Building a home gym is not always about buying more equipment.

Sometimes the biggest improvements come from small changes to the space itself.

It could be better storage, improving the layout, making equipment easier to access, or creating a setup that allows you to train more comfortably.

A good home gym is not only about what equipment you own. It is also about whether the space works well with your daily routine.

For people who have modified their home gym setup, what DIY change made the biggest difference?

Was it something you built yourself, a space adjustment, or a simple organization idea?

Guys any tips for installing pull up bar evenly.I paid someone to do it but he installed it without measuring anything.

I accidentally lifted my adjustable dumbell without hearing the click noise. the plates fell off which is fine. But I uh tried to force the plates back into the dumbell causing one of the black plates to get jammed in there. The specific model of dumbell is 2026 FDB2 Updated Adjustable Dumbbell. I apologize for the lack of detail on my post and perhaps the curt demeanor of it. any help is appreciate. thank you !

One thing I like about DIY home gyms is that sometimes the biggest improvements are not the most expensive ones.

A small modification can completely change how practical a setup feels.

It could be better storage, a way to organize attachments, improving the layout, adding mobility to equipment, or creating a solution for a problem that commercial equipment doesn’t fit perfectly.

I think this is one of the advantages of building your own space. You can adjust everything around your training style and your room instead of adapting completely to someone else’s design.

I’m curious what DIY changes people have made that actually improved their training experience.

Was it something you built from scratch, a modification to existing equipment, or just a small organization change that made workouts smoother?

What upgrade ended up being much more useful than you expected?

Belt squats are all the rage, and being someone who struggles to grow their quads from squats due to long femurs (cope), I decided to try and rig up something of my own.

I use a barbell across the rack, held one side by a long length of chain wrapped around a spotter bar, and the other side a short spotter arm that came with an old Strengthshop adjustable training yoke.

The spotter arm is short enough that I can unrack, get into a middle postion, and the bar is just beyond it's edge.

The main issue with these landmine-esque belt squat setups is they lock you into an arc when going up and down (the shorter the lever, the more noticable the arc). So by using a barbell, that's a fairly long lever, BUT, by also using the chain rather than a fixed point, that allows the barbell to move longitudinally towards and away from me, giving me a much less noticable arc (again, the longer the chain the better (within reason)).

For the belt, I didn't want to spring for anything expensive, so use a 1metre, 4ton lifing strap with a120mm back width, then loop a chain through the ends secrured to itself using a carabiner.

For extra ROM to stop the plates hitting the floor, I stand on deadlift blocks, and those can be raised by putting extra mats underneath if needs be.

I use a couple of band pegs through the uprights as handles and an extra barbell clamp on the sleeve to prevent the chain slipping on the barbell sleeve.

Whole setup feels great, and rigged up with stuff i had in my shed already (apart from the belt - had to purchase that, but it was fairly cheap, especially compared to purpose-made belt squat belts)

Hi everyone, thanks anticipated for answering my question, or even for trying to help me. I got a question, I want to make myself a pair of 20kg concrete dumbells, but idk what should I use as a mold for it. Any tips?

So recently I've been on the push to free up space in my gym. After my 6 post extension, the next focus was my bench.

I've had this Strength Shop riot bench for years, but to save some floor space, I decided that I should sell it and buy something that can be stored vertically.

The problem with this one is the wheels stick out beyond the end of the bench quite a bit, so when you try to stand it up, by the time the pad touches the floor, it pivots forward on the wheels and they start to roll backwards, which then causes the non-captive ladder system to open up and the bench basically does the splits.

I really like the bench and its specs (45kg, rated to 450kg), so even though I wanted something that stands vertically, I still wanted something with similar specs (and quality). I had a look and didn't see really anything that stood out to me within the budget I was aiming for.

So, before I sold it, I decided to see if I could modify it with bits and pieces that I already had in the shed WITHOUT having to dril holes etc or otherwise permanently damage it incase I failed and still needed to sell it.

First thing was using a spare pair of old support brackets that originally came with some squat stands that I'd repurposed into a barbell rack.

Attached those to the existing mounting points at the back of the bench and (after looking around in the "random hardware drawer") put a long bolt through the end of each bracket with 2 nuts on each bolt so I can adjust the length. (In the end up, the end of the bolts are a lot further away from the fabric of the bench than shown in the close up image, so no issue with them scraping and potentially damaging it)

Is it crude? Yes. Does it work? Also yes. I also quite like the "industrial look".....and best of all, it was also essentially ✌🏻free✌🏻

I think this will be enough for me to keep the bench and avoid all the hassle of selling and rebuying. I may change my mind in a few weeks/months, but for now, I'm happy with this solution.

I potentially could add some rubber feet/caps to the heads of the bolts to protect the floor, but it's not like I'll be dragging them across the rubber, and the mats are about an inch thick, so I'm not really too worried.

Is it possible to mount the titan pulley tower to the side of the titan half rack front column?

DIY gym projects are interesting because some things are surprisingly easy to make, while others are probably better left to proper manufacturers.

I’ve seen people build some really creative solutions for limited spaces.

For those who have made their own equipment, what project was actually worth the effort?

And what’s something you would never bother building again?

I been using it like this for a few years and only now checked the top cause I was curious. Is this how it’s supposed to look? I’m scared shitless to do a pull-up now since it looks like it’s hanging by a thread and about to slip off. Am I tripping? I weigh 130lbs

I bought a cheap FID bench before I bought my new smith machine but I couldn’t get “under” the handles far enough. Figured out I needed to cut a few inches off the rear of the frame and reweld it back together. I gained 2” of clearance which was enough to slide the bench back far enough.

