Running Upgrade

Grabbed this treadmill for my garage gym, because I love running so much (haha). It’ll be a nice option in the winter, even for active recovery walking, which I miss out on when it’s not golf season.

It doesn’t fold up, but I couldn’t pass on the price (free) and having a truck means I can grab stuff like this now. Just need a Concept 2 rower to complete the cardio quartet since I have an Airdyne and Ski Erg.

treadmill

100 Pound Sandbag

Ever since seeing the CrossFit Regional workouts, I’ve been wanting a bigger sandbag to do cleans, holds, squats, and carries. Rogue has been sold out of their strongman sandbags for months, so I bought one of the StrongFit sandbags for my garage gym. The Gorilla tape pictured is mine and I added the second zip tie, but the lacrosse ball, ring, and one zip tie all came with the bag.

It was less than $6.50 for two 50 pound bags of Play Sand at Home Depot.

Filled up the bag, followed the instruction video, and it seems solid.

New Garage Gym Equipment

In addition to making my own Farmers Carry handles, I’ve picked up some new items to expand the garage gym.

I bought this 10 foot climbing rope on Amazon. The ceiling obviously isn’t high enough for rope climbs, but I can use it for legless climbs starting from a seated position on the floor or simply do rope pull-ups. Can never have too many ways to do a pull-up or hang!

An upper body lifting program I’ve been following assigns half kneeling single arm bottoms up kettlebell presses every week. When I’m at home I’ve been using a dumbbell, but it’s nowhere near the same stimulus as stabilizing the uneven weight of an upside down kettlebell. It’s a very challenging exercise; if you’ve never done them before you’ll have to start much lighter than you’d expect.

I picked up this adjustable kettlebell from Dick’s Sporting Goods plus two 10 pound plates and a 5. As pictured I took out 3 of the spacers, which are on the right side. With this combination I can adjust it anywhere from 20-45 pounds in 5 pound increments. I already have a 50# kettlebell at home as well as a 53# and 70# I keep at the gym since I use those a lot more there.

These furniture movers, or SuperSliders, work really well on the rubber gym flooring. You can put your heels or toes on one of these and slide your legs in and out for core work.

Garage Gym

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From left to right (as much as possible):

  • Mats
  • Sand Bags
  • Punching Bag
  • S-35E Rogue “E” Sled
  • Homemade weight rack
  • Rogue Hi-Temp bumpers (pairs of 10-15-25-35-45)
  • Plates cleaned up and spray painted black (found on Craig’s List)
  • Jump ropes
  • Rack with homemade blocks since it’s not high enough for me to use for squats or presses
  • Adjustable bench
  • Rogue Operator bar
  • Cheap bar that came with the cheap plates
  • Rogue HG-Collars
  • PVC pipes
  • Adjustable Dumbbells (10->50 by 5s)
  • Chalk
  • Rogue 53# and 70# Kettlebells
  • 50# Kettlebell
  • Dynamax 20# Medicine Ball
  • Various resistance bands
  • PVC parallettes
  • Again Faster GHD
  • AbMat
  • Weight Vest
  • Weight Dip Belt
  • Schwinn AirDyne AD2
  • Homemade Plyo Box 18″ x 24″ x 40″ (plans)
  • 4″ Platform to be used for deficit pulls (hidden behind plyo box)
  • Again Faster Pull-up bar
  • Rogue Wood Rings with homemade ceiling mount (materials)

If you have questions about anything, let me know.

Update: I’ve updated my garage gym quite a bit since this was posted.