Homemade Strength

Roll Out The Ab Wheel

2012-02-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted last. I recently made an ab wheel out of scrap parts I had around the house. This is the first video demonstration on the site. It's not so much intended as a project, it's just me sharing what I did. If you had to buy these parts it would be more expensive than a commercial ab wheel. If they're in your garage already then have at it. Maybe this gives you some ideas about how to make your own or inspires you to think about re-purposing old gear you may have collecting dust.

HOMEMADE AB WHEEL

Yeah, I know it's technically called an "ab wheel" and the exercise is "ab wheel rollout." But I called it an "ab rollout wheel" and I will stubbornly stand by what I said. So what? Wanna fight about it?

Dip Belt

2011-06-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've seen this on the net before. I did not create this design. This is going to be a bit of a hybrid post. Part DIY project, part review of a DIY project. I'll show you how to make this popular internet design, as well as review it so you can decide if it's right for you before you go through the (minimal) hassle of making it.

Cost: less than $10 (hopefully)
Time: a few minutes
Difficulty: It gets no easier than this

Tools Needed:
Scissors to cut tape

Materials Needed:
Chain - 6 or 7 foot length (183 to 213 cm)
2 Carabiner clips - rated for a few hundred lbs. should be okay
Pipe insulation foam - you probably need about 3 feet (91 cm) length or so
Duct Tape

Mine is a bit fancier than the original design but I don't recommend that.

The design and construction is simple. Essentially you take a length of chain. 6 to 7 feet (183 to 213 cm) should be enough though you may need a bit more if you are particularly large around the midsection. In this project, too much is okay, you can just let it hang. Too little is no good.

Take your length of pipe insulation foam (sold in 6 foot lengths). Wrap it around your waist to measure how much you need. Cut it off at the appropriate length.

Put the foam around your chain. I prefer to put the foam so that it is near one end of the chain, a few links from the end. Now take duct tape and wrap the whole length of foam in the tape to seal it up (insulation foam usually comes with a slit down it so you can fit it easily over the pipe or in this case chain.

Clip a carabiner to the end of the chain. The end with the foam near it. This is basically your completed belt. You can add more layers of foam if you wish and tape them on as well but it doesn't really make a big difference in my experience. Heavy weights are uncomfortable even with many layers of foam and light weights are fine even with one layer of foam.

There are two ways to wear this thing (both shown above). One is like a hip belt where you simply use one carabiner and let the weight hang as it naturally wants to. To do this you simply put the chain through the center hole of your weight and then clip it into your one carabiner.

The other way to wear it is to use your first carabiner to clip to the other part of the chain on the other side of your foam. This creates a belt around your waist. Then you put the rest of the chain through the weight plates and back up, and use a second carabiner to clip the weighted loop of chain to your waist belt. The choice is yours. Now, here are my additional thoughts on this popular project.

Great with light weights, no so comfortable when it's heavy.

First, it works brilliantly well if the weight is lighter (less than 90 lbs.), but when you start getting heavier it goes from brilliant to uncomfortable to painful. Now, one could argue that perhaps it's a conditioning thing, and that in time you would get used to it. Maybe that's true, but I still have to mention it. Because perhaps the real reason is that the design of this thing is not ideal.

Insulation foam helps, but there's only so much it can do. Even doubling or tripling the layers of foam doesn't solve the initial problem of the design. The problem is that a chain has a small surface area. So all the pressure of the weight is being distributed over a small area of your body. As I said, the foam helps increase this but the chain is the load bearing structure and it can and will make its presence known despite the foam.

A commercial dip belt, on the other hand, distributes the weight over the larger surface area of the wide belt, made of leather or fabric, itself.

You can see in the pictures above that I used higher quality materials rated for thousands of lbs. I don't recommend this. All you do is drive the price up (albeit not much). The fact remains this design is likely far too uncomfortable to load heavier amounts of weight on. If you get materials rated for a few hundred lbs. you should be okay because this belt will likely become hard to use (unbearably uncomfortable) at heavy poundages anyway. I also didn't use carabiners because I opted for stronger clips. But carabiners are faster and easier to use and like I said, you probably won't be able to tolerate loading a lot of weight onto this belt anyway.

Of course, it all depends on your goals and what you intend to do, but if you intend to dip as much as you possibly can, then in time you may need a properly designed commercial belt as apposed to a slightly padded chain digging into your hips.

But if you don't intend to dip very heavy then this design should suit you well. Since I have already made it, I will use this DIY belt until I am dipping heavy enough to need something better. We are all about saving money here at Homemade Strength, but we're most certainly not about using inferior equipment because we're stingy.

Most of the time you can make something that functions just as well as commercial products but when that is not the case, if a DIY option doesn't fulfill your needs, do not hesitate to buy something that does. Not everything can be easily made at home by the average person and a high quality commercial style leather or fabric dip belt is one of those things.

But I'll say again in the interest of fairness, it could be that in time you get used to it and maybe it's not so uncomfortable then.

- Carl

Dip Stands

2011-06-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

Today I'll show you how to construct a space saving dip station. You can use scrap wood to keep the cost down. This is another project that can end up being free or very cheap, while at the same time recycling old material. These are an addition to the saw horse safety stands. This was an old project but I have since refined and significantly improved it.

Cost: around $20 (depending on what scrap materials you have)
Project Time: a few hours plus time for glue to dry
Difficulty: This one requires the ability to cut wood with the saw of your choice, as well as the competence to use a drill, which is to say hold a button while pressing the drill toward the material. You also have to drive screws.

Tools Needed:

Drill
1 3/4 inch (44 mm) hole saw bit
Screwdriver
Saw to cut plywood (circular saw, hand saw, etc.)
Saw to cut studs (miter saw, hand saw, circular saw, etc.)
Hack Saw - to cut pipe (optional, you can buy it pre cut or have the store do it)

Materials Needed:

2x4 Studs (38 x 88mm) - one long board or just use scraps, we need eight pieces about 5" long (13 cm)
Wood screws - I prefer ones like THESE; you need 12 screws for this project.
Scrap lengths of "plywood" - the size of your saw horse tops; oriented strand board is what I use.
Paint (optional)
2 adjustable height saw horses (you should already have these)
2 Bolts - You want the length to be right about 2 1/2 inches (63 mm). Diameter can vary but around size #10 is good (that's 5M for metric users).
1 1/4 inch diameter metal pipe - you need two pieces roughly 1 foot long each (30 cm). * Though it's labeled 1 1/4 inch, pipe like this actually has an outer diameter of 1.6 inches (42 mm).

This project is an add on for our saw horse safety stands. The saw horses, as I discussed in a previous entry are used as safety stands for the squat and bench press, to accompany the homemade squat stands, which I've also already covered in a previous post. If you are making a similar setup you should already have the saw horses to be used for safety stands, like I do. If you do not have such a setup, and perhaps you have a power rack instead, then you may want to look past this project or you can locate one of many different designs for stand alone dip bars on the internet. That would probably be cheaper than spending $40 on saw horses just to do dips. But then again, you know this will be as strong as you need it to be since each sawhorse is rated for over 1000 lbs.

If you do go another route I'll offer some advice. There are several designs out there on the net. I would recommend you go with a wooden option, particularly if you intend to dip heavy. If you're just messing around with bodyweight dips (why are you not adding weight?) then the PVC options are probably okay. But if you're talking about doing dips seriously, then you need something strong enough to take your bodyweight, which could be 200+ lbs. and another hundred or several hundred lbs. on top of that. You want something solid that you know will hold up.

Also keep in mind the prices. Go to the store and get a feel for what each design would cost. 2x4 wood is usually cheaper than a bunch of plumbing parts. I may very well make such a stand alone dip station in the future because merely typing this paragraph already has the ideas flying around in my head. I'm quite certain I could make one that is both strong, adjustable, and will "fold" up for easier storage. Anyway, getting on with THIS project.

I decided to make these because I had a problem. I wanted to add dips to my repertoire but I didn't want something that had to mount to the wall. I wanted it to have a low footprint that could be moved and stored. I also thought that the "between two chairs" idea was lame. It works, sure, at least for body weight dips. It also hurts the fuck out of your hands. And everyone knows you can lift a hell of a lot more when there's an ample supply of fuck in the tissues of the hand.The reason this is so, is because the backs of folding chairs are quite small in terms of surface area, and that means lots of psi (pressure) on your hands.

The first piece we're going to make is the plywood base. See the Material Dictionary for suitable plywood replacements. I personally always use Oriented Strand Board, though I usually just call it "plywood" even though it's not. Measure the length and width of the top of your saw horse. Alternatively, you could simply take the sawhorse out to the garage, put it on the plywood and trace around it. If you do that, mark your plywood through the hole on each end of the saw horse. Now simply cut the piece of plywood. You should now have a piece of plywood roughly the size of the top of your saw horse. Remember to then mark and drill holes through the plywood that line up with the holes in each end of your sawhorse

* My instructions are for a single stand/handle. Since you need to make two, remember to repeat the whole procedure to make another one.

Now we'll make our 2x4 posts. At first glance you may ask, "why not simply use 4x4s instead?" The answer is in the pipe. We're using "1 1/4 inch pipe" which actually has an outer diameter of 1.6 inches (42 mm). This is key because it's more comfortable to use than smaller pipe; the outside diameter of this pipe closely resembles gymnastic parallel bars in size. In order to duplicate our design using 4x4 posts we would need to be able to bore out a hole halfway through the post. To do this we would need something called a Forstner bit, and they are not cheap, especially in the store. Online they are not too bad but still not as cheap as hole saws. Normal wood boring bits aren't big enough to make the hole we need to fit our 1.6 (42mm) OD pipe. I wouldn't possibly ask you to spend $30 on a tool you'll use for one project. So instead, we'll use 2x4s (38 x 88mm) and a 1 3/4 inch (44 mm) hole saw.

Take a length of 2x4 board and measure roughly 1 5/8 inches (41 mm) down from one end. Put a dot here, centered in the width of your board. This is the mark that the center bit of your hole saw will go on. Line it up and drill all the way through the thickness of your board. Now measure about 5 inches (13 cm) from the edge (same edge as before), mark a line and cut the board. You've produced your first board with a hole near the top. You'll need to repeat this procedure again, so now you have two. That's the hard part. Now cut two more pieces of 2x4, each 5 inches (13 cm) in length. But don't drill the holes in these last two.

With nearly no square footage, if a bird had to live here, he'd be pissed.

We're going to compile our first "birdhouse" piece. I call it that because is somewhat resembles a birdhouse when done. Take one of the boards you drilled the big hole in and stack it on top of one of the matching boards with no hole in it. Now drill a hole through the top board and into the bottom board, more or less centered in the space below the big hole you cut out. If you bit isn't long enough to get good depth in the bottom board, remove the top board and drill out the bottom board further. Read on for clarity before you do all this.

This is going to be a pre drilled hole for your screws so the drill bit you use should be smaller than the diameter of your screws. For all my projects, I like to use 2 1/2 inch (63 mm) T-25 star bit screws designed for external uses such as decks or sheds. You certainly don't need something that beefy for this particular application but those are the screws I always have so those are the ones I use. In any case, pre drill holes or don't complain to me if you split your wood.

Pre drilling your holes is important in this project. You must drill these holes. If you just drive the screws into bare wood the odds are you're going to split the board. After all the work you did with the hole saw you will not be happy if this happens. Pre drill these holes and drive in your screws by hand or slowly with a drill and you'll be safe from that unwanted fate. But before you put the screw in, slather some wood glue in between the boards. We're only putting one screw in (no room for more without splitting the wood) so the wood glue will provide the extra strength.

If you have clamps then clamp this piece down on itself while it dries. If not, just put it on the floor and put something heavy on it. I used a patio brick since that was the closest heavy thing. Once dry, the wood glue alone will make this piece so strong you couldn't get it apart if you wanted to. Repeat this step for the other remaining blocks. When it's dry you'll have two birdhouses.

Now on to the pipe. You need roughly a 12 inch (30 cm) length of this pipe. You can buy it already cut into these lengths (more expensive) or you can buy a long 10 foot pipe and have the store cut it up for you (more hassle), or you could cut it at home yourself (more work). In the interest of maximum time savings I personally just bought a pair of already cut pipes.

The pipe is probably quite grimy so clean it up first using either steel wool or the rough side of a sponge and some soap. If you have an electric sander and want your pipe to look super cool, put your sander to it. Sand the entire pipe (with the sander powered on of course), moving the sander in small circles, like the Karate Kid. "Wax on." This won't create a knurling or anything like that. It will simply put fine scratches in it and polish it up and give the pipe a "brushed" shiny look. It will still feel perfectly smooth to the touch but it looks fancier.

The next step is to attach this all to the plywood base. The best way to do this is to turn your bird houses upside down (hole closer to the bottom) and holes facing toward each other. Fit the pipe into the bird houses and push them together as far as they go so the pipe if fully in at both ends. Simply put your plywood strip you cut earlier on top. Line it up and center it.

Now drill holes for your screws through the plywood and deep into the birdhouses below (don't skip this lest you risk splitting your birdhouses). Looking at the picture you can see how I staggered the screws. I put two screws in each birdhouse, one in each 2x4, staggered (one on each side).

That could be the end of it, if you wish. But, you'll notice that your bars are able to spin right now. I don't know if there would be a valid reason for wanting that but I opted to secure mine so they don't spin. To do this, first take the bit you've been using to pre drill holes for your screws. This should be slightly smaller than the #10 (5M) bolts you're about to use. Your mark is the center of the top of the 2x4 that you drilled the big hole in earlier, directly above where the pipe sits. Drill down through the wood, do your best to make this as perfectly straight as possible. When you hit the pipe, stop for a second. Securely hold the pipe with one hand so it doesn't move around, then continue to drill at least for a little while to ensure that this spot is marked on your pipe.

A bolt through the top makes the spinning stop.

Take the screws out of the bottom of your plywood for one of your birdhouses. This will allow you to take the pipe out. Switch to a bit that is just a bit bigger than your chosen bolt's diameter. You need this bolt to be able to fit through the pipe but you also don't want the hole so big that there is slack for the pipe to greatly move around either. Drill through the pipe on the spot you marked. Since the pipe is hollow, take care to make sure you keep your bit straight once you get through the top edge of your pipe and are working on the bottom. Once you're completely through the pipe, fit your bolt in to ensure that everything fits.

Reassemble the handle and screw it back into the plywood base. Then take that same smaller drill bit that you use to pre drill for screws. Hold it up against the side of your birdhouse next to the pipe to make sure it's long enough to get from the top though the pipe. Bits of this size typically should be. If you have to take a shallow grip on it with your drill, that's okay. Feed it in through both holes in the pipe and drill through the bottom wood as far as you can or as much as you need for your bolt.

