Duanes Compact Ironmaster Gym
Big thanks goes out to Duane for sending in a picture and detailed review of his Ironmaster gym. Duane pretty much nails what home gym life is all about. But first here is a picture of his pride and joy…
Hi Sam,
Attached is a photo of my gym. I have a large shed, but half of is gyprocked and makes a great man cave. I’m all about taking up as little space as possible with the gym gear.
I’ve had the basic Ironmaster gear for years (maybe 5 yo 7 years) and its still going strong. When I had kids I bought home gym gear so I wouldn’t be spending time after work at a commercial gym when the wife was looking after the kidsbabies all day. I went through a pile of junk benches and equipment before finding and liking the Ironmaster gear. I thought a home gym would be a lot of improvisation and sub standard workouts compared to a good commercial gym.. But now, I would rather workout at home and I think I get a better result.
• I can show up for 15 minutes any time of day.
• I can do any stupid looking exercise that I think will produce results and no one is there to judge me.
• I’m not waiting for equipment while someone sits on it staring at their phone.
• No travel time.
• No gym fees.
• I wear what I want. Gym’s frown on UGG boots in winter.
• Forget earphones, I bought a good secondhand stereo amplifier off eBay.
I love this home gym. Some of the gear I have:
• Ironmaster Bench
• Ironmaster Cable station
o Lying bicep curls and lying rows also work well with the SPUD cable straps. And no pressure on the neck or spine.
• Ironmaster Dumbells x2.
o I have the Ironmaster dumbell fat grips as well.
• Ironmaster Preacher attachment
• Ironmaster Dip attachment
• Ironmaster Chinup attachment
• Ironmaster Leg ext/curl attachment.
• SPUD cable straps.
• Homemade wrist roller.
o Usually I tied some weight plates to it. But recently found I could attach it to the high cable point, lie on the bench and do the wrist rolling from there. No pressure on the shoulders.
For legs I’m just using body-weight or added weight from plates or dumbbells.
I’m lazy with setting up, so I generally don’t use the attachments that often, but I do use the cable machine, bench and dumbbells.
Cheers Duane
One thing that frustrates me when dealing with customers is they often read something on the internet about what they should be doing – for example barbell style strength programs. So everyone thinks you have to have a power rack. While I agree that these barbell programs are highly effective, I actually do them myself, but they are certainly not for everyone. My argument is that you will get better results from something that you like doing, in preference to not training at all because you hate it. It’s that simple.
So I got an absolute buzz from Duane talking about his home gym story. There is no more passionate home gym lifter in Australia than Duane. Best of all, he has achieved this with a relatively simple and compact set up (no power rack).
When my wife was pregnant with our twins and I had to be home a lot, I trained solely with the Ironmaster Adjustable Dumbbells and Kettelebell Handle. No bench. No cable tower. Let me tell you these were some of the best training months I had. Nearly all workouts were done and dusted in under 20 minutes, some as quick as 6 minutes. Best of all I loved the training – so I was training more often and with more enthusiasm.
So with all his extra’s, Duane has got himself something more than a highly effective home gym – it is his man cave where he can escape from the pressures of the world and do what he loves. There is no way you could experience that type of euphoria in many of these commercial gyms these days. That is what home gym training is all about, creating your own little corner of the world where you can do your own thing.
So I thank Duane again for sharing, plus all the other people who have shared their photos or home gyms I have visited. They are all unique in their own way, but share a common passion. Duane’s story will hopefully inspire people who don’t have massive amounts of space to set up something compact, but full of pride.