Some comments in another post have made me believe we need to address this issue. What uses are acceptable for the power rack at the gym?
I use the power rack for squats, pin pulls and barbell shrugs. I don’t care how much you curl, because its not enough to require a squat rack! There’s no way you’re curling more than you can deadlift, so get the hell out of the way and pick up your curl weight from the ground!
I think its OK to use it for shrugs if you’re shrugging close to what you deadlift. (I’m currently working with 420 on shrugs and I don’t want a deadlift workout every time I shrug).
That being said, what are the unspoken “Rules of the Power Rack?”
Swiss ball crunches, dumbell curls, and other exercises that don’t involve a barbell are not valid exercises in the rack
Take the gay foam pad off of the bar when you’re done squatting
I’m not even trying to be an angry meathead wannabe, but I think that these are a few points that seem to be lost on the general population.
For the most part, nobody in my gym even uses the rack – I could be doing curls in one and hanging my clothes to dry in the other one and it wouldn’t bother anybody.
About a month ago, I had to run a guy out of the power rack because he was doing push-ups in it. PUSH UPS!! He acted all hurt because I politely told him he could use any patch of floor to do push ups on.
[quote]budlight1 wrote:
what is the point of those foam pads anyway? if people learned how to actually squat there is no purpose in it.[/quote]
That foam pad is actually dangerous! It makes it easier for the bar to roll. The best way to pad for squats is to fold your gym towel in half twice and lay it on your shoulders. Oh yeah, and have huge traps.
[quote]J.W. wrote:
About a month ago, I had to run a guy out of the power rack because he was doing push-ups in it. PUSH UPS!! He acted all hurt because I politely told him he could use any patch of floor to do push ups on.[/quote]
Maybe that was Mr. PushUps he’s one of the baddest mofos alive.
I just can’t understand why someone would rather use the power rack to do curls when you can just stand in front of the preacher curl bench!!
Oh yeah, I also saw a guy using the space in a power rack to do an entire bodyweight ab routine! He was doing crunches, leg lifts and bridges and stuff. I almost changed my whole workout plan that day just so I would need the power rack and would have a reason to go kick him out of it. My wife wouldn’t let me though.
This topic reminds me of a Squat Rack story of mine. This was probably 8 or 9 years ago, I get into the gym for squat day and luckily find the Power Rack open. I notice the bar and think “wow, where did they get this nice bar?”
A few minutes later, Brent Mikesell comes over and asks if I’d mind using the other rack. I told him I needed the safety bars but he’s welcome to work in.
A set or two into it, I notice Brent’s bag and all his gear over to the side. It had been there the whole time. Now I realize it was Brents bar too. He was all set up before I even got there! Oops. He never said a thing and I got to squat with a world class lifter. I guess it worked out… for me anyway.
Saw the best thing at my gym yesterday… some skinny dude was doing curls in the squat rack. This girl comes in, walks over to him and says something like ‘Do you mind doing curls somewhere else, I gotta do some squats.’ Hahah… It was classic… Made my day.