Now you can screw in your bolt. Of course, it's a bolt, not a wood screw so it's not designed to bore into wood, but it does have metal threads and they will do that to an extent. This is why we pre drilled holes that were slightly smaller than the diameter of our bolt. It will dig into the wood and secure itself a little more by doing so. If the hole is too small and the bolt doesn't easily screw in then drill the hole bigger. If you wish, you could use a wood or metal screw but in my testing a bolt ends up providing more stability (no wiggle) for our pipe. You can choose to slightly counter sink the head of your bolt if you wish. That simply means you need to drill out a bigger shallow hole at the top so that the head has room to go below the surface of the wood.

There's nothing wrong with square corners, unless you're a square hating enthusiast like me.

You can also choose to round the outside edges of your birdhouses. I did it and it's purely for aesthetic reasons. If you want to copy me, simply use a hand saw to lop of the corner, then sand them down to a curve. A coping saw works well for this because it's so small you can be very accurate with it. But a normal hand saw works too as long as you're careful. A router would be the power tool way to speed things up but if you have a router you don't need me to tell you to use it for this task.

So that's one handle done. Repeat the whole procedure for the other handle, though I'm assuming you already did most of it while your birdhouses were drying. You can paint them if you want. I did because I had to make them match the rest of my equipment (squat stands and bench). They do not, however, match my purse. I have a purple sequence purse, everybody knows that it's the hottest thing right now.

Of course, as it stands they aren't very secure on top of your sawhorses because they are not attached to the saw horses in any way. That's why we drilled the holes in the plywood corresponding to the holes in each end of the saw horses. If you are using different sawhorses than I, and yours do not have holes, then drill them yourself if possible.

You can secure your attachments to your saw horses with a bolt and nut (use a wing nut on top for easy no tool tightening/loosening ability). You can also simply use an allen wrench like a pin. Just like I mention in the original saw horse safety catches post, I simply put a sufficiently sized allen wrench through the hole. The L shape, and length, of the wrench holds the addition in place. I haven't noticed any instability or wobbling yet but if that is the case then just bolt them down to your saw horses.

The saw horses are adjustable so if you need to you can raise them to accommodate your body. This can be a bit of a hassle but it's the price you pay for the benefit of having equipment to has multiple functions. It saves space and I deem it worth the bit of time it takes to adjust the sawhorses to convert them from dip station to safety stands.

I have read that, in general, the right distance between the two bars should be the distance from your elbow to fingertips. I don't know if that's universally true, but it seems to work well enough for me. In any case you can position these as far apart as you choose.

If you're also interested in a DIY dipping belt, click here.

-Carl

Weight Storage Rack

2011-06-19T11:10:00.000-07:00

Are your weights just lying around on the floor? This is unacceptable by Homemade Strength standards. Remedy the situation on your day off. It's cheap. It's easy. and it will make your gym that much more proper. This is an example of a project that doesn't have an exact commercial equivalent and it's still cheaper than similar commercial options.

Cost: about $35
Project time: 1 day
Difficulty: You have to cut wood using a saw or saws of your choice. You have to drill holes and drive screws into said wood. This is pretty basic stuff. Even a newb can learn this quickly so don't be scared. Man up.

Tools Needed:

Saw (for cutting wood) - miter saw is ideal for cutting your many 2 x 4s, but you'll also need something for long straight cuts in your particle board, like a normal hand saw, circular saw, or jigsaw.
Drill / Screwdriver
Sander - could be electric or just a hand rubber sanding block, and sand paper of course.
Wrench - either a 1/4" or simply an adjustable one.
Socket Wrench - in addition to a normal wrench, a socket wrench with the necessary pieces to accept a screwdriver bit will make one small part of the project much easier. Click here to see a picture of what I mean. (perhaps optional)

Materials Needed:

2 x 4 studs (8 feet in length) - you need 4 of these.
Particle Board (3/4 inch thick, 12 inches wide) - you need two pieces of 3 foot length each so you could buy a 6 foot long board or two 4 foot long boards, etc.
1" x 6" Wooden Board, typically used for a deck - you barely need any of this, 1 foot length. You could probably fashion these out of your leftover 2 x 4s if you want.
Box of 2 and 1/2 inch deck screws - I like T25 star bit head screws
1/4" Carriage Bolts (3 and 1/2 inches long) - you need 16 of these. May be cheaper to just buy a bag of 20.
1/4" Nuts (to fit your carriage bolts) - obviously you need 16 of these as well.
5/16" Fender Washers - you need 16 of these. The size markings on washers tell you the inner diameter, just fyi. They have to be bigger than 1/4" because they must fit the square base of your carriage bolts, which is larger than the diameter of the threads.
1/4" Washers - you need 16 of these.
Wood Glue
Paint (optional)
Pipe Insulation Foam (optional)
Duct Tape / Electrical Tape (optional)

Plate "slots" can store 45 lb., 35 lb., and even spacer plates.

What we're making today is a handy solution to organize our weight plates. I always see pictures of home gyms with stacks of plates just lying around on the ground. Let's tidy it up and make them conveniently accessible, shall we?

This project took me two days and that was with me making things up and designing as I worked. I got stumped and had to sleep on it to get past my sticking point in the design. I figure it could certainly be done, following instructions, in one day. But I'm an introverted worker. I take a lot of breaks and get lost in thought liberally throughout the project.

I used to have a commercial weight "tree" rack. Well, I technically still do have it. I should say I used to use a commercial weight rack. I didn't really like it. It was a cheaper one, at about $50. The problem is they aren't rated for a whole lot of weight and more importantly they don't have the space to accommodate enough big plates to add a whole lot of weight. The ones that are rated for serious poundages are near $100 in cost. I still don't know if they really have the space to stack up eight 45 lb. plates on them as well as all the essential smaller increments.

Because we're average guys in the garage, we probably won't be able to do serious metal fabrication. That's why wood is the material of choice for Homemade Strength. Given the nature of the material, it's more prudent for us to avoid the vertical frame design of normal metal plate racks. Instead, what we're going to do is mimic a horizontal plate rack design. No, this won't duplicate the function of portable platform racks, but it resembles that design more than the normal "tree" or "A frame" design.

Our custom DIY design will handle eight 45 lb. plates, as well as your quarters (2), dimes (2), nickles (5), and even your 2 1/2 lb. plates. This is a "full set" that when loaded on the bar would total 500 lbs. I think that's a solid figure. If you have 35 lb. plates they can be substituted at will for the 45 lb. plates; this rack will fit eight of either.

You can, of course, make your rack longer. The amount of plates it can hold is only limited by the length of the rack. All you have to do is make yours as long as you want it and you can load up as many 45 lb. plates as you choose. Mine is 3 feet long.

One last thing to get out of the way before we start. This is not a carrying case, nor a portable platform rack. Don't try to lift this thing and move it around with plates in it. I assure you the odds are it will break. It is perfectly strong when used properly. It is designed to store plates when sitting on the ground. The compressive strength of wood is great. If you lift it, now it's a matter of tensile strength and that's nowhere near as great. If you have to move it, unload the thing, then pick it up. The rack only weighs 45 lbs. itself so not a problem for anyone who trains with the weights this rack is designed to hold.

Weights, lacrosse balls, collars, bands, it's an equal opportunity storage device.

Like most projects here on Homemade Strength, 2x4s play a significant role in its design. It's our favorite material because it's cheap and strong. It's designed for commercial framing purposes so it's perfect for our gym projects.

The first thing you have to do is decide how long you want your rack. The longer you make it, the more big plates (read that 45 lbs.) you can store. I made mine 36 inches (3 feet) long. If you choose differently, the key boards you'll have to make longer are the two initial 2 x 4 runners and the particle board sides. The rest will be the same for any size rack.

So, 36 inches is my chosen length. Measure and cut two pieces of 2x4 to this length. Now, Measure and cut two pieces of 2x4 to 7 inches long. These are our middle spacers. They will ensure the 2x4 runners are 7 inches apart. A miter saw is the fastest way to cut 2x4s but any saw that gets the job done, even a hand saw, will suffice. Now cut four pieces of 2x4, each one only 2 inches long.

Monkey see, monkey do. Not that I'm calling you a monkey or anything like that.

The picture above shows how we are going to arrange all these pieces. lay your boards on the ground and dry fit them as shown. On each end you have a 2 inch piece, then the width of the long runner board, then the 7 inch piece, then the other runner board, then another 2 inch piece. Clearly a picture is far better than my sorry attempt at an explanation. Look and mimic.

You'll notice that if you measure the length of one of the ends of this frame, it will be roughly 18 inches. Whatever it is exactly, we now need to cut 8 pieces of 2 x 4 to this length. So measure and cut your boards until you have eight pieces that are 18 inches long each.

For the record, whenever you are cutting a long board into many smaller pieces you should always measure one, cut that one, then measure the next, and cut. Never mark many measurements off and then just go down the line cutting. The reason is, the saw blade will remove a significant amount of material and the boards will end up shorter than what you measured them to be. Measure, cut, measure, cut. That's how you do it.

Six on one side, two on the other. Do as I say, not as I photograph.

Now take six of the newly cut 18 inch long boards and stack them up like pancakes on one end of your frame, as shown in the picture above. Not shown in the picture is that you should stack the other two on the other end of your frame. Two on one end, six on the other.

Alright. That was just a dry fit. Now we have to actually fasten it together. We're going to use the "glue and screw" method. Remove the eight boards that you stacked on the basic frame and put them aside. Put down some newspaper or spare cardboard from your recycling bin so you don't get glue all over your garage floor. You're going to slather wood glue on the sides of the boards you cut in the original step.

That is to say, the 7 inch boards, 1 inch boards and the long runners. Just put glue on the sides where these pieces touch each other and once again position them as I originally showed you. Whether you think it looks like part of a fence, a large "I", or a wide "H" I'll leave that to you.

As the diagram above shows, you're going to take one of the 18 inch pieces and put it back on top of the end of your now glued jigsaw puzzle of a frame. But before you do that, slather the bottom of it with glue, then smush it down like a sandwich with mayo on it. Take five of your deck screws and drive them through the top board, one into each of the five pieces on the bottom. Make sure all the ends are squared up and aligned before you do this.

Now, as the above diagram also shows, put another board on top of the one you just secured. Again slathering it with glue before you smush it down. This time only put two screws into it, towards the middle, using your eyes to determine where you can place them without jamming them into the five screws you just put in. Repeat this for the other side of your "H, I , fence post."

Now you have your frame, each end glued and screwed with two boards on top of it. Before we get to the other remaining pieces for one of the ends, we're going to put the sides on, to ensure that our stack of pancakes ends up stacked straight.

The sides, for now, are quite easy and simple. Either you bought one longer piece of particle board, or you bought two smaller (4 foot) pieces. Either way Make your cuts to create two pieces that are 3 feet in length (and 12 inches in width (height)); the same exact size as the long runners you first cut.

Position your sides up to the frame as shown above. We're going to pre-drill holes for our screws so choose a drill bit that is smaller than the threads of your deck screws. At this point there are only 2 boards stacked on each side, so your current top board is actually board number 2 in our stacks. Drill through the side of your particle board and into the side of the TOP board (#2) on each end of your frame. It has to be the this board. On the lower boards there are screws near the edge holding that mass of small pieces together.You can't screw into that mess because there are already too many screws there. So drill and then screw into the top board. Do this for all four corners of your box. One screw in each corner.

One end of this basic frame is done. Remember, "two on one side, six on the other." As of now, there is two on one side and two on the other. So one side is complete for now. The other needs four more pieces stacked up. The process is the same. Put your glue down, smush a piece of wood on top, and put your screws in to secure it. The diagram below will show that you're going to alternate between driving two screws and three screws. Follow the picture to coordinate your placement of screws.

Notice that you secure board 3 and 2 together with three screws (shown in red); one in the middle, two on the ends, to avoid the screws you've already put in. Then, when securing board 4 on top of 3 you use two screws (shown in blue). You alternate between using two and three screws each board you stack up. You'll end with two screws, which leaves you plenty of space in the sides of board 6 to secure your particle board side pieces into board 6; just like you did in board 2. I'm well aware of the fact that board 2 gets three screws in it from above (board 3). At that point, your side screws holding the particle board sides on will already be in board 2. Just be careful and use your senses to accommodate where you can and cannot put a screw. Sometimes detailed explanation just makes things sound difficult. I assure you this stuff is easy. Have confidence and just go with it.

Now we have the basic shape of our glorified box. As you can see in the picture, it's big enough to nicely house a 45 lb. plate. The end with your stack of six boards it the end which will hold your 45 lb. plates. Half of this box design will be delegated to this task. The other half, towards the "two stack" end will progressively step down from your quarters, to your dimes, and to your nickle plates.

LLLLLLLLLIKE A GLOVE!

The next step is to section off the space for each of our big plates. I'm not completely sure if all normal iron plates are created equal, in terms of how thick they are. This would also work for bumper plates but they are so thick you'll have to make a rather long rack to accommodate them. So rather than tell you a measurement I'm going to recommend that you put one of your big 45 lb. plates up against the "six stack" of 2x4s. Set it straight up. Now take a pencil or pen and mark about 2 inches down from the top of your particle board and 1/4 inch away from the edge of the plate. This is going to be the space, the single slot, for one plate. You don't want it butt up against the plate because you're going to want a little bit of room to take your plates in and out.

Using a 1/4" drill bit, drill a hole on your mark, all the way through the particle board side. Before we continue, we're going to make a template out of paper so that we can duplicate this without having to measure for each slot. Grab a piece of paper and fold it over the top of the particle board side so that it covers the inside down to where you drilled the hole. Slide it all the way back so that its edge is against the six stack of 2x4s.

[sing] PATTERN POWER! (if you have young kids, you might get the joke.)

Now use your pen to poke a hole in the paper where you drilled a hole in the particle board side. To mark your next hole, all you have to do is line up the back edge of the paper (the part that was against the six stack) with the front edge of the first hole you drilled. Pictures are very useful for explaining things. Use your pen or pencil to mark your next hole and repeat the procedure until you have a total of eight holes. Drill them out with your 1/4" bit.

That covers one side of your rack. To mark the other side, you can use the same template. You just have to use the opposite side. That is to say, the side that was facing you last time will now be against the particle board side. The top flap will have to be folded over the other way to sit along the top edge of your particle board. Again, mark eight holes and drill them out.

Take one of your carriage bolts, a 5/16 fender washer, a 1/4" washer and a nut. Put the 5/16" washer over the bolt, all the way to the head, then put the bolt through the particle board, then put on the 1/4 inch washer, and then finally the nut. Because the carriage bolt has a square shape under the head you'll have to hammer on it a bit to sink it into the hole. If you don't have a hammer, your wrench will do. If you don't have a wrench, then good luck properly tightening your bolts down.

If you intend to paint this rack then there's no need to put all the bolts in now, you'll only have to take them off to paint it properly. But eventually, when all is said and done you will put your bolts in this fashion for all the holes. When all is said and done you can opt to wrap your bolts in duct tape or electrical tape to soften them so you don't scratch your plates on them. This is optional.

