Under the Bar Comments

by: Kris

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 22:53:44 +0000

Hi Bobby,
Thanks for the feedback and sorry for the slow reply.
I just came back from a few weeks at the summer cottage and Toffe’s Gym the other day. The rack lives under the bare sky (no shed) and is holding up great. It’s now five years old (yay!) and I still have not seen any need to do any maintenance on it (painting up next, the flooring should last some more years I guess).
I used to cover it up for the winter with a tarpaulin, but last year I decided to just leave it towering up mightily through the snow (which was very heavy this year). I suspect that it really does not matter. The rack does not have any rust on the outside thanks to the paint, but of course it is slowly rusting from the inside of the uprights. I used to worry about rust, but once I realized that it will long outlive me I stopped.
Here’s some pictures from last year’s Virtualmeet Gathering at Toffe’s Gym. Plenty of recent rack pictures there.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118194&id=185314734104
If you do build one yourself, I would love to hear how it turned out. Good luck!

by: Bobby

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:53:38 +0000

wow nice work. I really enjoyed seeing how you built it from start to finish. i am thinking of making my own power rack since i can weld. i go to a gym but would be nice to do it at home when i want. great job, everything looks great. one question is how is the power rack holding up to the rust?? did you build a shed over it? if you did i would like to see some updates on your pictures on this web page.

by: Anna

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:34:39 +0000

This is a disgraceful photo! This is indeed a chimpanzee and it is being full exploited fyi.
Shameful.

by: Alex

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:43:38 +0000

Hi Kris,
Rack update - I was wandering around my father-in-law\’s yard and stumbled upon a large section of steel.I measured it up and it came to 7.4 metres in length which means I can extract two 2 metre uprights and two 1.7 metre base supports which is just enough steel to get the job done. The best part - it is 100 by 100mm tank stopping steel. It looks pretty beefy I can only imagine when it is cut and welded how it will look. Like you say, one of the final details I am pondering is the width of the rack - but given that my rack will have a high mounted horizontal support bar…even if the width turns out to be unsuitable I can simply unbolt out and make another section.
Unfortunately the timing of the meet is really lousy - my new born will have been born, I will be sleep deprived, and I am also currently coming back to exercise and fitness after letting myself go, hence, I am easing back in slowly with a few months of GPP (general physical preperation), then a couple of months of low volume training and then finally into some heavier lifting after my body is better conditioned to handling high volume and intensity…the last thing I want to do is rush in an get injured. i hope to give powerlifting type training a solid three odd years of effort (or for however long my doctorate takes) but I will probably mix it up a bit to keep me interested and injury free i.e. take time off in summer and do more outdoor activity base exercise. Thanks for the best wishes and good luck with your preparations for the meet. But enough talk, more rack planning is needed…
Regards,
Alex

by: Tobias H

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:49:42 +0000

Just scanning thru and alltough these are brake drums, I doubt they are for cars because of their size. I have changed drums on a truck and that is more like it The first google hit says between 20 and 85 kilos. So I would say atleast 120kg+bar if they are not filled.
Love your outdoor gym and thats the reason I scan thru. To sad it is so cold here in scandinavia (sweden I am from).

by: Kris

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:47:44 +0000

Alex,
I’m really looking forward to seeing how the rack comes out. It pays off to do a lot of studying, measuring and thinking before executing… and it definitively sounds like you’re doing just that. Once it’s welded hard steel mistakes are notoriously hard to fix. When I planned my rack, one of the hardest questions was how far apart to place the uprights. Given a standard olympic bar, I wanted to also be able to grab it outside of the hooks for wide-gripped squatting (that was then then…). Later I’ve realized that the hooks are just a tad too close since you cannot quite slide the hands out to the maximum legal bench width. It’s only by a finger per side and I personally never go that wide, but now that other people are starting to come lift there I’ve considered making a set of special hooks to accommodate all styles.
And thanks for the challenge. I’m already committed to doing the virtualmeet on August 20-22. Like the meet I did last summer (links above), this one is also part of a Virtualmeet Gathering so some people will probably be flying in again to lift at Toffe’s Gym. Only this time we will be going at it in a dark forest lit by torch light. Now, this ought to be one of our main meets of the year regardless of whether one is doing it at home or at the Gathering. Would that fit your schedule? Would be kind of cool to have your rack and my rack in the same meet.
Keep up the hard work with everything that’s on your plate and best of luck to your whole family with bringing your second jewel to the world!

