Equipment recommended?!?

Today I am going over whether or not to go to a commercial gym or build a home gym. I will give a few examples of what the pro's and con's are of both.Hopefully by the end of this, you will have a better idea as to which route fits your needs AND know what type of equipment you will need to perform the lifts!

Ensure to weigh your options before committing either way!

Commercial Gym route:

If you live in a large city or the suburbs, you most likely have access to many commercial gyms. However, most commercial gyms will have only the machine weights and some barbells with iron plates. You absolutely cannot drop iron plates! 

If you do have a gym or two locally that have bumper plates, you can always give the gym a trial and see how you like it. Some gyms are more accommodating (platforms, high temp bumpers, chalk or able to drop weights) with the Olympic lifts than others, so asks as many questions as possible before signing up for a membership. You possibly coudl be lucky enough to have an actual weightlifting gym in the area. If at all possible, try these out as they will have the equipment as well as the instructors to lead you to success at a much faster rate! Some  downsides are that you may have to wait for the platform to open, the weight to perform at your percentages may not be available or that the barbells are trashed/bent from people doing ridiculous things with them. Another glaring downside to commercial gyms are the fee's. You pay to have a monthly membership, the quarterly or semi annual dues and then any instruction fees. This can begin to get costly really fast!

Home Gym:

With a home gym you create the rules, play your music as loud as you want and have no restrictions to equipment. However you have to have the space and the finances to support such an endeavor. 

The following list is what I would consider essential garage gym equipment for Olympic lifting.

PVC Pipe 7ft in length

You should *absolutely* invest in a PVC pipe -- ESPECIALLY if you are new! This will help dial in your technique, build your muscle memory and not kill your shoulders and wrists with the weights you're not ready to handle.  

 

Barbell

You can’t just use any old barbell for Olympic weightlifting. A special Olympic lifting style barbell is what you need to have. This type of bar is important because:

• Whip (the ability to store elastic energy and create a bend without breaking). As you progress you will begin to use this to your advantage!.
• Smooth rotating sleeves. This allows the weight to rotate as the lifter rotates the bar in the pull.
• Olympic bars are purposely built to able to take repeated drops from overhead.

Here is what I recommend on the high end as well as the cheaper but still high quality. There are hundreds of bars out there if you do your research, but its ultimately the number one thing in your arsenal... make it count!

Bumper plates

As I eluded to earlier, you can’t use any plates laying around for Olympic weightlifting. Bumper plates are essential because:

• They were made to be dropped, beaten and battered! They are specifically designed to withstand the ‘abuse’ of regular drops from overhead heights! Any other types of plate (iron or polyurethane) will cause damage not only to the plates, but also your barbell and/or your floor!
• Most Bumper plates are all the same diameter. The diameter of a traditional bumper plate is based off the 25kg bumper height. Iron plates tend to all be different sizes. If you are just starting out you should not be starting with the 25kg plates, so bumper plates let you set up at the same height even when utilizing lighter plates.
• Bumper plates are also traditionally color coded for easy identification/math. RED usually is 25kg/55lbs, BLUE is 20kg or 45 lbs, YELLOW is 15kg/35lbs, GREEN are 10kg/25 lbs and black are kind of the step children of the bunch rounding out 2.5kg/5lbs, 5kg/10lbs and sometimes even 7kg/15lbs.

Here again are high end and cheaper sets.

Flooring

This is very important aspect to consider for your home gym. First, you have to decide what sort of ‘platform’ you want. You don’t need to have an actual platform. But I personally love having a designated area for those lifts! Consistency is key as you will find out with lifting in the months to come! I do however, have my lifting area/garage gym covered in horse stall mats. Underneath my platform, I have continued the horse stall matting as well to prevent further damage to the concrete. It also lessens the abuse on the bar and weights as well as keeps things a bit more quiet when dropping those weights. Using horse matting is certainly the cheapest and in my opinion the best way to go!! You can find it at a local hardware store or a farm equipment/tractor supply type store.

Squat rack

Squatting is the building blocks of Olympic weightlifting. You will be squatting regularly in almost every program you will ever follow! For beginners, I recommend a set up like this instead of the full rack. This will help with grip width, but still give you stability and arms to catch missed/too heavy of squats to recovery when you attempt your one rep max.

There are other items you will use to perform the lifts (accessories), but as a garage set up these are the essentials!

Did I miss anything? Please comment and let me know! I will add in any great suggestions.