Epic Home Gym Build: Inside My Dream $20K Home Gym Tour
Introduction
Hey guys, this is Michael with The Jungle Gym Reviews, today we are doing something a bit different for the video since I have been getting a lot of requests for a home gym tour in the comments. So today, I am excited to take you through my always evolving space, show you around, talk about my equipment, my training, and some of the history here at The Jungle Gym. Welcome to the Jungle! Come on in!
Today we aren’t doing the typical product review but rather a more of a collective showcase, and in some cases a high-level overview of particular equipment and items I have collected here into what’s known as The Jungle Gym.
Original Gym Build 2020
I just wanted to give you guys a quick background for how we got here, I didn’t just wake up and decided to sell a kidney in order fund a kind of boutique looking home gym. No, I started The Jungle Gym in 2020 like many others, when the gyms closed and myself and a few good friends were trying to keep our strength training workouts alive in my basement, with some super cheap secondhand marketplace equipment that cost $500, like a cheap Marcy 3 piece barbell, bench, squat stand, weight plates, spinlock dumbbells, and one of those 1990’s home gym all-in-one cable tower thing that everyone’s dad used to have in their basement when I was growing up.
From there, with a $30 a month member fee, we all were contributed slowly to accumulating more equipment over the next year or two to eventually have a very functional and respectable full multi-person home gym setup. I went so far even to sell my first child, my baby, my project car, to fund this new “hobby” (addiction) and after a few years the entire basement was, in fact, a fully equipped gym and nothing else.
Home Gym 3.0 Build in 2023
Well, once kids came into the picture, I realized I needed the space inside my house for house things, so the gym had to get moved outside and luckily we had an extra parking space in our 3 car garage I could use. But being the both the engineer and kind of person I am, and, coming from a finished, heated and cooled basement, knew I couldn’t survive Michigan winters in an uninsulated garage. So in typical Michael fashion, for those who know me, I decided to build from the ground up, my own actual legitimate separate workout room in my garage. And yes, I do mean a room: framing, drywall, electrical, paint, flooring, separate entry door, new garage door with high lift tracks, and springs, a mini split, hardwired speakers, lighting, you name it, I did it, with just some minimal help from my friend Eric, to be fair who I gave a whole power rack to. I even went so far to get the whole project sanctioned and approved by the city and inspected to code, with the help of a few small in-house project managers.
That is how we got here today.
Power Rack
So now that you know about how we got here let’s talk about what everyone wants to see, the equipment.
Ok so at the heart of this gym and every gym is the power rack, this thing is a Frankenstein rack that was carefully sourced from different manufacturers and hand selected based on my personal height, my needs, wants, and the overall functionality and footprint I wanted to pack into this relatively small space. I have had a few different 3x3 rack configurations in the past, and after finally coming out of the hobbit’s cave that was my 80inch tall basement, I was happy to have a non-height restricted room to be able to do all the weightlifting activities my heart desired.
The rack itself is a 6 post Titan Fitness Titan Series 100inch uprights since I am tall and want to do full range of motion pullups. In between, are REP PR5000 16-inch crossmembers since these are some of the shortest crossmembers you can buy that still allow minimal spacing between the uprights but also have plenty of room for plate and other storage options. Then to add to the complexity I dropped in a REP PR5000 selectorized lat pull down and low row to the mix since I knew the Titan and Rep racks holes would line up because they are both metric rack dimensions and spacing and not a true 3x3. Obviously to mention for all my barbell movements, I lift outside the rack and with spotter arms as needed and nothing on the inside impacts any barbell movements like incline benching.
Besides the rack posts itself, I have a bunch of other goodies in here with the crown jewel being the Pepin Fast Series Adjustable dumbbells. I have a DIY rack mount for them made from some extra Titan and Rep crossmembers I put together with a set of Crandall Fitness Spotter arms. Check out my YouTube shorts video talking about this in more detail. All these spare parts come together to make the Pepins sit ever-so-perfectly with a desired height and width for my frame to store and be able to walk in, rack, and unrack the dumbbells without getting in the way of any other movements.
