Garage Gym Part 3 - The Rack

You've picked out your bar and plates, now you need a safe, solid, high quality rack (mind out of the gutter, people).

Do you absolutely need a rack? Well, not really. Pretty much every barbell exercise can be done by lifting the barbell directly from the floor. Unfortunately, that limits the amount of weight you can squat, because you'll only squat weight you can lift from the floor to your shoulders. That's called a clean.



Even the best Olympic weightlifters can only clean about 80% as much as they squat. And, as we know, if you want to get stronger, you have to move heavier weights. Lifting lighter weights lots of times won't make you nearly as strong as lifting heavier weights fewer times. Additionally, the squat is probably the most important strength training exercise you can do. That's why even the best Olympic weightlifters squat from a rack.



We non-genetic-freaks who train for health and recreation can usually clean about 50% - 60% as much as we can squat. That means that if you don't equip your garage gym with a squat rack, you'll severely limit the amount of weight you'll be able to squat. Considering the importance of the squat in your strength training program, training without a squat rack means leaving a lot of strength on the table.

So, my advice? Buy a rack.

If your budget is tight, you can buy the bar(s) and plates first, then save up for the squat rack and buy it later. You don't have to spend a fortune, but this is not a place to cheap out. A good quality rack will last a lifetime, so you'll only make this purchase once. I can't say that about a cheap rack. Again, I'll explain what I bought and why, then we'll go over some alternatives.

THE RACK

I don't have a lot of space, or an enormous budget. Consequently, I chose a rack that serves multiple purposes, Y-2 Rogue Yoke ($535). It serves as a squat rack, bench press rack, pull-up bar, storage rack, yoke, and sled.

I'm six feet tall, and the Y-2 Yoke is just tall enough (92 inches) for me to do dead hang pull-ups with full extension. However, that's the one part of my garage gym that I regret. I wish I'd bought a wall mounted pull-up bar instead, because the pull-up bar makes it a real pain to use the rack as a yoke.



I have to remove the pull-up bar to install the crossbar. That's no fun. Eventually, I'll buy a wall mounted pull-up bar, but for now I have other priorities.

I particularly like all the plate storage on my rack. It doesn't take up a whole lot of additional floor space, and saves me the hassle of having to build my own solution. The only problem I have with it is something I didn't anticipate, but should have. When you stack plates on top of each other, it's really difficult to get your fingers in between them to pick them up. Obviously! Fortunately, it was an easy fix. I just made spacers from scraps of 3/4 inch plywood I had laying around the garage.

So, what are your options? They're essentially infinite, so I'll only cover a few of the basics, and hopefully that'll serve as jumping-off point for you.

First, I do not recommend you buy the this kind of squat stand.

Notice that the two sides of the stand are not connected to each other. That makes them too unstable for my taste. They cost $350, but I'd rather err on the side of safety and spend a little more.

Here's a fairly basic, sturdy, high quality squat stand.

The bench, safety bars and weights aren't included, but at $365, it's only $15 more than the S-4 squat stands, which aren't connected with each other. And this SML-1 stand is much sturdier and safer. Chances are that a basic squat stand, like the SML-1, is all you'll ever need.

From Rogue's Facebook page

But, wait! There's more! So, please read on.

There are power racks. This one costs $725.

There are racks that mount to your wall. This one costs $650.

If your garage is tiny, there are racks that mount to your wall and fold. This one costs $495.

If your budget and square footage are unlimited, I'm jealous, and for you the sky's the limit.

And, accessories? You want accessories? You could spend all day browsing accessories for your squat rack. As with everything else in life, let your budget be your guide.

No matter which rack you choose, you absolutely, positively should buy some kind of safety spotter arms, or bars. Rogue power racks come from the factory equipped with safety bars, but the other racks in the photos above do not. Ensure you understand whether or not your rack includes safety bars. Mine didn't, so I bought a set of these ($162.75).

Note the chalk marks. I know exactly where to mount my safety arms for the squat and bench press. You can't do that at
Gold's Gym! 

