Gyms Without Squat Racks? WTF!?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

I workout at home, sometimes I fell like I would like to go to a public gym to use some extra equipment or for a change of pace.

I have checked out the only 3 gyms anywhere close to me and 1 had no squat rack or powerrack, one had a smith machine and one did have a powerrack but they told me I wouldnt be allowed to deadlift in it (only possible place to deadlift in that tiny place.)

How the hell do people pay 40 bucks a month for a crappy bench some machines and dumbells that go up to 90lbs? WTF?

Shouldn’t a gym be required to have a power rack or squat rack? Where the hell are these people supposed to do their barbell curls?

2

Dude, I lift at a gym where there are dumbells that go up to 45lbs, there are only old cybex style machines, the only squats are in smith machines with 25lb plates on either side and deadlifts are strongly discouraged. That and I lift at home where I have less than 200lbs of plates and am banned from buying any more.

3

why are you banned from buying more?

4

[quote]ah_dut wrote:
Dude, I lift at a gym where there are dumbells that go up to 45lbs, there are only old cybex style machines, the only squats are in smith machines with 25lb plates on either side and deadlifts are strongly discouraged. That and I lift at home where I have less than 200lbs of plates and am banned from buying any more. [/quote]

Damn, I bet you be throwin towls under the handles of a couple of those dumbells to get some real weight goin’ huh? Yeah man that’s weak as hell man.

Why would you be banned from buyin’ more weight? You in an apartment or something? You should come to America man, land of the free (weight) and land of the brave (heavy weight users) lol. But good luck on that man

5

[quote]ah_dut wrote:
Dude, I lift at a gym where there are dumbells that go up to 45lbs, there are only old cybex style machines, the only squats are in smith machines with 25lb plates on either side and deadlifts are strongly discouraged. That and I lift at home where I have less than 200lbs of plates and am banned from buying any more. [/quote]

Why are you banned?

6

[quote]ah_dut wrote:
I have less than 200lbs of plates and am banned from buying any more. [/quote]

married are ya?

7

I’m surprised that most gyms even have a squat rack. Very few guys use them, and they take up a lot of space. Someone from Bally’s/24 Hour Fitness will figure this out and soon will not have squat racks.

8

I’m 16…so my parents don’t let me buy any more.

9

I have not seen a squat rack in my life … you can train without it just fine, use your imagination. you can easily squat and d-lift over 150kg (300 pounds) without one if you have a barbel and some hooks or something in you shoulder height. if you don’t, just learn to snatch and do front squats!!

god damn it we don’t even have any safety bar things for squatting here, if you are faling you just ram the hell out of the smith cahines side that has the “hooks” for the barbel…

10

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
I’m surprised that most gyms even have a squat rack. Very few guys use them, and they take up a lot of space. Someone from Bally’s/24 Hour Fitness will figure this out and soon will not have squat racks.[/quote]

When I used to go to commercial gyms, most racks did get used, just not for squatting. In order of frequency, here is what I see racks used for:
Curls
Shrugs
Leg/Knee raises
Chin ups
Overhead Pressing
1/4 Squats

So, yeah, I am kind of surprised more gyms don’t just say “the hell with it” and just not buy them.

11

[quote]malonetd wrote:
CaliforniaLaw wrote:
I’m surprised that most gyms even have a squat rack. Very few guys use them, and they take up a lot of space. Someone from Bally’s/24 Hour Fitness will figure this out and soon will not have squat racks.

When I used to go to commercial gyms, most racks did get used, just not for squatting. In order of frequency, here is what I see racks used for:
Curls
Shrugs
Leg/Knee raises
Chin ups
Overhead Pressing
1/4 Squats

So, yeah, I am kind of surprised more gyms don’t just say “the hell with it” and just not buy them.[/quote]

But how would the humans do their curls and shrugs?

12

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Someone from Bally’s/24 Hour Fitness will figure this out and soon will not have squat racks.[/quote]

Then the used equipment market will be flooded with cheap squat racks!
Victory!

13

[quote]KO421 wrote:
I workout at home, sometimes I fell like I would like to go to a public gym to use some extra equipment or for a change of pace.

I have checked out the only 3 gyms anywhere close to me and 1 had no squat rack or powerrack, one had a smith machine and one did have a powerrack but they told me I wouldnt be allowed to deadlift in it (only possible place to deadlift in that tiny place.)

How the hell do people pay 40 bucks a month for a crappy bench some machines and dumbells that go up to 90lbs? WTF?

