Jay from @myfreegym joins us to chat about how he created a “free gym,” a Sorinex score, his favorite part of creating content, and more.
Listen on Spotify, Apple, Garage Gym Radio, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
(0:00) Background Information
Jay is a new father but has two older kids in the house. For the last 17 years, he has been working at a toy company.
He started his home gym journey back in high school with the Weider home gym set. He was a commercial gym guy until the lockdowns and started looking into used equipment out of necessity.
(1:27) 300 Deals and It’s Free
It started with a 4-sided Body Solid unit bought on the used marketplace. At that time, Jay thought he had a complete home gym. He was mistaken.
As he started finding more equipment, he bought multiple pieces to keep the 1 or 2 gems. In doing that, he was fixing up old iron plates and flipping everything else essentially keeping the items he wanted for free.
(3:11) The Sorinex Rack
His Sorinex Apex Rack was sitting down in Virginia. It was originally bought for $11,000, but after starting a relationship with the rack owner, he got it for $3,000. He got into a Hertz van and drove 11 hours each way, but in his opinion (and ours), it was worth it.
(4:48) Creating Content in the Home Gym Space
Jay was harassing his kids about being on TikTok but was interested to see if there was any gym content on the app. He decided to walk his basement and make a walkthrough video. The following day when he woke up, he noticed he had over 30,000 views. Now Jay consistently posts on social media showing off his gym. TikTok is the primary platform he used.
(6:08) How to Find the Best Deal
When it comes to finding the best pieces, Jay says to buy in bulk. Some of his best deals have come from someone moving out of their house and needing everything moved. If you know how to break down equipment, and you don’t mind the heavy lifting, then you can find some great deals.
Jay has found equipment from gyms, personal training studios, and wealthy people selling their old equipment. Over half of his gym is commercial.
(8:33) Reviews
Jay would love to review items, but his main platform (TikTok) is not ideal for reviews. He wants to spend time on YouTube but understands it would be a significant time investment.
His idea would be to review the unique pieces that you don’t see very often in the home gym scene.
(9:36) Used Marketplace
The used markets have been slowing down a bit. It used to be that things would only sit for maybe a few days, but he currently has some things in the market that have been sitting for over a month. The need for reselling is very saturated. Jay says that in every city, there are probably a dozen people like him looking to buy everything up for resell.
The items that are the toughest to resell in the used market are ab machines, and on the opposite side of that would be weighted. After cleaning them up, they move fast.
(12:44) Is your Gym Done?
Jay says that his gym should be complete, but as most of you are reading this know, home gyms are never done growing. He can’t turn down a good deal.
(15:46) Favorite Part of Creating Content?
Jay’s favorite part of creating content is meeting people in the community who are out there doing the same thing, whether it’s meeting content creators or going to other gyms and talking to the owners about the equipment.
(19:04) Rundown of Home Gym
Jay’s attachments live on his Wall Control as you first walk into the gym, the Bowflex adjustable straight-bar, Rogue dumbbells 5-100, the barbell collection, the Sorinex Apex, which has been converted to an 8-post rack, a Freemotion functional trainer, cardio machines, lat-pulldown machine, Bodysolid leg-curl/extension, Bodysolid leverage shoulder/chest machine, a leverage squat machine, and some other odds and ends.
(20:27) Any Crazy Flipping Stories?
The Sorinex rack adventure lives as one of the craziness stories. Renting a van and driving 22 hours round trip for an $8,000 rack that he got for $3,000 is tough to beat.
Other stories are going to hoarders’ basements, getting hit on by an older gentleman, going into multi-million dollar homes, etc.