Operation Home-Gym Overhaul
By Robert Drucker
My first home gym consisted of nothing more than a six-foot section of pipe, some bricks with holes in them, and some rope to secure the bricks to the pipe. With these simple ingredients, I built my first “barbell” and trained in my parent's basement. And, the gains I made with this simple concoction were nothing short of amazing.
Eventually, as my added strength dictated and my savings account allowed, I purchased a set of weights, built a wooden bench, and fastened a chinning bar to a couple of basement ceiling joists. Later, I made a pair of barbell stands, a primitive “trap bar,” and a sturdy power rack - all from scrap wood and some elbow grease. And today, some 25 years later, I still proudly use my old weight set and my “scrap wood” structures to build strength and might.
Other than the weights, each piece of strength-building equipment in my garage was hand-built from scrap wood over 25 years years ago. I have nothing fancy, but I wouldn't trade my set-up for any commercial stuff. Generally speaking, if I don't build it myself, I won't use it. Photograph by Robert Drucker.
It is very hard to explain the satisfaction that comes from building your own strength implements. Nonetheless, I'm going to try. Just keep in mind that we are talking about a deep satisfaction that cannot be attained merely by spending money or by finding a “bargain” on eBay. The kind of self satisfaction that we are talking about comes about only by creating something with your own hands, in your own way, and for your own purposes. And, when you build strength equipment that is your own and matched to your individual personality, an almost magical effect takes place. The pride and joy of using hand-built implements is so pronounced the self builder finds him or herself training much harder and with a renewed enthusiasm. I know this to be true from personal experience.
In my home gym, I have two flat benches. One of these benches was store bought; the other I made from scratch. The store-bought model sits against a wall collecting dust. Occasionally, I use it to stand on and reach something up high, but I rarely use it for building muscles.
In contrast, my hand-made bench is put to use nearly every workout. I use it for bench presses, lying-down neck curls, pullovers, and even to rest on between sets. It is truly a motivating piece of equipment to me in large part because I put a lot of hard work into building it. It doesn't matter that it is not the strongest bench ever built or that it doesn't have fancy uprights. What matters is that it was built for my needs and that it makes me feel good every time I use it. It is my own work, and the self satisfaction and pride that it brings each time I lie across it brings me a heightened training energy like nothing else can. Use of a commercially-made training apparatus will not produce this effect, no matter how heavy-duty or fancy such equipment may be. Such an effect can only be materialized by the personal pride that comes from doing your own work! Only individuals who build things rather than buy things ready built will understand this.
This is my original power-rack prototype. It was built in 1985 in less than a day (other than the painting), and I still use it. It has more than served its purpose, and it will replaced by a stronger and more versatile model during the upcoming months. Photograph by Robert Drucker.
Although not as common today, during the golden age of physical culture many strength athletes built their own training equipment. The muscle magazines catered to this desire, and various building plans could be found in Strength magazine, as well as in early issues of Strength and Health and Iron Man. I have seen in these and other magazines from the past plans for building a power rack, a weight bench, a leg press machine, a spring-based deadlift apparatus, a lat machine, and even a concrete weight set. I have also seen plans for building a complete outdoor gymnasium in The Boy Mechanic, a wonderful five-volume set published many years ago by the editors of Popular Mechanics Press.
Many of the old guys were masters at taking some scrap wood and turning it into a muscle-building wonder. Bob Peoples, of World-record deadlifting fame, was one of these masters. He built all sorts of training aids from steel bars, wooden drums, wood posts, pipes, and whatever else he could conveniently find. And, he used his home-made concoctions, along with a Milo Duplex Barbell set, to build enormous strength and power. Peoples' first strength-building apparatus consisted of a wooden drum attached to each end of a steel bar. He filled each of the two drums with rocks or other types of weights, and he practiced carrying and lifting the weighted apparatus in various ways to build his leg and back strength.
Peoples also built a large ring which could be fitted with weights and lifted while standing inside of it. It functioned much like a modern-day trap bar. In addition, the strongman made, some authorities assert, the world's first power rack. It was made from two large wooden posts in which pins were inserted into bored holes to hold a weight bar at a desired position prior to a lift. Additional bore holes were used to support one end of a safety bar at a desired height; the opposite end of each safety bar was supported by a saw horse. Such a setup was a creative breakthrough in the strength building world, and we can thank Bob Peoples for the wide assortment of power-racks available today.
As can be seen from looking at the works from Bob Peoples, building your own strength equipment not only can help you build enormous strength and power, doing so can also provide you with a means to release your creative powers. When you build a muscle-building implement, you get to decide how it should be designed, how tall and wide it should be, what materials it should be constructed from, what shape it should take, what color it should be painted, what features it should have, how strong it must be, and how it should be constructed. And, even if you use pre-existing building plans you still have in your power the ability to tailor things to best suit your needs. In short, you are in control of things, and you decide how the final product must function and what it must look like. Such control not only inspires creative thought, it makes the building process an exciting thing to engage in. It simply is fun to plan something on paper and then go out to the work shop and build it. And, you'll benefit far more from doing this than merely dishing out your credit card and ordering the same advertised stuff that everybody else buys.
A reader sent me this photograph and wrote: “I am a committed implement-training guru. I feel that barbell movements are still needed, but it keeps me motivated when I can find heavy junk to haul around or when I make an implement on my own. I made this log press to enjoy during all facets of my training, not just the traditional strong-man press. The fun has caught on to all my friends, and we are in the zone to lift heavy things outside of a prim and proper gym.”
Building your own strength equipment isn't really about just equipping your home gym with a bunch of gadgets. It's about creating quality and having something after your hard work to effectively use and take pride in. And, it's about learning how to do something for yourself. But, the average gym member doesn't get it. This is because most people today just go along with the flow, and building things is becoming a long-forgotten art. In fact, few people in our society today can build anything more complicated than a paper airplane. It's now all about credit cards and quick purchases. What a shame.
But, if you want to be like the great masters of the mighty past, the fellows who could take their hands and build something magnificent, keep reading. I will soon be adding something very special to Muscles of Iron. It is called the Home Gym Overhaul Series, and this is a very involved and multifaceted project that I have been working on for many months. As part of this ongoing series, we will overhaul my personal garage and turn it into a muscle-building workshop by building many superb strength-building implements and accessories! Along the way, much of the action will be captured in a series of new articles, each crammed with project-building tips and plenty of muscle-building information.
So, if you want to break from the crowd and accomplish something really special in physical culture, I think that you will really like and benefit from the upcoming Home Gym Overhaul Series. It is going to be exciting and really fun! And, there will be a great deal of new things to learn. But, there is a minor catch. This is going to be an extremely time-consuming project. And, for this reason I'm going to reduce my blog writing somewhat so I can focus on bringing you the highest quality articles and products possible. So, you'll probably see longer gaps between posts for quite some time. Please be patient, however; something bigger and better is coming!
Because most of us have little background in machining and welding, I am going to focus primarily on making strength implements from wood rather than from steel. This is not a compromise, however. With the right building plans and construction techniques, a wooden structure can be made durable and functional without wrecking a tight budget. I also like working with wood because this material is light weight, easy to cut, easy to drill, and easy to store. In addition, the skill and tools required to build strength equipment from wood is minimal.
Please stay tuned. Part One of the Home Gym Overhaul Series will be coming this fall, and it's going to be a real eye opener.
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