New School Weight Equipment

I am the powerlifting and offensive line coach at a 4A school about 20 minutes south of Dallas, TX. We are finishing our new school and weight room, and are currently taking bids from different companies. I would like some of your opinions about what is the best/worst/most cost effiecient equiptment out there.

I have pushed and tried to convince our AD to go with Hammer Strength/Powerlift, but due to money reasons I don’t think we will be able to go with them. I have strongly been against Mac and ProMaxim. We have also looked at Wilder, UCS, and ProStar.

What would you choose if money was no option and why? And would would you settle with all things considered?

Get a reverse hyper and glute ham raise, EFS sells them but my guess is you could find them cheaper from another company. As far as other machines, meh, but those are two fantastic pieces of strength equipment that are almost never seen. They are, in my oppinion, probably the best machines out there for training the hamstrings, glutes and low back which are some of the most crucial and generally undertrained muscles of any athlete. I don’t really have an oppinion about what other machines you wanted to get but I strongly suggest you get at least one each of the above two.

Unfortunatly I can’t be of much help,
But I say buy the least amount of machines posible. And use the $$ for racks, platforms, bumberplates, (quality) bars, rings, etc, etc, etc…

my 2 cents.

do have to have machines? justget racks and BBs and DBs, probably cheaper anyway

Squat racks, benches, GH raise, bands, dbs, couple heavy med balls and at least 1 platform with bumper plates. Athletes don’t need machines to get strong.

I would go elitefts.com all the way if money was no object. I love my 2x2 rack and everything else ive gotten from them has been high quality.

We are getting all the stuff people have suggested (G-H, Hyper-extensions, racks, platforms, etc.). What I am more looking for is what company would you pick as your supplier.

like some people said above, ELITEFTS.com has everything you need. I have personally ordered a rack from them and I would highly recommend any of their equipment especially for a High School weight room. Check out the site they should be perfect for your supplier.

Chin up/Dip station (not assisted rubbish)
Squat rack
Power cage
Quality bars, barbell, dumbbells… possibly bonus ones like EZ, etc.
Bumper plates
Solid bench press setup
Additional benches
Any additional money spent on a good cable setup… GHR/reverse hyper… etc.

Pretty much my perfect gym!

Make sure you have the right flooring for big lifts.

My school got old equipment from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It’s good quality and still in very good shape. If you can, see if you can get a deal from a local university.

http://www.strengthequipment.net/ Steve has helped out numerous schools. He also outfitted both of the Quads gyms in the Chicago area. I have some of his equipment in my own gym and it is very well built.

[quote]Steamroller wrote:
I am the powerlifting and offensive line coach at a 4A school about 20 minutes south of Dallas, TX. We are finishing our new school and weight room, and are currently taking bids from different companies. I would like some of your opinions about what is the best/worst/most cost effiecient equiptment out there.

I have pushed and tried to convince our AD to go with Hammer Strength/Powerlift, but due to money reasons I don’t think we will be able to go with them. I have strongly been against Mac and ProMaxim. We have also looked at Wilder, UCS, and ProStar.

What would you choose if money was no option and why? And would would you settle with all things considered?[/quote]

Check out Forza Strength if you haven’t already
http://www.forzastrength.com/

I have Legend Fitness in my basement gym and love it. Top of the line quality at very affordable prices.

If money were no object…www.power-lift.com. Absolute top of the line and they are pretty much the major player in major college strength and conditioning.

as far as machines go the only ones I even like a little are Hammer Strength. I would go with Elite Fitness for the racks and everything else they carry, though.

EliteFTS or Williams Strength without a question.

Email Dan John or post on his forum. I’m sure he has lots of good ideas. I know he’s a big fan of chains. I believe he gets his stuff from preform better.

For Oly stuff you can check out
http://werksan.com/
or
http://pendlay.com/
or
you can always get the $1000.00 bars from Eleiko.
–they are good, in our gym we use an Eleiko competition bar from the late 80’s.

don’t get the new Oly York bars, they don’t last long. If you get your hands on an old one then ur good. And the platforms they sell now are too small.

york barbell is good, like there bars too. Get some rowing, pulldowns for those of us that cannot do pullups yet, variety of bars, pullup dip station, dip belts, chalk, chains, bands, variety of bars: safety, cambered, axle

Try Sorinex. www.sorinex.com

They have outfitted many colleges and pro football teams. They do have affordable option.

coach, go down 342 till you get to Big J’s Extreme Fitness. walk in and write down everything he has in that gym and then get it!! Youll want some 2x2 power racks also. Then play the music really loud and fire some of those high school kids up. When I was there (RO) i couldnt get a coach to light a fire under my ass when i needed it. Get mad, get big, and get PRs. Wins on the field will follow!!
good luck