Some of the other things on here are various barbells, like my 4th or 5th safety squat bar iteration, this one is the Bells SS4, my very in need of cleaning Rogue bare steel Ohio Power Bar, and a chrome Titan Fitness power bar I don’t think they make anymore that was used as a backup and is now mostly for landmines. Speaking of landmines, I have the Kleva built Adriot 2.0 landmine attachment which can be mounted to any hole, but I typically keep tucked away at the bottom of the rack for landmine rows and such. I have the low-profile Surplus Strength Spotter arms which are super easy to store and mov. For lat pulldowns I mount some Rogue single leg rollers into the Surplus Strength Spotter arms to hold my legs in place perfectly. These Surplus Strength spotter arms are also great for home-gym-engineering and creativity to make all sort of cool rack attached options. I’ve made a hanging leg raise with these, use them for landmine spotters, a step up, a dip attachment with some band pegs, and my favorite use is attaching my Darko Thresher for chest supported dumbbell rows.
Overall, the rack configuration is awesome for my needs, space, and has served me well. Attachments like the Bolt Fitness Gemini lateral raise and chest fly, store and work well on here. I do miss my fully kitted lever arms with the Vendetta Strength bracket adapters and the Kaizen/Gym Pin swivel adapters. I had to sell that whole lever arms setup about a year ago to fund some other priority purchases at the time, since money is definitely of some object to me, unfortunately.
Now, as you will see here in a moment, I have a separate functional trainer and that’s because until recently, I have mostly worked out with at least two people at the same time. Since the rack and the trainer are typically the most used pieces of equipment alongside some dumbbells, it made sense for me to have them as separate entities. If I were to do it all over again now, since it’s mostly just me these days, I would possibly entertain the idea of an all-in-one 3x3 selectorized functional trainer, lat pulldown, and smith machine integrated power rack strictly to have more floor space and room for other fun toys in the gym instead of two separate machines.
Functional Trainer
Ok now so speaking to the functional trainer let’s move to the Inspire, now Centr, SF3 which I have had a few years now after purchasing it from Costco on sale at some ridiculously low price along with some Costco card kickbacks. I am almost certain it was about $1500 out the door. I really wanted the SF3 specifically for the smith machine because I love smith machines, and I historically do a lot of more bodybuilding or hypertrophy-oriented training so wanted the addition to free weight or cable movements. And I literally had a separate smith machine in my basement gym before moving to home gym 3.0. I also previously has the Inspire FTX trainer as my original cable system back when it cost around $800, and I was so impressed that thing was so smooth and incredible for the price I decided to stick with Inspire brand again. It literally was smoother than the commercial functional trainer at a few gyms I used to frequent.
To date, the SF3 has been so great and I have been so happy with the purchase. It’s a perfect width to do chest flies or cable crossovers, the pulleys and eccentric and concentric resistance are perfect, and the smith machine feels fantastic since it is cable driven. Some people complain about how you have to start the smith machine at the bottom of the movement or that the machine overall is not tall enough but I have had zero issues even being 6ft2 with long arms. You quickly get used to the smith machine functionality and potential height restricted movements like a tricep pushdown I have completely full range of motion. The only thing I can’t do on here is full range of motion pullups because I am tall so have to bend my knees.
I also did a little DIY to this machine and drilled holes to installed a resistance band hanger here to the back of the frame which allows for additional attachment storage. At the bottom I also drilled holes to store my Bare Steel Equipment stacked weight pins and the 5 pounds Inspire weight increments. I don’t use the stacked weight pins often but are great when I do, and they function as intended when you want to do a heavy single sided movement like Belt Squat or seated lat pulldowns, especially before I had the rack mounted REP version.
Like I mentioned earlier, I know at some point I will consolidate to an all in one rack, and I am going to be sad when that integrated functional trainer version isn’t as nice fit and finish as this SF3 and especially considering the moderate price I paid for this, it’s pretty unbeatable price per value.
