Man builds gym entirely out of equipment from Temu and the results are astonishing
A bloke who built a home gym out of budget equipment from Temu was left pleasantly surprised by the outcome.
The online marketplace famed for its discount prices is a one-stop shop - so Will Tennyson decided to take advantage of this and purchase all his gear from there.
The professional bodybuilder and content creator told his five million YouTube subscribers he was turning to the 'cheapest place on the internet' to pick up all the bits he needed to create his home gym.
Although creating your own workout space can be 'ridiculously expensive', Will was working with a budget of just $2,000 (£1,495) to bring his dream to life, as he 'spent all his money on the house'.
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"I don't want to go over that," he said of his cost estimate. "I think that's reasonable. I think it's totally doable using Temu."
In a video documenting the process which he originally uploaded in November last year, Will explained that he intended to pick up multi-purpose exercise equipment so 'it doesn't take up a lot of space' in his basement.
The 31-year-old took viewers through the rigmarole that is online shopping with him and browsed through a range of items that Temu had to offer, while taking into account the ratings and reviews they had received from customers.
He described one item as appearing though it 'had the structural integrity of a breadstick', but still added it to his cart.
Other essentials also ended up in his basket, despite the look of them 'confusing and scaring' Will.
In total, he spent $1,696 (£1,267) on eight different pieces of gym equipment. Will said he'd be 'happy' if at least five of them arrived, and 'ecstatic' if two of these were 'actually functional'.
"Part of me was worried I missed some sort of fine print and ordered miniature gym equipment instead," the YouTuber joked. "But all this stuff, as you can see, is actually huge and extremely heavy."
Realising he was 'drowning in Allen keys' and had a lot of building to do in a short amount of time, Will then laughed: "I'm for sure going to need a therapist after this.
"We do not have much time to waste because in just 3 days, the biggest home gym reviewer in the entire world is flying all the way here to come to this gym and review it."
Will first erected a bench that was advertised as being able to hold 1,000lbs of weight, which is viable for multiple workouts.
He described it as being surprisingly 'sturdy' and that it felt 'really good' when he lay back on it, which give him a boost to get the rest of his building completed.
But the fitness buff compared the instructions that came with the kits as being similar to 'hieroglyphics' or a 'quantum physics dissertation', as he quipped: "I'm not qualified for this. I grew up on Lego instructions."
Will ended up calling on some pals to help him set up a chest press machine, a squat rack, a weight-training device featuring a barbell, among a few other items.
To give you an idea of how difficult this was to complete, the social media star revealed what toll erecting the squat rack that he described as 'the crown jewel' of his home gym took on them.
"It only took three men, three hours, two YouTube tutorials, and one minor mental breakdown," Will said. "But the squat rack's done."
He joked that his home gym looked like 'the newest Final Destination set' while they were still working on it, although he equally thought it looked quite 'amazing'.
"On the surface, this looks phenomenal, but so did Ted Bundy," Will said. "I mean, you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I'm really hoping it matches."
There were a few 'tripping hazards', noises that 'didn't sound good' coming from the equipment and 'shaky' structures - but Will seemed to be having a lot of fun in his home gym, despite also being concerned about how safe it was.
Sharing his 'overall opinion' on the Temu products with his subscribers, Will said he thought it was 'pretty good' considering the money he'd spent on it, although he acknowledged some of the products seemed risky to use.
"I see budget equipment kind of like vegan food," he said. "If it can kind of mimic what it's supposed to be to some degree, I would say it's an overall success. So, in terms of a score out of like 10, I'm going to give it a 6.5."
Will then brought in Cooper Mitchell, the owner of the renowned Garage Gym Reviews, to weigh up all of his hard work and give him a 'brutally honest rating' of his home gym that he named 'Budget Barbell'.
Mitchell told the bodybuilder it looked 'incredible', but upon closer inspection, he reckoned that some of the equipment 'looked like a death trap' and had 'a few like engineering flaws'.
"Heading into Budget Barbell, I was not expecting a lot, not going to lie," he said. "Coming in though, you've pleasantly surprised me. The score I would give your gym is 5.5 out of 10."
LADbible has contacted Temu for comment.
Olivia Burke