After a couple of months of thinking to myself that I really need to review the PR-5000; Rep Fitness’ biggest and most nicely-equipped power rack; I finally stopped procrastinating and pulled the trigger on one. Well wouldn’t you know it – now that I have one I kind of wish that I had done it sooner!
|
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! |
I started my garage gym about seven years ago; the very day that I moved into my current house in fact. I can clearly remember placing my very first equipment order for a bar, power rack, and a set of bumper plates from Rogue immediately after closing on the house. I was so enthusiastic about leaving my global gym and having my own garage gym that I actually ordered all that equipment weeks before my move-in date just so I’d have it all on the day I received my keys. Oh yes, I was ready.
I decided to throw a couple pieces of storage equipment into the Garage Gyms review mix, and I wanted to start with the Rep Fitness Bar & Bumper Plate Tree; a very popular vertical weight tree that I have gotten a surprising number of inquiries and questions about over the last couple months.
Rogue’s Socket Pull-Up Bar is a replacement pull-up bar for Rogue power racks and squat stands. It’s meant to replace the straight, powder-coated pull-up bars that comes standard with all power racks.
So why would anyone want or need to replace one straight pull-up bar with another? That’s what I’m going to talk about in this review.
As popular as the new Rep FB-5000 Competition Bench is and as many questions as I get on both the frame and the pads, it seemed negligent of me to not get the new 14″ Rep Wide Pad in front of me for a review as well. So I did, and this is that review.
In this semi-short follow-up review I will compare the new Rep Wide Pad to the default 12″ Rep Thick Pad and the Thompson Fat Pad, and also tell you why Titan’s Hefty Pad should be 100% off of your radar now (if it wasn’t already).
Iron Company was kind enough to send to me a custom-sized and custom dated Forged Passion Power Belt to check out. This is a review for that belt.
The 13 mm, Forged Passion Belt is a made-to-order leather powerlifting belt. It’s assembled in the USA using two thick layers of premium sole leather rather than multiple thin layers of cheaper leather and filler materials. Heavy-gauge, nickel-plated steel rivets are used to affix the single prong buckle and leather loop (both for durability and for aesthetic reasons) while the whole belt is double-stitched rather than being single-stitched.
This will be a fairly short post meant only to show the few subtle differences between three major brands of competition-style bumper plates; the Rep Fitness Competition Bumper, the Vulcan Absolute Competition Bumper, and the Rogue Fitness Trainer 2.0 Bumper.
This is a review for the Force USA MyRack Modular Power Rack. This comprehensive and rather lengthy review will cover not only the centerpiece of the MyRack system; the power rack itself; but also the complete line of accessories and attachments currently available for it. Fear not, for a table of contents can be found following the intro.
This is a comprehensive review of the new Rep Fitness FB-5000 Competition Flat Bench; a relatively new bench that offers virtually unlimited load capacity on a lightweight, low-profile, foot-drive-friendly frame – and for a very attractive price.
This is a review of the Powertec WorkBench Levergym System; a multi-use, plate-loaded gym station designed to give a home gym owner with limited floor space and limited funds access to a large variety of machine-based resistance exercises. It features both a low and high pulley system, adjustable pressing arms, and an adjustable, detachable bench. Other accessories that allow you to expand the unit even further are also available.
This is a review of the Iron Company 5150 Olympic Weightlifting Bar; a new 20 kg, 28 mm, multi-purpose bar that has many premium features, a fair price, and specifications that rival some of today’s most popular mid-range Olympic and WOD bars.
This is a review of the Rubber Coated Hex Dumbbells by Rep Fitness, a new and improved version of that classic garage gym dumbbell that we all know and love; mostly because it is what most of us can afford.
In this article I am going to discuss what makes the Rep version of this implement different from the hex dumbbells of old. I’ll be discussing features, pricing, and all the pros and cons of this redesigned product. I’m also going to compare them to Vulcan’s Pro Hex Dumbbells; another clever twist on this tried-and-true product.
There have been a lot of new equipment releases this spring, and a great number of them are definitely worth sharing. Of course, there always seem to be more new products than I can fit into a single post, but I am going to share some of the more interesting releases with you. You know, just in case you missed them.
This is the long-awaited review for Vulcan Strength’s new Stainless Steel Absolute Power Bar; the ridiculously strong, pleasantly aggressive, oxidation resistant beast that is literally 100% stainless steel – so long as you don’t count the end caps.
For the most part I try to keep the Garage Gyms Store pretty low key here on the main site. That is, I am not trying to cover this site with advertisements for my own products because I don’t want to distract from the content that really matters; all the equipment guides, product reviews, and other helpful articles. The quality and value of my content has always been my number one priority, and offering products has not and will not ever change that.
