Crossfit Garage Gym Started

I’ve been doing Crossfit workouts at home off and on since last March, and decided it was time to step it up a bit. Crossfit has been enormously beneficial to my health and overall fitness, and I view the few hundred dollars I spent on this project as cheap health insurance.

The Basics

Dumbbells and some sort of pull-up bar are what you need to get started. If you don’t have those, I’d suggest starting there. I already have dumbbells and a kettlebell, so those are covered. We’ve been getting by with a door frame pull-up bar, but it’s limited. For example, we can’t use it to kip and doing beginner pull-ups puts me in a dangerous position.

I decided to purchase a Studbar pull-up bar, gymnastic rings, and an Olympic weight bar. I’ll get bumper plates and weight stands as the budget allows.

I bolted the Studbar to the garage ceiling. I can’t do a pull-up just yet, so I’m using the rings to help with my progression. I’m hanging the rings from the Studbar (it’s a beast). I’m also using the rings for push-ups. I’m ashamed to admit that I’m having so much trouble with my push-ups, but that’s the way it is.

Studbar and Rings in parking mode

The weight bar is going to help me work on the very technical Olympic lifts. I’ll need plates soon to get the full benefit though.

What About the Cars?

I’m not willing to park my car in the driveway, so it was important to me to be able to find a way to use the garage as a gym and a garage. The rings are adjustable and easy to remove and install if you prefer. I just adjust them and leave them where they are and I can park my car without any issues. I pull my car out of the garage to do the workout and pull it back in when I’m finished.

Benefits

It’s nice to have (almost) everything I need to do my workouts here at home. Now there’s no excuse for taking the 5-20 minutes it takes to do a Crossfit workout.

A side benefit of this project is that it has forced me to get my garage more organized. I guess it’s just another way Crossfit benefits my life. I’m afraid that I have a way to go with all of it however.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Crossfit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.