Reddit mentions of REP FITNESS Flat Bench - FB-3000-1,000 lb Rated Bench for Weightlifting

Hey Destiny,

I made the switch from a commercial gym and just built a home gym in my garage over this past summer and have a little bit of advice for you. I did a lot of research and reading before finally buying all of my equipment.

For the weights, they will probably be the most expensive part of your gym. I wouldn't recommend paying anything over $1/pound. If you want to take the time and check craigslist regularly, you can find some people desperate to sell their like-new/slightly-used weights from anywhere to $.60-.90 cents a pound. Some people have to move and have no other choice but to sell their weights as soon as possible. Even if the weights do have little bit of rust, you can easily clean that off. Just watch out for major chips/dings in the plates. Rubber plates will be more durable than iron, however rubber usually tends to cost you a lot more. Also weights with grip holes usually cost more than regular round ones. I got a 390lb set of like-new iron plates for only $260 on craigslist. I got pretty lucky but I've read many other stories of people getting even better deals than me.

I think the power rack you linked should be just fine. This is the rack I have for around the same price range . Make sure it has a good weight capacity. Even though you may not ever be squatting 700-800 pounds, if you think about it, when you throw the bar off your back and onto the spotter arms, F=MA and shit turns that 135lb you're squatting to more and more the higher you drop it from, so also keep that in mind.

For the bench, from what I have read and experienced, is one of the single most important parts of your gym. You don't want to go cheap on a bench and get an un-sturdy, wobbly bench. When you are pushing hundreds of pounds of weight over your body, and the bench breaks, the bar can possibly fall on your neck which is dangerous if you are lifting alone. It may be better for you to get a bench that has a flat base, instead of an arm such as this one. It's really up to you if you want to have adjustable positions on the bench for incline/decline, but just know that for better quality arms, you're going to have to spend a lot more money like into the $200-300 range.

For the mats, your rack is pretty much 4x4' so you will most likely need two mats if you want to do some deadlifting.. Some other people mentioned getting horse stall mats. Those are what I have and you can get them anywhere from $30-50 each and they do the job perfectly. I think the ones that you linked are a little bit too expensive.

Some Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• It is very convenient. You can lift shirtless or even naked.
  
• You can find some nice, loud speakers and listen to whatever music you want and not have to wear headphones
  
• It will save you money in the long run...assuming you continue to use it
  
• You can split up your workouts...i.e. instead of going to a gym for 1 hour you can work out 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at night since you don't have to drive back and forth.
  
• You can do some dank live streams and memes for your viewers and have them donate every time you hit a PR.
  
  Cons:
  
  
• It's almost too convenient. You say to yourself, "Oh, I'll just workout first thing tomorrow morning." Then you wake up a little late and have to eat, then tell yourself that you'll workout later that night. Then something comes up later and the cycle perpetuates. The fact that I wasn't actively paying for a gym pass made me less disciplined. But if you can discipline yourself well and find a nice, set schedule, you're good to go.
  
• Gym environment. I don't know if this applies to you, but I would go to the gym with a lot of my friends from school. I definitely started to miss the "gym environment". I thought I would never miss the douchebag bros walking around and having to wait for equipment to free-up, but I just started to feel so lonely working out by myself all of the time. It may be different for you because you have Erin and the chat to workout with you and motivate you.
  
  
  Here is a picture of my friend's home gym that inspired me to make mine.
  
  And here is my own home gym that cost me about $1100.
  
  Sorry if this post is a little jumbled up, my thoughts were kinda all over the place. I hope this helped a little bit.
  
  Feel free to ask me any other questions if you have any.
  

As mentioned before I think squatting in this set up would be an issue as you are pretty tall. If I had a 600 budget heres what I would go for:

• Titan X-3 Squat Stand - 255.60
  
• Rep Fitness Flat Bench - 139.99
  
• Fitness Gear 300lb Olympic Weight Set - 199.98
  
• Total without tax: 595.57
  
  I would look to upgrade to a power bar in the future. But this setup should do the trick for you.

I have the rep fitness flat bench and really like it. I got it for about $100 during black friday, but it's $129 on Amazon. And it qualifies for prime shipping if you have it.

https://www.amazon.com/Rep-Rated-Weight-Bench-Lifting/dp/B00NLPZGU0

Rep has it on their site for $100, but you'll have to pay shipping. https://www.repfitness.com/rep-flat-bench

I'm not sure which would come out cheaper, but that $100 amazon giftcard would only work for amazon obviously. I can't imagine that the difference would be much once you add shipping to ordering it from their site.

It'd be nice if the rep fitness bench had wheels like the titan bench does, but mainly for my fiancee. Having to pick it up to move it is not an issue. And I prefer the 12" wide pad to the 10" wide pad of the titan bench.

I think the titan bench would be fine as long as you're good with the 10" width. If you care about such things, the dimensions for an IPF approved bench are 48L x 12W x 17H. The rep is 47L x 12W x 17.5H. The titan is 47.25L x 10W x 16.25H.

So they're pretty close in dimensions. The padding on the rep bench is pretty good. I can't speak for the titan bench.

This is the bench I picked up for bench pressing. $150.

I built a lifting stand set based from End of Three Fitness' plans. The cost was less than $75.

As for a bar and weights. I picked up an olympic bar and plates from a local Salvation Army for about $90. I lucked out and saved myself $300. Check your local thrifts, used sports equipment stores and Sports Authorities.

Forgot to mention, I don't use mats, and control my deadlfts when putting them down and haven't had any complaints from my downstairs neighbors.

Good luck to you!

I am not sure of your budget? But i just started getting my garage gym together and after countless weeks of looking around at things i came across http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NLPZGU0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 this bench and after getting it and using it a few times i must say it is a well worth buy for the money.

Any thoughts on this one?

This post is almost exactly what I'm doing. I got the Titan rack and the Fitness Gear weights. Ship to Store is free, so that will save you money on that.

I got this bench instead. It's a simple flat bench, and costs similar to the Fitness Gear. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NLPZGU0?psc=1

I bought this set a while back when I was first getting things going and it was on sale at the time for $180. The bar is crap but it'll hold the weight (i think 300lb limit). I later bought the training barbell from American barbell when is was on sale for $250 shipped. My bench starting out was the rep fitness flat bench
and its still going, though I stopped benching ~5 months ago. My original rack was wooden and home made, but I saved up some cash and bought this rack, which I love. I also bought safeties for it, but those mostly collect dust now. My Iron plates now just sit in the corner waiting for someone to buy them as I only use bumpers now, which are a mix between the vaughn plates from fringe, onefitwonder plates from fringe and comp bumpers from rogue as well as rogue change plates.

Its been a long time coming and I'm still assembling what I want (ie more bumpers and one day a GHD), but for now it's perfect. I lift in there about 5 hours a week, minimum. If you're lucky, your area will have a good selection on craigslist, mine doesn't so I've had to buy new.