Do you mind sharing which cage and barbell you bought?

Barbell: Rogue 2.0 bar (cheap at $250, perfectly fine for newbie)

Power cage [0]

Realistically, the most expensive part of the setup was...the weights. Shipping that shit costs a lot, and they're not cheap to begin with. I bought some bumper plates for deadlifting, and a bunch more as regular plates. Total weight is like 400 - 500 lbs, I forget exactly. All in all, it cost me like....$1400 or so. Worth it if you know you're gonna stick with it, but you should probably start in a gym and make sure it's gonna stick.

Oh, and if you want advice on getting started, let me know.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UMM4QC/ref=oh_aui_deta...

I'd definitely appreciate any advice you might have :)

What worked for me was going to a good crossfit that focused on lifting. A power or olympic lifting gym would work too. Having someone who knows what they are doing help me was very valuable. Now I know enough to go out on my own.

What are you doing at a squat rack for an hour?

If you're lifting heavy and/or high volume, and warming up properly, you can easily spend an hour in the squat rack. Especially if you're older.

I personally do squats, OHP, and pullups in there, and have seen people bench and deadlift in a rack as well. Easy to fill an hour in a rack.

Sounds like a poor use of a shared resource since the only one of those exercises that requires a squat rack is a squat. I guess it's fine if there's no one else at your gym.

Not necessarily. The safety pins on a squat rack (or power rack, not sure what the difference is) are handy if you're scared of dropping the weight on an OHP, or if you don't have anyone to spot you on the benchpress. If you move the rack's pins to the outside uprights, lower down near the floor, and put the bar there it makes it much easier to load/unload plates for the deadlift. For me, taking weights off of a bar on the floor is the absolute worst when you're exhausted after a heavy set.

But yes if you're using a squat rack for anything other than squatting, and the gym is busy, give others a turn. Or at least let them work in with you.

Not so much a poor use of a shared resource as a required use of a poorly equipped gym.

40 treadmills. 0 deadlift pads. 'Good' life.

Fair enough.