Shouldn’t a gym be required to have a power rack or squat rack? Where the hell are these people supposed to do their barbell curls?[/quote]

Gyms in general are very poorly equipped…Louie Simmons wrote an article titled “What a gym really needs” and it highlights the basics a powerlifting gym has. T

he huge commercial gym where i train apparantly has nearly a million pounds worth of equipment(lots of cardio crap) yet virtually nothing Louie Simmons recommends. This makes me sad. As soon as i have a spare ?5,000 im maing my own gym.

I did figures using EliteFTS as my equipment supplier and ?5,000 would buy an awesome set up.

How do commercial gyms AND nearly all their clients go so fucking wrong!

14

[quote]elliotnewman1 wrote:
KO421 wrote:
I workout at home, sometimes I fell like I would like to go to a public gym to use some extra equipment or for a change of pace.

I have checked out the only 3 gyms anywhere close to me and 1 had no squat rack or powerrack, one had a smith machine and one did have a powerrack but they told me I wouldnt be allowed to deadlift in it (only possible place to deadlift in that tiny place.)

How the hell do people pay 40 bucks a month for a crappy bench some machines and dumbells that go up to 90lbs? WTF?

Shouldn’t a gym be required to have a power rack or squat rack? Where the hell are these people supposed to do their barbell curls?

Gyms in general are very poorly equipped…Louie Simmons wrote an article titled “What a gym really needs” and it highlights the basics a powerlifting gym has. T

he huge commercial gym where i train apparantly has nearly a million pounds worth of equipment(lots of cardio crap) yet virtually nothing Louie Simmons recommends. This makes me sad. As soon as i have a spare ?5,000 im maing my own gym.

I did figures using EliteFTS as my equipment supplier and ?5,000 would buy an awesome set up.

How do commercial gyms AND nearly all their clients go so fucking wrong!

[/quote]

This is pretty much what I was getting at, I don’t even mean most commercial gyms should have glute ham raises and all the other things I would want but, no freaking rack?

That just seems like something that would be required for you to have if you are going to charge people 40$$ a month. Even if people are only going to do shrugs and curls in it.

15

The best is when there is some jerk curling WITH JUST THE BAR in the squat rack. I remember the last time I was in a commercial gym and asked the guy if he wouldn’t mind just using the free barbells that were set up for curling and let me squat.

Him:“Well, this is perfectly weighted for what I want to do, I just have 4 more sets.”

Me: “It’s a 45lb bar, they have a 45lb barbell over there. This is the squat rack. It’s for squatting.”

He gives me the finger and keeps curling.

After that I wanted to take a welding class to build my own squat standards and racks at home. That would be cool to make your own stuff, take out the middle man!

16

[quote]cactrotman wrote:
The best is when there is some jerk curling WITH JUST THE BAR in the squat rack. I remember the last time I was in a commercial gym and asked the guy if he wouldn’t mind just using the free barbells that were set up for curling and let me squat.

Him:“Well, this is perfectly weighted for what I want to do, I just have 4 more sets.”

Me: “It’s a 45lb bar, they have a 45lb barbell over there. This is the squat rack. It’s for squatting.”

He gives me the finger and keeps curling.

After that I wanted to take a welding class to build my own squat standards and racks at home. That would be cool to make your own stuff, take out the middle man![/quote]

LOL Classic

17

Man elliot, I feel the same way. A new gym opened up near my house a few months back and they advertised how they spent over $1 million to get the place up and running. I take the tour through there and there’s no cage, squat rack or even what I would consider to be a high quality barbell.

It’s just a bunch of convoluted machines, overpriced treadmills, fancy locker rooms with glass sinks and marble countertops, hardwood floors and cheapo cap barbells that felt like they would bend with anything more than 315 loaded on them. I was speechless.

Even if you’re not a ``hardcore’’ lifter I can’t imagine anyone who knows anything about proper fitness would be comfortable in this place. I just don’t understand who these gyms are designed for.

All I kept thinking was `$1 million for this?’ what really steams me is that every gym is becoming the same. There is no differentiation anymore. It used to be that every major city had a few really fancy places, a few middle of the road type of fitness centers, the YMCA’s and then a few hole-in-the-wall gyms.

Now, every gym wants to be all highbrow so they all just spend cash installing overpriced machines and flat screen tvs over the cardio equipment and sit back and wait for the memberships to roll in. it’s insanity. I finally completed my home gym in January and I couldn’t be happier.

[quote]elliotnewman1 wrote:
KO421 wrote:
I workout at home, sometimes I fell like I would like to go to a public gym to use some extra equipment or for a change of pace.

I have checked out the only 3 gyms anywhere close to me and 1 had no squat rack or powerrack, one had a smith machine and one did have a powerrack but they told me I wouldnt be allowed to deadlift in it (only possible place to deadlift in that tiny place.)