by: Alex

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:37:56 +0000

G’day Kris,
I think I will definately scrap the RT plan and buy a handle when I can. The OZ kb site has added video and pics of all their accessories so I have been studyig them and tryng to work out exact dimensions. I think I will go with the 60 by 60 3mm uprights and maybe add an 80 section on the base to beef it up. I think i will also make the supporting arms wider and heigher than the aforementioned example. I will add sections where I can attach a rope or rings from pullup bar.
As for pilates, it can have a lot of benefits if you go to a studio with a great instructor. Given that a lot of instructors are ex-dancer etc they know ‘movement’ a lot better than personal and in my experience have a far better ‘eye’for seeing how you move and futhermore are very good teaching movement. I’ve done a fair bit of pilates over the years at many different studio ad it has helped: thoracic mobility, scapulo control and recruitment,articulation through outspine, posture, recruitment patterns, dynamic flexibiliy esp in hips, mental focus etc. Some guys also incorporate aspects of Franklin method into pilates which works very well. I find the criticsm of pilates by usually intelligent people like Mel Siff to be short sighted - that everything nees to be empirically validated is ridiculous. I think it will also complement PL since it is at the opposite end of the spectrum i.e. PL mentality is to ‘grip and rip’, pilates selectively recruit etc - just my opinion.
Although I am detrained at the moment and need to get back into it I thought that a great suggestion for your circumstances maybe to purchase kettlebell which yo can store under your desk: got no time…drag it out 5mins clean and presses and finish with pullups done 5minutes total - the neuromuscular reinforcement probably wont hurt your lifts aswell not to mention the benefit of extra conditioning without loss in strength - just a suggestion.But seeing that we are essentially the same age both have children (I have another on the way) both busy (completing a phd at present) etc etc… I put the following proposal to you. I will agree to get back training and compete in a virtual meet latter this year (say, Novemeber) if you will. If I know I have agreed to something I will stick at it…if I can do it Im sure you can!
I’ll let you know how my rack is coming along.
Regards
Alex

by: Kris

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:33:28 +0000

Alex,
Sounds great. Welding definitively beats bolts any time of the day. Doing a rack with spotting arms as opposed to a full rack also has its benefits as the REALLY tricky part is getting the holes aligned perfectly. A couple of millimeters off and the pins won’t go in without brute force (if so, getting them out is another story). If the holes on either side are a tad uneven it won’t kill you. For the base I’d go with some pretty heavy duty stuff, nothing like knowing that you can safely drop a tank on the safety arms…
Like you say, I suspect the rolling thunder handle may be quite tricky to make. I’d just order an official one. Then you’ll also be able to compare how your grip strength is a coming against what people out there are doing.
My own training has been on the backburner for a couple of years now due to time constraints. Or rather, due to prioritizing it lower than working on the second version of my project Virtualmeet.net in the face of the usual time pressures of having small kids (my daughter turned two in October and my son will be five in three weeks). I did a comeback of sorts last July when I did a virtualmeet (results, pics on Facebook) with very little training under my belt. The results weren’t all that great, but a lot better than I had hoped for thanks to the nature of the meet that really set the adrenaline rushing through the veins. I’m currently hitting the gym 2-3 times a week doing the basics split up into an upper body (pressing and accessory work) and a lower body day (plenty of squats), but have vowed to pull my act together once I finally ship Virtualmeet version 2. That’s it in a nutshell. Since you mentioned Pilates, that’s something I’ve had in the back of my mind to try out for some time to see how it would affect the back, I could really use more mobility training and core work.

by: Alex

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:48:16 +0000

Hi Kris,
It will be for garage most likely. As you can see from the pics i did have some concerns regarding the strength, but apparently it is pretty strong. I will increase the base of support at the bottom and also weld instead of bolt it together. I\’m thinking of adding attachments for ropes, bands etc. Basically, I will us whatever steel i can find lying around and hassle my father-in-law to weld it (like you I have a young child and I want my rack to be the centre of my health and fitness, where I can easily train early in the morning and not have to deal with gyms,fees and all the rubbish associated with the ‘fitness industry’. I have made the rolling thunder base (easy part) but the handle will take some planning as I need to incorporate bearings in somehow…It may simply just be too much of a hassle. How is your training coming along? Like you I hope to do some grip training as well as lots of squats, deads etc and add some bodyweight, yoga, pilates, and swimming to round it out.
Cheers,
Alex

by: Kris

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:42:57 +0000

Alex,
Cool, I’d be very interested in seeing how it turned out for you. Are you building it for indoor or outdoor use?