The next step is to create the sections that will house our 25, 10, and 5 lb. plates. We're going to use 18" lengths of 2x4s. You're going to need 4 of them so mark and cut your wood. Unlike our "stacks" we're going to stand these up on their sides so that each one is "4 inches" tall. We're going to place the first of these just after the last hole you drilled. Put some glue on the sides of this piece where it will contact the particle board sides. Put it in position, then pre-drill your hole through the side of the particle board (remember to use the proper bit, not the 1/4" bit you were just using) and drive your screw in. Repeat for the other side. Now stack another of these 18" 2x4 pieces on top of the one you just put in. Repeat the same procedure.

Big plates and small plates don't get along. We have to put up a wall to avoid conflict.

The easiest way to proceed is to take your two 25 lb. plates and stack them against your newly installed double 2x4 wall. Put the plates straight up and then lean them back just a tad so that they stay by themselves and not fall forward. Now you're going to do the same thing you just did for the last wall, except this time you're only using a single 2x4 piece, positioned right against the front edge of your 25 lb. plates. Glue and screw this piece in. Now you have your section for the 25 lb. plates done.

Using your plates to measure ensures perfection.

There's is only one more board to put in. Just as you did with the 25 lb. plates, stack your two 10 lb. plates against the newly created single 2x4 wall. Stand them up straight by themselves so they don't fall over. Put your last 18 inch 2x4 piece along the front edge of your plates. Glue it and screw it, just as you've done several times before. This will give you the 10 lb. plate section, and what remains in front is your 5 lb. plate section.

The issue, however, is that neither the 10 lb. plates, nor the 5 lb. plates will fit properly between your bottom 2x4 runners. The gap between these is 7 inches and that does well for the bigger plates but is too much for the small plates. To remedy this, we are going to put smaller runner boards under the 10 and 5 lb. sections.

We want the gap between the boards under the 10 and 5 lb. plates to be five inches. The current space between the 2x4 runners is seven inches. So in order to keep our plates nice and center we need two boards of 1 inch width each. We want the boards to be as tall as the 2x4 runners and as long enough to span the 10 lb. and 5 lb. plate sections. In other words, about 9 1/2 inches long should do it.

I used a piece of 1x6 left over from my deck. You could likely fashion the piece from the scrap 2x4 pieces you have from this project. The dimensions of this board will be 1" wide, 1 and 1/2" tall, and 9 1/2 inches long. Now make two of these.

You're going to mount these (as shown above) under the sections that will hold your 10 and 5 lb. plates. Turn your entire rack over and work from the bottom. You'll attach your small runners by driving two screws through them into the side of your 2x4 runners. There is not a lot of space to work here. You won't be able to get a drill, nor a normal screwdriver. The way I remedied this was by using a socket wrench and a socket which allowed me to use a screwdriver bit. There are certainly other, more cumbersome ways of achieving the same result. But if you have a socket wrench, use it. If you don't have the right socket, I would imagine it's quite cheap.

As you can also see in the picture above, while you've got it turned over, put a screw into the bottom of each runner, through each of the three 2x4 "walls" you made to hold your smaller plates. So six screws total. This will just ensure that everything is nice and solid and interconnected.

Now we're going to make this thing a bit lighter and look a a little better by shaping the sides. As of right now they are just rectangles. As the picture below shows, we're going to cut the corner off at an angle. You can simply do this by eye as you see fit, after all, that's what I did. Or you can take my measurements. Working from the top corner of the "two stack" side, measure 6 and 7/16 inches down and mark it. Measure 17 and 1/16 inches across and mark it. Between these two points, draw a straight line. Cut along this line and then sand the edges to curve them. Do this with both sides.

You're almost done with the construction. There is only one step left, and you could argue that it's optional. You should have enough room in your 5 lb. plate section to fit a few 2 1/2 lb. plates as well. Rather than do this, I decided to do something different. What I did, can be seen below.

Simply take a scrap piece of 2x4. Use a 2 and 1/8 inch hole saw to cut through your board. The inside core is what we want. Sand this core down and place it on the rack as shown above. Use a 2 1/2 lb. plate to determine the proper position, so that a 2 1/2 lb. plate will fit on without interfering with the sides or the stack of 5 lb. plates. Then simply screw it down with a single deck screw through the center hole, which the hole saw already provided for you.

All that's left now is to paint it, if you choose. You can see I went with the same classic Doo-doo brown that I've used on all my projects here. There is one other additional thing you can do if you wish. You can pad the runners where your plates will sit with insulation foam if you wish to protect the wood.You can secure it down using tape, or any other way of your choosing.

And with that you're done.

- Carl

2011 Rogue Do-Win Review

2011-05-04T04:51:00.000-07:00

There are many options when it comes to weightlifting footwear. You can buy any one of numerous shoes made specifically for weightlifting. You could also buy common shoes that have a hard sole, like Chuck Taylors. Or you could outright go barefoot, though most commercial gyms will frown on that. While I'm no shoe expert, this is my review of the 2011 Rogue Do-Win lifting shoes.

A little background before I start. I built a home gym and started lifting from home the very first day I got under the bar. I never used a commercial gym. As such, I lifted barefoot from the very beginning. I have never lifted in any type of shoe other than the new 2011 Rogue Do-Wins. I went from barefoot to these. So I cannot compare them to any other shoe, such as other lifting shoes or Chuck Taylors. I have been using the Rogues for near 6 months now.

In my view, one of the better looking shoes available.

The first thing you'll notice about the new Rogue Do-Wins is that they look quite nice. Rather than describe them, simply see the above picture. Though it shouldn't matter, I know many lifters do seem to care. There are other shoes out there that look just plain pug fugly. Not the case with the Rogues. They are not the prettiest shoes out there, nor are they the cheapest but they are still a very nice shoe.

Do-Wins have had a bit of a reputation of being of cheap quality. This has apparently changed with the 2011 Rogue model. They are well put together. I haven't noticed any quality issues whatsoever. The heel is made of wood, as most lifting shoes are, so you know it will not compress. There are other cheaper shoes out there that look pretty but don't have a wood heel. I cannot comment on their quality or function since I have not used them. All I can do is tell you that the Rogue is solid and stable and won't ever compress when lifting a heavy barbell.

The Rogues have a heel of .75 inches. This is slightly more than what coach Mark Rippetoe recommended. Rippetoe also has a shoe available from Rogue with a .5 inch heel. However, the difference is minimal and will not be an issue. Some lifting shoes have heels up to and exceeding 1 inch which is good for Olympic lifting. I am not an Oly lifter and right now I don't really do those lifts so I needed something with a lower heel. The bulk of what I do in the gym is the major compound barbell lifts. Low bar back squats, bench press, overhead press, deadlifts, chin ups, dips, and power cleans, etc.

Immediately, from the very first session, I noticed the difference between lifting barefoot and with the Rogues. The shoe offers far more stabilization. The hard sole provides no compression whatsoever. This is ideal. It feels much more solid than lifting barefoot.

They say it can take a little time to get used to lifting with a heeled shoe. I didn't notice any "learning curve" at all. The shoes have helped my squat and deadlift. Some people don't like to pull from the floor with a heel but I like it. One big issue I have with pulling from the floor is I tend to let the bar get away from my legs. Lifting in a slightly heeled shoe helps with this. The raised heel encourages a forward lean, which, at the very least, acts a reminder to get the shins touching the bar and keep it that way throughout the lift. I do all the major lifts with these shoes. I haven't noticed any negatives to pressing or pulling in a heeled shoe, quite the opposite. Remember, the Rogues have only a .75 inch heel so it's not as extreme as the standard weightlifting shoes which are over an inch.

I have to highly recommend these shoes to anybody who's interested in them.Rogue initially said to size down 1/2 from your normal shoe size. Now it seems they are saying to order your normal shoe size (probably after customer feedback). I wear a 10.5 to 11 size shoe normally, depending on the type of shoe. I ordered size 10.5 Rogue Do-Wins and they fit nicely. They do have straps, like all Do-Wins. So you can tighten them that way as well.

I will say this, just to have something to "criticize," the laces seemed excessively long. When tightened, both the loops and ends run the entire length of the shoe. It makes no difference in function as they can be held down under the straps. Still, why so long Rogue? Am I supposed to loop them through weight plates, thus turning the mere act of walking into a strength building exercise?

Kidding aside, they look nice, they function well, they are well put together, and they are not expensive, as far as weightlifting shoes go. At around $120 they are on the cheaper side of the weightlifting shoe price range. Rather than give it a score out of 10 or 5 stars, I'll simply end by saying I can't think of anything that needs improvement with the 2011 Rogue Do-Wins. I don't have much experience with different shoes but I have no complaints and I'm glad I decided to buy them rather than continue to lift barefoot.

Oh, and by the way you can get them, or the current model if it's not 2011 anymore, at RogueFitness.com.

- Carl

The strongest bench you'll never buy

2011-05-03T06:07:00.000-07:00

Pulling off DIY projects like this is what makes everything worth it. When you can produce something that is so dirt cheap and yet so effective at its purpose, it just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. In this project, I'll show you how to make a weight bench that is strong and incredibly cheap. This is what DIY is all about.

Cost: less than $50
Project Time: 1 day
Difficulty: You have to cut 2x4s and plywood. You have to operate a drill. For the pad you have to cut fabric and use a manual powered staple gun. In other words, not hard at all.

Tools Needed:

Drill
Saw (for cutting wood) - miter saw is best for cutting 2x4s, but you need something for long straight cuts in plywood as well (I used a normal handsaw)
Staple Gun - just a manual powered one, you don't need an air compressor or anything fancy like that.

Materials Needed:

2x4 Studs - at 8 feet long each, you'll need 5
4 Elevator Bolts (at least 1 1/2 inches long) - click here for picture
4 Wingnuts to fit the elevator bolts.
Foam padding
Fabric of your choice (vinyl, leather, auto or furniture upholstery)
2 1/2 inch decking screws (T-25 star head is my favorite)
Wood glue
Gorilla glue, or other similar metal/wood adhesive
Staples for your staple gun (check your gun for proper size)

The only person this won't be strong enough for is Bruce Banner.

Shopping for a weight bench can be difficult. And by difficult I mean expensive. And just to be clear, whenever I use the phrase "weight bench" I mean a strong one that can be used to Bench Press. The problem you'll run into when buying these is that the reasonably priced ones are not rated to hold much weight. You'll see figures like "300 lbs." But when you consider that the bench has to hold your body as well, 300 lbs. is not much. If you weigh a measly 150 lbs. when you start, and bench press 150 lbs. That's your 300 lbs. right there. This is novice level lifting.

Once you turn into a real lifter after a few years of training, you'll probably weigh closer to 200 lbs. yourself and be benching near 300 lbs. Now that's 500 lbs. and all those affordable weight benches are now too weak for your purposes. But when you start pricing quality benches that are rated for this type of serious lifting, you are going to have to pay hundreds of dollars for them. This is unacceptable by Homemade Strength standards.

The fact of the matter is you can build your own weight bench that can support a ton of weight, I literally mean a ton, that's not slang. You'll never be able to bench press even half a ton so basically what I'm telling you is that you can build a bench that will be many times stronger than you need it to be. And you can do it for less than $50.

A proper weight bench is 17 inches tall, pad included. This bench will have a plywood base that is 3/8 inch thick. It will also have a plywood top, and the removable padding has a plywood base. The total thickness of all the plywood will add up to just over an inch. The pad itself is going to be about 1/2 inch when compressed. If your pad differs from this then adjust accordingly. However, it's better to make your bench too tall rather than too short. So we're going to cut our 2x4s into 15 1/2 inch segments. To start, we will cut sixteen pieces of 2x4, each being 15 and 1/2 inches long. If you have a miter saw or at least a power saw that can handle the job (circular saw, etc.) you will enjoy the process. If you do not, this will be the first wave of a lot of hard labor cutting by hand. Thankfully, I have a miter saw.

With sixteen boards cut to the length of 15 and 1/2 inches, we're ready to start assembling the top legs. These legs are like miniature I-beams made of three 2x4s each. It's important that you follow my directions of assembly. First step is to make a "T" out of two pieces (see diagram #1).

Mark and drill three holes through the top of the T (Board A). These three holes should be towards the middle of that 2x4, not towards the ends (see diagram #2). Read ahead if you have to, to gain more understanding of what we're doing and why. Drill all the way through Board A so that your bit goes into Board B. Then deepen the holes on Board B to prevent splitting when you put your screws in.

Slather some wood glue along the face where the boards will touch each other. Now drive three screws into the pre drilled holes. Wipe the excess glue off and you now have one "T" piece. Repeat this procedure and make a second "T" piece.

Now we will cut the 2x4 runners that span the length of the bench. We need two. I made mine 43 inches long. I'm 5 feet 10 inches tall and this gives me plenty of room on the bench. Just make sure your bench is long enough to accommodate you from the bottom of your ass to the top of your head. If you have at least that much room, you're good to go. Whatever measurement you choose, cut two 2x4 studs to this length.

Before we attach these, we have to make holes in our top legs (T pieces) to fasten them to the runners (see diagram #3). We will drill four holes in our "T" piece; two on top, two on bottom. I recommend that you drill from the top of the T downward, as shown in diagram #3. If you drill from the bottom up, Board B will get in the way. This is how we will have to drive our screws (unavoidable) but in order to make straight holes drill from the top.

Aren't diagrams helpful?

But before we drill, we have to measure. Take one of your T pieces and measure 2 inches from the end of Board A and mark a line. Now measure 4 inches from the same end and mark a line. Now repeat these steps for the other end of Board A. You have divided the ends of your board into two sections. We'll call them "top box" and "bottom box." For this T piece choose a box, it doesn't matter which so I'll just pick "top box." Drill two holes in the top box. One centered on each side of Board B. (diagram #3). Do the same for the other end of your T piece. So this is your "top box" T piece.

Now take your other T piece and do the same thing. But this time, drill your holes in the "bottom box". The reason this is important is because these T peices will both be screwing into the same middle board and we need to make sure that you get all four screws into a small space without hitting each other. In other words, the screws on the top box board will be higher than the ones from the low box board. Marking is key to avoiding conflict when it's time to put it all together.

With four holes drilled in your T pieces, we can now attach our long runners. We're going to start with the bottom runner. The best way to mark this runner is to drive screws into your predrilled holes on the bottom of your T piece. Have them sticking out the back of the T piece just a little bit. Now, line up the T piece with the bottom runner as shown in diagram #4. The left side of your runner board should be in line with the left side of your T piece.

Use a level to ensure you're T, which is a leg of the bench, is straight up and down. Now just press the T and the runner together. Since the screw tips were slightly through the T piece they will poke into the runner board and mark it. Now you can drill on those marks, just a bit (not all the way through. Predrilling like this ensures that everything goes in the way you want it and the wood will not split. Slather the point where the boards will contact each other with wood glue. Drive in your two screws. At this point you should have one long runner on the bottom, attached to one T piece.

