PT Equipment

[MORA Ranger]

I'm hoping some of you fitness junkies can help me out. My Chief has put me in charge of getting new equipment for the workout room that's being built for us.

I've conducted polls of my coworkers, but none of them are really big into weights. Maybe because we don't have any. We're two hours from a city with any kind of gym, so what I get here will be it (with the exception, of course, of the great outdoors). The workout room will be heavily used in the winters, when it's way to icy and cold to run outside.

I'm getting commercial grade stuff and I'm looking mostly at Life Fitness and Hammer Strength. My Chief wants me to get the best stuff available, but I know nothing about the different brands.

The new room is going to be 20' x 22', so I'm trying to save space. My coworkers really want two treadmills, an elliptical, and a stationary bike. That's easily half the room. I think we should get a bench press with free weights since our bi-annual PT test includes a max bench press. So I was looking at those and I found "Power Racks." You can bench, do squats, and do pull-ups (dips to, if I buy an attachment). Then I was thinking of getting a combo leg extension, prone leg curl machine and 10 pairs of dumbbells to kind of round things out. How does that sound? Are there other recommendations? I was originally considering multi gyms, but they're kind of hard to fit in with all the cardio stuff to. Will this equipment cover the major muscle groups? Have I left anything important out?

Lastly, not being someone who lifts enormous amounts of weights, what should I get? How many of the 45lb plates, 25, 10, etc?

The dumbbells come either individually or in 10 pairs from 5-50 lbs. What on earth would someone need a 50 lb dumbbell for? Should I just get 8 pair? 5-40lbs, or would people actually use the 45 and 50 pounders?

[Drummadude]

Personally, I prefer the weight machines to free weights, but as you said, you have a bench press eval. If someone is working out by himself, I wouldn't consider it a smart idea to bench press with no spotter.

I don't like bench pressing much, though I have a bench press with a leg curl and a weight machine style bar to lift (attached to a pulley). That could be an idea.
I just have two of each weight... if you have Hulk working for your agency, he may want heavier weights.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

If you're gonna have cops working out alone (not a good idea, but it happens often) check into a Smith machine.

http://www.fitnesszone.com/smithmachines.php

Smith machines allow one person to work safer without a spotter. You don't get the exact same ROM with one, but you can twist and lock the bar onto a safety pin if you get worn out and can't get the weight back up.

[Samuel]

Stepping out for a bit, couple of quick questions:

1. budget/cost really is no issue? (cooool!)
2. any way at all to make the room bigger?
3. will this be strictly for PT or will you be doing any DT training/workouts? ("fight conditioning" can be very different from what people normally do to work out)
4. how many people will be using the gym at any one time and how "hardcore" are they when it comes to weights?

btw, IMO, a lot of the work out routines found at CrossFit require minimal equipment but will absolutely murderalize people... ;)

[Explorer Smity]

Maybe this will help. This guy only uses a set of dumbells for his body building/working out so maybe you could talk to your chief and see if this is okay. You won't need half so many big pieces of equipment and most of the exercises (if not all of them) that this guy teach don't require a spotter.

http://www.scoobysworkshop.com/

I hope this helps!

[CityOfChicago]

Safety guidelines dictate you need 2-3 feet between equipment, so factor that in.

Maybe look to buying a cage.
http://www.fit-senior.com/acatalog/92563gra.gif

With and adjustable bench
http://ru.commercial.lifefitness.com...tableBench.jpg

In the cage you can do squats (setting the catch pins for safety) or roll in the bench to do presses or incline presses. You can also do all other exercises in it as well. Set the bench all the way upright to do shoulder presses or seated curls. Buy DB's up to 80 or 100, and buy 2 pairs of every plate up to 45.

[Joeyd6]

Fancy equipment is always nice, but you don't need much to wokr out but some space. Remeber machines break and get abused but the basics go a long way! Some free space with a few flat and incline bences wih exercise bands can give those not into lifting a perfect pace to work the muscles.

[MORA Ranger]

Stepping out for a bit, couple of quick questions:

1. budget/cost really is no issue? (cooool!)
I know. Crazy. They're just throwing money at me.
2. any way at all to make the room bigger?
I wish. In 2012 they're scheduled to have a new building just for my division. That will have a workout room to, so then we'll have two.
3. will this be strictly for PT or will you be doing any DT training/workouts? ("fight conditioning" can be very different from what people normally do to work out)No, there's no room in there for DT.
4. how many people will be using the gym at any one time and how "hardcore" are they when it comes to weights? It depends. If we've got nice stuff, more people might use it. Maybe 4 at a time? There aren't any hardcore weight lifters, but that can always change.

btw, IMO, a lot of the work out routines found at CrossFit require minimal equipment but will absolutely murderalize people... ;)

Thanks for all the advice guys. I found it helpful.

[mleehogg]

Get kettlebells.... Period....

[CityOfChicago]

Get kettlebells.... Period....

This would be a good idea if you were dealing with well trained people who have matered the basics and are looking for diversification. But I think in a work gym, which needs to be everything to everyone, you'd have 2 people using them and 100 skipping out.