The Gray Matter Lab – V1

Last updated on January 11th, 2024 at 12:14 pm

The day I quit the commercial gym and started lifting exclusively at home. I had built The Gray Matter Lab – V1 with some Craigslist purchases and an order from Rogue Fitness. Since a Garage Gym is never truly finished, this series will continue to run as changes occur. You can read all of them here.

If you haven’t read Pilot Testing yet, start there.

The Gray Matter Lab – V1 Decisions

After Pilot Testing, and knowing that I was going in the right direction, it was time to lock down the equipment choices, room allocation, and overall set-up. Our garage is about 22 feet by 20 feet, and we wanted to keep both cars in the garage. We also had a stand up freezer, washer and dryer, and miscellaneous tools to store in the garage. I wasn’t willing to sacrifice safety or function when it came to a garage gym, so I was in a fun place of trying to fit a rack, bench, bars, plates, and whatever other accessories I deemed crucial, into a few feet of pseudo “storage”, to allow me to park my 2004 Honda Civic.

What we ended up with, based on needs, wants, and budget.

• DIY 8ft x 4ft Platform
• Rogue R-3 Infinity Line (they didn’t really have the others at the time)
  • This is attached to the platform
• Rogue Ohio Bar
• Earthquake Bar
• Rogue Trap Bar
• Rogue Wood Rings
• Beater CAP bar for Landmine Work
• Rogue Landmine rack attachment
• Body Solid Weight Tree
• About 700lbs of misc. plates off Craigslist
• Tuff Stuff Flat Bench from Craigslist
• Adjustable Olympic DB Handles
• A few misc. DBs
• Rogue Battleropes
• Various bands, collars, and misc. accessories

Matte Black Friday

This was November of 2013, taking advantage of the Rogue Matte Black Friday. I saved several hundred dollars in shipping and my bar and rack were on sale. If you order from Rogue, I HIGHLY recommend waiting for the Black Friday week. The 5 items ships for $5 is a little more stringent now, but its a fantastic deal if you are ordering anything large.

All in, I was just north of $2000 invested, and I had my first fully functioning garage gym. At the time, I was sticking almost entirely to the big lifts, with some various accessory work from the tire sled, dumbbells, body weight work, various landmine rows, etc. So I didn’t need any cables or machines, chains, other specialty bars, etc.

I hadn’t yet gotten the bug for “nice” plates (that came much later), and I hadn’t done enough in the garage gym to learn and know what I did and didn’t want to do, how much set-up time impacts usefulness, etc. My wife also hadn’t spent enough time to figure out what equipment was missing for her to be able to do what she wanted to.

This almost exact set-up served me for a year, with little changes. I added chains the next year and some bands. I didn’t hit V2 of the gym until a little after 2 years in (more on that in the next post). This version served me very well, kept me lifting, limited my travel time, and got me into the Garage Gym Life.

What I’d Do Differently

The Gray Matter Lab – V1 was based on some solid research, but there are always mistakes. I still have my rack, attached to my platform. The Rogue Ohio Bar lasted well into V4 of my gym.. I use my rings, landmine, flat bench, etc.

The items I didn’t like, were the adjustable DB handles. They were so much work to get set-up, that I rarely used them. You needed 4 collars (two for each handle), and a lot of 10lb plates. Otherwise, adding 25s made benching a nightmare due to them being so big. With 10s, even with my 8x10s, I’m still at 40lbs per handle. So 25s were required. The handle were so long, they often bumped into each other. If you needed to adjust weight between two lifters, or you realized the weight was just a little too heavy, you were taking plates off, adding others, putting the collars back on, and hoping you nailed it. I often either skipped DB work entirely, used one DB (even for bench), or simply dealt with the incorrect weight.

I wish I had bought the sleeved battleropes. Those damn things shed till the day I sold them. I’ve used them on concrete for a few years, and still, I’m cleaning up strands. If I had bought the sleeved ones initially, I’d be much happier.

That is honestly it. I did my research and homework ahead of time, so I really had a good idea of what I was getting into. I bought the stuff I needed, and a few things I wanted, with only a couple of negatives. The changes that came from V2 and V3 of the gym, were really more of a want / programming change over the course of a few years, along with my ever increasing Craigslist skills.

Take-Away

The key to all of this, is make sure you plan appropriately, so when you get into a solid investment, you aren’t burning a hole in your wallet.

In my next post, I’ll detail what changed when I moved to V2, and why.

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