The Garage Gym Thread

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blackeagle603
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by blackeagle603 »

It seems to all depend on the box and the person running it.
^^this^^

Bad trainers are bad trainers wherever you find them.
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MarkD
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by MarkD »

blackeagle603 wrote:
It seems to all depend on the box and the person running it.
^^this^^

Bad trainers are bad trainers wherever you find them.
Oh, definitely. I've seen some trainers at my gym who MUST be related to Orthopedists, because if they keep having their people lift like that something's gonna break. Overhead press with wrists bent back 90 degrees to forearm. Lunges with barbell on shoulders, but twisting the spine at the bottom (because having weights on levers makes the torque on your spine safe?). People flexing their spines like frightened cats during deadlifts, while the trainer is busy with her phone.

I guess I should be grateful I belong to a gym where chalk, sweating, grunting and deadlifts are allowed. Of course when I have my own in the garage I can add farting and swearing out loud (not that these things DON'T happen in my gym, but they're not as accepted).
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g-man
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by g-man »

MarkD wrote:After I came to this conclusion pretty much on my own, I found and bought a book called "The Barbell Prescription" which is specifically for barbell training for people over 40 (including people way over 40). The author is both a doctor and Starting Strength coach, he gets a bit into the medical aspect of it (some of which goes over my head), but the crux of it is "Get strong, stay strong, and instead of the long slow decline to death you can die suddenly while doing what you enjoy, and in the process we can stave off heart disease, diabetes, etc so you won't die younger than you ought to."

So that's what I'm doing. I'm not interested in competing in weightlifting or powerlifting as a sport, it's a way to get stronger and stay that way, as efficiently as possible, so I have the ability to do what I enjoy. Again, back to the book above, the author specifies that we're not competing in weight lifting, we're using weights to TRAIN for the extreme sport of aging and living and active life as we age.
Dr Sullivan (one of the authors) is giving a talk here at GW University at the end of next week, I'm trying to make sure my ducks are in a row with the Mrs for a kitchen pass. My dad was what I'd describe as brutally strong while I was growing up, but has recently slid down the slope due to lack of continued movement of heavy things. He stays pretty active despite his Parkinson's, but I'd really like to see if I can manage to get him onto a weight program to help restore some of that strength I remember, and stave off the complications of the 'shaking palsy'.
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MarkD
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by MarkD »

g-man wrote:
MarkD wrote:After I came to this conclusion pretty much on my own, I found and bought a book called "The Barbell Prescription" which is specifically for barbell training for people over 40 (including people way over 40). The author is both a doctor and Starting Strength coach, he gets a bit into the medical aspect of it (some of which goes over my head), but the crux of it is "Get strong, stay strong, and instead of the long slow decline to death you can die suddenly while doing what you enjoy, and in the process we can stave off heart disease, diabetes, etc so you won't die younger than you ought to."

So that's what I'm doing. I'm not interested in competing in weightlifting or powerlifting as a sport, it's a way to get stronger and stay that way, as efficiently as possible, so I have the ability to do what I enjoy. Again, back to the book above, the author specifies that we're not competing in weight lifting, we're using weights to TRAIN for the extreme sport of aging and living and active life as we age.
Dr Sullivan (one of the authors) is giving a talk here at GW University at the end of next week, I'm trying to make sure my ducks are in a row with the Mrs for a kitchen pass. My dad was what I'd describe as brutally strong while I was growing up, but has recently slid down the slope due to lack of continued movement of heavy things. He stays pretty active despite his Parkinson's, but I'd really like to see if I can manage to get him onto a weight program to help restore some of that strength I remember, and stave off the complications of the 'shaking palsy'.
Dr Sullivan has a series of YouTube videos that give the basics, Google greysteel fitness and follow the links to his channel. I'd love to go to one of his seminars, but I think at this point he'd be preaching to the choir.
BDK
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by BDK »

You'd have to have 10' of clearance for my equipment.

O lifts , at least for competition should t be more than 6 reps.

More than that and, we were told, nerves ran out of enough chemicals to fire fast enough to execute the lifts.

A strongman clean and press for lifts was very different than a C&J or snatch

These days I'm just into yoga/body weight. I'll never lift heavy again, and lighter weights just don't interest me.

Same reason why I need to find a national level strongman competitor to give my strongman equipment to - it's all too heavy for a less developed individual.

