The Gray Matter Lab – V2

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

I had spent almost 2 full years in my V1 gym, with little to no want for much more. I hadn’t been on Craigslist since my original purchases, and had little plan to go back. Enter July of 2015, I break my ankle. I spend the next several months working from home, and basically going between about 4 places – The bathroom, the bedroom, my chair in the office, and the gym in my garage. It reinvigorated my passion, because I knew without a garage gym, I’d have been stuck for months with no gym at all. Plus I had ample computer time to start digging into the depths of the online home gym community. Enter The Gray Matter Lab – V2.

Pre-Reading

If you haven’t read Pilot Testing yet, start there. Then, check out V1 here.

Favorite Resources

I started digging into resources online for home gyms, and landed on my favorite two:

The Bodybuilding.com Equipment Forum is a group of guys who have REALLY high expectations out of their equipment. Many have gyms full of Commercial Quality machines, bars, plates, and more. We are talking 10s of thousands of dollars in equipment. They also flip equipment like champions. They also have a deep fascination and love affair with vintage equipment, and the occasional DIY project. I have learned an IMMENSE amount about quality equipment, flipping on Craigslist, and so much more here. Guaranteed, no way I’d be where I am today without this subsection of home-gym owners.

And second, is r/HomeGym.

Reddit isn’t entirely known for its bodybuilding or garage gym fanatics, but this small community is rather intriguing. Polar opposite of the Bodybuilding forums, these guys are mostly power lifting centered with no machines, budget equipment, and bare-bone essentials. A lot of Titan Racks, Craigslist special plates, and even some CAP, Marcy, or Weider products tossed in. I’ve learned a lot from this community as well, and have given back quite a bit (at least I hope so).

The reason I talk about these two sites, is they pushed me to want a little more out of my gym. I started Craigslisting again, even in my cast and on crutches (thank you wife for helping me with a few scores). I started looking for quality plates (I was on an Ivanko kick), and I started looking towards some specialty bars, a GHD, and a few other prizes. It was fun, upgrading, changing, flipping, and putting cash back in my pocket. I actually started to make money on top of all of my upgrades in the gym.

The Gray Matter Lab – V2 Big Push

What really sent me into V2 mode, was a pick-up a few miles out of town. The guy listed an Ironmaster Bench with lat tower, dip attachment, 120LB DB Kit, a squat rack, bar, 300lbs of plates and plate rack, punching bag, and a few other mics. items for $600. I was luckily first in line, and we got out there quickly. After flipping the rack, bar, plates, punching bag, and misc. items, I had $480 back. Sold the DBs I had got from a previous purchase, and made about $100 off those (since I didn’t need them anymore, due to the Ironmasters), and in the end I was left with about $1200 worth of equipment that I kept, for a $0 sum out of pocket and a 30 minute drive.

From there, I upgraded the Lat Tower to their V2, and purchased the Leg Curl/Extension add-on.

Courtesy of a few additional Craigslist flips, we purchased a Get-RXd GHD, Edge Fitness SSB, and Edge Fitness Football Bar. I picked the Get-RxD for its exact dimensions, because I could barely fit a GHD and park in the garage.

At this point, I was sitting at MOSTLY Ivanko plates, outside of a few 45s, and looking for some additional 10s.

I hooked up my old stereo receiver and speakers so we had some legit tunes going. Then expanded the storage capability and organization of the gym pretty drastically.

I of course had to purchase a few pulley attachments. Then reorganize the gym a bit based on all of these items, but I was moving in an awesome direction.

Pics & Discussion

Check out this Reddit post for the discussion.

And this Reddit post, for my Ivanko refurbs.

What I’d Do Differently

Between V1 and The Gray Matter Lab – V2 I did a few random purchases. I grabbed a Spud Inc Lat Pulley, which was nice for the price and adaptability. But you really couldn’t do lat pull downs with it, so it was more of a face pull device. Again, you are paying roughly $75 for it, and it moves almost entirely out of the way, so you can’t complain. But the Ironmaster Lat Tower beats this thing hands down. Again, not even close to a fair comparison, but the Spud Inc ended up being a waste of money on my end.

I’d have bought some dudes Ivanko plates for about $.80/lb and finished my set, instead of being cheap and trying to grind for them.

Take-Away

The gym was spot on for my needs and wants at the time. I could now do a lot of variations on exercises, had a decent set of assistance work, had me some specialty bars, cable work, etc. I could park my car in the garage, and yet still had the ability to move things around and get shit done.

Throughout the next year, I’d learn a lot more about moving a GHD every single day. About moving your 2nd bench every single day. About barely being able to get out of your car. Having to have your bars double stacked, meaning taking one down to get the other, etc. But that all leads us to V3 of the gym, in a future post.

The Gray Matter Lab – V2 was a HUGE change from V1. We went from a bench, a couple bars, and plates, to an almost bodybuilder friendly environment. At this point, I mostly had access to everything I actually used in a commercial gym, plus my specialty bars, bands, and chains, so I was ahead of the game. I was also starting to actually move my investment in the gym down with the various Craigslist flips. The transition from V1 to V2 was awesome, and a big reason why V3 came in just another year.

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