@Nick, CrossFit for $55 a month is actually a pretty good price. And you’re not paying for the use of their equipment, you’re paying for coaching. When you do CrossFit, you don’t walk in and plug in your headphones and do your thing on your own, you do group workouts with a very hands-on coach who makes sure you are keeping form and safety in your workouts.
You can do CrossFit alone, but I would bet more than half of the people who try suffer from lack of discipline in their form and probably don’t finish the workouts with as much intensity if at all.

Cheers

and it linked to an article I wrote on the Diesel Crew site! Thanks I appreciate the shout out.

Joe
http://www.synergy-athletics.com

Couple of suggestions… Ross Enamait has a GREAT book on this kind of training called “Never Gymless”. It’s very down-to-earth and practical and he shows you how to do everything. The guy is a beast, but as I said, very practical. Take a look at his site: http://www.rosstraining.com/

Meanwhile, in my garage I have;
1. A bench (with bar and weights as well as a preacher-curl setup at one end)
2. Dumbbells
3. Resistance bands
4. A self-made bodyweight strap device that can be used over a door or cliped onto a tree branch (etc)
5. Push-up bars (for going past the plane)
6. Floor pads for doing crunches and such on (concrete floor can be a little unforgiving)
7. A piece of 2″ dowel that I’ve drilled a hole through the center of and attached a 6′ length of heavy chain to. We use this for forearms. Roll the chain up onto the dowel and roll it off.

When I think of home gyms additions, I think of bang for your buck. Stuff that doesn’t cost a lot, doesn’t require a lot of space, serves multiple purposes and still is very useful for fitness. In addition, when getting a new piece of equipment, you want to make sure that you are branching out in an area that isn’t already covered by your other stuff.

I agree with the sandbag and plyobox choices. IMO, lifting platform, kegs and slosh pipe could go out the window.

Most of the slosh pipe and keg goodness can be had with a well constructed sandbag.

Tire sleds are decent, but I think you can get similar training effects with heavy sandbag carries, so to me, it doesn’t offer a sufficient amount of unique benefit to include it as top priority.

If you had to, I’d at least add a sledge hammer to the tire sled ensemble, or just skip the sled and get one tire and use the sledge on it. The sledge can be used for some awesome grip work (as well as being something you already have) too. The tire doubles for a light keg that you can safely throw – either on concrete or on your grass that you don’t want to wreck.

I’d add a decent pull up bar (or gymnastic rings).

I’d consider a tough stretch band/stretch cable.

A little more than a year ago, I decided I had to get in shape. I looked around and found CrossFit. The right-wing politics aren’t my bag, and Pukie the Clown is a real turn-off, but I could see that the randomized workouts and functional movements made for an effective program.

But where to put all that equipment in my small house?

I kept looking and stumbled upon SimpleFit (SF). SimpleFit is built on three bodyweight exercises: the pull-up, push-up, and squat. The only equipment required is a pull-up bar and a few square feet of floor.

It doesn’t have the random workouts of CrossFit, but it keeps me motivated with its system of levels and weekly “Judgement” workout.

I have been at it for a little over a year. I am happy with the results (which you can see by visiting my site). I wanted to share SimpleFit with your readers because it is the perfect workout for those who might be kicking the tires of Crossfit, but can’t commit to the necessary equipment or getting themselves to a gym (CrossFit or otherwise).

View a commercial one at: http://www.prowriststraps.com/inc/sdetail/52384

Thanks again for this and the other fine articles on this site. Keep up the good work!

Eli

Check out http://www.mtnathlete.com for some intense “hybrid” work outs posted 3x/week (intended to supplement and improve your performance for things like climbing (rock/ice), mountaineering, etc.
Or try http://www.militaryathlete.com for military/tactical fitness workouts 5x/week.

Both are run by a solid guy named Rob, who owns “Mountain Athlete”… two gyms, one in Jackson Hole, WYO and one in Boulder, CO.

These work outs are tough, so give yourself time to work up to the daily routines… and don’t get frustrated.