I'm a big fan of olympic style weight lifting, or at least I was before getting a job and slowly losing 60lbs of muscle mass being a nerd. I need to get my shit together.
Anyways, I like standing bar exercises as a staple for core and form reinforcement. I made it through half an eight-week Bulgarian weightlifting routine that blew me the fuck up, all standing routines. I went from gym rat to brick shithouse by basically doing nothing but eating, lifting, and sleeping. It actually helped me get through a really tough time in my life, free weights in general turned me into a man. To really get to the point where your making progress consistently you really need a partner or machines, though. Having a bench with spotter bars is a good idea. A rack of some sort is a must, don't really need a Smith machine imo. Rowing machine exercises are really needed for back and shoulders, which are critical areas to make sure stay up to snuff with the rest of your muscles as they grow, and growing a big back takes a long time even with a machine. There are makeshift rowing machines you can make with exercise tubing and whatnot. Proportions are genetic, strength potential is not. Some machines are made to target specific areas through repetition that you might not even especially need them to target, there are machines worth a good bit which are basically just shakeweight cousins imo.
I'd settle with a good bench, a simple DIY welded rack, and a weight and bar set that I can drop hard as hell. Get my cardio moving plates, I loathe running. Spend the rest on a good vitamin pack, quality diverse diet, and some recovery supplements. Weight lifting equipment is the cheapest aspect of actually growing muscle mass imo, eating right and maintaining a lifestyle where you can recover quickly is much more expensive.
