What is up everyone... Welcome to the Targeted Talk... where we take a topic pertinent to the home gym owner and do what we do best... spend way too much time thinking about and talking about it!

Current Topic

HomeGymCon came and went last weekend, and the next home gym community event is... the Garage Gym Competition.

Some weirdo runs it, and gives away a bunch of prizes and donates to non-profits... all for a free event where you lift in your own home gym.

the Spring event opens on May 11th and runs through May 19th...

So... Are you entering in the Spring? Why or why not?

Side Note - that weirdo is me, sorry for the shameful plug... you still have to love me.

I’ve been struggling for a week now trying to figure out what flooring I’m going to use for my basement storage room gym.

I disliked all interlocking rubber mats because they always seemed to never lock in flat, showing the seems really bad.

I didn’t want to deal with horse stall mats and the smell as my wife runs an in-home preschool.

Decided to give these a try. I showed up to Menards, checked em out and didn’t think I’d like them. Decided to take a chance on them and am glad I did. I got them home, unrolled them and they actually laid 99% flat immediately. I’ve had weights and my Rogue Echo sitting on them and there’s zero indention.

I’m confident I could drop dumbbells on these after a set of flat bench but wouldn’t drop heavy barbell loads on it. I’m not really ever dropping weights, so it works perfect for me.

All in all, I’m super stoked that I found these, and extremely happy with how they’re working out. Oh, and they look fantastic.

Welcome to The Garage: The Weekly Free-Talk discussion for r/HomeGym!

What can be posted in The Garage:

• Questions: any questions about your home gym
• Used Market: deal checks, sharing deals, for sale items.
• Retail Sales: coupon codes and sales for reputable retailers.
• Equipment Advice: DIY advice, equipment picks, cleaning tips, etc. (Have you looked at the FAQ?).
• Rants and Raves: customer service and shipping, overall experience with a retailer.
• Self promotion, surveys and advertising posts.
• General Home Gym Topics: training at home, memes, and anything else related you feel doesn't need it's own post.

What qualifies as a dedicated post in r/HomeGym?

• Your Home Gym: pictures, walkthroughs, and videos of your home gym.
• Product Reviews: on anything home gym related.
• DIY Builds and Solutions: Please include details on the build.
• New Additions to Your Gym: Craigslist scores, new deliveries, etc. Please no boxes, only unpacked equipment.
• Opportunities for the Community: Things like contests and giveaways, approved by the moderator team.

Before posting: have you used the search or the General FAQ? Or the COVID Supply & Inventory FAQ?

r/Homegym past and future AMAs listed HERE

What is an AMA and Why Should I do one?

Featured 230 pound weight set- savage bumpers $570 Stainless steal wonder bar $300 Clamp collars $40 Got emailed by a rep and they got me a 20% discount so the total was $726

Plates There are minor scuffs and some of the edges are a little deformed but not anything that would of not happened from use. Even the 10s feel very solid. They look great.

Stainless steal bar Feels very nice and the knurling is not to aggressive. The sleeves are textured to help keep the plates on I think. Don’t know if I like that but it’s minor. Looks very nice. Not very fast spin.

Clamp collars A little harder to close than others but the are not coming off. There nice.

Overall everything was good and customer service was great. They did not ship my 45s out untill like a week after the rest of my order but I did not care. WOULD RECOMMEND.

No room in house, gyms always packed. So I just got some basics to get some good compound exercises in daily.

Finally made the jump after weeks of measuring and figuring out where I want everything. Decided inside because Summer here is brutal and scorpions suck.

Powerblocks and leg weights were free (coworker). Kettlebells, yoga mat, and foam roller I've had a while.

6 post PR-5000. Standard J cups, standard pullup bar, middle tier safety bars, utility/band pegs. Cheapo rubber bands for accessory work. Titan Bar Storage. Offbrand weight horns. AB3100 bench. 260lbs of rogue plates. C-70S bar. Flooring is 3/8 rug pad, one layer 15/32 osb, and 3/4 horse stall mats. I'm a renter so def wanted to protect the tile.

Looking at a cable system next (cheapo) for pulldowns and triceps. Prob a treadmill or bike for the fiance too.

