(Caution:
LONG post ahead, but rather than try to milk it by breaking it out into a bunch
of small ones, I’ll just let you read it at your own pace.
If
you want to just see the consolidated list of lessons learned, scroll to the
bottom, but if you want a story, keep reading)
u/pluecebo
over on Reddit has been asking me to detail the evolution of my home gym for a
while now, and I’ve just been too lazy to sit down and do it, so here I
go. This has been a great trip down
memory lane for me.
For a brief
history, I actually started off with home gyms.
When I was 14, I spent $100 on a standard bench with 2 adjustable
dumbbells at Play-it-Again Sports, that had about 200lbs of weight with
it. I pretty much benched and curled 6
days a week on it until I learned what a dumbbell row was, and then I did
that. After about a year of that, I
started using my high school weight room, and then, when I went to college, I
used their’s, but I dreamed of having a “real” home gym during college. I started working immediately post college,
was in a commercial gym, got yelled at for dropping deads by one of the goobers
lifting there, showed up the next day and saw a sign saying the gym was going
to be closed for 2 weeks for remodeling, and immediately went out and bout an
OLYMPIC set from Play-It-Again Sports.
So now let’s talk about that home gym.
GENESIS
The very
first home gym didn’t even have a power rack.
I ordered one that night, but I needed a place to lift NOW. What I DID have was an adjustable bench
station that I found for free on a curb, so I put the uprights as high as I
could and did good mornings out of it (since I didn’t have enough weight for
max effort squats, as I was running a Westside Barbell inspired approach at the
time). I worked up to a max of 275 and
then did some stiff legged deadlifts and ab work.
The aforementioned bench
I had
ordered a power rack that night from New York Barbells (one of the few sites to
order equipment from, back in the day), and suddenly my dream was coming
true. A power rack seemed like a HUGE
deal at the time. It arrived pretty soon,
and while I waited I bought some more used plates from Play-It-Again, along
with a set of adjustable Olympic dumbbells and an ez curl bar from
Walmart. Threw in a plate tree too. I soon learned the value of having more than
1 barbell, as it meant being able to set up multiple stations vs having to take
ALL the weight off the bar and loading it all up again.
My deadlift station…those puzzle mats
don’t do crap
And finally the power rack. I still have it, 12+years later.
Eventually,
the time came to move, so I packed up the gym (one of many times I’d end up
doing it) and had to learn a whole new set up.
Things were looking great though: I was moving to a house with a
basement, and since it was somewhere with harsh winters, the basement was going
to be far better than the garage. I’d
have the entire space to myself as well could totally stretch out my legs and
everything.
SUMMARY OF LESSONS LEARNED:
- Have at
least TWO barbells, even in the most basic home gym. They don’t both have to be great, but just
make it so you don’t have to spend all your time stripping weights.
- You can
get a LOT done with just the basics if you’re creative enough.
THE DREAM GYM TURNED
NIGHTMARE
A nice
tradition my wife and I have for each other is, whenever we move, we allow
ourselves to splurge on something (financially). For me, it’s pretty much always gym
equipment, for her, a Coach purse. In my
case, I sprung for a New York Barbells Safety Squat Bar. It was $200 less than the Elitefts one, and
the NYBB power rack had served me well, so it was probably good, right? There was a 1000lb model and a 1500lb model,
and my wife said “Tell you what: if you ever squat over 1000lbs, I’ll buy you
the other one”, which was a fair challenge.
In truth, knowing what I know now, it’s not a good SSB. It does the job of keeping your shoulders neutral,
but the camber angle is such that you can’t “no hand” it like you can an
elitefts SSB, which means it changes the squat angle significantly. Don’t get me wrong: I still got plenty strong
with it, and I was able to use it later to train around an ACL injury, but now
that Titan has a knock off that’s VERY much like the Elitefts one (and I own
that one), I see no reason for anyone to buy the NYBB one.