THE IMPORTANT BOARD STEP

This is a significant step, we're going to label this "The Important Board Step" so that you can repeat it later when I tell you to. Grab two 15 1/2 inch boards. Just like you did with the T piece, measure 2 inches from the end of the board and mark a line, then measure 4 inches and mark a line. Do that on both ends of the board. And do that for both boards. Designate one board as "top box" the other as "bottom box". Drill two holes within the proper "box" on each end of the board. Again repeat that for both boards. So each board should have four holes in it, two at one end and two at the other. And one board should have said holes in the top boxes and the other in the bottom boxes.

Take one of these boards and, just like you did with the T piece, glue it and screw it to the other end (foot end) of the bottom riser, which is already attached to one T piece at the head end.

Now repeat the procedure with the top runner. Secure it to the top of the T piece at one end and the single 2x4 at the bottom. Again use your level to make sure your legs are straight and your runner is straight as well. We're building a flat bench, not an incline or decline bench, after all. Now you should have a frame that looks as it does in diagram # 4-B

To complete this side we need two more of those 15 1/2 inch studs. We're going to cap off our T and make it an I. Just like we did when making the T, put three holes along the length of the board, in the center as shown. Slather the contact point with wood glue and drive your three screws. Do the same exact thing with your single 2x4 at the foot, now making it a double 2x4 (in essence a 4x4). This is shown in diagram #5.

Not to scale.

From here, go back up the page, to the start, and read the directions again, this time doing it on the other side of the runners. Take the T piece that you've already made and attach it to the other side of the runners. Then take the single board you've already made for the foot of the bench and attach that to the other side of the runners. Then turn the T to an I and the single board to a double at the foot. You've now used up ten of our sixteen lengths of wood. The next step is to overkill reinforce this sucka.

The following picture will do more than words can to instruct you. It's quite straightforward, now that you've got some experience, we're not doing anything different than we've already done. We're putting three boards on each side, towards the head of the bench, where the weight and force will be when you bench press. This is where "The Important Board Step" comes in. We need 3 more pairs of boards. They have to match each other. Meaning 3 have to be "top box" and 3 have to be "bottom box". Basically just repeat the "Important Board Step" three times and you'll have three matching pairs. Secure them as the picture shows, three on each side, covering the top half of the bench (near the head).

Two is better than one, and Twelve is better than two.

No less than 12 supporting beams would have to utterly fail under the load in order for this bench to break. The rating for each beam is more than a ton. Since the average human would be absolutely ecstatic if they could manage even 1/4 that amount, I think we can safely say this bench is well beyond the strength of what you or I would ever need.

The frame of this thing is now complete. The next step is to put plywood on the bottom. The easiest way to do it is to simply put the frame onto your piece of plywood and trace around the frame. As you can see from the picture, I put a piece of plywood under the four 2x4s at the foot of the bench. I then put another piece under the six supports in the middle of the bench. Then another larger piece around the "I beam" legs at the head of the bench.

You can click these pictures to enlarge them, didn't you know?

This larger piece isn't a precise measurement. It is simply wide enough to fit the I beams, and long enough to provide support so that the bench doesn't rock side to side. It's roughly 7 inches longer than where the I-beams stop on each side. Make these measurements / tracings and then cut your plywood. Now drill and screw the plywood onto the frame, no wood glue needed. Do you best to put your screws in spots that don't already have screws in them. I trust you can use your eyes to figure that out.

For the top piece we are putting another layer of plywood. The shape of it is just an outline of the shape of the frame from the top. It's a T shape. The width of the bench is something you could vary depending on your preferences. Standard dimensions for powerlifting benches tends to be around 12 inches. I know some bigger lifters that like a much wider bench. I originally had mine wide like this, but it interfered with arms in the bottom position. My body type/size requires a smaller width, and since I'm not a competitive powerlifter, nobody will care if I make mine suited to my needs. But if you need/like a wider one than adjust accordingly.

As such, the trunk of the "T" on my bench is 9 1/2 inches wide. The top of the T is 15 1/2 by 5 inches (see picture). Cut this shape out of ply wood and screw it into the frame, again choosing places that don't already have screws in them. Also notice that i rounded the corners of this piece. I recommend you do the same to avoid potential injuries. Simply chop off the corner with a saw and then use sandpaper to round it out.

Can also be used as a diving board.

Before we upholster it, we have one last thing to do. We have to make the actual pad that you will lay on. This is composed of three parts, a plywood base, foam, and fabric. Start with the plywood base. I made mine roughly 10 inches wide. Some bigger guys like a wider pad. I'm a small guy, by my standards, and I originally had my pad wider but it was interfering with my arms at the low point of the lift. 10 inches works well for me. I can't say it will be the right size for you.

After you decide on a pad size, cut a rectangle of plywood measuring the width that you've decided on and a length that is about 2 inches longer than the top plywood piece of your frame. Measure, mark, and cut this piece out. Again, round the corners so that they don't rip the fabric you will cover it with.

Now we need to drill holes through both this newly cut plywood and the top plywood part of the frame. Center your plywood pad base on top of the plywood board on the frame so that it hands over an equal amount on all sides. Drill four holes, two towards the head of the bench and two towards the foot. The size of your holes should be just big enough to fit the shaft of your elevator bolts. The exact location of these is up to you to discover. You need the holes go through both pieces of plywood. You need them to be in open areas so that the frame doesn't interfere. These holes are where your elevator bolts and wignuts will be going so you need enough open space for your wingnut to thread on to the bolt.

Notice how there's plenty of room to turn the wingnuts. Choose such places when drilling your holes.

The next step is to secure your elevator bolts to the pad's plywood base. With the plywood base still centered on the frame, put your bolts into the holes. If you made your holes small enough the bolts won't sit all the way down. Elevator bolts have a slightly bigger square section towards the head. Put some Gorilla glue around the top of your bolt and hole. Now hammer the bolt into the hole. Repeat for all the bolts. Your elevator bolts need to be a minimum of 1 1/2 inches. They have to go through two pieces of 3/8" thick plywood, and have enough left over for a wingnut, which is like 1/4" at least. I personally got by with the absolute minimum bolt, it just barely fits. Apparently when I did this I miscalculated. I suggest you don't do the same. Get a longer bolt, if you can manage it, better too long than too short.

These bolts are barely long enough to work. Do as I say, not as I do.

The reason why we are doing all this is so that the pad section is removable. If you ever want to reupholster it, now you can. And we also don't want to fasten the pad by screwing up from the bottom because then we'd be getting stabbed by screws when we lie on it. You can also see why we choose something unorthodox like elevator bolts. They have a completely flat head, like a nail. So they won't create an uncomfortable bump in your pad like a rounded or hex bolt may.

The final step is to upholster this baby. You can choose whatever foam and fabric you want. Ideally heavy duty foam made for furniture or auto seats would be best. It's probably pretty expensive. I simply used a basic roll of foam that you can get at Walmart for like $15. For fabric, again upholstery fabric intended for furniture or auto seats will be of the highest quality but is more expensive. I used cheap vinyl from Walmart. It's holding up perfectly fine after six months of training. If it ever wears out I'll upgrade to better stuff. Depending on the width of your chosen fabric, you will either need one or two yards.

First we need to put the foam onto the plywood. If you are using thin and / or soft foam you should double or triple layer it. The foam should be just a bit larger than the dimensions of your plywood. Cut down your foam to match the size of your plywood. Lay your fabric out on the floor, so that the good side is facing down. Now lay your plywood with foam piece foam side down. So on the floor you will have your fabric, then foam layers, then plywood on top.

Look at this quality craftsmanship. Good thing you can't see the it when it's on the bench.

To secure the fabric to your plywood, we're going to use staples. I used T-50 size staples. Start with one of the long ends of your bench. Fold the edge of the fabric back over on itself about one inch. So that the edge of your fabric is now double thickness. This is the area we're going to staple into, the double thickness ensuring that it won't rip. Put the edge of this fabric onto the top of your plywood. Now begin stapling this edge. Press down hard with your staple gun and start from the middle and work outward. Doing this will allow you to smooth any wrinkles as you go. For the first edge it's not too important because none of the other edges are secured down yet. Staple all along this edge, leave the corners for later, we'll do them at the end.

Ideally, we don't want our pad to be to cushy. We want it to be firm. If you have cushy foam (as most cheap foam is, then we want to compress it by making the fabric sit tight around it. In order to do this, we have to compress the foam by standing on it as you staple. The second side you staple should be the long edge opposite the first side. You don't work around right to left or left to right. When you upholster something like this you work one side, then opposite side. This is the best way to ensure you can keep wrinkles out of the material.

Pull the material as tight as you can. Now trim it down to a size that will fit your bench. Don't trim too much off or it won't fit, but you likely have feet of excess because this bench is not very wide. After you trim it, fold the excess back on itself, just like you did with the first side. Stand on the plywood to compress the foam. Pull everything as tight as you can and begin stapling this edge, again starting from the middle and working out.

Repeat the procedure for the remaining two short ends. Now for the corners. There's no science to this, as far as I know. It's like wrapping a present. It comes out different every time you do it, And it usually looks kinda sloppy. But in the end it gets the job done. That pretty much describes my experience with both gift wrapping and upholstering corners. You'll have to trim some excess material off and probably fold some material in and tuck some things under. Just get it flat enough to put some staples in and it'll be fine.

By my standards, I did quite a sloppy job with the upholstery on this project. But luckily, when it's bolted to the frame the underside is completely hidden. So don't stress out trying to get things perfect, it really doesn't matter. What's important is that your pad is nice and tight and firm.

With the pad done, all that is left is to secure the pad to the frame. Line up your elevator bolts with the holes on your frame and drop it in. Take your wingnuts and hand tighten them onto your bolts. If you choose to paint your bench, do so without the padding on.

Everything you see here for less than $150. I'm assuming you can't see the bar, weights, shoes, and everything else in the back corner.

Now you have a bench that is stronger than you'll ever need it to be. You have the strength and function of an expensive bench and you paid only $50 or less for it. What would you get for $50 if you tried to buy a commercial bench? Something that could barely handle the weight that even a total noob will bench press in a few weeks time. This is the kind of project that makes you love DIY. It's definitely a better way to spend a Saturday than watching TV. Or you could put a TV in the garage and watch while you work.

This was another massive post. If you are unclear about anything please leave a comment and I'll do my best to help you out.

- Carl

Micro-Loading

2011-05-02T04:17:00.001-07:00

This would seem to be the perfect DIY project candidate. There are numerous ways to micro-load. Today we're going to take a look at some of the popular options to see if it's really worth it. You can buy fractional plate sets for $50 online, plus shipping. This is going to be our price point. We not only have to get cheaper than $50, we have to get much cheaper. Otherwise, it's just not worth it. Can we do it? Let's find out.

If you buy plates online, for your money you get (2 of each) 1/4 lb., 1/2 lb., 3/4 lb., and 1 lb. plates. We're not going to be able to make plates that function better than commercial ones because there is no room for improvement here. Our only hope is if we can make something that functions as well but is much much cheaper.

I'm assuming you work out from home. If you go to a commercial gym and plan to take your plates in your gym bag, I highly suggest you consider just buying them. Commercial fractional plates are clean, weigh the right amount, and are small and portable. Homemade solutions are typically not as good, at least in the size/appearance category.

WASHERS

The most attractive way is to use large industrial washers. No I don't mean washing machines, I mean the metal discs that one uses to fasten things in conjunction with a bolt or screw. You can buy such washers at stores like Fastenal. You can also order them online. These end up looking and functioning great, because they are essentially shaped just like little plates. At first thought they seem perfect, but the problem is, they get expensive quickly.

In order to make the same set as Iron Woody sells you have to buy two types of washers. There's a 2" flat washer for $3 that weighs just over 1/2 lb. And there is a 2" bushing that costs about $1.50 and weighs a bit more than 1/8 lb. With a bit of modification, combing two bushings gives you your 1/4 lb. plate. Two flat washers gives you your 1 lb. plate. 1 flat washer and 2 bushings gives you your 3/4 lb. plate. And of course 1 flat washer is your 1/2 lb. plate. When you total it all up, you have to spend around $37 plus shipping.

This means all the work you're going to have to do to get these washers weighing exactly what you want them will be done in order to save you $13. That's not a great deal in my book. Especially since the commercial plates will look better and take no time or effort on your part. Now, there are certainly other places besides Fastenal to buy such things, but the story ends up the same, more or less. You don't end up saving all that much money.

However, before I throw this option out I must mention that if you can buy these washers in a local store (no shipping cost) AND you only want a few increments (not the full set) then it may be worth it to simply buy a few 2" washers and use them to microload 1 lb. on to the bar. But if you want the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1 lb. set these washers just become too expensive in my view. Not to mention that if you want your washers the perfect weight you'll have to be able to weigh small increments at home. Since they don't naturally weigh 1/4 and 1/2 lbs. you'll have to trim off (drill holes) to lighten them.

There are other options though. None of them will look as nice as commercial plates or washers. But if you are training from home (not taking them to the gym in a bag) and don't care how they look, you can get the same effect (adding weight to the bar) for much less money.

CHAINS

The second most popular idea with micro-loading is using metal chain. Doing this will require that you have the ability to weigh small amounts (like a kitchen scale). If you lack this ability you'll have to buy a kitchen scale. This then brings up the idea of how accurate this scale is. If you buy an inexpensive one powered by a spring one has to wonder if it's even accurate. If you buy an expensive one you've just destroyed your budget. Saving money is the only reason to make your own fractional plates.

The concept with metal chain is to measure out a length of chain that weighs what you want it, be that 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, or 1 lb. If the chain is a small link you may be able to make it long enough to completely wrap around the bar. If not, you'll have to complete the loop with string so that you can hang it on the bar. You'll also have to put some kind of tag on it to mark what weight it is. This will no doubt be much cheaper than $50. But it doesn't look as good. You'll have to be able to cut links off the chain. A pile of chain is not as neat as a stack of plates. You have to be able to precisely weigh small amounts.

ENDLESS COLLARS

A third popular idea is to stack collars onto the bar. I'm not a big fan of this idea. Sure, in a pinch it would work but stacking many collars onto your barbell isn't practical.

If you go to a commercial gym, where you have an abundance of free collars to use then I won't criticize. But if you lift from home, obtaining that many collars would not be cost effective, nor is it neat and easy to load up the right amount.

CREATIVE RECYCLING

Since I've done it in the past, I figured I should mention this. The picture to the right shows "screw on" collars which some cheaper standard 1 inch bars use. I had some from my old adjustable dumbbells. I used the dumbbell bars to make my dip station handles. These collars weigh roughly 1/2 lb. each. By looping some twine through them you can make weights that slip over your bar. By putting two collars on one rope you make a 1 lb. weight. I had enough collars to make two 1/2 pounders, and two 1 pounders.

I never use these. I prefer the wooden plates (see below). But these are very compact. If you already have such collars lying around you could convert them to micro-weights that would easily fit in your gym bag (if you go to a commercial gym).