Wall and Attachment Storage
So if you can’t tell by now I am a little particular when it comes to, well a lot of things, but especially storage, organization, color schemes, you name it, I have a strong preference. This here is my wall control storage wall which holds my various attachments and other things that I don’t need as often or that aren’t associated with or in rotation with the functional trainer explicitly. Here I keep extra lat pulldown bars, resistance bands, landmine attachments, different Kensui grips, Fat grips, lifting belts, belt squat belts, wrist wraps, knee sleeves, hitch pins, Versa grips, deadlift straps, you name it. You know, all the staples that help me mentally think I am strong and lift weights.
Wall Control is the brand name if anybody is interested, and I hope you have heard of them. But they make metal pegboard panels that you can choose in any color and different dimensions to suit your needs. It fairly priced, works great, is heavy duty, and the pegs and attachments you can get for it make storing absolutely anything and everything very easy from tools, to garden supplies, to gym equipment. And oh, if you are also particular as you can see here, and it’s also very nicely color configurable.
Bike
Next moving to the cardio section, which we should just skip because nobody actually does cardio anyways…
But, if you remember, from a recent review there used to be a Walmart Signature Fitness/BalanceFrom stair climber right here which I just sold a few days ago not because it didn’t work since that thing was a fantastic purchase and was awesome and treated me will for a year. I simply just wanted to switch up my cardio for a bit.
Now here is the newest marketplace score in the Echelon Connect EX-8s which I picked up essentially brand new for a couple hundred bucks and usually retails for much more. I literally have been so busy with kids, work, reviews, and my own personal fitness of a combination lifting and running outside that I haven’t I haven’t actually had time to use it past a singular ride, so can’t speak to much about it with any sort of authority. However, I plan to do an in depth review sometime next year after getting to us it throughout the Michigan winter.
Treadmill
So, I as I mentioned have been very active especially cardio wise in 2024,. I recently completing a few 10k cross functional races like the Spartan race, which I very much enjoyed the blend of strength and stamina involved. Since then I have really upped my cardio focus and am now running a few times a week but always outdoors since it’s not snowing here in Michigan like it feels like it is a majority of the year.
This Horizon 7.0 AT treadmill was a tough selection of the lot, just because there are so many options of treadmills, features, and configurations and they can get astronomically expensive, really fast. I wanted something that had a 3.0 HP motor, a cushioned wide and long enough running deck to be able to accommodate my long strides, and then also ability to do a reasonably high incline and change speeds quickly. This Horizon treadmill this ticked all the boxes for a little less than $1000 and I was able to pick it up locally at Dick’s Sporting Goods. It also has a tablet holder which is in a good location around eye height so you don’t have to stare down while in use.
I mainly use this to do walkin, especially during the winter, during a lunch break or on some phone calls. When purposed for training, I use an incline and set speed walking for added cardio and hiking training, backwards walking, and a few mile runs on it occasionally. Again, I haven’t been doing much dedicated running the past 5 years apart of playing soccer which has been my main cardio for my entire life till this point. This winter the treadmill will get a lot more use in since I am now “a runner”? I guess. But overall, it’s a good treadmill for the price and oh, did I mentioned the relatively all black aesthetics which match the gym because, obviously that was a factor in my decision as well.
Bench, Plyo Box, Pepin Kettlebell, and Other
So my newest bench is a Rogue Adjustable Bench 3.0 (and I previously recently had a Rep AB5000 zero gap for a few years). The Adjustable Bench 3.0 is a sweet bench and coming from a history of Rep and other benches I actually like this one has a slightly firmer and narrower back pad at 11inch width, which allows for me personally to get a little more comfortable range of motion compared to the 12+ inches pad width that everyone seems to be doing these days.
Over here you will see the tried and trusted REP Plyo box, it works for box jumps, landmines, to set your phone, water, and laptop on, and it’s black and white and matches the gym.
The Pepin fast series kettlebell I bought because I wanted to test the Pepin fast series ecosystem with the dumbbells. It’s a nice thought but uncomfortable for pressing or snatches because of relatively wide head/base up against your forearm compared to a more narrow and more rounded traditional kettlebell design. This isn’t necessarily a design flaw as much as part of the limitation in reusing the dimensions with the original Pepin weight plates, so there isn’t a way around it from an engineering standpoint. I will be doing a separate, more in-depth, short review in the future.