I also ended
up getting a trap bar at another Play-It-Again Sports, because during the brief
week where I was training in a commercial gym waiting for my home gym to
arrive, I ended up injuring my glute/back so bad that I couldn’t dress myself
for 2 weeks, and to this day I can STILL re-trigger this injury. I actually ended up taking a 2 year hiatus from
all pulling off the floor with a barbell, and had just about wrote off the
deadlift entirely. You can see the
iconic patio tiles in these photos, but at this time, the idea of using them
for ROM progression never entered my head.
This was
also where I got my first set of chains, after buying some bands in the
previous location. I was able to find
some 1/2 chain at a tractor supply store, and to this day it’s the largest
chain I’ve found commercialy available.
Getting 5/8 chain is tough, but I found chains were just SO much easier
to deal with compared to bands.
I loved
training in this space. I was below
ground, so it was cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I could play my music loud, I could slam
weights, and I bothered no one. So what
made this dream gym into a nightmare?
Because, apparently, basements can flood. And mine did.
A LOT. And it was raw
sewage. And by “a lot”, I mean we had a
tupperwear tub with a Christmas tree in it that was floating around my basement
like the arc in a TERRIBLE rendition of the Christian flood myth. Everything in my gym got covered, and the
training space (and house) was eventually deemed “not inhabitable by humans”. So I got things professionally cleaned and we
moved again.
Lessons Learned:
- - Safety
squat bars are cool, but if you’re going to go cheap, go with Titan (and get
the 2.0).
-
Basements
seem like the best spot for a home gym, until you run into basement
problems. If nothing else, install a
sump pump.
- - Bands
are great for commercial gyms, because they’re lightweight and you can sneak
them in, and most of the equipment is going to be bolted down and you can get
hex dumbbells to anchor them, but if you’re at home you don’t have to move the
chains much and are free to make noise.
And be aware: they make a racket.
LIMITED SPACE/ENTER
POWERLIFITNG
We didn’t
move far: just down the street, but this time to a house with no basement and a
2 car garage. Compared to the carport we
had before, this seemed awesome, but with how harsh the winters were in this
location, we needed to be able to park both cars in the garage AND I still
wanted to be able to train there. This
became a time where I’d learn the value of putting things into corners/the
permiter, as I could no longer just spread everything out. Things got VERY space efficient.
Look at how
everything is pushed against the rear wall and the left side wall (where we
parked the smaller car). This way, I
only needed to move 1 car out of the garage to be able to train. In addition, I’ve got the bars suspended on
the wall (just used some wood screws on the beams), and have a lot of plate
storage options.
On top of
all this, at THIS location I started competing in powerlifting, and with that,
started buying a lot more toys for the gym to help with that. I bought a Texas Power Bar (since it was the “gold
standard), a Texas Deadlift Bar, a Yukon Fitness Glute Ham Riase, a swiss bar
and a Louie Simmons CorEvolution (his attempt to break into the home fitness
equipment market with a lightweight reverse hyper). I also ended up never rebuilding my
adjustable bench station, because it took up too large of a footprint in the
gym, so instead I got a cheap freestanding bench to shove in the power rack
when I benched, and take out when I was done.
This lasted until it broke, at which point I got a solid adjustable bench
from an online yardsale site (always keep your eyes open for deals there). Also bought a powertower on sale at Big 5
Sporting Goods.
In truth, a
lot of those buys didn’t last. I still have
the Texas Power Bar, but the last time I used it was for car deadlift
simulators. As a powerlifter, it was good
for training the powerlifts, but once I got into strongman it became pretty
pointless. An axle does just about
everything a barbell does, and getting familiar with that pays off. That GHR is currently in my basement because
it couldn’t fit in my home gym space and I hadn’t used it in years. That CorEvolution WAS a solid way to learn
what the hell was the big deal about reverse hypers, and I still have it in my
basement because they don’t make them anymore and it’s a collector’s item, but
I should just bit the bullet and bought a real reverse hyper (which I did,
later). This swiss bar is primarily used
for neutral grip chins at the top of the rack, but I do use it for incline
benching, since straight bar inclines suck.
But I also didn’t start incline benching until I ran Deep Water last
year.
But
otherwise, this was a solid training space.
It was cold as HELL in the winter.