THE PLYWOOD METHOD

You can also make fractional plates out of wood. They won't be nearly as durable as metal, but how often do you use fractional plates? I think you can discipline yourself to treat them gently enough to not break them. We're talking about wood here, not glass. As long as you're not an idiot you should never have durability issues. You'll still need the ability to weigh small amounts to do this project. You'll also need the tools to accurately cut wood, particularly the center hole. This basically means a hand saw (or power saw of your choice) and hole saw. The concept is exactly the same as the Spacer Plates project. The difference is you'll be cutting a smaller plate out of the plywood.

This is my favorite option. It produces a quality plate that looks pretty nice. It's easy to mark the weight on it. It's durable enough as long as you treat it properly. It won't be as small and neat as commercial plates or washers. I certainly wouldn't load them up into a gym back to take with me. But if you train from home, you can make them for dirt cheap. If you have scrap materials you could even make it for free, like I did. It will, however, take the longest out of all the options. You're looking at about half a day when you add in the calculations, measuring, cutting, and painting. If saving time is your goal I think the chain is probably the middle ground between making something and buying commercial plates. Now, I'm going to show you how to make your own set of fractional wooden plates.

Not the prettiest girl at the party (and also not the ugliest), but she gets the job done and is easy to use.

You certainly don't have to use "plywood". Any thin wood material, such as MDF (medium density fiberboard) will also work. I chose plywood because there always seems to be scrap leftover in my garage, thus making the entire project completely free.

The key to this project is math. You can't simply weigh a chunk of plywood and then trim it down until it's 1/4 lb. Well you can but that's the most unsophisticated, sloppy, and time consuming thing I've ever heard of in the history of homemade fractional plates. Let's do it the proper way instead. First we need to know how much our plywood material weighs per square inch. If we know this, then we know exactly how many square inches of material we need to make each plate.

The simple way to determine this is to cut out a 1" by 1" square of plywood and weigh it. This of course requires that you have a scale that can accurately weigh small amounts. If you don't have a small scale that can weigh small amounts then making your own micro-loading plates becomes much harder. You have to find an option where the manufacturer tells you how much the item weighs (such as with the washers) and then you just have to trust them. I have said scale in my kitchen which I bought strictly for culinary reasons, to weigh cuts of meat when I get fussy enough to actually count my calories when bulking.

Once you determine how much 1 square inch of your plywood weighs, we can move on. For what it's worth, I'm using standard 3/8 inch plywood from any major hardware store, like Home Depot or Lowe's and it seems to weigh about 0.011078 lbs. per square inch by my measurements. Yes that's a small number but it adds up quickly. Remember we're trying to make plates that weigh as light as 0.25 lbs. Having this information is vital in determining how much surface area our plates need to be to make weight. Like I said, you'll want to measure this yourself at home. If you simply take my figures, you are trusting to my math (not the worst idea) but you're also trusting that your wood is exactly the same as mine. I certainly don't guarantee anything. All I can do is tell you what I did and what it produced, as told to me by my scale.

Disclaimer out of the way, you've got two options when shaping your plates, circle or square. Square is easier to cut, no doubt, but circular looks more like a weight plate. Circular plates also have to be bigger than their square counterparts of the same weight due to the nature of the shape missing corners. It's also slightly more complex determining the surface area of a circle than a square. A square is simply length times width. But since you have to cut out a circle hole in the center to fit on the bar we have to learn and run these calculations anyway.

The equation for calculating the area of a circle is Pi times the radius squared. Pi being 3.14 for our purposes. The radius being half the diameter. This is high school math but if you don't remember it, don't worry I'll walk you through it.

As I said, the material I'm using weighs roughly 0.011078 lbs. per square inch. So if I want a piece of this plywood to weigh 1/4 lb. (0.25) How many square inches does it have to be? To figure this out we take the desired weight (0.25) and divide it by the weight per square inch. So 0.25 / 0.011078 = 22.567 square inches of material needed.

Regardless of whether you choose to make square plates or round plates, before we can determine the outer size of the shape we need to cut, we have to take into account that there will be a hole in the center of this plate. I recommend that you use a hole saw to cut this. I used a 2 1/8" hole saw designed for cutting the hole for a doorknob. Using the area of a circle equation (3.14 x radius squared) we can deduce that such a hole has an area of 3.545 inches. We have to add this to our desired surface area of 22.567. This gives us a total area of 26.112. We need to measure and cut a plate with this surface area, so that when we drill out the center hole it will then be 22.567 square inches, which weighs 1/4 lb.

SQUARE PLATES

Though they don't look as official as round plates they are far easier to calculate, mark, and cut. It is for this reason that I chose to make square plates. All you have to do is calculate the square root of your desired area (26.112 in my case). This would be 5.11 inches. This means if you cut a peice of wood that is 5.11 inches by 5.11inches (a square) you'll end up with something that weighs 1/4 lb. after you cut the 2 1/8 inch hole out of the center.

For the heavier plates you take your base area measurement (22.567). Since we know this amount weighs 1/4 lb. we multiply it by 2 for 1/2 lb., 3 for 3/4 lb., and 4 for 1 lb. You then add 3.545 to this figure (to account for the center hole), and take the square root of that. So for a 1/2 lb. plate it would be 22.567 x 2 = 45.134. Then 45.134 + 3.545 = 48.679. The square root of that is 6.977. Round that to the nearest sixteenth of an inch and you get a measurement of 7 inches. This is both the outer width and length of your square for your 1/2 lb. plate.

Repeat the procedure for the rest of the plates. For me the 1/4 lb. plate has sides of 5 and 1/8 inches. A 1/2 lb. plate has sides of 7 inches. A 3/4 lb. plate has sides of 8 and 7/16 inches. And a 1 lb. plate has sides of 9 and 11/16 inches. It's worth noting that even the largest 1 lb. plate, measured on a diagonal from corner to corner, is a bit less than inches long. This is smaller than the diameter of a standard iron 45 lb. plate. So if you did need to micro-load a pull from the floor, for some reason, the fact that there are square will not interfere.

Now the easy part. All you have to do is measure your squares on your plywood, mark it, and cut it. Use any saw that you please. To ensure precision and no chipping I used a simple wood hand saw. A hole saw is the best way to cut out the perfect center hole.

CIRCLES, HARDER AND PRETTIER

There is no functional reason for your plates to be circular. But if you just have to have circles then you have a bit more calculations to do. You have to plug your desired area into the Pi x R squared equation. We've already calculated that 22.567 square inches of the material I'm using weighs 1/4 lb. This is number we start with.

The area of a circle = Pi x R squared. So 22.567 = 3.14 x R squared. Now we need to isolate the unknown variable. In this case it's the radius "R". Isolate means to get it on one side of the equal sign "=" all by itself. So the first thing we're going to do is divide by 3.14. Whatever you do to one side of the equal sign you have to do to the other. So 22.567 divided by 3.14 is 7.187. "3.14 x R squared" divided by 3.14 is "R squared". Now our equation looks like this "7.2338 = R squared".

To cancel out the "squared" part of the equation we use the square root function on our calculators. Now we see that "R = the square root of 7.187" or" R = 2.681". That gives us the radius of the circle we need to cut. Multiply it by two to get the diameter. 5.362 inches is effectively the size of the circle we need to cut in this plywood to make a plate that weighs 1/4 lb.

To calculate the size needed for 1/2, 3/4, and 1 lb. plates we repeat the procedure. Starting with our figure of 22.567 square inches (which weighs 1/4 lb). We simple multiply it by two for 1/2 lb, by 3 for 3/4 lb, and by 4 for 1 lb. For each plate we then add 3.545 to the figures we get (to account for the hole we're going to put in the center). Then we repeat the Pi x R squared calculations in the above paragraph.

Using these calculations I find out that, rounded to the nearest sixteenth of an inch, to make a round 1/4 lb. plate I need to cut a circle with the diameter of 5 and 6/16 inches. And as shown above I could figure out what size circle I need for each of the other weights. Of course I won't be making these because I chose to take the easy route and made square plates instead.

Now the challenge is to draw your perfect circle and then cut it out as perfect as possible. If you don't have a compass or circle tracing tool this becomes much harder. Tying a string to a pencil is a technique that would work if you aren't trying to be dead on balls accurate, which we ideally are. We know we'll be off somewhere during the process but we want to do our best to minimize it. It is this reason why I just pussed out and decided to make square plates for myself. Easy to mark, and easier to cut; because it's all just straight lines. If you want circles, you'll have to find a way to mark them as perfect as possible.

After you mark them, use whatever saw you choose to cut them out. It will either need to be a jigsaw, a Rotozip style saw, or a coping saw. If you use a coping saw you'll have to rough out the shape with a normal hand saw first. Just like we did in our Spacer Plate project. Using a hole saw is the best and easiest way to cut the center hole perfectly.

FINISHING TOUCHES

If you do have a scale sensitive enough to weigh your new plates, do so now to ensure they are close enough to your liking. If they are significantly off, then something within the system has malfunctioned. Hopefully they are too heavy so that you can remedy it by sanding down the edges.

Now we need to mark them so we know how much they weigh. You could simply use a marker, pen, or paintbrush to write the weight on them. That's certainly the fastest. If you want it to look fancy, print out the weights from your computer. Use an X-acto Knife to cut out the numbers. Now you have a stencil that you can give a quick spray paint over your plates. If you have it, using a glue stick on the back of your stencil will ensure that it stays stuck to the wood and completely flat. The paint won't get anywhere it shouldn't if you do this. If you don't do this, the stencil is likely going to be blurry. I did not use a glue stick in this project because I didn't have one and you can see that my marks are indeed blurry as a result. I have done stencil work on guitars that I've made using the glue stick technique and it comes out very nicely. But as long as you can make out the lbs. who really cares, right?

If you want to take it one step further. Give your plates a single light coat of lacquer or other clear based finished. As long as you don't go crazy the paint / lacquer shouldn't add any significant weight to the plates.

As I said, if you wait until you have scraps to use for this project it can end up being free. Yes, it does take time, longer than any other micro-loading options, but it's by far the cheapest. If you're bored and have the scrap materials to make this for free, and a scale to make sure you're weights are right, then it can be a fun project. But I like math so my definition of it being fun may not apply to you. If you simply can't be arsed to do any of this then buying your fractional plates is not a bad choice. All cheaper DIY options will require you to have the ability to weigh your finished product.

- Carl

Saw Horse Safety Stands

2011-04-28T05:16:00.001-07:00

You don't always have to make everything from scratch. By combining DIY with store bought products you can make custom items in nearly no time. Today, I'll show you how to use saw horses to effectively turn your Squat Stands into a power rack. For about $50 you not only add many lifts to your home gym repertoire, you also make everything completely safe, with no need for a spotter.

Cost: approx. $50
Project Time: Shopping Time + a few minutes (if you make additions.)
Difficulty: You have to be able to get to a store and purchase items. To make the "additions" you need to be able to cut wood. (2x4s and the like).

Tools Needed:

Drill (only for "additions")
Saw (only for "additions")

Materials Needed:

Saw horses
Various wooden studs (2x4, 1x4, 4x4) - optional

Give your squat stands the functionality of a power rack.

The bulk of this project is as simple as it gets. We're going to use store bought saw horses. You certainly could make saw horses if you prefer. I opted to simply buy them for several reasons which you'll gather as you read the project.

The saw horses that I chose are pretty standard and available at most hardware stores. I went with metal ones that fold up. The fact that they fold us is one selling point. They are extremely portable. The particular ones I bought are "Task Force" brand. They are yellow, in case you're color blind and can't tell from the picture. But then if you are color blind I don't know why telling you they are yellow would help you in any way.

These are rated for 1200 lbs. each. Since there is no danger of me ever squatting or bench pressing anywhere near this, I think they will do the job just fine. I have been using them for six months now with no issues whatsoever. Logic would assume that the rating of 1200 lbs. is for their fully collapsed position. They are adjustable and you can make them much taller. I don't ever do this. I keep them in their lowest position.

Also worth noting is that their 1200 lb. rating is going to be a static load figure. Dropping a loaded barbell obviously makes the force it will impart much greater than the sum of the plates on the bar. But there is no reason to ever drop your bar, especially not from anything more than an inch or so; unless of course you pass out, but if that happens you're clearly doing it wrong.

This lowest position of these saw horses works perfectly for Bench Press for me at the current moment. Obviously that will vary from person to person. When I press with my chest puffed up from a big breath of air and back slightly arched, the saw horses are not in the way at all. When I relax and exhale, the saw horses are then tall enough to take the bar off my hands so I can breathe and roll it down to get out from under it. I suck at Bench Press so I can't imagine lifting alone without these. I have failed reps too many times to count. Having safety stands are crucial when training alone.

For squats, the saw horses alone are not quite tall enough for me. To remedy this, I cut a 2 x 4 the length of the top of the saw horse. With the 2x4 making the stands higher they are the perfect height for me. If I were to go "ass to grass" on my squat the stands will take the bar off my back. I squat to just below parallel normally. So when I do this, the stands do not interferre. But if I fail a rep I can simply sit back down ATG to put the bar onto the stands. This I have also done many times.

A simple allen wrench makes a great securing pin for any height additions you add.

Of course, simply putting wood on top of the saw horses might not be so stable. This is another big selling point of the saw horses I bought. They have pre-drilled holes on each end. I mimicked this on my 2x4s so they also have two holes in them, one on each end. Now you could put a bolt and nut through these and bolt them down, but then it would take some time to switch between my preffered squat setup and my bench press setup (which doesn't use any wood on the saw horse.) So instead I simply used allen wrenches. I can use these like a "pin" that will hold the wood attachments in place when lifting. But they can quickly be slid up and out when I need to make a change.

By putting the saw horses up against the squat/bench stands as shown below, you effectively turn your squat stands into a power rack. Now you can lift alone in complete safety and not worry about failing or holding back or not training to failure. Even the psychological benefit alone is huge. Knowing that you're safe and that you can fail safely will allow you to push beyond your comfort zone and go for that last rep or two, even if you might not make them.

Some guys bench alone with no spotter and no safety stands. My brain cannot compute the reason why.

You can use all kinds of various wooden blocks to increase the height of your saw horses. 1 x 4 , 2 x 4, or 4 x 4. The reason why I do this and add these "accessories" rather than simply adjusting the saw horses higher is because it can take quite a bit of time to adjust the horses up. Wooden saw horses don't adjust at all, but are strong. Plastic ones do adjust, but I wouldn't use plastic for this purpose. Metal ones also usually adjust and they're strong but adjusting them typically means taking out several bolts. Taking off a block of wood, secured by an allen wrench "pin" takes less than a second.

You could also use these to emulate things that normally require a power rack, such as "Rack Pulls" and Shrugs. And as you'll see in a future project, I've even made Dip attachments for these so I can do dips without needing a dedicated or wall mounted stand alone dip station. Should the mood strike you, you could also put a barbell over these stands and get under it and do things such as Inverted Rows.

