Bought a house and think I'll put some equipment in the garage. Power rack vs half rack? What about flooring for a concrete garage? Rubber mats or what do you use? Want extra space in front of the rack for deadlifts.

Figured an adjustable bench for bench press in the rack, presses, etc. some plates and dumb bells and I should be pretty good.  What bar and plates? Seems like bars go from 200 - over a grand and there's all different types. I'm used to using whatever is in the gym. Then with plates should I just get steel or bumper plates?

I like the look of this stuff.

Half rack

0-90 bench

I shopped Elite versus Rogue.
Similar prices but there's a bunch of negative feedback online
about the fit of Elite.
Plus Rouge was in stock with cheaper shipping
versus waiting several weeks for Elite.
No matter what, email both for better prices than you see online.

I ended up with a Rogue squat rack with the spotter arms and bench

http://www.roguefitness.com/sml-2-rogue-90-monster-lite-squat-stand

http://www.roguefitness.com/rogue-flat-utility-bench

I like Rogue stuff. I have a squat rack that folds into the wall. Horse stall mats for cheap flooring. Plywood underneath if you're going to be doing oly and dropping weights.


Yes I know the wall is only half painted.

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Hey, your wall is only half painted and what is painted is runny. You should fix that.




How is the folding rack holding up? Does it shake the house when you rack the bar?

So far so good. I'm still recovering from the surgery, so I'm not really lifting enough to know if it'll shake yet. Ask again in a few months (hopefully)

Do it. The half rack is nice. You can always use rubber mats to deadlift from. Home depot sells the 4 foot ones that are hard enough to bounce plates from for deadlifting. Then you can move them and stack them to make room while Your not using them.

The rogue stuff looks good. I like the looks and prices. What about their plates? They have several different types of bumper plates. All pretty similar in price.

I like the really low density foam ones because they take up so much space on the bar that you look really strong.

Actually the cheap foam ones are crap.  I don't think you'd need competition bumpers but their middle of the road stuff is pretty cool  I like the half rack too, similar to what I have at home.  I really prefer working in the open over inside the rack.

I had spent about three years training with Rogue equipment and one year training with EFS when I bought my gym.  I bought Elite.  Elite makes a nicer rack hands down.  Rogue stuff is nice, but EFS is just that much nicer.  If you have any questions about my set up let me know.  

I got a chance to look a the Elite FTS stuff as well as Rogue before buying; I went with the Rogue.

I have the RML-3 in my garage bolted to the cement. Rock solid.

Got the Rogue Operator bar when it was on sale, 400lbs in bumpers, some random 2.5/5lb plates to add incremental weight and since I apparently hate myself I got the Matador dip station. Not only was I impressed with it all, but they also cut me a huge deal on the price of everything as well as the shipping. Elite waived like 50$ off the shipping and that was it.

For flooring, I went to my local farm store and got horse stall mats for like $25 a piece and put them on the floor together. Works great.

If anyone is interested in saving money on a folding rack, you can get the exact same rack that Rogue charges for well over $400 from Titan Fitness for considerably less.

Just depends if you want the 21 or 41 incher. I picked up the 41 incher and it has been rock solid. I got it setup in my garage and it has been excellent.

It's the exact same thing as the Rogue unit. Don't believe the "Made in USA" hype that Rogue extolls. They have good stuff but they get their extrusions from China and simply assemble the parts in the US. Titan does the exact same thing.

Anyways, I can post pics if anyone is interested.

**X-Training Equipment out of Florida has a 41 inch rack that can fold in on itself versus the others that have to lay in opposite directions (except of course the 21 inch that folds in). It's around $450 but looks nice. I would get that one had I not already picked up the Titan folding rack.

How do you like using the squat stand with spotter arms over a cage? I am in the market and can't quite decide what I want to do. I have been thinking of getting the RML-390 rack but they also sell a conversion for the SML-2 stand to turn it into the full rack so I could start with it. If the stand works I save a bunch of money. If not I can easily convert it. I worry that the spotter arms aren't long enough though. It looks like you would have to squat with your back to the rack to know that the spotter arms are under you if you wanted to bail. I don't like trying to rerack the bar that way.

I'm thinking of going with the Rogue RM-4 rack now with the Ohio Bar and adjustable bench. Probably Iron plates. I don't do any oly lifts so don't think I need bumpers.

I pretty much squat, deadlift, and bench with support movements like presses, lat pull downs, bent over rows, and arms.

I think this is what I'm going with. I'm not happy about it. Wanted a power rack but now all of a sudden that we are 2 days away from closing the wife is like no, I want to be able to park one of the cars in there. All I want is ONE part of the house. Not even the house, just the garage. Was pumped to have my power rack, gun bench, safe, etc. Now I think I'll need this fold up rack with some horse stall mats in front so I can do my deadlifts and bent over rows. Don't know where I'm going to put a treadmill now.

You could go nuclear and tell her that maybe the house isn't right after all and you should just pull the offer so you can find something that suits your needs better(this may work out poorly for you). But seriously, the folding rack is a good option. I wouldn't let that bum you out too much. The other equipment, yeah that sucks. Sorry.

Most of the stuff at my gym is EliteFTS. My gym is a hardcore powerlifting gym though. If you're looking to save money I don't know what the difference would vs rogue.
My gym owner did say that all the stuff made in USA hasn't broken. All the Chinese stuff has broken though, big surprise.

I have a Rogue R-3 rack.  Absolutely love it, and I've used the hell out of it almost daily for the last five years.  We bought the multi-grip pullup bar and mounted that up top.  The fat/skinny bar is mounted in the vertical plane on the back.  It makes it so much stiffer.  It's bolted to the ground through horse stall mats.  That, a flat bench, a bar, and some bumper plates are really all that you need.  We did buy the original Rogue Gun Rack when it was on sale.  We've got two good bars, and two cheap-y Weider bars.  Mine is an Operator Bar 1.0.  It's bad ass, it's somewhere between an Olympic bar and a powerlifting bar.  I do want to get a powerlifting bar, because when you have 400+ pounds on the Operator when you're trying to squat, it bounces around a lot.  You can really feel it flex during heavy deadlifts as well.

We've got some other stuff, like a Matador, which doesn't get used much.  What does get used a lot is the Stud Bar, which is a pullup bar that can be mounted into either rafters or studs.  

On the bumpers, I really like them.  Good steel plates on a good bar is fairly quiet, but with the bumpers, it's even better.  I have the Rogue Hi-Temp ones, which I know some folks bitch about because they're too bouncy.  Unless I "spike" the bar (like when I'm angry at missing a lift ), it's not bad.  Even from overhead.

My old house had a 20x20ft garage.  About a quarter of that, probably about 14ftx10ft was my workout area.  Put your foot down, it's an investment in your health and longevity.  We still could have parked the car in there in an emergency.

I've gotten control of the garage back lol. Only issue is the garage has 8 foot ceilings so I'll have to use a 90" rack. Which means no standing shoulder presses. There's really only one side of the garage it'll fit too as its not a perfect rectangle. But if I put it where I'm thinking I have a nice spot for a 6' workbench for gun stuff.