It got to -60 with windchill, so I learned the value of dressing in
layers to train. Thermal baselayers are
better than sweats for the upperbody if you’re doing barbell squatting, because
it allows you to still hit the same part of your upperback. For benching, you still want a t-shirt on
top, or else you’ll slide all over the bench.
A good knit cap is invaluable.
Instead of gloves, I’d have a heat dish to warm my hands up on. Also, 2 pairs of socks, since lifting shoes
are thin.
This was
where I discovered ROM progression. Just
an interesting aside. Bought more of
those patio tiles and though “why the hell not”.
I was able
to establish some national powerlifting records in my federation/weightclass
training in that space, and hit my first 600lb deadlift. It’ll always be nostalgic to me for
that. But, once again, the time came to
move.
Lessons Learned:
- - Make
use of the edges and perimeter in a confined space. You’re gonna have to “build” the training space
for each session and put it away when you’re done, but you can still make it
work.
- - Unless
you REALLY need it, an awesome barbell…is still “just a barbell”. Instead of a texas power bar, I’d have a
cheap barbell AND a deadlift bar, or a SSB, or a buffalo bar. Just any sort of bar that does something
other than just be a barbell.
- - Get
stuff off the floor as much as you can.
Hang it up, put it on shelves, etc.
Floor space is invaluable.
- - Bench
press stations take up too much space compared to a free bench in the power
rack. Unless you are a bench press
specialist, I don’t think they’re worth it.
ENTER STRONGMAN
I had moved
from somewhere with harsh winters to the central coast of CA: mild weather year
round. In turn, I wanted to no longer be
cooped up inside the gym, and instead get outdoors more. The solution: strongman. I found a strongman competition close-ish to my
house about 3 months away, went out and bought some steel pipe and made an axle
and a set of farmer’s handles. I also
REALLY cashed in my moving splurge by getting a for REAL reverse hyper from
Rogue, as they had just recently upgraded their home model to something better
than their poorly reviewed 1.0 model.
Also, since weather was mild, I could park my car outside year round,
which, when paired with a 2 car garage, once again meant I could let my gym
spread out some.
I did the
first comp and got absolutely stomped on the yoke. Figured not every comp was going to have a
yoke…and then my second one did…and my 4th…and my 5th. Eventually
I learned my lesson and went and got a Pitbull Econo-yoke. If you’ve never purchased from Pitbull
before, Alan used to deal out of MySpace (which just saying that I’m sure
alienated some of my younger readers) but now, you go to his facebook page, see
something you like, text Alan, paypal or money order him the cost of the item
and then he’ll build and ship to you. …yeah,
it’s SUPER old school, but he’s been in the business for a decade at this
point, and for the longest time was the ONLY dude making strongman gear. The yoke was functional, and I used it to
train for the 775lb yoke walk that eventually blew out my ACL, but I don’t
fault the Pitbull yoke for that at all.
If anything, the fact I was able to walk that much weight at all is
proof of how effective it was.
HERE COMES A NEW
CHALLENGER
While still
at that location, I took to regularly perusing Craigslist for home gym finds,
and found the Holy Grail of a deal one day.
This is a repost of when I reported my score to StartingStrongman
I had been
dreaming of getting Ironmind stuff my whole life, but the price was always so
steep it didn’t seem viable. This came in at roughly a third of retail, so I
leapt on it. Suddenly, my home gym had
exploded. Here is a photo of the inside
of my minivan after I had already unloaded HALF of the equipment
This
required a significant reorganization of the space, and once again I fell back
to some of the lessons I l had learned from previous moves. I shoved the reverse hyper into a corner,
rather than the middle of the floor, sold the power tower (since my Ironmind
stands could be dip bars), and otherwise shoved things along the walls or
corners. Also got a set of 50lb
powerblocks for $40, a weider cable station and a keg off a yardsale site. I
was becoming a pro. My wife got me my
first ever strongman log, which I converted from a 9” log to a 12”+ log with a
little DIY. She also got me a set of
105lb dumbbells, which were great for all sorts of pressing, rows, AND holding
down the feet of my reverse hyper to keep it from bucking. And she got me a prowler. These were all birthday gifts, and my wife is
awesome. Rounded this out with an
Ironmind sandbag as well. Also made a
DIY circus dumbbell out of some home depot buckets and a piece of pipe leftover
from my axle.