These particular saw horses were $20 each, $40 for the pair. A few more bucks for the allen wrenches and 2 x 4s if you need them, gives us a total of around $50 after tax. Add this to the $50 Squat/Bench Stands and now you've made the equivalent of a Power Rack for $100. The cheapest new power rack I've seen ends up being over $300 when all is said and done. You can get them much cheaper used IF you can find them, which can be a big "if" depending on where you live.

By simply adding a few sawhorses you can take your 5 gallon bucket squat stands to the next level. You can Squat, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Front Squat, Shrug, Rack Pull, Inverted Row, and much more. All safely by yourself. Just like you had a power rack. But you can also fold it all up and push it into a corner or closet if you need the space. And many prefer the squat stands over a power rack because of the feeling of openness and freedom, though this is largely psychological as most power racks have plenty of room to do your lift.

-Carl

More than just squat stands

2011-04-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

Though these stands have been posted online before, I aim to improve upon existing internet plans to combine the squat stand and the bench press. It's more like a portable power rack at this point. Whatever it is, it's only about $50 and is strong enough to support a quarter ton, or even more.

Cost: approx. $50
Project Time: 1 day (plus drying time)
Difficulty: You have to be able to cut 2x4s, drill into 2x4s, put glue on 2x4s, drive screws into 2x4s, and mix and pour cement into a bucket containing the bottom of said 2x4s. If you can handle that, then you're good to go.

Tools Needed:

Drill
Saw (any kind that can cut a 2x4, your choice)
Sander (either electric or get a rubber sanding block to use by hand)
Trowel or small shovel of some kind to mix cement
Container in which to mix said cement

Materials Needed (short list):

2x4 studs (you'll need about nine)
Box of 2 1/2 inch deck screws (I like T25 star bit)
5 gallon buckets (two of them)
120 lbs. of ready to use cement (Quikrete)
Wood Glue
Metal Backing Plates (more info in elaborate list below)
Twine (or some form of pliable strong rope/thread)
Sticky Foam / Duct Tape (optional)
Paint / Stain (optional)

Materials Needed (elaborate list):

2 x 4 studs (8 ft. long each) - I needed nine for my build. It may vary depending on what you're doing with your second tier.

Box of 2.5 inch deck screws - I prefer to use deck screws with a star bit head (T-25). They won't slip around like Phillips head screws can. If you don't have a T-25 bit, pick one up at the store for about $1 when you get your screws.

5 gallon buckets - You need two of these for this project.

120 lbs. (dry) of ready to use cement mix (Quikrete) - My estimate is that you'll need about 120 lbs. of this stuff. They sell it in 40 lbs. bags and 80 lb. bags. I got two 80 lb bags and have a little more than half a bag leftover. Three 40 lb. bags should do if you don't want to have leftovers.

Metal Plates - click here to see a picture. There are a few options with this part of the project. I'm simply going to instruct you on the easiest way that requires the least amount of special tools or effort. You'll need 4 of the larger plates (approx 3" x 7") and 4 small plates (1" x 3"). You can find these near the lumbar with the rest of the decking/framing braces. I also show you a fancy upgraded version, for which you'll need 10 of the large plates. Scroll way down to see and decide which you like better.

Twine - In order to "stake" down our stands while the cement dries to keep it level. Just like when leveling posts for a deck or mailbox. It's doesn't have to be twine as long as it's pliable enough to tie down your stands and strong enough to not stretch so that the stand stays level.

Sticky foam - Like the kind you'll find in the craft section at Walmart. This is optional, and you could use duct tape as well. The purpose of this would be to avoid metal on metal contact with the bar and the backing plates. But then again most guys like metal on metal contact and the sound it makes is good because it lets you know you've hit the rack and can lower the bar. I used foam only on the small metal plates but not the large ones.

Paint / Stain - Completely optional as it's purely for aesthetics. If you plan on painting the bucket make sure you use a paint designed specifically for plastic use. Krylon Fusion is a common choice for plastics. However, Vinyl Dye, which can be found at auto parts stores (like Auto Zone), actually soaks into plastics so it won't chip off. It smells absolutely horrible and does so for many many days, so I'd probably avoid it for this project. The better solution would be to simply buy buckets that are already a solid pleasing color, like black. Or, like I did, you could just not give a shit what the bucket looks like.

Wood Glue - You may be able to argue this one as optional but it certainly doesn't hurt. Better to make things as strong as possible, especially when they are going to be load bearing. Even if it's just for psychological comfort.

The top tier is for normal humans to Squat. Also useful if Mr. Fantastic wants to Floor Press.

This is the centerpiece of your home gym. As far as I'm concerned, if you're not squatting then you better be missing a leg or recovering from surgery. There are a few different alternatives you can use in lieu of a rack or stands, such as the Steinborn lift, cleaning the weight into place, or using chairs or furniture as stands, but these are all temporary and will start to limit you on the lift when you're ready for the weight to increase, which won't take long, even if you've never lifted before. But while their name suggests their use for squats, you can use these for much more, including overhead pressing and in the case of this build, the bench press.

I did not create the idea for these "5 gallon bucket squat stands". Two people, at least, before me posted these online. However, like most projects online, they usually don't have great instructions to go off of. That's all fine and dandy for a guy like me, who has been doing this kind of stuff for 15 years. But the average person, as I've been told, will often shrug these projects off, feeling that they don't have the knowledge or skill to do it. I hope my tireless explanations of each project will help people get over that concern. If you're an adult human, you possess the motor skills to do all of this stuff. This article, will hopefully give you the knowledge you need to feel confident enough to try it.

Bottom tier is for bench press. You could also build it higher to be a second squat stand for the shawties.

The design I made has many additions or refinements or improvements to the basic design of these stands. My design, as featured in this article functions as both squat stands and a rack for the bench press. You just have to add a bench. I will be showing you the stands (including the second bench press tier - which could be raised to make a double squat stand if you want) in this project. To see how to make the bench go to the Strongest Bench You'll Never Buy project.

PLANNING THE FIRST TIER (SQUATS)

First thing you need to do with any project is measure, so you'll also need a tape measure and a pencil. That kind of goes without saying in any building project. In the case of these squat stands they're not adjustable so you need to know the correct height for yourself, or whoever is going to be the one using them. It's always better for the bar to sit too low than too high. If it's a little too low, even a lot too low, You can still bend your knees to get under it. If it's too high, at best you'd have to unrack it on your tippy toes. At worst you can't use the rack at all. Unracking on your toes is a bad idea when you've got several hundred lbs. on your back. Measure it correctly, and if you're not sure, err on the side of making it shorter. If you're making a "double squat stand" that has multiple tiers for two different people of drastically different heights, start with the taller person first. If you're using the second tier for bench press, start with the squat rack first. If you're just doing a single person squat rack, then you'll just skip the part when we make the second tier altogether.

The first critical board we need to measure is the one on which the bar rests, Board B (see diagram #1). That's right, we're starting with B, because the length of all the others will be relative to this one. What I've found is that a good height for low bar squats is for the bar to be nicely nestled in your arm pit if you were to stand barefoot next to the bar on the completed rack and put your arm over it (see picture below). A bar is roughly 28 mm in diameter, which is 1.1 inches. So the measurement you want to take is from the floor to the top of your armpit when you're standing straight up. This is for low bar back squats. High bar or front squats or standing presses has the bar sitting even higher on your body so no worries there. This measurement lets you do all these things with ease. Since low bar is the lowest position you will be doing, we measure ideally for that because if that works, everything else will too.

Impaled by a barbell, or just putting my arm over it? I'll let you decide.

So, measure from floor to armpit when barefoot and subtract one inch from this (to account for the bar). You can make this measurement in shoes if you wish, but remember shoes make you taller. Err on the side of making it shorter. You may opt to lift barefoot sometime so I like to measure without shoes. If you do this, then when you do wear shoes it will just mean you'll have to bend your knees an unnoticeable tad more to unrack the bar, no big deal. Since it's not adjustable better to have it be ideal for the shortest scenario, low bar back squatting barefoot. Floor to armpit minus one inch. This is the length of your first board (board B).

The next two boards are easier. Board A is the back riser of your stands. It's the tallest board that you're going to rack the bar into. If you want to ensure perfection then stand up straight and measure from floor to the middle of your neck, while wearing your lifting shoes. This is going to be the highest point you're ever going to have a bar on you either from overhead presses or high bar squats or front squats. Take this measurement (from floor to the middle of your neck) and add about 5 inches to it to ensure that the back riser is significantly higher than the bar on any lift you may be using this rack for, whether that's front squats, overhead press, or high bar back squats. This ensures you'll be able to easily rack the bar by walking it into the risers and then down. You won't have to guess if you're over the "hooks" or not. If you get a little crazy with this and make it way too tall, no problem, you can always trim it down at any time in the future. Better too long than too short on this one.

For Board C, which is the "hook" or catch part of the stand, you don't want these to be too tall. If they are you'll hit them on your way in and out of the rack. They have to be low enough so that you can clear them on a barefoot low bar back squat, which would be the lowest point the bar will be on any of the lifts you'll use this for. You're going to want these to be at least 1 inch taller than Board B, but you don't need it to be much taller than that. I'd say 2 inches taller than Board B at the most and even that is excessive. But remember, you can always trim them down after the entire rack is complete, if you notice that they're too tall. But as long as they're 1 inch taller than board B the bar isn't going anywhere. Remember the bar itself is only about 1 inch "tall". There's no consequence to them being taller as long as you easily clear them when racking and unracking your squats.

If you just want a single squat stand, and not a double squat stand for two people of different heights or the dynamic duo squat and bench press stand, then you're ready to start cutting, Make two of each board (A, B, and C) so that you'll have a pair of stands. One won't do you any good. Since you're only making the single squat stand you can skip down to the section called "Putting it Together."

PLANNING THE SECOND TIER (BENCH OR 2nd SQUATS)

If you want to add a second squat tier for another person who is significantly shorter than you, and thus can't use the same rack as you, just repeat the process for their "board B and C". The shorter tier's back riser is the taller tier's board C, which you've already measured. See the diagram and this should make sense. If your second person is taller than you and needs a higher rack tier, you weren't paying attention. You were supposed to start with the tallest person, remember?

Now, if you wanna be cool like me, you can use the second tier of the rack for bench press instead. This is a great way to save space. Both squats and bench press are major lifts you want to do. They're part of the big three (squat, deadlift, bench press). Might as well have these racks pull double duty. This will take your "squat stands" one step closer to full power rack function. In fact, when you add the DIY safety stands (we'll talk later) you'll have something that functions exactly like a power rack. If you just make these squat stands, how are you going to bench? Most people don't have a ton of space, and you probably work out alone so I think this is the most efficient design. It means you don't need space for a separate dedicated Bench Press station.

The back riser for the bench tier is already done, it's board C of your squat rack. So we just have to measure the board that the bar will rest on top of (board D) and the front catch for it (board E).

First is Board D. I'll be honest, I'm no Bench Press expert. In fact, I suck at it. Even so, I do know the mechanics involved and therefore what measurements we need to make a workable bench rack. Standard benches are 17 inches in height. As will everything in this project, making these too short, is better than too long. If it's too long you won't be able to unrack it. Too short would just mean you have to bend your elbows a fraction more when unracking.

If you already have a weight bench you can make the measurement by laying down on it and doing your best to get into position (shoulders back and tight, etc.) just like you were about to bench. Extend your arms as if you were at lockout position and act as though you are taking a wider grip (hands farther apart). A wider grip makes your arm makes the bar height at lockout lower since your arms are angled outwards and not straight up. We plan and measure for the "worst case" scenario. You don't want Board D to be too high. If it's a little "too low" it's no big deal. Too high can make it unusable. So measure when simulating a wide grip to ensure if you did want to use a wide grip, there will be no problems racking the bar.

Have a friend measure from floor to your palm, where the bar will sit. This measurement is the highest point where the bar will be. You won't be able to raise it any higher without sacrificing form, so your catch (Board E) has to be less than this measurement (more on that later). So take this measurement (floor to palm when in position on the bench) and subtract about 3 inches. This is the length of your Board D.

If you don't have your bench then repeat the same procedure as above but do so while laying on the floor. Since a standard bench is 17 inches in height, just add 17 inches to your floor measurement. So if you're laying on the floor measure from floor to palm and add 17 inches. Then subtract 3 inches and that's the length you need for Board D.

If you don't have a friend to help you measure than you can make the measurement yourself by holding a pencil in one hand, as if it's a tiny barbell, point facing out (away from your face). Take your position, either on the bench or floor, but do so with your body right next to and parallel to a wall. This way your pencil head will be right against the wall. You can get into position and simply make a mark on the wall. Then measure from floor to this mark (add 17 inches if you are laying on the floor and not a bench) and then subtract 3 inches from this. That will be the length of Board D.

Now for the last board (board E). This is the catch to prevent the bar from falling off the front of the bench press rack. The height of this bar ideally needs to be as short as possible. Proper bench press technique requires you to tuck your shoulders back together and into the bench. As such, your arm's reach becomes effectively shorter and you somewhat "pull the bar forward more than going straight up for several inches to clear the front catch. If the catch for your rack is too high you'll need to roll your shoulders up to allow your arms to get the bar high enough to clear it. This puts you in the wrong position to press. Notice how short my Board E is (pictured left); It doesn't even cover the entire height of the bar.

There's no reason to sacrifice technique to accommodate an incorrectly built rack. Building the rack yourself means you can make any piece any length you want it. You obviously need enough height on the catch to prevent the bar from rolling forward, but you don't want much more than that. I'd say at most make board E 1 inch longer (taller) than board D. But like I said with the squat boards, you can always trim these down at any time in the future (that's what I did) so don't freak out about it. If it's too tall and you're hitting it upon racking and unracking your bench with proper form, then trim them down. But one inch taller than board D is a good standard because the bar itself is about 1 inch tall so that's enough to keep it where you want it. There's really no need to go higher than this. It's no more effective and it is just going to get in the way.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Okay, so everything is measured. If it's not cut then do so now. I'll wait. A miter saw is probably the fastest and most accurate way to easily cut 2x4s like this. But even a hand saw will suffice. We're going to build this thing like a sandwich. For condiments we're using wood glue, and instead of toothpicks we'll use deck screws. First thing to do is dry fit it all. Lay board A on the ground first. On top of that put board B, then C, then D and E if applicable to your project. Sure up the bottom ends so they're all in line. This is what the final block of wood is going to look like.

Next we want to mark where we're going to put the screws in. To do this we'll mark on the sides. We're going to screw boards together by twos. That is to say any given screw is going to go through two boards. To do more than that we'd be in the realm of using bolts, and to do that would require we have a big ass drill bit to go through 5 boards. (okay, that's not completely true, technically speaking.) But bolts that long are more costly. If you know how to do it and want to thread bolts all the way through your 2x4 sandwich, feel free to do so. But I like to use screws. This means we have to screw the boards together one by one. That means a lot of screws, so we have to make sure they don't interfere with each other.

