Unfortunately the idea of training with odd objects, in a warehouse free from grandmas and pencil necked posers that use
the only squat rack for bicep curls was nothing more than a dream for most men.
A few years ago, when a Planet Fitness member complained that his local club had removed
its only squat rack, he was told by an employee that «other customers complained that it was intimidating».
Not exact matches
The problem is very simple:
squats can
only be done in the
squat rack and most commercial gyms have
only one or two of those, while curls can be done pretty much anywhere where you can stand up.
You know that little movement you do in the
squat rack with the bar on your back — the one where you load the bar and
only sink down 3 inches — well I have news for you.
You could do all the warmups at the beginning of the workout but that isnt very time efficient, much better to warmup as you go, so if you are starting your FBW with legs,
only do the
squats warmup first, wait and do the bench press warmup until later in the workout when you start working chest - that way you save a lot of
racking and unracking of weights.
Around nine months ago, I went into the University of Toronto Strength and Conditioning Centre during the Women's -
only hours, and used 20 seconds of courage to ask the woman beside me how to adjust the supports on the
squat rack.
Not letting people work in when you have laid claim to one piece of equipment (dumbbell,
squat rack, what have you) that is the
only one of its kind in the gym for half an hour.
The
squat rack is sometimes the best /
only place to do barbell - curls.
It's a place where we can meet other likeminded people and have access to cool equipment (love me a
squat rack and 12 different KB weights), but it is NOT the
only tool.
With that said if there is a long line of people waiting to
squat and there is
only one
rack, then curling might not be the most appropriate during that time.
As the fitness folks out there like to say, «The
only good use for a Smith Machine is to melt it down and make two proper
squat racks.»
Even if you're a regular gym goer a back
squat may not be the right choice for your body or be possible on a busy morning at the gym with
only ONE
squat rack.
My
only regret is that I didn't get it earlier, since I had been
squatting on a rickety, old Gold's Gym «quasi-squat
rack / all - in - one home gym» that had terrible stability and no safety catches whatsoever.
Whereas, others work for
only the X-3
Squat Stands and / or Half
Racks, but not the X-3 Power
Racks.
To go straight from the
squat rack to the leg press, which
only had 80k on it and did 50 reps as quickly as I possibly could without a break.
The
squat rack only gets used for benching.