I ended up
blowing out my ACL at this location, and in truth couldn’t have had a better
training space. I used that cable
station for a lot of my pulling, could set up for seated pressing in my rack,
the reverse hyper was still viable, etc.
I ended up treating myself to an Ironmind Apollon’s axle, because, quite
frankly, the Rogue axles suck compared to just doing a DIY out of pipe and the
Ironmind axle is awesome.
Eventually,
it came time to move again…and it suddenly dawned on me just how big this gym
had grown. However, unlike some others,
I refused to sell off gear or put it in storage simply because it would be inconvenient
to move it: this was MY gym, and it took me a long time to build it. I thought back to how important it was to me
when I started it all, so I broke down as many pieces as I could and did one of
the most exhausting loading medleys in my life.
Lessons Learned:
- - If
you’re going to compete in strongman, get a yoke. And what’s funny is, I don’t see yokes in
that many shows anymore, but even if you don’t HAVE to yoke, the yoke can
double as a rack, you can use it to load implements over, you can press it, you
can push them like a sled, etc. Also, I
hate to spoil the next part for you, but I ended up upgrading to a Titan short
yoke later simply BECAUSE it was so modular.
Go for one of those.
- - Kegs
are some of the best strongman implements you can get. Most can be had cheap, and you can press or
carry them. I had 2 at this point, one
loaded to 100lbs, one loaded to 182.
Allowed for variety.
- - Sandbags
are also helpful, but you can’t abuse them as much as a keg. I would drag my sandbag into place for
medleys, and eventually that caused it to rip.
- - If
you’re not going to buy an Ironmind axle, just make one out of plumbing pipe
and gorilla tape. A fair compromise is a
Titan axle, which runs about the cost of just making your own. Don’t buy someone ELSE’S plumbing pipe with a
powder coat on it for $150: that’s just silly.
Mike Bartos also makes an axle that is apparently pretty cool.
- - Yardsale
sites/craigslist are goldmines. Jump
when you see a good deal, and find a way to make it work.
- - Build
your home gym like you DON’T have the space.
I had to do the re-org in the first place because I had built it lazily
the first time.
STRONGMAN…AGAIN
I was 9
months post ACL reconstruction when I had to relocate the entire home gym, so
that was a great time to discover if all the surgery and physical therapy paid
off. I was once again somewhere with
harsh winters, HOWEVER, I also STILL had the exact same car I had since the
very first gym…so I cared less about it getting left out. This is good, because we ended up moving
somewhere with a 1+ car garage…and my wife still needed to be able to park in
the garage. Thankfully, there was a
blessing in the form of a storage room attached to the garage. I took all my lessons learned and constructed
a training space
What I put inside the storage closet
I got back
to competing in strongman at this location, and training was back on
track. One other boon occurred during
this time though: Titan Fitness started up.
Suddenly, strongman gear was dirt cheap and shipped for free. I remembered when Strength Shop did this exact
same thing, AND I remember their prices steadily climbing up over time once
they had flooded the market, so I leapt on Titan stuff before that had a chance
to happen. I ended up buying a Titan 12”
log and then cut the padding off my 9” to have 2 different sized logs. I bought a Titan short yoke and sold my
pitbull yoke. I got more bumper plates,
j-hooks for the yoke, crash pads, a 2.0 SSB, and probably some more stuff. My wife got me a 20” Stone of Steel, because,
once again, she’s awesome. I bought a
front squat harness…that was dumb. Once
I got a Titan 2.0 SSB, that made far more sense for front squats. Bought an Airdyne because everyone swore I
needed to have one, used it a few times, and sold it. They’re neat, but I can find other ways to
get in cardio. I also ended up buying a
circus dumbbell, because I was tired of dealing with my DIY one. And I picked up a boneyard Rogue echo bar
because I was running Deep Water and wanted something without center knurling
for cleans.
