Gym is 25 minutes away and I am skipping too much. Garage has about 2.5m x 3m of space and a concrete floor. Budget 500 total. Goal is to keep lifting 3x a week, not to compete at anything.
Current thinking: adjustable dumbbells (the dial kind) and a bench. That is already 400. Is that enough or am I going to be bored in 3 months?
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Different take: skip the dial dumbbells, buy used. A second hand olympic bar, a 100kg plate set, and a cheap squat stand show up for 300-350 on marketplace constantly. Bench for 80. Now you have a real barbell setup. Dial dumbbells cap out at 24 or 32kg per hand and you will hit that on RDLs within the year.
Also valid, but barbell in a 2.5m wide garage is tight and used stands are the thing people regret. If he has the space, do this. If not, dumbbells.
The 32kg per hand cap is a fair point for RDLs. Going to measure the garage properly before I decide.
Whatever you buy, buy a mat. Concrete and dropped dumbbells is how you end up with a cracked floor and a cracked dumbbell.
Dumbbells and a bench is enough to train for years if you are honest about progression. Goblet squats, Bulgarian split squats, RDLs, bench, rows, overhead press, all covered.
The only thing you cannot do well is pull. Spend the last 100 on a door frame pull-up bar and a set of bands. Now you have everything. You will not be bored, you will be strong.
Forgot about pulling entirely. Door bar it is.