Small School Gym Project

[mbasic]

I might get involved with revamping our high school's weight room.
Its a really small school ...more concerned with academics ....i.e. there won't be any 400-500 pound squatters here, ever.
I'll post of pictures of the current conditions later .... but if we are going to throw-out 90% of the old shit .... I don't see the point.

The room is quite small, 30' x 24' approx. Its horribly all inefficiently laid out.
Currently, they a couple of off-brand full cage/racks with plate storage that take up a huge amount of room.
There's a smith machine station with a cable-pulldown (lat pulldown?) apparatus that will have to stay.

The room is used by multiple sports teams, sometimes they do Crossfit-esque circuit workouts in there....body weight stuff jumping around crap.

==================================

RACKS

What I'm thinking on selling them on, is 3 or 4 of the Rogue fold-a-way racks. Preferably 4.
That gives them the option to open up the room (create space) if need be.
That also pushes the "racks" up against the wall as much as possible.
That makes more room for deadlifting, power cleans and stuff like that out in front of the rack.

I was thinking about the 3" sq.tube model.
- Just more sturdy (less shaky). Not worried about 500# squats as I said, but since its a fold out unit .... well
- Maybe the 3" safety arms would appear more sturdy.



Questions:
1- How close side-to-side could/should one put these stations so if everyone is doing the same exercise (say squats), the adjacent racks can be load plates without fucking with its neighboring rack? I guess I try to walk into my old lifetime gym and measure what would work as they had this set-up. My new gym is not laid out this way. I could figure it out, sure .... but any advice, or anything about something I'm overlooking here would be appreciated.

2- Do you think a person could get away with the 21"-off-the-wall model .... and a student-athlete could stand inside the rack, butt to the wall, and comfortably spot for bench press? Or do I have to do the 40" model. I don't think the 40" model can fold inward onto itself like the 21" one can.

=========================

BARS:

I know its gimmicky, but probably those new Ohio 'S' 2.0 silent (that are not all that silent) bars.
They should last forever. Only need 4 bars. Whether its $400, $300, or $500 doesn't factor in too much.

==========================

PLATES:

Gonna suggest just quasi-fat bumpers (not competition style).
(3) pair of 45's, and (2) 25's per rack.
They will have a bunch of iron plates (45's and change plates) left over from the old equipment as well.

Storage will just be up against the wall.
I like these setups here from Catalyst, we can build these and they double as a bench/place to sit between sets while the kids feel sorry for themselves as they're resting. The kid's or anyone could build these (just plain wood top), and paint them school-colors.



I figure these would go in between the stations up against the wall....

Then we just get a decent bench for each station.

========================

The side effect of all this, if they need the room for a team meeting or some other purpose, they could fold up the racks against the wall (or not), and you'd have a shit ton of seating areas by default. 6 to 8 of those wall benches, plus your four benching-benches, and throw a few chairs in there ....they could have a nice place for team meetings or whatever.

Or, it really opened up for the girls to do their dance-aeobics-pilates-yoga stuff or whatever it is that they do in there /s.

EDIT: googling around ... this guy's set up is almost exactly what I'm thinking.
At 1:32 in the background.

[Hardartery]

I went to a small country high school. We had zero free weights, zero racks, zero pretty uch everything. There was a single Universal station, and it was in a room that doubled as the shooting range for the local police after hours. I get small.
Personally, I would be inclined to look at Monster Squat stands, maybe with the half-rack conversion kits, or a similar product from someone else. I have very little faith in teenage boys to fold and unfold a rack correctly, and a lot of faith in their ability to manage to break one or all of them. I also would buy cheaper bars for them, no way would I buy something as fancy as the 2.0 Ohio. Teenage boy will find a way to bend a bar without exceeding 135 lbs. If you can confine the storage to the same wall as the racks that leaves an ope pathway on the other side of the room for jumping around/shuttle run nonsense if they ave to be inside for it. If you do plate storage like a bench like in the video, don't use wood. Weld it up using small gauge steel tubing, they'll destroy wood like that in no time.

[damufunman]

I kinda like the folding rack idea (21.5" should be sufficient and will still leave room for the bench-storage and loading of bars), but to @Hardartery's point, teenage boys and not bulletproof stuff. Fewer moving parts is better, so fixed stand would probably be ideal. Maybe even a wall mounted (non-folding) rig for racks? can get the same spacing and plate storage but less risk of damaging moving parts. Rack-Rack spacing should probably be enough so two bars can be loaded with dudes back-to-back at the same time.

[mbasic]

thanks for input

I went to a small country high school. We had zero free weights, zero racks, zero pretty uch everything. There was a single Universal station, and it was in a room that doubled as the shooting range for the local police after hours. I get small.

lolz at the residual chemicals in here ... aerosolized lead, etc.

Personally, I would be inclined to look at Monster Squat stands, maybe with the half-rack conversion kits, or a similar product from someone else. I have very little faith in teenage boys to fold and unfold a rack correctly, and a lot of faith in their ability to manage to break one or all of them.

I bet they would only fold them up half a dozen times a year. In reality, this is a wall mounted "rig" setup ...but I don't like the permiance of that (thinking like the school might). With the under-bench-plate storage I'm proposing here up against the wall, the folding-up (21" projection) really doesn't create that much more room I guess if the benches are still there.

I also would buy cheaper bars for them, no way would I buy something as fancy as the 2.0 Ohio. Teenage boy will find a way to bend a bar without exceeding 135 lbs.

I think I'm looking at $8,000 to $10,000 here everything ... I will probably get the plates and such somewhere cheaper.
Whether its a $200 bar or $400 ...? 4 bars? meh.... they have 2 or 3 weird-olympic-bars now that are not bent.

