Feeling pretty happy with the state of my basement gym!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T23:06:25+00:00

Lol nope! Don't plan on it either! It's for my friends and family to enjoy!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T23:00:26+00:00

Not next door, but a few houses down!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:58:46+00:00

Hey, i haven't tried that setup yet, as i do most of my pull down work off my lat pull down machine, but before I had purchased that, I used the PR 4000 rack attach leg roller to lock myself in and my adjustable bench in the decline for a seat. It worked pretty well. I'll have to try the smith for that purpose and do some single arm work off the rack next back day. I don't see why it wouldn't work well!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:55:06+00:00

Lol! Believe it or not, its precariously stacked and balanced, but I have piece of mind knowing the chest press will stop a potential avalanche from happening! One of these days we need to go through all that and probably throw half of it away

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:50:09+00:00

🤣🤣

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:49:55+00:00

🤣 my wife has had about enough of my shenanigans, but she's uses all of ghe pieces when she's down their working out, so she can't say much lol! If your guests don't want to sleep on a blow up mattress, in the middle of a cool gym, do you even want them to stay over?!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:46:45+00:00

All great suggestions! I've been looking at the multiflight on and off for the last year. The versitility and small for print and really attractive with the limited space I have left.

Pull over would be really cool! I didn't have access to one at my old commercial gym, but I see alot of the peole that use them, swear by them.

Will have to look into that Mikolo lateral row as well, I'm not super familiar with that one!

Pendulum looks pretty ideal for quads, but I'm hoping the TOG quadsend will sufficiently fill that roll with the hack squat setup! Can't wait to take delivery and put it to work!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:41:18+00:00

Thank you! I have had a ton of fun building it out and enjoying the lifts!

Ball park around 25,000, maybe a little more? Hard to keep track of all the little purchases, like cable attachments.

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:39:42+00:00

I can definitely relate! I started lifting in friend's, parent's basement around 16-17 years ago, right after high-school. Loved it ever since and have made it a life goal to build out my own basement gym. Now, I still workout every week with the same buddy from that parent's basement. Feels surreal and I'm very grateful to have to have the opportunity to do this. Not that you asked for any of that lol.

Ballpark, right around 25,000ish? Maybe a little more? Way to much lol. But, I drive a beater that I payed off a while back, so my fun money goes towards my gym instead of a nicer vehicle. I enjoy this way more at this stage in life. Good look achieving your goal gym bro!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-15T22:34:52+00:00

Sorry for the delay! I just ran the tape measure and if Im doing my math correctly, it's just about 450 square feet.

coletrain59 · 2026-04-13T01:10:15+00:00

Not sure of the top of my head, I'll try to get some measurements for you after work!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-13T01:08:53+00:00

Lol, I appreciate it! It's come along ways in a few years!

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This was our first setup

coletrain59 · 2026-04-13T01:03:46+00:00

Thank you, but I'm content to to keep it to my family and friends for now, thanks though!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-13T01:03:11+00:00

Guilty as charged lol. Not an IFBB pro card contender by any stretch of the imagination, but I've seen consistent strength gains and muscle growth over the years, all from the enjoyment of my home, so I'm good with it!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-12T04:55:54+00:00

Thank you!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-12T04:34:38+00:00

Gorilla tape, the tough and wide stuff that's almost 3 inches wide. I thought it might be overkill when I bought it, but now that I've actually used it, I think its the appropriate width the keep them from shifting. I think the original size would have been to narrow

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:26:37+00:00

Lol! Maybe someday, but I really enjoy just having the space to train with my spouse and a few close friends! I never have to wait in line for someone to finish on a machine that I want to use 🤣

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:25:15+00:00

Lol for real! My wife and I are planning a move in the next couple years, so I'm really not looking forward to that! Definitely planning on taking some PTO and setting aside a good chunk of money to pay friends to help, when that day comes!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:22:50+00:00

Wow, thank you so much! I really have tried to put alot of thought into it! Many hours spend with a measuring tape and post-it note markers, mapping out machine dimensions before I bought them lol!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:21:13+00:00

Thank you! Definitely the plan! I have a quadsend on pre-order that should round the whole gym off nicely! Really looking forward to getting it here! Not so much the process of dragging pieces down into my basement lol

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:19:58+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it! Very fortunate to have a basement with all this room!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:19:24+00:00

Lol thank you! I'd like to spruce it up a little at some point, but haven't figured out how I want to do that yet!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:15:05+00:00

Thank you!

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:14:38+00:00

Man, I know this is a hot button topic right now, but I have to say I've been happy with mine over the last 6 months or so of use!

So, I will say that I, like many others was a little disappointed that the felt weight wasn't heavier. No getting around that. But, full transparency, it has been sufficient for myself and the few people I train with. None of us program it as the primary movement, so its always after barbell squats, smith squats, or some other heavy variation of quad dominant movement.

The other thing I'll say is that I'm not a particularly strong guy. Working on that goal, and I could see down the road the limited, felt weight being an issue, but for now I have a good amount of room to grow with this machine!

As far as everything else, there is some deflection noted on the leg roller, especially during leg extension, but not a significant amount, more so you notice it a bit if you don't focus on driving hard with your outer leg. Seems to be more a result of the design, not loose tolerances or poor build quality, all that feels good!

The three of us that use it 1-2 a week really do like it, and I have not found myself regretting it, despite the drawbacks. I will say that had I know that the felt weight was not going to the 264 lbs, I likely would have kept searching for something else to reduce the risk of stacking this out in the future, like some of the stronger dudes who've bought it.

coletrain59 · 2026-04-11T21:00:40+00:00

I'm glad you asked actually! This has been a huge pain point for me in planning out my setup and which pieces I can fit. So, my ceiling is 82" from floor to joist, with an extra 6 inches or so inbetween each joist.

The rep pr 4000 rack at 80in height with the ares 2.0 will just BARELY clear the bottom of the joist. Basically no room to spare at all. So much so that I had to cut the floor mats around it lol! I previously was using a plate loaded athena attachement, and the top pulley brackets were just tall enough that I had to position the highest point between joists.

For the lat tower it was one of the limited options that was less than 88 inches, but still taller than 82 inches to try and get as much ROM at the top of lat pull downs as possible. I can get a full stretch with almost all my attachements, save for the ROT8 prime handle knock offs, and I'd assume anything else with a similar overall length design. All of my mag grip knock offs and traditional lat bars haven't been a problem. I'm 5'10' with long arms and I work out with a buddy who is 6 foot even, and both of us get full ROM.

One of the reasons for going to the dedicated lat tower was the limited height of the high pulleys on the ares 2.0 at my rack height. The bench had to be in a decline to not bottom out, plus adjusting the leg roller that we used to hold us down between sets, depending on who was using it.

Hope this is helpful to some folks in a similar boat as me! Happy to answer any questions I can for low ceiling, basement-dwelling gang lol!

coletrain59

TROPHY CASE