How the hell do people pay 40 bucks a month for a crappy bench some machines and dumbells that go up to 90lbs? WTF?

Shouldn’t a gym be required to have a power rack or squat rack? Where the hell are these people supposed to do their barbell curls?

Gyms in general are very poorly equipped…Louie Simmons wrote an article titled “What a gym really needs” and it highlights the basics a powerlifting gym has. T

he huge commercial gym where i train apparantly has nearly a million pounds worth of equipment(lots of cardio crap) yet virtually nothing Louie Simmons recommends. This makes me sad. As soon as i have a spare ?5,000 im maing my own gym.

I did figures using EliteFTS as my equipment supplier and ?5,000 would buy an awesome set up.

How do commercial gyms AND nearly all their clients go so fucking wrong!

[/quote]

18

[quote]robo1 wrote:
Man elliot, I feel the same way. A new gym opened up near my house a few months back and they advertised how they spent over $1 million to get the place up and running. I take the tour through there and there’s no cage, squat rack or even what I would consider to be a high quality barbell.

It’s just a bunch of convoluted machines, overpriced treadmills, fancy locker rooms with glass sinks and marble countertops, hardwood floors and cheapo cap barbells that felt like they would bend with anything more than 315 loaded on them. I was speechless.

Even if you’re not a ``hardcore’’ lifter I can’t imagine anyone who knows anything about proper fitness would be comfortable in this place. I just don’t understand who these gyms are designed for.

All I kept thinking was `$1 million for this?’ what really steams me is that every gym is becoming the same. There is no differentiation anymore. It used to be that every major city had a few really fancy places, a few middle of the road type of fitness centers, the YMCA’s and then a few hole-in-the-wall gyms.

Now, every gym wants to be all highbrow so they all just spend cash installing overpriced machines and flat screen tvs over the cardio equipment and sit back and wait for the memberships to roll in. it’s insanity. I finally completed my home gym in January and I couldn’t be happier.

elliotnewman1 wrote:
KO421 wrote:
I workout at home, sometimes I fell like I would like to go to a public gym to use some extra equipment or for a change of pace.

I have checked out the only 3 gyms anywhere close to me and 1 had no squat rack or powerrack, one had a smith machine and one did have a powerrack but they told me I wouldnt be allowed to deadlift in it (only possible place to deadlift in that tiny place.)

How the hell do people pay 40 bucks a month for a crappy bench some machines and dumbells that go up to 90lbs? WTF?

Shouldn’t a gym be required to have a power rack or squat rack? Where the hell are these people supposed to do their barbell curls?

Gyms in general are very poorly equipped…Louie Simmons wrote an article titled “What a gym really needs” and it highlights the basics a powerlifting gym has. T

he huge commercial gym where i train apparantly has nearly a million pounds worth of equipment(lots of cardio crap) yet virtually nothing Louie Simmons recommends. This makes me sad. As soon as i have a spare ?5,000 im maing my own gym.

I did figures using EliteFTS as my equipment supplier and ?5,000 would buy an awesome set up.

How do commercial gyms AND nearly all their clients go so fucking wrong!

[/quote]

Man im jealous!lol. What have you got in your home gym?

19

i couldn’t fit a power cage in my basement because of the low ceilings but I bought a pair of ironmind squat stands and spotter racks. A nice competition bench from Williams strength. I have a rowing machine.

An ivanko competition bar, a buffalo bar, a pendlay bar and texas power bar, 45 degree back raise, plus all the plates I need, and all the extras such as bands, chains, medicine balls. I made a platform myself with plywood and stall mats, and made a box and a chin up bar myself. It?s a nice set up. I just need to get some dumbbells and some bumper plates.

I don’t miss the gym at all. i stop by the gym maybe once every 10 days or so to use their dumbbells and the cable station but hopefully in a couple of months even that won’t be necessary anymore.

20

[quote]robo1 wrote:
i couldn’t fit a power cage in my basement because of the low ceilings but I bought a pair of ironmind squat stands and spotter racks. A nice competition bench from Williams strength. I have a rowing machine.

An ivanko competition bar, a buffalo bar, a pendlay bar and texas power bar, 45 degree back raise, plus all the plates I need, and all the extras such as bands, chains, medicine balls. I made a platform myself with plywood and stall mats, and made a box and a chin up bar myself. It?s a nice set up. I just need to get some dumbbells and some bumper plates.

I don’t miss the gym at all. i stop by the gym maybe once every 10 days or so to use their dumbbells and the cable station but hopefully in a couple of months even that won’t be necessary anymore.[/quote]

sounds like a nice setup, I have a decent home gym with all the plates I need and a rack and a 125lb powerblock set, I just need some nice bars like you got, and more room!