If you can confine the storage to the same wall as the racks that leaves an ope pathway on the other side of the room for jumping around/shuttle run nonsense if they ave to be inside for it.

Yeah, that's what I'm imagining, all that going on the one wall. They have this smith machine unit with a built-in lat pull down thing. That would likely go on the opposite wall. They have a hyperextenion unit/chair/whatever. DB rack. They could use a rack (would build) for all their med.balls. An adjustable incline bench. I'd imagine all that crap will line the wall opposite the 'rack wall'.

Also the 'athletic trainer' has one of the padded patent tables you see at a chiro or doctors office. They do .... "treatments" in here as well.

If you do plate storage like a bench like in the video, don't use wood. Weld it up using small gauge steel tubing, they'll destroy wood like that in no time.

I do have access to a welding shop at my work. Something to consider.

========================

Pictures:
I have my phone crammed up into the very corner to take these.
Its smaller than this looks.
I paced it off as I had no tape measure handy, its about 30' the long direction and 22 or 24 the other.





To the right of the hyper-station, under that 2nd red bosuball .... there's a 4'x8' deadlifting platform ... 2"x2" frame thingy with minimal thickness rubber. The whole place has rubber matting already. I figure with a full set of bumpers, and rubber matting, we could deadlift anywhere in the gym. I guess the point is, a lot of this shit will be scrapped or sold (recouped $).

[mbasic]

A different type of folder design, and probably weaker in certain regards .... but this gives me great confidence.
The Rogue design with 3" sq. tubing all the way around should be good, but I hear ya guys on the "teenager factor" issue.
If this were a big public school / top division gym ....yeah, no fucking way. (we'd have a bigger room, and this wouldn't be a problem in the 1st place).



Before all this, I was actually considering the 3"x3" - 21" folder for my own home gym.
Its getting super tight in there....I could try it out, and show the staff in person I suppose...

I don't like the idea drilling into the (school's) wall studs either with some hefty lag bolts/screws....that might be a big turn off for the school.
(like ... "how's the electrical run in here again" ....who knows)

[asdf]

they double as a bench/place to sit between sets while the kids feel sorry for themselves as they're resting.

So true.

[damufunman]

Alternately, and along what @Hardartery said, half racks / [html=https://www.roguefitness.com/sml-2-rogu ... quat-stand]Squat stands[/html] (the connected ones like this) may make sense since you can push them up against wall and not lose functionality (with full power rack you either have to offset from wall or lose the rear uprights).

[mgil]

@mbasic, the ceiling tiles are roughly 2x2 feet with 4’ light troffers. Based on the photo, 24’ looks to be a good estimate.

For space, I’d do two racks along that wall, a DL platform in between, and look at a crossmember to span the DL platform with a bunch of pull up bars. Two or three FID benches (dumbbell work can be done in the open).

Maybe a set of squat stands that can be thrown on the DL platform if an extra rack is needed?



Also, don’t forget inspirational quotes like “make sure ur gloves match ur purse” plastered on the walls.

[mbasic]

Alternately, and along what @Hardartery said, half racks / [html=https://www.roguefitness.com/sml-2-rogu ... quat-stand]Squat stands[/html] (the connected ones like this) may make sense since you can push them up against wall and not lose functionality (with full power rack you either have to offset from wall or lose the rear uprights).

yeah, I guess this is the same thing as the 21" fold-a-way units. The stand four feet deep with the upright being around 24" from the back. Just the the support frame would stick out beyond that out to 4' .... but then, so do the safety-arms of either unit (stand or the folding rack). So its the same depth if the arms are in use.

And then we can rearrange things with mobile stands. If they really wanted to clear-out the room for space, they could probably put all 3 or 4 stands in the corner using an alternating Tetris style to "get rid" of them.

[SquatsALot]

Keep in mind the 3" Rogue Racks are a PITA for hitting the posts on your squat walkout. And a 2" is just fine, if they make it in the foldable config you're looking for.

I bought the 3" for all the accessories you can get for it, but for a weight room there would be no reason as you won't bother to ever buy the monolift, etc, right?

[Skander]

A random thought on the bars- get something with reasonably heavy knurl, it's gonna get worn down quick. They're not cheap anymore, but those Cap beast bars held up pretty well in the ROTC weight room here.

In that environment, thicker bars (29mm+) might be better for durability.

Even better would be to convince the powers that be that bars would be replaced every few years. My university's varsity weight room's bars got completely destroyed in about 2 years. They are all bent and few spin anymore. Or just overbuy on bars (twice as many as needed) and hope a few unbroken ones remain...

[Hardartery]

A random thought on the bars- get something with reasonably heavy knurl, it's gonna get worn down quick. They're not cheap anymore, but those Cap beast bars held up pretty well in the ROTC weight room here.

In that environment, thicker bars (29mm+) might be better for durability.

Even better would be to convince the powers that be that bars would be replaced every few years. My university's varsity weight room's bars got completely destroyed in about 2 years. They are all bent and few spin anymore. Or just overbuy on bars (twice as many as needed) and hope a few unbroken ones remain...

I would add that if any areas like J cups or things are raw metal, I would cut up a plastic cutting board and epoxy bits of it in there for the bar to contact. It can extend the life of the knurling for a while, in spite of teenage boys.

[5hout]

A random thought on the bars- get something with reasonably heavy knurl, it's gonna get worn down quick. They're not cheap anymore, but those Cap beast bars held up pretty well in the ROTC weight room here.

2nd this. I beat the ever loving snot out of a CAP beast bar and hunting the Rogue Boneyard is too difficult in this type of purchasing setting so would absolutely get them. The black oxide coating is great as well.