Six months ago my parents' basement got a complete PRx home gym: folding rack, folding bench, spotter arms, bars, plates, storage, bands and kettlebells. My dad is on it almost every day and I am 6 foot 5 and 270 pounds. Here is what held up, and the order I would buy it in.

Bars are the least exciting purchase in a home gym and the one you touch every session. Six months with a PRx Olympic bar, a PRx curl bar and the wall storage holding both, from a guy who is not a barbell snob. Includes the one spec PRx never publishes.

A kettlebell is a lump of iron with a handle, so the handle is the whole review. I am 6 foot 5 with hands to match and most bells pinch. Six months with the PRx kettlebells, including the honest result I did not plan for about the guy I bought them for.

Bands are the cheapest real training equipment there is, and I think you could run a whole home gym on them. Six months with the PRx set, used by two people, plus what a "set of five" actually means on PRx's site and the one year mark that will decide the verdict.

Cheap plates and good plates look identical in a photo. Six months of daily use later, my dad's PRx plates have not warped and the budget 10s at my house have. Here is what competition plates actually buy you, and the storage that finally got the floor clear.

Almost everyone with a home gym lifts alone, and nobody is coming down the stairs to lift a bar off your chest. My dad's PRx spotter arms have been on the rack six months. One of those sets, they caught the bar for me. Here is the honest review, plus the use nobody mentions.

A bench that folds into the wall is only as good as what holds it there. At 6 foot 5 and 270 pounds, two lag bolts is the part that worried me. Six months of daily use later, here is how the PRx Profile flat folding bench held up, and the one spec PRx never publishes.

Every folding rack gets the same question: how solid can it be if it folds flat against the wall? My dad’s PRx Profile PRO has been up for six months and I am 6 foot 5 and 270 pounds. Here is the honest answer on the wobble, plus the ceiling height number that decides your whole install.

My weight plates sat stacked on the garage floor for four years, because the floor is free. What the floor actually costs is room to train. Here is what two wall mounted Everymate systems, a drill and one afternoon bought me, plus the weight capacity Everymate does not publish anywhere and what mine actually held.