Home Gym Setup

Jim when building the flooring for a basement gym should I avoid putting stall mats inside the power rack or in the center of the deadlift platform?

In your videos it looks like you lined your whole garage in stall mats and drywall on top (deadlift platform with 2x6s and plywood underneath) .

Obv I’m not Jim, but from experience, stall mats are just fine as long as they’re real stall mats and not that squishy foam crap you get from Dick’s. Personally though I prefer plywood on my power rack and platform.

Thanks juggs. I’m debating bolting a power rack into the concrete and having a separate deadlift platform or just building a giant platform and bolting the rack into the plywood. Also whether to cover the whole surface in horse stall mats like Rippetoe’s plans or have bare wood under foot like Jim’s five point gym.

I’m about 90% sure that Jim’s platform is plywood, horse mats and carpet on top for traction.

My garage gym’s floor is all mats. These are (I believe) stall mats. Under the bench and the monolift, I put 6x8 carpeting for traction. If you don’t do this, you will be fucked. The platform I built sits upon the stall mats and also has 6x8 carpeting to prevent slipping. One of these days ill do a video tour of my gym because I am very proud of it. It took a lot of time to save the $$$ for it and I believe it to be one of the best outfitted garage gyms.

It only took 25 years.

Thanks Jim!