this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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Fitness

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I've just moved into an apartment with a built in gym.

Yay! I can save money on my gym membership

BUT! They dont have any barbell or squat rack. How will I ego deadlift now????

Wondering what dead loft alternatives I have on a cable machine?

Also willing to consider kettle bells or anything else I can buy / donate to the gym short of an entire barbell set and squat rack

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[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 2 points 22 hours ago

Oh sorry, I just saw your edits with the additional questions and gpt image.

So for specific keywords and rabbit holes, I highly recommend both the cable swaging and turnbuckle rigging and here’s why:

  1. Cheap as hell: any home improvement store has braided cables, ferrules, eyebolts, turnbuckles, etc for next to nothing
  2. Extremely strong yet light: braided cable is versatile and reliable when you want to hold things up or pull them together in a controlled and reliable way
  3. Turnbuckles just look cool. You’ll see them on suspension bridges and boat rigging. I used them to make various walnut-stained 2x12 suspension shelving and a hover desk in my old apt for <90 in materials.

suspension shelves

Little suspension shelves

suspension desk

I picked way overspec cable and hardware for looks only; the braided cable in the first photo is rated for the weight of an SUV and I just put books and a turntable on it.

But it was legit useful to know 2 years later. A friend’s garage had a wall frame damaged by flooding and the roof corner was sagging. One turnbuckle cable ran across the hypotenuse of the damaged frame stood the wall back up and held the roof up for weeks while he arranged the repair.

Anyway I’d look at that one first for sure 👍 GL