The way we're going to plan that is shown in Diagram #2 (above). Position the boards on the ground so that Board A is on the bottom and they are stacked as shown. Mark across the side of board B and board A. As shown in the pic, this mark will cover the bottom half of board B and the top half of board A. Now move about an inch to the left. This time mark across board C and B in the same fashion, this one covering the bottom half of board C and the top half of board B. Move another inch or so to the left and mark across D and C, then move left again and mark E and D. If you're not doing a two tier design you obviously omit the steps for boards D and E. Then just repeat the whole process all the way down the board. As you get to the end don't worry too much about things being perfect. Remember the bottom foot of this thing will be in cement. Just get enough screws in there to hold it together.

Notice that there is a space of one board between marks (screws) along the same plane of height. As shown below, you will put screws directly above / below others but there will be an entire board in between in which neither screw is driven into. Think of it like stairs. Mark a line, move over and up and mark another. Repeat until you're out of boards. Then drop all the way down to the bottom boards (A and B) and mark your next set of "stairs". The first "stair" and the final "stair" in a sequence will be directly over/under each other. In other words, your mark covering Board E and D and your mark covering B and A will be directly in line. If you're not doing a two tier system then you don't have boards D and E. In which case none of your screws will be directly over each other.

If I've confused the hell out of you then just remember it's not brain surgery. We're putting screws into wood. All we need to do is hold it together and make sure the screws don't bump into each other. Whether you do it exactly as I've laid out or not it doesn't matter. Just get enough fasteners into the wood to make it solid and stable.

Now you take the boards off one another and keep them facing the same side up as they were. Go ahead and put a mark on the top so you know which side is up. We're going to pre drill holes rather than just drive the screws in. This will ensure that we don't split the wood. Find a drill bit that is smaller than the width of your screws. If you drill the holes too big the screws won't have enough wood to screw into. So pick a drill bit that you can clearly tell is smaller than your screw width (the shaft, not the head).

Take Board B and put it on top of Board A. Make sure the bottoms are lined up. You're going to drill through them both so make sure it's all square since this is going to be how they're screwed together. Look at your marks on the side of Board B. You'll have two types of markings. One that covers the top half of the side of board but not the lower half, and those that cover the lower half but not the upper half. The ones that cover the lower half will also extend onto the top half of board A. These are the marks that you're going to drill. Confused? See Diagram #4 below. Leave the other marks alone for now.

I recommend putting two holes on the face of each board, in line with each of these marks (see picture). Now your drill bit may not be long enough to go far enough into the bottom board, in this case board A. That's fine. Just make sure as you load it into your drill you keep it long enough to get a little bit into the bottom board.

Drill straight down through board B completely. You'll end up going into Board A a little bit. Repeat this procedure, putting two holes for each mark on the board. Then you'll have to take board B off of board A. There will be shallow holes through this board. All you have to do is deepen them. To know exactly how deep, put a screw against the side of two of the boards. Notice how far it goes into the bottom board. This is roughly how deep you want to drill the holes in that board. It doesn't have to be exact but that gives you an idea.

After you have all the holes drilled to connect B and A get your wood glue. We have to assemble this like a sandwich one board at at time. Slather board A with glue, then put board B on top of it. Line up the edges. Now start driving your screws through the pre-drilled holes. Everything should line up perfectly and they'll go in with ease. Drive the screws in until the heads are forced into the wood slightly. This is called counter sinking and decking screws like this will do it naturally in softer wood like 2x4 studs. Just counter sink them a bit so that the heads are not sticking out of the wood. Don't sink them too far in. We just need the board flat so it rests against the next board nicely.

You should also have a towel or something to wipe up the glue as it will get squeezed out between the boards like too much mayonnaise on a turkey sandwich. Now Boards A and B are completely secured. You're going repeat the entire process with the next board. So put board C on top of board B, line everything up. Then drill through board C according to your marks, just as you did before. Take board C off, deepen the holes on board B. Slather B with glue, put C back on and screw it down. Repeat again and again for D and E. Now you've got the wood all secured together. Repeat the entire process for the other stand. Let them dry for a few hours. If you're too impatient, it won't be the end of the world if you continue on immediately.

EXIT WOOD, ENTER STONE

Once ready, it's time to mix the cement. Follow the directions on the bag. It's not rocket science. You're mixing the powder in the bags with water until it's the proper consistency, again read the label. Because you're not mixing a lot you can use a hand shovel / trowel to mix it. It may even be better to have a smaller tool to do so but I'm sure a large shovel would work just fine too. I'd recommend you put something down over the area you're going to be mixing and pouring; An old sheet or plastic drop cloth is fine. Put your 5 gallon buckets and mixing container on the sheet. I'm assuming you're doing this on a surface like your garage.

Stand your wooden posts up in the buckets and center them. Now start shoveling your cement into the buckets. Fill the buckets up. Leave an inch or two at the top. Like I said, this is going to take about 120 lbs. of dry mix, maybe a little less. The wood studs sit directly on the bottom of the bucket which sits on the ground. Since gravity pulls straight down, the force it transmitted from the barbell through the wood, to the ground. The main job of the cement is to hold the studs upright and make them bottom heavy so they won't tip. In other words, the cement isn't actually load bearing, its function is in stabilization.

The way you'd typically brace a post in cement like this would be to put stakes in the ground and tie ropes to the post on each of the four sides ensuring that it cannot move. But to do that here you'd have to find a pretty flat level spot to put the bucket in your yard.

If you have enough heavy weights or other heavy objects you could do the same in your garage. But rather than using stakes in the ground, tie the rope to the weight plates instead. Tie a heavy plate to each side of the stand, (4 sides 4 plates) pull them tight and adjust them until the stand is level both front to back, and side to side.

After you get them level, just let the cement dry for a few days. Resist the urge to use them as soon as you think you can get away with it. Let it sit for 48 hours. Now that the cement is dry the stands are usable. However there are a few more alterations we can make to improve the function of our stands.

ROUND > SQUARE

First is to round the inside edges of the bar catches, that is the stud that sits in front of the bar to prevent it rolling forward (Boards C and E). You don't have to do this but it does open up a little more room when lowering the bar back onto the rack. It also encourages the bar to roll into the rack if you happened to put it down on the front wood catch. There's plenty of room to rack and unrack the bar and I've yet to have any trouble but nevertheless there's no reason not to do this, is there? To get the curve you could use a router but really all you have to do is cut the corner straight off. Any kind of hand saw will do.

Of course this will not leave you with a rounded edge. To remedy that use a sander with a heavier grit paper. You can do this by hand as well if you have a rubber block. You may have to do it by hand unless you have an electric sander small enough to get in there. Just work the edges until it's rounded nicely to your liking.

Rounding the tops of your front catch pieces functions better and looks prettier.

Since we've got the sand paper out, might as well clean up all the edges to take off any sharp corners and splinters. It doesn't have to be a perfect finish job, unless you want it to be. Just make it safe by eliminating any rough edges.

Now is the best time to pretty it up and paint it if you choose. Any kind of paint will do. If you're buying paint specifically for this don't get too much. A quart is typically the smallest size in which you can really get paint, and even that will be more than you need even if you give it several coats. If you plan to stain it then a small pint can should be enough. If you did paint it, let it dry fully. If you stained it, it will be dry enough to continue in much less time since stain soaks into the wood you can continue even when it's not completely cured.

HEAVY METAL

The next alteration is to put metal plates where the bar is going to contact the wood. If you don't do this the bar will eventually wear away at the wood. I'm not saying it will get so bad as to compromise the integrity of your stand but with a simple metal plate you can remove the issue entirely. There are many ways to accomplish the task. Most involve cutting and/or bending metal. It's not such a big deal but when choosing which to include in this article I opted to keep things simple.

If you choose the simple version (left) put the plate all the way down, unlike shown in the picture.

The simple version is to merely take the store bought metal plates, put them against the wood (Boards A and C) and slide it all the way down so that its bottom edge is in the corner between back riser and where the bar sits on top of Boards B and D. If you leave a space of open wood below the metal plate (like shown in the picture), the bar will eventually wear away at it. Then either put in small screws or nails through the holes in the metal plate to secure it. One in each corner is enough

If you choose the fancier version, as shown above (right), you have some work to do. You have to bend your big metal pieces into three sided brackets as shown in the picture to the right. You can accomplish this by measuring your plate against a 2x4. By bracing it against a block of wood (2x4) you can start to bend it mostly by hand. But you'll have to use either Vice Grips, a hammer, or both to really finish it off and get a sharp 90 degree bend.

For the squat risers, the sides of these brackets will be too long and hang off the 2x4. It would not be a big deal but the corners of these things are not exactly made of cotton balls. To ensure you don't scrape yourself on them, use your hammer to bend them around the back of your risers. This eliminates the need to cut the brackets to perfect size, which can be a time consuming event. You don't have to worry about this for the second tier, for obvious reasons.

The picture to the left isn't an exact step by step process but gives you an idea of the technique involved. With these " [ " shaped brackets you can stack them one above the other to cover the entire height of your back risers. You can now also fasten them with screws from the side. The benefit of this is that the screws are not ever going to touch the bar and potentially scratch it. This is the version I use on my stands at home.

Another way to accomplish this is to use metal "flashing" This is thinner metal that you can cut with tin snips or even garden sheers. Bending it is also easier. You'll still use the block of wood technique where you use the wood as your shape and your hands and hammer to shape it to the block. With flashing you'll be able to use a single piece to span the entire height of your riser. And you'll be able to drill and screw through the sides to keep your front piece completely clear. I haven't priced flashing so I don't know which of these ways is the cheapest. But I figured that this idea bears mentioning as well. As I said, there are many ways to go about this. You can choose whichever you fancy most. I used the "simple" version for 6 months and saw no issues with it.

Now for the bottom plates. Take your small (1 x 3") metal plates. Put them onto the top of Boards B and D). Drive two screws into them, diagonal from each other, as shown below. Now you can cut out a piece of craft sticky foam and stick it on top of the plate. This design does a few things: First, the metal plate protects the top of the wood so it doesn't get smashed and splintered. The position of the screws acts to help keep the bar centered. The foam protects the bar from metal on metal contact with the screws and it also furthers the centering of the bar as over time the bar creates a groove by smashing down the foam.

With this design the bar will find it's groove and stay in the center of the "hook."

Another option is to use cork instead of foam. Creating a ring of double sided tape via duct tape and sticking it to the back of a piece of cork, also works. This is much thicker and doesn't crush like the foam so you won't get the benefit of the screws or "groove" centering your bar. It does create a softer landing but I prefer the way the bar sits on the foam covered screws.

You could also buy a longer piece of metal (perhaps flashing material) and bend it down the sides and mount it via screws from the side. But like I said, I've grown fond of the way the staggered screws on top of the small plate (pictured above) cause the bar to center itself in the "hook" when it's racked.

CONGRATULATIONS

There you have it, a pair of squat / bench press stands. Each one will weigh in the neighborhood of 80 lbs. You can move these relatively easily, especially after you begin using them to develop your strength. When you're squatting and deadlifit hundreds of lbs. 80 lb. stands are not a big deal. So you can move them out of the way when not in use, if you don't have a dedicated space to keep them out. They are completely bottom heavy and therefore won't tip over or slide when you rack and unrack the bar. The amount of tilt you have to get before these things will fall is enormous. It will never happen by accident and you'd be hard pressed to do it on purpose, if you have a loaded bar on your back.

I have, as of yet, tested these with a load of 450 lbs. They handled it with ease. The compression strength of the materials , given the way gravity will put the force, can handle more than a, literal, ton; a weight that you'll never squat. And if you're ever squatting even near half that, say 1000 lbs. I think you could probably swing to buy a high quality commercial setup; which is not to say that you would have to. Wood is strong. Your house is likely made of it, as is your deck. And a well put together wood product is better than a flimsy cheap metal commercial product. It's a cheap material that's easy to work with and in the right configuration is strong as all hell.

This was a long post. I hope I've covered everything. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer them.

- Carl

Spacer Plates: the quest for mid-shin height

2011-04-25T06:37:00.001-07:00

Learn how to raise any bar to the proper height for pulls off the floor. This project eliminates the need to use the big plates, and thus add 90 lbs. to the bar, to achieve the correct bar height. By saving scraps from other projects, you can make these for absolutely FREE.

Cost: Free to $15 (depending on what materials you have)
Project Time: 30 minutes (depending on what tools you use)
Difficulty: You actually need to be able to work a saw and drill for this one. A step up from our previous projects but nothing that requires much skill.

Tools Needed:

Drill
Saw (jigsaw or hand saw + coping saw)
Hole saw (a drill attachment)

Materials Needed:

Sheet of plywood or MDF (you don't need the full sheet, just large scraps)


No, it's not a perfect circle. Who do I look like, Michelangelo?

Here's an easy one for you today. But before we start I have to make the point that this project is best done with leftover wood that you already have so that it would be free. If you make other projects, such as a weight bench, you will probably have leftover plywood you can use. If you don't do that, just try to keep the cost down, I'll explain why at the end of this article.

Pretty much any lift where you pull from the floor, be it deadlift, barbell rows, power cleans, or the Olympic lifts, requires that the bar be a specific height from the ground; the height that it sits with 45 lb (20 kg) plates on it; which is to say about mid-shin height. This is no issue if you're lifting at least 135 lbs. (61 kgs) since the big plates will put it at the correct height. But what if you aren't lifting that much yet, or what if we're talking about a warm up set that is lighter than 135? To do this right you'll want plates that are the same size as the 45s but that are very light. You can buy these online but they are not common or cheap. You could also buy Olympic bumper plates but they too can be expensive and they're also overkill for this purpose since they are mainly designed not as spacers but as shock absorbing plates for the Olympic lifts.

Or you could keep your money and make them out of wood. Pretty much any flat piece of wood, be it MDF or plywood, will suffice. Construction is simple. You don't even have to do any measuring. Just lay the wood flat and put a 45 lb. plate on it. Trace around the edge, and then the inner circle as well.

Now all you have to do is cut it out. If you have a jigsaw or a rotary saw, such as the Rotozip, that will obviously be the fastest and easiest way to do it. If you don't have these tools, you can do it the old fashion way. A hand saw, one made for wood. The kind that usually has a wooden handle and a "triangular" shaped big blade. Do not use hack saw. A hack saw can't cut through long lengths of wood for obvious reasons - its frame only allows it to cut about 4 inches deep, a little longer if you angle it but it won't work for this task.

However, a hand saw can't really cut curves all that well. The hand saw is to rough cut and assist. So cut the sheet of wood down to a square that barely fits the traced out circle. In other words, like an 18 x 18 inch square. Then chop off the corners to make it look more like a stop sign. Now to actually cut out the circle you're going to need something like a coping saw. This basically looks like a small hack saw with a smaller and more flexible blade. The blade can also be spun around which allows the metal frame to get out of the way as you cut around. Cut around the outer circle and you've got a plywood circle the same size as a big 45 lb plate. But this one only weighs about 2.5 lbs. if you use plywood. Don't worry if it's not a perfect circle, it will still get the job done just fine, and it's not like it's one of those "stop sign" plates at some crappy gyms.