Why are spotter safety arms so important? Safety. Duh. Sure, you can drop a bar from your back when squatting, but it's safer to set it down on a pair of safety arms that you mounted at a height just below the bottom of your squat before you started your workout.

But the real danger isn't the squat. It's the bench press. The bench press is the only lift that can kill you. In 2016, a 22-year-old man in Des Moines dropped a 315 lb barbell on his throat. In 2017, a 15-year-old boy in Brisbane, Australia dropped a 220 lb barbell on his throat. It's a rare, but very real risk, especially when training by yourself.

You can eliminate that risk by setting a pair of safety arms to a height just below the bottom of your bench press. Is your health and life worth at least $162.75? Mine is.

THE PLATFORM

A platform prevents your garage floor and your weights from damaging each other. You can buy a platform, but building one is so simple that I didn't see the need to buy one. I used three sheets of the least expensive 3/4 inch plywood I could find at Home Depot, and three sheets of 3/4 inch rubber horse stall matting from Tractor Supply. I used standard 1 inch wood screws to assemble it. I didn't bother to bolt it to the floor, because it's pretty stinkin' heavy. It ain't goin' nowhere.

Step 1: lay two sheets of plywood side-by-side on the floor.

Step 2: screw one sheet of plywood on top of the two you laid on the floor.

Step 3: cut the rubber mats to size, and screw them onto the plywood.

Dead simple, right? No need to get fancy, or spend a fortune. Although, if you want to, feel free to do so. On the other hand, you could go in the opposite direction and just set gym mats directly on your garage floor. I prefer the feel of plywood - rather than rubber - under my feet when I lift, but hey, it's your garage.

As always, I hope this has been helpful. If you have questions and/or suggestions, please feel free to comment. In the final installment, we'll talk conditioning equipment.

Garage Gym Part 1 - Overview
Garage Gym Part 2 - Bars & Plates

Garage Gym Part 2 - Bars & Plates

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at an overview of how I built my garage gym. I built my gym with three major factors in mind. In descending order of importance they are price, quality and space. I have limited resources and limited space, and I want my equipment to last a long, long time. Now we'll take a look at the two most important parts of the gym; the bars and the plates.

BARBELLS

First of all, this is not the place to save money in your gym. Let me say that again. This is not the place to cheap out. The barbell is the most versatile, most useful piece of strength training equipment you can buy. A good, quality barbell will last a lifetime with minimum maintenance. A cheap one will rust, bend, or the collars will stop spinning smoothly. Save money elsewhere.

How versatile is a barbell? Here's a non-exhaustive list of exercises one can perform with a standard barbell. Back squats, front squats, overhead squats, snatches, power snatches, muscle snatches, cleans, power cleans, muscle cleans, clean and jerks, push jerks, push presses, overhead presses, bench presses, thrusters, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, curls, lunges, farmer's carries, barbell rows, and lots, lots more that I either don't know, or can't think of right now.

Additionally, a barbell allows you to move a lot more weight than with dumbbells, kettlebells or any other piece of equipment. If you want to get stronger, you have to move more weight. Again, this is not the place to cheap out.

So, a barbell is a barbell is a barbell, right? Not really. I'll explain which ones I bought and why, then I'll cover other options.

I bought the Rogue 2.0 bar (men's bar, $255) for myself, and Rogue Bella 2.0 bar (women's bar, $215) for Aimee. The first thing you'll notice is that the Bella bar has a smaller diameter shaft (25 mm) than the Rogue 2.0 bar (28.5 mm), to better fit women's smaller hands. The sleeve is also shorter, presumably because women don't need quite as much space on which to load plates. Consequently, the women's bar weighs 15 kg (about 35 lb), vs. the men's bar's 20 kg (about 45 lb).

The Rogue 2.0 and Bella 2.0 bars are excellent generalist's bars. They're great for Olympic weightlifting, power lifting and high-repetition, fast workouts, like CrossFit. They're high quality bars with a tensile strength of 190,000 lb/square inch. I'm an aerospace project engineer, and Rogue's workmanship is just as good as ours. They're also made in Ohio. Despite all that, they're still affordable.

