≡ Menu

 

Welcome to Garage-Gyms, your one stop resource for all things home and garage gyms. Here you’ll find tons of comprehensive, unbiased reviews including dozens of bar reviews, pricing guides for the most commonly purchased pieces of garage gym equipment, a large community taking part in productive discussion, inspiration & ideas for your gym, and so much more.

With decades of training experience and five years experience managing this site, I think you’ll find lots of useful and impartial information within these pages. Feel free to contribute with a comment or ask me a question directly. If you’d like to support the site, I welcome you to visit the Garage Gyms Store. Thanks, and enjoy the site!


Rogue Monster Collegiate Half Rack Review

This is a comprehensive review of the Rogue Monster Half Rack; the bigger, beefier, more intimidating, and more expensive big brother of the Rogue HR-2 Half Rack; Rogue’s only other half rack (surprisingly).

Continue reading…

Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar 3.0 Comprehensive Review

This is a comprehensive review of the new Bells of Steel Open Trap Bar. In this review I will be addressing all of the specifications and dimensions of this new bar, and discussing all of its major features. I will even begin my briefly tackling a few of the reasons you may want to consider an open-ended trap bar over the more traditional hex bar.

Continue reading…

Buddy Capps Starting Strength Bar Review

This is a review of the new 20 kg Starting Strength Bar; a bar developed and manufactured by Buddy Capps of Irving, Texas.  As many of you know, Buddy Capps of Capps Welding is the creator of the infamous Texas Power Bar;  a bar still considered to be the gold standard in the power bar world by a great many veteran lifters.

Continue reading…

This is a review for the most up-to-date version of the 20kg men’s Wonder Bar V2 by Fringe Sport, a bar that has been heavily refined over the years while still maintaining it’s sub $200 price point; a price that even includes the shipping, mind you.

Continue reading…

Rep Fitness AB-5000 Adjustable FID Bench Review

This is a preliminary review of the Rep Fitness  AB-5000 ‘Zero-Gap’ Adjustable Bench. It is extremely thorough and should answer most questions, but it is not complete.

Continue reading…

So who’s hungry?

For reasons that I’ll never understand donuts seem to be extremely popular among strength and conditioning athletes.  How this trend started I’ll never know, but I definitely see a ton of donuts on Instagram; and I pretty much only follow people in the strength community.

Continue reading…

A Comprehensive Knurling Guide for Power, Olympic, WOD and Multi-Purpose Bars

This article is a work in progress. Normally I wouldn’t publish an incomplete article, but its completion is dependent on my readers knowing of its existence and contributing to it. 

I have been writing articles and equipment reviews for this site for well over five years now, and in that time I’ve been asked hundreds if not thousands of questions about bars, plates, racks and stands, the reputations of various vendors, and so much more – but there is one particular question that I can always count on getting over and over again, and that’s some variation of the following:

“What is the knurl of bar X like, and how does the knurl of bar X compare to the knurl of the bar Y?”

[continue reading…]

2018 Gift ideas for Strength Athletes, Weightlifters, and Gym Rats

It is time for my new, 2018 holiday gift guide, my gift of sorts to those looking to hook up the gym rat in their life. I’ll start small and move up in price as we go along. Let’s see how much you love the person you’re shopping for. I’m kidding! unless you’re shopping for me! ;)

Continue reading…

Bumper plates sets comparison and shopping guide

Are you in need of some new bumper plates for your garage gym, CrossFit gym, or Olympic training center but you don’t know which brand or even which type of bumpers to buy?  Well you have come to the right place!

Whether you are just getting started and buying your very first bumper plate set, looking for an upgrade to your existing bumpers, or you just need access to more weights in light of all your new gains, I can help. I have scoured the net for the best brands & set prices for basic black bumper plates, training bumpers, and competition WL discs. I’ve considered bumpers from all the major manufacturers and found what I believe to be the best prices on the most durable bumpers on the market. Let’s get started!

Continue reading…

Rep Fitness PowerSpeed Power Bar Review

The Rep Fitness PowerSpeed Bar is a power bar much like any other mid-range power bar. It has a very strong and rigid 29 mm shaft with a fairly aggressive knurl, a center knurl, and bronze bushings.

What makes the PowerSpeed Bar different is the total absence of knurling on the outermost section of the shaft; a feature that I will discuss in some detail below (though I’m certain you already know what that’s about.)

Continue reading…

American Barbell Power Bar Review & Comparison - Grizzly, Elite, and Mammoth

In this article; this bar review of sorts; I will be talking about American Barbell’s three major power bars – the Mammoth, the Elite, and the Grizzly. I’ll go over all of the specifications for each bar, discuss the pros and cons of each, and talk about comparable competitor’s bars.

Continue reading…

American Barbell Announcements and Random Discussion Review

I’ve been getting a good number of questions about American Barbell lately; namely about their Urethane Bumper Plates and an issue regarding rust on American Barbell bar sleeves. I wanted to tackle these two questions as well as just make you aware of an opportunity to get a blemished AB bar for a bit less cash. This should be a quick read.

Continue reading…

Rogue Cerakote Matt Chan Bar Review

The new Matt Chan Bar is here; an updated yet still true-to-form version of what is typically considered to be Rogue’s most unique and versatile multi-purpose bar, and incidentally the bar that has always been one of my personal favorites over the years. The new Chan Bar is stronger, it’s more resilient, and it’s flashier, but is it still a standout in Rogue’s bar line-up?

Continue reading…

Review of Rogue's new Weight Releasers

On a whim I picked up Rogue’s new Weight Releasers; a more refined adaptation of the old school, eccentric loading, powerlifting accessory. I’m not exactly sure what compelled me to buy them. I wasn’t exactly in the market for them, but buy them I most certainly did.

Continue reading…

Rubber-coated handled dumbbells - Rep Fitness versus Vulcan Strength

About a year ago, Vulcan released a new version of the black rubber-coated hex dumbbell; an innovative new dumbbell that abandoned the partially knurled steel handle found on the vast majority of hex dumbbells, and replaced it with a textured, highly tactile, rubber-coated handle.

Continue reading…