I did lots
of cool things at this location: ran Building the Monolith and Deep Water, took
first in some strongman comps again, but nothing terribly noteworthy as far as
home gym evolution goes. At this point,
I was starting to recognize that I was spacing myself out of home gyms. It was less about getting new stuff and more
about upgrading and replacing the old stuff.
And, knowing I was going to have to move it all AGAIN, I needed to pace
myself. Because, really, I wanted a car
deadlift frame, but I knew that couldn’t happen.
Lessons Learned:
- - I
got to use the prowler a lot more at this assignment…and it’s awesome. Seriously, it’s absolutely the best off
season conditioning tool on the planet.
Limited footprint, little set up necessary, hammers all the right muscles,
etc. Get one.
- - It’s
much better to have a 12” log vs to make a 9” log into a 12” log. Buy right the first time.
- - Don’t
shove your reverse hyper TOO far into the corner. I did that to save space here, but it meant I
had to crawl underneath it to set the DBs on the feet to keep it from
rocking. Pulled my lats several times in
the morning doing that, and realized I was phasing the reverse hyper out of my
training because I didn’t like setting it up.
That’s dumb.
- - Circus
dumbbell: I’m torn. You’re not going to
get better at it without doing it, but it’s really only useful to getting
better at circus dumbbell. They’re expensive
for so little gain, and with home gyms I tend to make it a rule that a piece of
equipment has 3 uses so I can justify having it. That said, I saw Brian Alsruhe using CDB
cleans as part of a conditioning circuit, and that made sense to me, so I might
try that.
- - The
airdyne was proof that, if you need to convince yourself to get something, don’t
get it. I saw a good deal and tried to
justify it to myself, rather than go out looking for something and then trying
to find a good deal.
- - Put
your kegs/sandbags on furniture dollies!
I learned this lesson from this move, and it was amazing. Super effective for space saving. You can just roll stuff around the gym. This is also useful for bumper plates, and
will save you like $100 compared to the cost of rolling plate storage.
- - This
was also the location where I finally got horse stall mats. Be aware: they STINK! Whole garage needed to be aired out. But once you get over that, they’re pretty
nifty. Cutting them is hard.
The Present
Storage shelves I bought with odds and ends, along with my "trophy rack"
And now the
grand finale (for now). I hit the holy
grail: a 3 car garage. I entered with a
goal though: I wanted to be able to park BOTH cars in the 2 car garage and have
the entire gym fit into the attached 1 car garage. I parked my car next to the gym, so that I’d
have the OPTION to have that third car space, but I didn’t want to be dependent
on it. I had to be able to have all the
gear in the space AND be able to train in the space.
Pro tip:
When you’re setting up the gym and getting an idea of space requirements, put
your longest bar in the rack. For me,
that’s my Ironmind Buffalo Bar. Having
it in the rack gets me aware of how much real space I need to work, because you
can deceive yourself with just the rack.
I’d have the bar in the rack the entire time I was building around it,
and I’d practice loading plates on it to see if I had taken too much of its space
away.
I’m terrible
at “seeing” a design in my head, which means I get exhausted whenever I have to
reconstruct the gym, because I have to move stuff into place, evaluated it,
move it out and start the whole thing over until I have it in just the right
spot. The gym before this one took a
full afternoon to configure: this one took 2 days (working off and on).
I bought a 9
bar holder from Titan Fitness before I moved, kept it in the box, opened it
upon arrival and shoved everything I could into the corner. At my previous location, I just laid the bars
against the walls, and they left black streaks everywhere. Also, it’s probably not good to let the bars
lean for a long time. In the photo, I’ve
managed to get in a 9” log, an Rogue boneyard echo bar, a cheap barbell, a
Titan 2.0 SSB, an Ironmind Axle, a Rogue Axle, and a Texas Deadlift bar. Missing is the buffalo bar, but it’s sport is
front and center. The bars all have
designated spaces, because the diameter of some are large enough that they have
to be next to smaller ones. You also
want the bars you’re going to use more often in the front, so you don’t have to
go “digging” for them. In addition, I
have 2 Rogue farmer’s handles tucked in the corner there, my Titan 12” log in
one other bar holder attached to a plate tree, and my Texas Power Bar in the
other plate tree. And then there is a
trap bar against the wall by the power rack feet, and my prowler tucked under
the stairs. I actually just recently
sold that trap bar and am replacing it with a Titan rackable trap bar, in the
hopes I’ll use it.