Here also have dumbbell pairs for 5, 10, 15, under the 20 starting weight of the Pepins, this way I can do drop sets, my wife can use them, my kids can use them, or really for shoulder accessories.
Then there are some various things like squat wedges made by CFT performance, some kids dumbbells we bought for my daughters, and the Bolt Fitness Lateral Raise attachment handles.
Non-Equipment
Ok so besides the weightlifting equipment, there is so non-equipment packed in here I am going to have to do a speed run of the following:
1. Mister Cool Mini split 18k BTU from Costco, installed by myself. Even in 0 degree temperature outside this gets the garage to a balmy 69 degrees. If you are able to handle working out in any temperate colder than that, you are real one.
2. Mirrors, I went the DIY route which is to purchase 3x5 mirrors from Lowe’s or Home Depot for $85 and stack them side by side to create the huge-infinity-gym-mirror look. 10/10, would recommend and save a ton of money. More mirrors is great and really just opens up the space and dissipates light everywhere, in addition to be extremely functional to seeing what you are doing or just downright being vain when you are lean enough to see your veins.
3. Speakers, I had these old Yamaha HS8 studio monitors I wall mounted, ran some cord covers and hooked up a Bluetooth receiver to play music from my phone so that all my neighbors can enjoy my metal with me.
4. Flooring, 4x6 Tractor Supply horse stall mats, the best and only flooring you will ever need, just do a quick search on the Home Gym Facebook group to see for yourself.
Film Studio/Auxiliary Gym
Since I am quickly needing more space for equipment and reviews I have recently expanded to begin conquest of my entire 3 car garage, so in addition to my enclosed gym room here, I am also occupying the other side of the gym wall, now considered yet another auxiliary gym which is primarily used for filming although I have expanded some pieces out here which I do use in my daily workouts.
My personal leg extension and leg curl is a Nautilus Instinct selectorzied leg extension and curl. The RitFit leg press I still use for hack squats, leg press, and calf raises, that thing is great for the price for sure. I really actually want to keep it but I need the space for more reviews for you guys, so it is going to my dad who has been wanting a one of these type of machines for a long time. I have a older school Wate-man seated calf raise for those and in the corner, I have the Major Fitness F22 which is going to my brother to help him start his first home gym.
This side and even the finished main gym room will continue to change as I continue to review and try new products and switch up my training.
Basement Gym
As I previously mentioned at one point my entire basement was a gym. Earlier this year in 2024, before my wife had given into my full garage-gym takeover ultimatum, I had expanded some equipment into my unfinished furnace room of the basement and made it a dedicated machine area. I had a Titan Fitness Leg Press and hack squat, a Titan Fitness plate loaded leg extension and curl, then replaced by a Fray Fitness leg extension and curl. I also had until a couple months ago one of my favorite plate loaded machines of all time, the Hammer Strength Iso Row and a Nautilus Nitro Pec Fly which are now recently sold to fund other equipment purchases. The last two pieces down there currently is a unique Magnum Fitness Biangular Transformer which is kind of like the original lever arms type of machine that can do a bunch of converging or diverging movements from bench press, shoulder press, to lat pulldowns, and rows. I should really do a showcase of that piece because it’s so cool, let me know in the comments if you would be interested in learning about an older school piece. Lastly, I also still have the Signature Fitness leg press down there, which, spoiler alert, I love, and has made me realize how much I missed the feeling of a true leg press for so long. A review for that is coming at some point once I move it upstairs into the garage to film.
Signoff and Q&A
And guys that’s pretty much it, if there was anything I missed or you wanted me to go over in more detail, please leave a question or message in the comments below. I can try to add some shorter form content on particular items is desired. If you would like to see more behind the scenes types of videos like this, my training, or even more on the personal side please let me know and subscribe to the channel to stay up to date on this type of additional content. I appreciate you tuning in to The Jungle Gym Reviews Home Gym Tour 2024, stay tuned for more great reviews coming soon. We will see you next time, peace.
-Michael Tabers, The Jungle Gym Reviews