But the weight lifting gear is adjustable.

I don't know the bar company you mentioned. Do not cut corners on the clamps or the hardware though. If it's not rated bolt, it really shouldn't be trusted - and it's very cheap to upgrade it.
MarkD
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by MarkD »

BDK wrote:You'd have to have 10' of clearance for my equipment.

O lifts , at least for competition should t be more than 6 reps.

More than that and, we were told, nerves ran out of enough chemicals to fire fast enough to execute the lifts.

A strongman clean and press for lifts was very different than a C&J or snatch

These days I'm just into yoga/body weight. I'll never lift heavy again, and lighter weights just don't interest me.

Same reason why I need to find a national level strongman competitor to give my strongman equipment to - it's all too heavy for a less developed individual.

But the weight lifting gear is adjustable.

I don't know the bar company you mentioned. Do not cut corners on the clamps or the hardware though. If it's not rated bolt, it really shouldn't be trusted - and it's very cheap to upgrade it.
So I'd have to explain to my wife why we'd need to eliminate the upstairs bathroom and put a cathedral ceiling in the garage. :lol: :D :P :mrgreen: :o :D

The plates are tempting I admit, but I suspect with shipping from Texas to NJ, it would be cheaper to source them locally, either thru Craigslist or Walmart sells (I believe) Cap brand steel plates. Not the best plates, but plenty good enough for what I'll use them for. They just have to hang on the bar and weigh roughly what they're supposed to.

I hadn't given a whole lot of thought to the clamps. Again, at my level for the foreseeable future there wouldn't be any bend to the bar, so the prospect of the weights sliding off is somewhere between nonexistent and seriously unlikely. When I bench press I don't use clamps at all for safety reason (I can dump the plates if I get into trouble) and only use them on squats, deadlifts and overhead press to keep the plates from rattling. I don't do any Olympic lifts where I can see the clamps would be more important. Is there something else I'm not seeing? My gym has those spring clamps that look like oversized safety pins, they've always seemed adequate.

Can you explain what "rated bolt" means?

This is the bar I've had my eye on:

http://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-29mm- ... oe-bar-2-0

It's primarily a power bar, but with knurling for both power and oly lifts, and the sleeves spin well enough for oly lifts, so if I decide to start doing (say) power cleans the bar is OK for it. Like I said, no whip, so not good for "real" oly lifts, but I don't see those on my horizon. It may not be up to competition powerlifting standards, but I don't foresee ever putting enough on it to be an issue. Honestly, I'm unlikely to ever outgrow a $100 CAP bar, but I'd rather spend the extra money and get something I KNOW I'll never outgrow.

Thanks for all the advice.
BDK
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by BDK »

Rated bolts, I mean buying grade V or grade VIII bolts from a reputable supply. A power rack is a safety device - meant to stop a falling bar, so there can be a fair amount of force hit the structure. (In my case it was higher weights, but still, envision falling from over head/several feet.)

Grade VIIIs don't corrode, TMK, and I went with those, so I wouldn't have to worry about hidden corrosion.

The PROPER way to safely bench alone, is to bench inside the power rack, with the pins set to stop the bar. Slipping off the weights is an excellent way to tear muscles and sinews.

In reality, bench does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for you that overhead press, dips, and handstand push ups, won't do better.

The issue with a "chrome and fern" bar is that if you ever do put more on it, than its actual "working load", say for doing quarter squats or walk out to break through a plateau, it will be very unstable.

Its not just that it will permanently bend, but the bearings in the sleeves break down, and the bar won't bend evenly as you pull, as its structure is failing.

(I put... Maybe 495#? I usually started my deadlift workouts with that then - on one in a yuppie gym, and it was damn terrifying.)

The difference is real gear starts with a 1200# or so, WORKING load rating, I suspect the links you have post their catastrophic failure ratings.
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Netpackrat
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Re: The Garage Gym Thread

Post by Netpackrat »

BDK wrote:Grade VIIIs don't corrode, TMK, and I went with those, so I wouldn't have to worry about hidden corrosion.
Grade 8 bolts these days are all zinc plated, same as grade 5. The color difference is just from a different color chromate treatment being used. Once the sacrificial zinc plating is used up, they will corrode just like any other carbon steel bolt.
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