Haha home gyms are the best, and you're right about YMCA having some awesome equipment. Im currently working out of town in a little shithole that somehow has the nicest YMCA I've ever been in. Full of hammer strength equipment, and the shittiest, douchiest high school kids I've ever seen.

So, I have 11' ceilings in my basement except for a part of it that's under my master bathroom where the whirlpool tub is where they are 8' for the plumbing .I originally put the gym there. First couple times I used it I FOR REAL almost put my head thru the ceiling doing pullups. I'm honestly surprised based on how hard I smashed my dome into it that I didnt to thru.

Do it man. You won’t regret it. It’s not all that expensive to build a comprehensive home gym these days. Not like it was years ago.,I got a leg press/hack squat machine. Not commercial grade but 100 people aren’t using it everyday. My wife and I use it 1-2x ew. It’s very well built and rated for more weight than I’ll probably even put on it. I can’t see us ever wearing it out. Then I have a leg extension leg curl machine. Then I got an all in one trainer as they call it that was a bit higher end and the company claims commercial grade. It’s heavy duty. It’s got cables, smith, a power rack. It does Tbar rows, lat pull downs, low rows, pull ups, dips etc etc. The front uprights size and hole spacing are standard so you can get all kinds of different attachments for it. Then you just need some dumbbells. Most people go with adjustable dumbbells to save room and money which seems to be the way to go. And then you need plates, which are not cheap. But I found some good deals on marketplace. All in all I got somewhere around 7-8k in the equipment and another $2k in drywall, flooring and paint. I was fine with an unfinished room but my wife wanted to finish it and make it look cool lol. But all this stuff fully covers each muscle group and there’s more than enough variety to switch it up periodically. I spent a couple months researching what equipment to buy. There are an overwhelming number of different choices today. But I’m pretty happy with the equipment we bought.

Oh ya. Social media has made gyms a nightmare. I did it the same way. First thing I bought was a half rack and bench/weights etc. most expensive investment BY FAR for me is the dumbbells. Those fuckers are EXPENSIVE. After you get the set up to 50lbs it ends up being about a dollar a pound for every additional dumbbell. I've heard about adjustable sets being pretty cool tho.

That is true, old people are also there that early. They gotta get their swoll on before 6am breakfast Waffle House or McDonalds..