Pimp my Squat Rack

Hello everyone,

Well you will be pleased to know that the blog is kicking off all over the world! (Bahrain, Dubai, Holland, Wales, England and the US) maybe some others?

My new youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/nathanbahrain11 (which can be seen on this blog) has received over 100 views (85 of them by myself, 10 by my mum) in less than a week... and now has over 40 exercise videos frpm the RCC gym.

And i have just started a Brazilian jiu jitsu/MMA class 3 times per week, which means that i will be routinely getting a beating over the next month before i go home for summer holidays, which is always nice.

And im still hitting 30+ PT sessions a week. Ive been busy.

Anyway, on to todays blog. "Pimp my squat rack". When i started work in the Royal Country Club (RCC) my first task was to stop the order of gym equipment for both gym spaces as they had planned to fill both rooms with rows of 'fitness' machines like:

Leg press
Chest Press
Leg extension
Shoulder Press

And... wait for it... A tricep extension machine! WOW, just when i thought the least useful thing in the world was a chocolate teapot.

Available with a full 1 minute warranty

Things had to change, so i re-ordered and created 2 functional training spaces, with enough to keep all users happy and saved over BD30,000 ($70,000) in the process. The first item on the list was a squat rack.

Our original squat rack... simple but really effective

If you dont know by now, i visited the US in june this year and permanently had my A4 pad out writing notes/stealing great ideas. I noticed during my weeks training in Cressey Performance that racks they had there were A) much better and B) had lots of 'extras' hanging of them. So on my return to Bahrain, one of my first tasks was to Pimp my squat rack.

If you are older and reading this... Pimp is street slang for 'make better'. I do not sell/promote any services to gym freaks who want to spend 'sexy' time with gym machinery.

 RCC staff photograph 2010

Over the past few weeks i have been adding different training tools to our squat rack and have created a monster.

Squat rack Mach II

The above image shows the improved squat rack i now use every day to train my clients. Starting clockwise from the carpet, these items are:

1.   Carpet for Valslide exercises
2.   Rubber mats to protect floor when olympic lifting
3.   Olympic barbell and weights
4.   Medicine ball (10kg)
5.   Valslides (hidden behind the Medicine ball) - They will kick your ass!
6.   Lighter olympic bar - Useful to start women lifting with an olympic bar
7.   Manta Ray squat bar attachment - For those who do not like the bar on the their backs
8.   TRX suspension trainer - Amazing new tool which adds so much to my training toolbox
9.   Ab wheel - the best core strength training tool
10. Resistance bands- great for activation drills and adding difficulty to exercises
11. Foam roller - if you're not using this in your warm-ups... well, your muscles will be sad.
12. Kettlebells - another great addition for numerous 'kick ass' exercises
13. Reebok decks - great for jumps, step variations, rack pulls, etc.

Result? I have just totally pimped up my squat rack into a fully equipped death trap.

I already promised my clients (and myself) that July will be a "cardio-free" zone... and with all these different methods of training around the 'death trap', i think we will be ok for variety! The only drawback from all this pimping ive been doing recently is i'm now regularly stopped in the street and being mistaken for MTV's "Pimp my Ride" host, Xzibit... and its really annoying.

        

   NW & Xzibit... Seperated at birth?

Until the next time... If you liked this article press the facebook 'share' below to spread the word.

Feel free leave comments, i feel like im talking to myself.