Stacking the
yoke on top of the reverse hyper was a random moment of genius. I was actually just pushing the yoke out of
the way while I was finding more space in the gym, and I noticed how perfectly
it fit. Wish I figured that out a long
time ago.
I built a “wall”
out of all the things I didn’t want in the middle of my training space. It does a good job of keeping the cars and
the training space separated, but I also have the stuff I want ready access to
(the plates) closer to the main space.
Also, this is small, but I put a black oxide bar in the bar holder
closest to the garage door because, when the winter rolls in snow will blow
into the garage, and I wanted a rust resistant bar there.
The glute
ham raise didn’t make it this round, and honestly, having not used it in 3
years, I’m not heart broken over it.
Also, my old SSB is in the basement.
I have no reason to keep it, but it was the first specialty bar I
bought, and it’s hard to part with it.
Lessons Learned:
- - If
you have a yoke (which you should, if you’re a strongman), store it over the
reverse hyper or other low profile equipment, to maximize space.
- - You
can never have enough moving dollies.
- - Proper
storage is invaluable. I know you’d
rather spend your money on more equipment that you can actually lift, but
eventually space becomes more valuable than new toys, and you can MAKE more
space by having things taking up a small footprint.
- - Titan
crash pads are LEGIT. Get some. You’ll make less noise, which will make your
neighbors happy, and you’ll beat up your equipment less, which will make you
happy.
CONSOLIDATED LESSONS
LEARNED
Basic home gym lessons:
- Have at
least TWO barbells, even in the most basic home gym. They don’t both have to be great, but just
make it so you don’t have to spend all your time stripping weights.
- You can
get a LOT done with just the basics if you’re creative enough.
- Basements
seem like the best spot for a home gym, until you run into basement problems
(flooding). If nothing else, install a
sump pump.
- Make use
of the edges and perimeter in a confined space.
You’re gonna have to “build” the training space for each session and put
it away when you’re done, but you can still make it work.
- Get stuff
off the floor as much as you can. Hang
it up, put it on shelves, etc. Floor
space is invaluable.
- Bench
press stations take up too much space compared to a free bench in the power
rack. Unless you are a bench press
specialist, I don’t think they’re worth it.
- Yardsale
sites/craigslist are goldmines. Jump
when you see a good deal, and find a way to make it work.
- Build your
home gym like you DON’T have the space.
I had to do the re-org in the first place because I had built it lazily
the first time.
- The
prowler is awesome. Seriously, it’s
absolutely the best off season conditioning tool on the planet. Limited footprint, little set up necessary,
hammers all the right muscles, etc. Get
one.
- The
airdyne was proof that, if you need to convince yourself to get something, don’t
get it. I saw a good deal and tried to
justify it to myself, rather than go out looking for something and then trying
to find a good deal.
- Be aware:
hose stall mats STINK! Whole garage
needed to be aired out. But once you get
over that, they’re pretty nifty. Cutting
them is hard.
- You can
never have enough moving dollies.
- Proper
storage is invaluable. I know you’d
rather spend your money on more equipment that you can actually lift, but
eventually space becomes more valuable than new toys, and you can MAKE more
space by having things taking up a small footprint.
- Something
I learned from a survival skill: everything you own should have at least 3
purposes. This principle will keep you
from making bad home gym decisions, because eventually space will be at a
premium. Exceptions exist, of course
(like a reverse hyper or a stone of steel), but before you plink down cash on a
spura-curl bar, see if you can find something else that will do more for you.
Powerlifting Gym Lessons Learned
- Safety
squat bars are cool, but if you’re going to go cheap, go with Titan (and get
the 2.0).
- Bands are
great for commercial gyms, because they’re lightweight and you can sneak them
in, and most of the equipment is going to be bolted down and you can get hex
dumbbells to anchor them, but if you’re at home you don’t have to move the
chains much and are free to make noise.
