of the plates. You aren't going to be able to put more than, 5ish on the bar. So probably 495lb.

Edit: For the dumbbell handles you need 2 sets of collars, not just 1 like I listed

Drill the bowling ball and epoxy the eye bolt in. This might be a more comfortable option for a leg strap http://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-Weightlifting-Line-Ankle-Strap/dp/B000S0I2Q6

If you get something like this, you should be able to do quite a few exercises on a cable machine. Flies, reverse flies, tri push downs, curls, straight arm pull down, etc.

I have this one and like it fine.

Probably not the same brand but it looks like these https://www.amazon.com/Glute-Kickback-Patented-Ankle-Strap/dp/B01H49VDJG?th=1

I have never seen anything like that, but they may have a bigger version of something like this? https://www.amazon.com/lb-Cable-Machine-Weight-Plate/dp/B004XTN7FO

I just got something like these and drilled them into studs in the ceiling. When I started doing this, I was 250lbs and didn't have a problem.

https://www.amazon.com/RitFit-Suspension-Strength-Training-Equipment/dp/B07C4YLDJG/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1536607870&sr=8-10&keywords=ring+wall+anchor

Do you have access to a gym with cable machines? One thing that could assist would be one of these and just use it on your forearm. Then do things like cable flies, curls, or tricep pushdowns. It may not be ideal, but it would take your wrist out of the equation.

If you don't have access to a cable machine you could use one of those straps paired with anything similar to this and still do curls and flies (laying on a bench/tall flat surface).

I picked up these last night since they were a common item purchased alongside the titan pulley system

https://www.amazon.com/Valor-Fitness-Olympic-Adapter-Sleeve/dp/B00GNOQE0M/ref=pd_sim_200_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00GNOQE0M&pd_rd_r=8SN60WJ5T5KT4RP4PJNW&pd_rd_w=6Vte8&pd_rd_wg=7NcQ9&psc=1&refRID=8SN60WJ5T5KT4RP4PJNW

Close grip row handle.

Here

Cable machine add on weight

My gym has exactly three of these and they are as precious as gold.

This thing?

https://www.amazon.com/lb-Cable-Machine-Weight-Plate/dp/B004XTN7FO

https://www.amazon.com/lb-Cable-Machine-Weight-Plate/dp/B004XTN7FO

Followup Question:

What size loading pin did you use? This 10" seem fine? I don't want to go too long and not be able to get it off the ground when using the pinches.

I bought this one off amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B01CJHDTV8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

No complaints yet! Though I'm only up to about 160 lbs for hip thrusts.