Gym Talk

In this review I’m going to take a look at the Sport Bumper Plates, American Barbell’s basic bumper plates. I realize that basic bumpers do not exactly make the most exciting reviews, but people need bumpers, and these are a viable option. Update January 2018: A price change has caused me to have to revisit [...]

This is a review for the Ohio Deadlift Bar from Rogue Fitness – an extra long, highly elastic power bar designed exclusively for heavy deadlifts. A bar that I think the majority of you will agree rivals both the Okie Deadlift Bar and Texas Deadlift Bar not only in specifications, but also in price. Updated January 2018 – checked [...]

What shoes do you deadlift in? Do you have actual deadlift shoes, or do you pull in regular sneakers? Perhaps you use your Oly shoes, or maybe you just pull barefoot. Does it even matter? It does matter! You should be just as concerned with what shoes that you’re wearing when deadlifting as you are when [...]

I’ve been searching high and low for the perfect pair of gym shorts. A pair of shorts to train in that are comfortable, lightweight, flexible, ideally affordable, and short enough to squat in without having to worry about fabric catching on my knees or sticking to my thighs. Bonus features would include moisture-wicking, breathable, and good [...]

The new Eleiko Power Lock Bar is a unique and rather interesting take on the classic Eleiko Training Bar. Matter of fact, the Power Lock is really just a variant of the Eleiko Training Bar. They share all the same hardware, same specifications, and high level of performance; only the new Power Lock has deep grooves cut into [...]

If you’ve been lifting for any length of time, you undoubtedly know about the Inzer Forever Power Belt and the Pioneer Double Suede Power Belt. You may also know that there is no shortage of praise and positive reviews for both of these belts – so much so that telling you that these belts are awesome wouldn’t exactly be [...]

In the last month or so there’s been a number of new products to hit the market, and a few that are due very soon. I thought that I’d highlight some of the coolest among them for those of you who don’t have time to troll the Interwebs for stuff that you don’t actually need and probably [...]

Folding wall racks are a great space saving alternative to full-size power racks for athletes who want to train in their garage, but who still need to be able to pull the vehicle in at night. Folding racks require only some empty wall space and a few inches of floor space to store, yet they open up into a full-size rack that’s almost [...]

About a year ago, Rogue Fitness released the Ohio Power Bar; a bar that would completely replace the old Rogue Power Bar; Rogue’s only self-branded powerlifting bar. With only two unique power bars being sold by Rogue at the time (Rogue Power & Westside Power), and both of them having all-too-similar specifications, the addition of the Ohio Power was much [...]

As is the tradition, I have created a list of Christmas gift ideas for those of you that have a lifter on their shopping list. I’ve considered the CrossFitter, weightlifters, and the regular ol’ gym rat. There’s something for everyone! The first section consists of fairly substantial gift ideas; $50 or more. In a few cases, [...]

One of the most common garage-gym based strength training programs is Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength; an easy to follow, incredibly effective, linear training program that focuses solely on compound barbell movements like the squat, bench, and deadlift. Starting Strength (SS) is popular not only because it is super easy to follow and offers near instant strength [...]

Welcome to the long-overdue guide for leather power belts. If you’re currently in the market for a new belt then you’ve come to the right place. I’ll be going over some of the top leather power belt options, and a couple of the better budget belts as well. What I’ll basically be doing in this [...]

As you know, the strength training and CrossFit industry is booming. There never seems to be a shortage of new equipment, new apparel, and new shoes to consider. There’s training gear options galore! Occasionally I like to take a look at all the new gear out there and find products that I think are worth making people aware [...]

There’s a growing variety of specialized strength training bars on the market to supplement your workouts with. Maybe you’ve already seen some weird looking bar at one of the gyms and wondered what it was called, what it was for, or where you could get one. I’m going to give you a brief tour of [...]