And be aware: they make a racket.
- Unless you
REALLY need it, an awesome barbell…is still “just a barbell”. Instead of a texas power bar, I’d have a
cheap barbell AND a deadlift bar, or a SSB, or a buffalo bar. Just any sort of bar that does something
other than just be a barbell.
- Don’t
shove your reverse hyper TOO far into the corner. I did that to save space here, but it meant I
had to crawl underneath it to set the DBs on the feet to keep it from
rocking. Pulled my lats several times in
the morning doing that, and realized I was phasing the reverse hyper out of my
training because I didn’t like setting it up.
That’s dumb.
Strongman Gym Lessons Learned
- If you’re
going to compete in strongman, get a yoke.
And what’s funny is, I don’t see yokes in that many shows anymore, but
even if you don’t HAVE to yoke, the yoke can double as a rack, you can use it
to load implements over, you can press it, you can push them like a sled,
etc. Also, I hate to spoil the next part
for you, but I ended up upgrading to a Titan short yoke later simply BECAUSE it
was so modular. Go for one of those.
- Kegs are
some of the best strongman implements you can get. Most can be had cheap, and you can press or
carry them. I had 2 at this point, one
loaded to 100lbs, one loaded to 182.
Allowed for variety.
- Sandbags
are also helpful, but you can’t abuse them as much as a keg. I would drag my sandbag into place for
medleys, and eventually that caused it to rip.
- If you’re
not going to buy an Ironmind axle, just make one out of plumbing pipe and
gorilla tape. A fair compromise is a
Titan axle, which runs about the cost of just making your own. Don’t buy someone ELSE’S plumbing pipe with a
powder coat on it for $150: that’s just silly.
Mike Bartos also makes an axle that is apparently pretty cool.
- It’s much
better to have a 12” log vs to make a 9” log into a 12” log. Buy right the first time.
- Circus
dumbbell: I’m torn. You’re not going to
get better at it without doing it, but it’s really only useful to getting
better at circus dumbbell. They’re expensive
for so little gain, and with home gyms I tend to make it a rule that a piece of
equipment has 3 uses so I can justify having it. That said, I saw Brian Alsruhe using CDB
cleans as part of a conditioning circuit, and that made sense to me, so I might
try that.
- Put your
kegs/sandbags on furniture dollies! I
learned this lesson from this move, and it was amazing. Super effective for space saving. You can just roll stuff around the gym. This is also useful for bumper plates, and
will save you like $100 compared to the cost of rolling plate storage.
- If you
have a yoke (which you should, if you’re a strongman), store it over the
reverse hyper or other low profile equipment, to maximize space.
- You can
never have enough moving dollies.
- Titan
crash pads are LEGIT. Get some. You’ll make less noise, which will make your
neighbors happy, and you’ll beat up your equipment less, which will make you
happy.
Things I upgraded
that I should have just bought right the first time
-Went from a
NYBB Safety Squat Bar to the Titan 2.0.
-Went from a
9” log to a Titan 12” log.
-Went from a
NYBB dragging sled to an Elitefts Prowler II.
-Went from a
cheapo trap bar with short loading pins and only high handles to a Titan
Rackable trap bar.
-Power tower
(kinda sorta. Went with a set of dip
bars because they’re made by Ironmind and are awesome).
-Went from a
tire on top of some horse stall mats to the Titan Crash mats.
Things I bought that
I no longer use
-GHR
-Texas Power
Bar
-Front squat
harness
-Bands
(except monster/mini bands for pull aparts, and light bands to keep from
sliding on the bench)
-Fat gripz
-Blast
straps
-Reactive
slingshot and metal catapult
-EZ curl bar
Things I got in
package deals that I can’t believe I ever lived without
-Locking
collars (Rogue makes a great one)
-Loading
pins
-Powerblock
dumbbells (Olympic dumbbell handles are a pain, and suck to get into position)
Goddamn that
was a long piece. Hopefully some of ya’ll
got something out of that. Be sure to
leave a question, as I’m sure I left some stuff out.