What makes these bars great for recreational generalists like Aimee and me?

First, the knurling. Knurling is the checkered pattern pressed into the steel bar. Its purpose is to give you better grip. Power lifting bars have more aggressive knurling for better grip in the deadlift. These bars have less aggressive knurling (like Olympic weightlifting bars), so they don't tear up your hands when performing fast lifts like the clean and the snatch, or fast, high-rep workouts like CrossFit.

These bars lack center knurling. Center knurling is great from back squats, because it helps keep the bar more securely on your back. It's terrible for front squats and cleans, because it tears up the skin on your throat and clavicles.

These bars are also flexible, like Olympic weightlifting bars. When you perform a clean, you want the bar to flex a little. You can see what I mean in this slow motion video.

Olympic weightlifting bars have bearings that allow the sleeves to spin when performing fast lifts. That's great, but bearings that last when subjected to that kind of abuse are very, very expensive, which is why even "affordable" Eleiko Olympic weightlifting bars cost $829 new.

The Rogue 2.0 and Bella 2.0 bars use oiled brass bushings instead of bearings. No, they don't spin as nicely as bearings. Yes, you do have to oil them every couple months to keep them spinning nicely. But, they keep costs down, and unless you have a shot at qualifying for the USAW American Open, you really don't need to spend the money on a high-end bearing bar.

What about other options for recreational lifters? I'll cover Rogue bars only, but you can find equivalent bars at Again Faster.

If you're a generalist, like Aimee and I are, you could go with the Rogue Ohio Bar. It's more expensive than the Rogue 2.0 bar, but you can get it in several different finishes that are more rust-resistant than the black zinc coating on the Rogue 2.0 bar. You can even get them finished in multiple Cerakote colors. My favorite (of course) is the Operator bar ($325), which comes in O.D. green, or desert tan. It's cool, but my garage is nice and dry, so I don't anticipate needing the more protective coating.

If you plan to stick with the slow lifts (squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press), the Ohio Power Bar ($245 and up) is a better bet. It's a power lifting bar, so it has a larger diameter shaft (29 mm), and higher tensile strength (205,000 lb/square inch). That makes it much stiffer, which is better for the slow lifts. When performing squats, deadlifts and presses, you want the minimum flex possible. Additionally, the Ohio Power Bar has center knurling, which helps keep it on your back during the back squat, and all its knurling is more aggressive for better grip.

If you're willing to spend more, you could go with the Westside Power Bar ($325), which Rogue co-developed with Louie Simmons, head coach of Westside Barbell, which has produced more power lifting champions than any other gym. Honestly, I don't know what (if anything) makes it any better than the Ohio Power Bar, but if you want to spend the additional cash, go for it.

PLATES

HERE is where you can cheap out, if you want to.

I went with Rogue LB Training 2.0 bumper plates. They're color coded (55 lb, 45 lb, 35 lb and 25 lb), and made of high density rubber with a large steel disk in the middle.

I like them because you can drop them when performing the clean, clean and jerk, and the snatch.



Unfortunately, they're expensive - $883 for a 320 lb set. You can get cheaper bumper plates, but because they have smaller disks in the center, and they're made with lower density rubber, they don't last nearly as long.

But you don't have to spend nearly as much as I did.

Plates don't do a whole lot. They just rest on the bar's sleeves and provide resistance (weight). If you don't care about being able to drop the weights, go with cast iron plates, which are relatively inexpensive, and will last forever. In fact, you don't even have to buy them new. There's always someone on Craig's List or Facebook Marketplace selling plates they were too lazy to use.

Do not buy used bars. You never know how the previous owner abused his/her equipment, and bars do require maintenance. But there's very little one can do to damage cast iron plates.

