Creating that home gym can be quite tasking. You will have to consider many factors and put many things together properly for everything to work well. For example, you will have to think about space, your budget and you have to have a balance between cost and the quality of your equipment. You also have to look for the best equipment you can buy that will boost your productivity and help you better reach your workout goals. One of such equipment that would be a very good addition to your home gym and help you build your strength and muscles better is the power rack. A power rack is an equipment that you can use to perform so many exercises with barbells and weight safely. It can also be called a squat rack or squat cage although it can be used for exercises more than squat exercises like bench press and shoulder presses. If you want to be a bodybuilder at home you will need a power rack at home. We will tell you why in the next section.
Benefits of power racks:
There are many benefits of using a power rack when it comes to safety, ease of use and a host of many other factors. We are going to be discussing some of the benefits here.
You don’t need a spotter:
When you want to do bench presses in the gym, you need someone to stand beside you and help you in case you need to carry a barbell or do a bench press. If you are going to have a home gym and you want to do some serious muscle training, it is way safer to have a power rack because you most likely would not have another person with you in the gym all the time who will act as a spotter. Power racks help you position your barbells and weights safely without the need of a spotter. It has a lot of adjustable support bars that you can place your barbell on if you can’t complete your last rep.
Its easier to challenge yourself:
The safety of power racks makes it easy for you to challenge yourself with more weight or reps knowing that you are much less likely to get pinned under a barbell.
Freedom of movement:
Unlike most machines that restrict your movement somewhat, power racks do not really restrict your movements. You can still do a lot of different exercises with your barbells. The racks just help you support the bells when you are done with your reps.
What to look for when buying a power rack:
Power racks need to be able to carry a lot of heavy stuff safely. If you want to get one you have to ensure it is of good quality, the rack must be strong enough to carry your weights (a 12 to 14-gauge steel frame should do), check for cracks and all that stuff. Also, when it comes to space, you have to weigh your options carefully, you want enough space in the power rack to freely exercise yet the rack should not take too much space in your gym at home. Also, you want to check for the max weight capacity of your rack. It should be strong enough to hold whatever weight you put on it as you keep increasing your weights gradually and pushing for heavier weights. Add-ons like pull-up bars and cable pulleys are great if they fit your exercise routine.
Awesome power racks for your home:
We are going to give you a list of 5 power racks for your home gym. The quality and other factors have been considered in this list of 5 power racks for your home gym. Let’s get to it.
- Valor Fitness BD-7 Power Rack: this is a very good quality power rack which is quite affordable. It has great add-ons like a pulley system where you can add weights to, and about four pegs which you can use to hold weights so it doubles as a weight rack. It is also quite comfortable and spacious to work with. However, the downside is that due to its large space, it may not quite fit into a small gym, and it is quite heavy to move around (you don’t really need to move it around after installation so that is not much of a problem). Also, some consumers complain about packaging and missing components. Overall, it is budget friendly and makes a home workout much easier.
- Powerline PPR200X power rack: This rack is also quite affordable at around $300 – $325. For its price, it gives quite a good quality. It gives you some space to be able to do many exercise routines and it is quite solid. It also has some quality welding so you are less likely to get injured from sloppy welding and it ships quite fast. However, some customers complain that they would have loved a rack with more space, and the paints tend to wear off. The overall verdict is that it is a very good equipment for the price.
- Titan T3 series HD power rack: From the name Titan, you can guess that this is for the pros – the true titans of bodybuilding. It can carry a very large weight of 1000 pounds. It is more durable than the first two mentioned and it is a beast to look at. It is truly a heavy-duty power rack. One problem you will encounter is that of space and another is that it weighs a ton (about 230 pounds) setting up one of these is a workout on its own.
- Vanswe Olympic Multi-function power rack: this is also another heavy-duty rack that can support up to 1000 pounds. It also has additions like pulleys and about 10 free additional accessories to make your exercise regimen more flexible. You can expect more flexible exercise regimens with this and a good weight support. However, as with most maximum weight machines, it is quite heavy and may require a lot of space.
- Marcy Platinum with Bench (PM-3800): if you are really thinking about preserving space, this rack may be the one for you. The design is such that space is preserved without sacrificing the stability of the rack. It can support about 600 pounds of weight. It also comes with a seat which is very adjustable for different exercise regimens. If you are an average weightlifter and you want to preserve space, this rack may be for you.