To cut out the hole in the middle, if you have a jigsaw or Roto saw you can simply cut it out with that. In the case of the jigsaw you will need a drill with a big enough bit to make a starter hole to get the jigsaw blade in it. A saw such as a Rotozip can plunge right in, like a drill so no starter hole is needed. If you are using the hand/coping saw technique you're going to need another tool for this.

In any case, the simplest way to cut a perfect 2 inch hole in wood is to use a hole saw. This is not an actual tool itself but rather a bit that attaches to any drill. It is not a wood boring bit, that's something different. A hole saw is basically just a drill bit that has a circular metal cup with saw teeth around the edge.

You want a 2 inch hole (or larger) in the center of your plate. Using a 2 1/8 inch hole saw is perfect for the job. It's also a standard size used for door knobs and door locks. Simply line up the outer edge of the hole saw with your markings and drill until you get all the way through. A hole saw is obviously designed for this task so it's the easiest way to cut out the center hole and you'll get a perfect circle as well. If you're struggling with using a hole saw, here are some tips:

Don't push on it like you're drilling to the center of the Earth. If the bit isn't spinning then you're not cutting. Ease up and get it spinning and you'll wear away at the wood.

Charge your drill. If your drill is battery powered make sure it has enough juice left to get the job done. Cutting holes with hole saws requires more energy than drilling through drywall.

Adjust the torque of your drill. If you have a modern drill, particularly a cordless drill you should see a bunch of numbers around the collar. The higher you set it, the more torque the bit will spin with. You're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. I should say. The higher you set it, the more torque with which your bit will spin. Setting it to the little picture of a drill bit is prudent for this task. The purpose of adjusting torque is so that you can lower it when using the drill as a power screwdriver. Lower torque means it won't continue to try to spin the bit when the screw is fully driven in the wood, thus stopping the risk of stripping the screw head. But we're not driving, we're cutting a hole. If you're hearing a lot of clicking and your bit isn't spinning, raise the torque.

Tilt your drill. If you slightly tilt your drill you end up cutting through one side of the circle while easing up on the other. Cutting through a smaller surface area causes you to cut faster. By rocking your drill side to side you can make shorter work of the task. Note, that I'm talking about very slight movements. This is something you get a feel for.

None of this is necessary if you have a beast of a drill. I have my Grandpa's old corded drill. That thing is a monster. It doesn't accept today's larger bits, which includes hole saws. So I simply filed down my hole saw bit so that it fits in the old drill. I can make short work of such projects because that old tool spins like it was made to take a straight path to China.

Getting on with it, once you cut out your center hole you've got yourself a spacer plate. Obviously you need a pair of these so cut out two plates. Depending on how thick you'd like them or how much you want them to weigh, you could cut out more and glue them together. or you could have just used a thicker piece of wood. For my purposes, I just used a standard piece of plywood (1/4 in.) and kept it single layer. As far as stability goes you're going to want to use you collars when lifting, since they are mainly used for pulling from the floor. Tighten up the collar and even a single thickness setup is solid and steady. No need to make more work for yourself doubling up for no reason. You can make a pair of these plates for only a few bucks or even for free if you have scrap wood.

Now you're at mid-shin height, and you've only added 5 extra lbs.

There are improvements you can make to these such as using thicker wood, bracing the inner hole with washers and coating the outer edge in Plasti Dip (rubber coating). But this is basically futile and here's why. You can go online to stores like rogue fitness and literally buy a pair of 10 lb. bumper plates for $30. If you want state of the art, infinitely durable, shock absorbing plates, just buy them. The purpose of this project is to make nothing more than cheap spacer plates. If you want something fancy you're better off saving the time and buying them because it's no cheaper to make a knock off. Those listed improvements would add about $15 to the cost, which means they are now the same price as bumper plates if you had to by the wood as well.

Like I already said, this project is really lucrative if you have left over wood, in which case the price becomes literally free. Just keep in mind the cost when making any project because it's only worth it to make it yourself if it fits certain criteria over commercial products: It's much cheaper, It functions better, or it's your only option. In this case nothing you make will function better than a commercial bumper plate. And with a price point of $30 you have to keep things very cheap to beat it. That's why I endorse the single layer plywood plate design because as soon as you start getting fancy, especially if you have to buy a $15 sheet of plywood to begin with, your budget goes out the window fast and at some point you just have to say that it's better to buy the damn thing and get a bumper plate instead of just a spacer plate.

-Carl

Foam rolling is for church moms

2011-04-24T16:32:00.001-07:00

The foam roller is the perfect DIY project. Not only can you make it better than commercial options, you can make it for 1/3 of the price. It takes only 20 minutes, if that, and even a child possesses the necessary skills to complete it.

Cost: around $10 to $15
Project time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: If you can't manage this, wait until you start Kindergarten where you'll learn the appropriate skills, such as how to cut tape.

Materials Needed:

PVC pipe (roughly 2 foot length, 4 to 6 inch diameter)
Duct Tape
Pipe Insulation foam
Lacrosse balls (tennis balls are a poor substitute, but a substitute nonetheless)

Tools Needed:

Scissors would help (or a knife)

Foam rollers are not cheap. Most of them wear down over time and lose their stiffness, making them less effective or even useless eventually. And as a bonus we'll get more than just a foam roller out of this project. If you want to spend $30 a piece on something that will eventually wear out, go for it. Or we can make one that will last forever and cost about $10.

The only way to wear this guy out is temperatures exceeding 250 degrees.

The concept of a foam roller is essentially just a cylindrical object that is hard enough to smush your muscles and tissue, to put it crudely. It doesn't even have to be foam at all. The downside of foam is that as you smash into it, it eventually loses it's rigidity over time. The common solution to this is to just use a PVC pipe instead. It will never lose it's rigidity unless you take a heat gun to it and melt it. And even then it will harden back up once it cools, though it would be quite deformed then and useless for rolling

Your local hardware store should have 4 inch diameter PVC pipe already cut into 2 foot lengths. Perfect, you don't even have to cut the pipe at all. They cost around $3 a piece.

Now you can simply use the bare pipe like this but it could present a problem that you may want to spend a few bucks to eliminate. The issue is that the pipe may have a tendency to slide across the floor rather than roll. The pipe is completely smooth and therefore does not grip well. Since your relaxed muscle tissue is squishy the pipe will grip into your body a bit, especially if you are rolling against bare skin, but depending on the floor surface it may not grip into the floor and instead the pipe will just slide across the floor. What we need it to do is roll, and to do this it has to get traction on the floor surface.

To remedy this we put foam on top of it. We don't do this to soften the pipe or make it more comfortable. We just do it to give the pipe some grip so it won't slide. If it won't slide, it has to roll, just like we want it to.

Since you'll be in the plumbing section anyway, look around for "pipe insulation". This is about a 1/4 inch thick foam tubing that you wrap around the outside of pipes. They likely won't have them for 4 inch pipes, but that's okay. Just buy whatever size they have and you can cut it into 2 foot lengths and piece them together around your larger pipe. Make sure you get enough, depending on the length of the foam and the length of your roller. You will probably need 2 or 3 packages of foam (i believe they come in 6 foot lengths).

This type of foam can be sticky backed but I'm not sure if their adhesive is enough to hold it onto your roller pipe by itself. If you try it and it works then okay, but if not, here's what I did. Use duct tape to make double sided tape by wrapping pieces into a circle with sticky side out. I think everyone should know what I'm talking about. Don't they teach you this in 1st grade art class? Stick these pieces of tape all over the the pipe. Cut the foam to the length of your pipe. Then wrap your foam around the pipe. The duct tape will hold it in place. Do this piece by piece until your whole pipe is covered. You may have to cut a smaller section of foam for the final piece. It doesn't matter how pretty it looks, you're not going to see this puzzle of foam anyway.

Once the pipe is completely wrapped in foam, wrap duct tape tightly around the entire thing, sticky side down. This will ensure that the foam won't move or come off.
Why not just use a "pool noodle?" For one, the foam is pretty thick. This would make piecing it around a 4 inch diameter pipe very difficult. We also don't need the foam to be so thick. We want the hardness of the pipe, we just need some foam to give it squish so it grips the floor. I've also heard, "why not just slide a bit of 1 inch diameter pipe into the center of the noodle?" Because then you have a foam roller that's too small in diameter. You want a 4 to 6 inch diameter roller. For general purposes foam rollers should be large like this.

That's it for the foam roller. It's strong. It will never lose it's firmness, and the outside is just squishy enough to grip so that it won't slide. This will produce a roller that is much harder than some of these foam rollers out there, but that's not a bad thing. Like famous powerlifter Jim Wendler says, as he recommends using a PVC pipe instead, "foam rollers are for church moms." At least that's what I think he said, it was kinda hard to understand him.

So, the pipe should be about $3. The duct tape is like $4 for a whole roll, of which you won't use it all, and the foam is about $1 or so per package. Go to the store and look at the yoga foam rollers and you'll pay $25. Well you won't pay anything to look at them, but if you buy them they're about $25 or more. Not only is our DIY design a much better product, it's a third of the cost.

These balls are literally going to be a pain in your ass.

Now on to the balls. It's quite simple, we just want a plain tennis ball or lacrosse ball to work more specific areas like the glutes and bottom of the feet. No modification required. Lacrosse balls are the better choice. Tennis balls are hollow, that is to say they're filled with air and therefore squishier. Lacrosse balls are solid rubber and thus harder; they don't really compress at all. Just keep that in mind when deciding which you want. I personally favor lacrosse balls, especially for things like the bottom of the feet but tennis balls are certainly more common and easier to find. If you can get lacroses balls then do so.

That's it. You can do all your foam rolling and tissue work for a one time fee of about ten bucks.

-Carl

Dislocate your shoulder on the cheap

2011-04-23T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today I'll show you how to make a simple tool that will assist you when performing the mobility exercise known as shoulder dislocations. Better yet, it takes less than ten minutes and costs only a buck. Alternatively, you could use any number of household objects if you have them.

Cost: $1 to $5 (depending on what you already have)
Project Time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: If you're allowed to use scissors you can probably pull this one off.

Tools Needed:

Scissors make life easier
Saw (any kind) - optional because hardware store probably has a saw to use for this

Materials Needed:

PVC Pipe - 4 to 6 feet length of 1/2 inch or 1 inch diameter
Masking, painters, or electrical tape (colored is good here)

Welcome all,

This is the first project I'm posting on Homemade Strength. It's about as easy as it gets and it will show you that I can and will make posts about even the simplest of things elaborate on this blog. Because I'm about to ramble on for many paragraphs about something which ultimately amounts to a piece of pipe with tape on it.

Yeah, it's a pipe with tape on it. So what?

Despite the name, you won't actually be dislocating anything when you perform Shoulder Dislocations. In reality they are a great dynamic stretch to increase your shoulder flexibility which is useful for many things including low bar back squats. A narrow grip is better for this exercise (I means squats) and most people lack the flexibility to take an ideal narrow grip on the bar. A good way to increase your flexibility is with shoulder dislocations. If you don't know what they are, do a youtube search and I'm sure you'll find dozens of video examples. Basically you hold the end of a bar, broomstick, or pipe in each hand and then raise said bar over your head, keeping your arms straight, and then bring the bar behind you touching your ass, arms straight through all of this. Everyone can do this if you take a wide grip on the bar, rope, or stick in question. As you move your hands closer together, that's when it becomes more difficult, and requires more flexibility; precisely what this helps you develop.

There are many things you can use for this exercise; a rope, a broomstick, or any thing that resembles such things, like a jump rope or audio/video cable. I don't recommend a pool cue since it's a two piece design and liable to snap in half ( i know from experience). It's my personal opinion that something solid, like a broomstick, is better than something flimsy, like a jump rope. But if you don't have or don't want to sacrifice a broom for this, the cheapest and easiest solution is PVC pipe.

You can get a 10 foot length of 1/2 inch diameter pipe for less than a dollar at any major hardware store. You don't need 10 feet of course but that's how it's sold. Since PVC has the ability to slightly bend, it won't ever break; unlike a certain pool cue I once knew. In other words, for $1 it will last forever, and actually you could make two for a dollar.

Make sure you measure your vehicle before you go to the store. If you have an SUV you may be able to fit a 10 foot pipe in it. If you have a car, there's nearly no way because your trunk is separate from the car. No worries though, there's two easy solutions. Bring a hand saw with you and leave it in your car. You can cut the pipe in half in the parking lot. Don't worry, cutting 1/2 inch of hollow plastic pipe will take only a few seconds.

If you don't have a saw or don't want to do that then take your pipe over to the section of the hardware store with all the wood baseboard and molding. There is almost always going to be a hand saw rig setup so that you can cut your own molding down since these things are sold in ridiculously long lengths and are charged by the foot. Again it will only take a few seconds to turn your pipe into a matching set. Just tell the cashier that it is one pipe which you had cut into two pieces so you only get charged for one pipe. If you can't even be arsed to do that then ask someone at the store to cut it for you. If you can't even be arsed to do that then how did you even get to this site? You must have had to do a whole bunch of clicking and typing on the keyboard, not to mention pressing a button to turn on the computer. That's way too much work.

In my experience a five foot length of pipe should be enough, but I won't guarantee that for everyone. If you have a pool stick, rope, length of string, broomstick, or garden hose at home, anything that you can use to measure your flexibility, do so before you go to the store. Again, watch a video on youtube if you don't know how to do the exercise. Test out how wide a grip you have to take to do it with your current flexibility. That way, you'll know how long you need to make your pipe (minimum length that is). If you don't have any of those things then just cut your pipe down to 7 feet. This will fit in your car unless you have a stupidly small vehicle. Then at home you can use your newly purchased pipe to run said flexibility test and trim it down appropriately.

Now you certainly could just leave the pipe as is and use it. But you could also make a few improvements if you wish. In the picture you can see that I've taped off intervals using blue painters tape. You could just as easily use black or any other color electrical tape, or even masking tape colored with a marker. But if you do that you would have to put clear tape over it so the marker doesn't get on your hands and then the clear tape will make the pipe more slippery and harder to grip. In short, though I used painters tape I think electrical is better for the task.

The purpose of this is to have a reference to measure progress. With a plain pipe, you don't necessarily know if you're getting more flexible since you can't accurately gauge how narrow a grip you are using. With these tape markings you can simply count how many marks and over time you'll be able to see your improvement.

Unlike Mr. Poolstick, I know you'll never let me down.

So $1 for the pipe. If you have tape at home then that's it. If not, you could spend a few bucks picking up some tape. Just remember it has to be visible so clear Scotch tape isn't going to work. That was simple, fast, easy, and cheap. In the time it took to read my drawn out elaboration of the process, you probably could have finished the project.

-Carl