I bought the "20KG MEN'S OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING BAR" from Fringe Sport. I've been meaning to post a review for a while, so I hope someone finds this helpful. For context, I started lifting a year ago in mid 40's in an effort to strengthen a knee that is wearing out quickly (in other words, I have average middle age man strength). I'll talk about the bar, but my main commentary relates to excellent customer service which I'll cover after I review the bar.

BAR REVIEW

This is the first bearing barbell I've owned. It has been great for deadlifts and squats. I'm not sure if I'll continue to use it for bench press though. I feel like the bearings spin so well, it actually made it a little tough to stabilize while pushing. Maybe it will just take a little getting used to, but I don't know yet. For deadlifts, I don't usually use lifting straps, but the knurling seems plenty grippy to me. Someone lifting a lot more than me might want a more aggressive knurl, but I think this is perfect and gives me lots of room to grow before I'd need more grip. Realistically, I'd probably start using straps before switching to a more aggressive knurl.

The barbell sleeves have subtle ridges, but plates slide on easily. This is a nice change of pace from the bar that came in my 300lb big box weight set that scrapes the paint off my weights. I thought I could get away with warmup squat set without using any collars and I have two dents in my garage floor because the plates slipped right off when I walked the bar out of the rack. My laziness aside, I think this is a good thing. When I use any of my collars/spring clips, the plates don't move at all.

The finish looks great and the knurling is consistent. There is no rattle or play when I move the bar. So far the bar does everything you would expect of it. I don't ever drop it so I can't say how it will hold up under those conditions but it feels like it is solidly built. I think I might use my cheap bushing bar for my pressing needs because I feel like less spin is good in that situation, but this feels like it is an ideal bar for most other things that I do.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

I ordered my bar on a Friday night after business hours (3/15). It was ready for UPS to pick it up early Monday morning on 3/18. This is where the UPS headaches begin. The package passed through six cities before getting to my town. Then for reasons I don't understand it travelled on through ANOTHER SIX CITIES. In the middle of the second part of its journey, it just stopped moving for two days. I wrote to Fringe just to check in. They started an investigation right away and assured me that if it was lost, they'd get me a new one shipped right away. UPS did find the package two days later and it eventually made it to my house. The package was a thick cardboard tube that I can stand on (~200lbs) and it doesn't bend. Even with the packaging they used, the tube was broken apart and the barbell was hanging out of the ends. The end caps on the packaging looked like they had been ripped off in shipping. Maybe the workers didn't like moving a heavy awkward package around or it just got dropped by accident a few times. Either way, I figured the barbell would be trashed.

When I took the barbell out of the plastic packaging, I was actually surprised to see how good of shape it was in. Everything looked good except the ends of the sleeves. Those looked like they had been dragged across and dropped on concrete over and over. I wrote to customer service and told them that my bar did arrive and that I appreciated their efforts to get UPS to find it. I let them know that the bar did take a serious beating in transit but that it was still functional and that as long as they didn't think the damage to the finish would result in premature rust, I was ok with the cosmetic damage. I mostly wanted to let them know so they could do what they needed to to try and prevent it in the future (I don't know, does UPS do anything in these circumstances ). Apparently, this was no good for them and they insisted on making it right. They replaced my bar and the new one came without any shipping issues. The carboard tube was intact and the steel caps on the end of the tube were securely attached. The replacement bar is immaculate. I've only owned one other bar that wasn't a cheap Walmart bar so I'm absolutely loving having a nice quality piece of equipment that I can trust to not fail me.

TLDR

The bar meets my needs and I think anyone that chooses the right type of bar would be happy with the excellent quality and value that Fringe Sport seems to provide. I also think you'd be hard pressed to find a company that could do more to keep their customers happy. I'm definitely going to buy from them again and I'll probably get the 20KG MEN'S WONDER BAR OLYMPIC BARBELL (with bushings this time) to compliment this bar.

Not high end equipment by any means, but getting the job done.

Can do all compounds with this:

Rack- flat bench/incline, OHP, back squat, hanging leg raises, pull ups

Pull down- cable row, lat pull down, tricep pushdown, cable crunches

Other bench with leg extension and hamstring curl mechanism for legs

Bench has a decline function for abs

Treadmill for cardio