Make sure you get some fractional plates. You're unlikely to find any used ones, because few people know about them. As your training progresses, you'll reach a point where you won't be able to increase the weight on the bar by five pounds at a time. With fractional plates, you'll be able to increase by 2 lb, 1 lb, or even 1/2 lb at a time, which is a lot better than zero. I got my fractional plates from Amazon, because they were cheaper, but I see that's no longer the case.

Fractional plates in 1 lb, 3/4 lb, 1/2 lb and 1/4 lb. Yes, my OSO collars are pink. Sue me.

Lastly, get some collars. Not everyone uses them, but they're important for safety. I prefer OSO collars. They're a lot more secure than the spring collars most gyms use, which means your plates
won't rattle, which means you won't have to stop and readjust your plates ten times per workout. They're a lot more expensive than spring collars, but unless you're running a commercial gym, you only need one pair.

Mini deadlift bar jack in action.

Bonus: a deadlift bar jack is unnecessary, but it sure is handy. It makes loading and unloading a bar on the floor a whole lot easier and faster. I bought the mini jack, because it's less expensive ($62.50) and takes up very little space. If you have the space and the budget, you might consider a full size jack, which is even more convenient, but also a lot more expensive ($165).

The jack makes changing plates a whole lot easier.

Again, I hope this was helpful. Please comment if you have questions and/or suggestions.

In part 3, we'll go over the second most important piece of garage gym equipment - the squat rack.

Garage Gym Part 1 - Overview
Garage Gym Part 3 - The Rack

Garage Gym Part 1 - Overview

No gym membership could ever be as convenient as rolling out of bed, dragging my lazy carcass into my garage, and - still in my PJs (I'm not exaggerating) - lifting weights. It's not for everyone. For some people, the gym is a big part of their social life. Or, they feel the need for the accountability of working out with a group of friends.

But, if - like me - you're a busy curmudgeon, you might benefit from the convenience of a home gym. Obviously, mine is not the only way to build a home gym. Far from it. Very far from it. But it's a good way, and it might give you some ideas that you can customize to your own situation.

THE THOUGHT PROCESS

I don't have a lot of room. I basically have most of one corner of the garage. Consequently, I decided to only use the most versatile equipment possible. Everything has multiple functions. I plan to add more equipment in the future, but - as sparse as this setup may look - I really don't need anything else, other than more plates (more weight). All the things I have in mind for phase 2 are nice-to-haves, not need-to-haves.

Equipment that has multiple uses also saves money.

THE SUPPLIERS

I bought most of my equipment from Rogue Fitness. Some of it I've had laying around for a while, like the bench, and the adjustable dumbbells in the corner. I don't even remember where I got those.

Rogue is one of my two favorite fitness equipment suppliers. The other is Again Faster Equipment. They're about equal in price and quality, but Rogue has gotten a lot bigger over the years, because they're the official equipment suppliers of the CrossFit Games. These days they sponsor strongman, Olympic weightlifting, and power lifting events.

You can't go wrong with either of them. The reason I chose Rogue is that I live a lot closer to Ohio than Florida, and that makes shipping from Rogue a lot less expensive. Either way, their equipment isn't cheap, but it isn't cheap, either. You get what you pay for.

In this case, Rogue's customer service was outstanding, their employees were knowledgeable and helpful, both on the phone and over email, and the delivery prompt. I have no complaints. I wish every company was that good.

The platform is made from plain, old 3/4" plywood from Home Depot and horse stall mats from Tractor Supply.

I made the bar hanger from scrap lumber I had laying around the garage.

The chalk bag hanging from the pull-up bar is for rock climbing. I bought it at a place called The Pathfinder in Manhattan, KS back when I was stationed at Fort Riley, but you can find one - and chalk - at REI or Amazon. You'll want chalk. Trust me.

The black-and-blue things are my knee sleeves, turned inside-out to dry. You may or may not want those.

In part 2, I'll cover the most important equipment in the gym, the bars and plates. Please commend with any questions or suggestions you may have.

Garage Gym Part 2 - Bars & Plates
Garage Gym Part 3 - The Rack