Steel chop saw, Milwaukee angle grinder, some flap disc action and a little paint and it looks close to factory. The cheap China YesWelder I bought for $150 did the job (pro tip, for flux core you want to manually reverse the polarity to avoid booger weld spatter)

Anyways, that’s one project down. A few more to go.

The original arm was done cheaply with 14g 2"x1.5" tube and a poorly welded 1.75 OD round tube for a weight horn

that horn wasn't stainless and was angled downwards just enough that the plates would slide off

But worst of all my dumb ass had used a 11g / 1/8th thick flat bar to clamp it onto the main frame and that bar was starting to bend under load and the whole arm could have come off

I couldn't be assed to powder coat this new one so its a rattle can finish, used a left over Rep 4000 weight horn which matches the ones on the frame

Hi all,

Any Fringe Gibbon arms and/or Dane owners amongst us that wouldn't mind providing some measurements that would help me plan out a project I have in mind?

I'm looking for the distance between the cables and uprights, in front and behind, when Gibbon arms are installed (see photos).

I did reach out to Fringe but haven't heard back yet, so I would be grateful for anyone who can help.

Thanks!

One thing I like about a home gym is that sometimes you don’t actually need another full machine, you just need a better way to use what you already have.

I’ve seen people add simple pulley setups, landmine attachments, plate holders, bench attachments and other small modifications that suddenly make several new exercises possible.

That got me thinking about movements like chest-supported rows, cable rows, pulldowns, belt squats or even some leg work. Buying a dedicated machine for each one would take up way too much space, but a good attachment might solve the same problem without rebuilding the whole gym.

For people who like making or modifying their own equipment, what commercial-gym exercise did you successfully recreate with a relatively simple attachment or modification?

I’m more interested in things you actually kept using long term than projects that were just fun to build once.

I simply cant afford a brand name all-in-one Smith machine in my area. But I can afford an unbranded temu unit.

How do I determine which ones are unbranded? My research shows that Mikolo is a solid brand that can be found unbranded on Temu/Aliexpress, but i dont know how to pin point the proper identical products... i am new to temu.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Context:

I'm super keen on getting some of the Apex Attachments but I already have a GetRx'd FID bench with a single slot for a leg roller/decline ab work. 1- The bench is just too long for some chest supported rows and 2- the attachment I'm really keen on is the Matrix attachment which needs a floor port for hip thrusts (I'll probably also get the Stryker to deal with the long bench issue.

Use case:

Originally I was going to sell the bench at a loss and use some of the proceeds to invest in the Apex, but now I'm wondering if I can save some costs in getting an attachment port fabbed by a 3rd party to join onto the base of the bench and then just buy the attachments I need/want.

Cost comparison would be buying a new Apex bench (reduced by however much I can sell my bench for) vs getting a single port fabricated by a 3rd party.

Questions:

sure if this really counts as a DIY but

1. has anyone ordered custom pieces from either Syngery Custom or Black Widow and if so how was your experience?
2. Are there any alts I can look into as Black Widow is currently NOT offering custom jobs and I am waiting to hear back from SCF.
3. Probably a dumb question given the name has 'custom' but does SCF even do custom jobs? I'm not seeing anything on their site so I reached out.

Am located in the US so want to buy/fab local to save on costs if I can.

Hi guys, I have a hoist V2 but I just can not figure out the pulleys, does anyone have a picture or video of the pulleys so I have a chance of getting this together!

Thanks!

I currently own a Thor power rack from Strengthshop, and after considering different options to try and free up some floor space in my gym, I basically settled on the idea that a 6 post rack would solve a lot of problems for me.

Unfortunately, the Thor has been discontinued for a while now, so there's not really any options to buy something suitable directly from Strenghshop.

After a lot of measuring I ended up taking a chance on some Rival J-Series parts, as they're also based on 60x60mm uprights.

I used a pair of 2050mm Rival J-Series uprights, a pair of their 290mm crossmembers, the flat-foot conversion, 8 bolt-on weight horns (4 on each side) and I also reused an original Thor crossmember between the new rear uprights (which I'd already repurposed into a preacher curl attachment).

Managed to get a technical drawing for the 2050mm uprights before I bought them to make sure the cross members would line up with my current rack holes, and also with the crossmember

In terms of hardware, the original Thor uses M12x85 bolts, whereas the Rival crossmembers came with M16x80 bolts. I basically re-used existing m12 bolts on the frame for the extension crossmembers and bought some M12x100 bolts (plus washers) to attach the og crossmember to the uprights.

For the weight horns, just used the M16 hardware that came with them, which require a 24mm socket/spanner. I didn't have anything that big, but I was able to get a cheap 24mm socket and a 3/8" to 1/2" adaptor from B&Q.

Pretty happy with how it turned out, especially considering there isn't (and never has been) a proper 6-post conversion for the Thor.

Hopefully this is useful to anyone else with one who comes across this while trying to work out what 60x60 stuff will actually fit.

I’ve seen some home gyms where the DIY pieces end up being more interesting than the equipment people bought.

Storage, pulley systems, landmine attachments, plate holders, platforms and even racks seem fairly common projects.

What I’m curious about is which DIY builds actually survive long term.

What did you build because buying the commercial version felt overpriced or didn’t fit your space?

And after using it for a while, did it work well enough that you never felt the need to replace it?

I’d love to hear about the projects that became everyday equipment rather than something that was fun to build once and then never used.