My 'gym' sucks - should I still do deadlifts?

[piff]

I use my apartment complex's gym and it's pretty bad. On the positive side, there are a ton of barbells and cable machines but there's no squat rack or real bench, only a smith machine and a small ez curl bar.

Anyway, my question is, should I be doing deadlifts with the smith machine, try them with the ez curl bar, or not do them at all? I've been doing squats and bench pressing with the smith machine and I hate how it limits my range of motion but until I can afford a good gym membership, I'll have to work with what I have available. Thanks for any replys

[nhlfan]

you said there are a ton of barbells. why not do deadlifts with those?

[piff]

Er, I meant a say a ton of dumbbells (the rubbery hexagon kind). Would trying to deadlift with those be my best bet?

[nhlfan]

yeah, you could deadlift those.

[deeder]

You need a real gym dude...

[Turnip]

Dont deadlift on a smith machine please. It will help me sleep better at night if you go ahead and not do that.

[deeder]

Dont deadlift on a smith machine please. It will help me sleep better at night if you go ahead and not do that.

Werd up.

And I guess I should put in some real advice:

Use the dumbells to do floor presses, cleans, standing millitary or push presses, deadlifts, Straight leg deadlifts, squats, hack squats and any other DB exercise or exercise varition that does not require a bench.

What do you mean no real squat rack or bench? If there's a bench there at all then just use the dumbells on it to bench press.

The only thing you may want to use the cable machine for is Ab cable pulldowns. I'm somewhat of an anti-machine purist though. :p

[Unholy]

another thing i can think of is doing Dumbbell snatches, that will rock your back.

[Turnip]

Werd up.

And I guess I should put in some real advice:

Use the dumbells to do floor presses, cleans, standing millitary or push presses, deadlifts, Straight leg deadlifts, squats, hack squats and any other DB exercise or exercise varition that does not require a bench.

What do you mean no real squat rack or bench? If there's a bench there at all then just use the dumbells on it to bench press.

The only thing you may want to use the cable machine for is Ab cable pulldowns. I'm somewhat of an anti-machine purist though. :p



I liked your first advice better but, I suppose you could do this. :smoke:

[deeder]

I liked your first advice better but, I suppose you could do this. :smoke:

Well yeah, the first advice stands of course.. But in the meantime he can do that.

HolyWars -- Yeah, there's all sorts of stuff we could list. I thought of a couple more, 1 arm db snatches, 1 arm presses, and bent over rows...

[pepsihatman]

The gym I used in the summer was like that. I loaded up the bent preacher bar with 190ish lbs and did deadlifts (because I was at 190 deadlift last summer). I got some funny looks. I doubt I'm going to be able to put 300+ lbs on it come this summer. It will be time to shell out some moeny for a good gym.

[piff]

What do you mean no real squat rack or bench? If there's a bench there at all then just use the dumbells on it to bench press.


What I meant by 'no real bench' is that there's no olympic sized bar or rack for the bench. I do use the dumbbells for bench pressing as well as flys, though

As for finding a better gym, I go to college out of state so after winter break (when I fly back home), I'm planning on getting a membership since I'll likely be out here over summer. In the meantime, I'll try to work on cutting the smith machine out of my routine. Thanks for the replys guys

btw: anyone know a good site that shows proper form on different excercises? I don't train with a partner or anything so I don't really have anyone to correct me and give me pointers

[Paul Stagg]

Do you have cable television?

Does it cost the same as a gym membership? My cable bill for one month would pay my gym dues for 2-3 months.

There is almost always a way.

If you are waiting until you move, I would get crative with training. Get a sandbag, do some crossfit stuff.

[deeder]

ExRx (http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html)

[bodybuilderam]

Get a big stick. Put a bunch of dumbells in bags and put them on the ends. Problem solved.