Power Rack Chin-Ups, Tipping and Bolting Down

Hello,

I’am currently in the process of finding a new flat, in which I plan to have a home gym.
I am close to settling on the flat of my interest. However, looks like I cannot bolt anything to the walls nor the floors.

This seems to be problematic as I will be including a power rack and I have seen lots of threads discussing the tipping of the power rack while doing chin-ups. They are advised to put weights on the bar to serve as a counterweight. However, I would rather not have to do that and have a stand-alone stable rack.

The walls sound/are hollow, so bolting to them would be inefficient. Apparently, there is concrete under the linoleum flooring but owner does not know how thick the layer is and judging from feedback of person living downstairs from floor of interest, footsteps are easily heard, which might be an indiciation of a thin layer; in which case bolting to the floor might be risky, in case I pierce fully through the layer?

I have seen that racks come in varieties of weights, apparently weight being often directly related to their pricing. Seeing that I can afford a high quality rack, is there any chance of forgoing the bolting down? Seems unlikely for most of the commercial high end racks look like they are designed to be bolted down. I am currently only 165 feet pounds but will be getting bigger and do my pull ups weighted. In theory, seems like a 700 lbs rack will not be tipping at all now to my chin-ups, just want to make sure this remains in the case and/or if there are any good workarounds to this incapability of bolting down. I plan on keeping this flat for as long as possible and knowing I will be putting on muscle, want to know if there will come a time where I’ll have to bolt it down for it not to move or tip a bit.

I’ve heard of people bolting down the rack to platforms, which I can do. However, these platforms not being bolted to the floor, does it still make for a very solid, non-tipping rack?

Thank you for your time, :slight_smile:

gcourtois

just try it and see, if it doesnt work, use a loaded BB as a counter weight

[quote]caveman101 wrote:
just try it and see, if it doesnt work, use a loaded BB as a counter weight[/quote]

Yeah, try and see what happens. My rack is pretty simple, and I do chins on the upper supports that are inboard on the rack, as opposed to being attached to the outside. Maybe that would be a design feature that you could watch for when buying, which would make it near impossible to tip.

Hey,

Thanks guys. Problem solved, I’ll be able to bolt it down for I am going to rent a home instead.

I don’t know if you’re still interested but you could buy one of these:

http://www.irongym.com/Default.asp?bhcp=1

I had it for the last two years and works amazingly well. Doesn’t mess the wall and it’s surprisingly stable even for weighted pull-ups.