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The Rise of the Garage Gym
If one more person asked me to try to put the weights down “more gently"... I was going to have to pull someone’s arm off and beat them with it.
Admit it, you have been there. You have the deadlift bar loaded, you are in the zone despite the Brittany Spears song playing on the “fitness center’s” speakers, despite the bar being one of those bright silver cheap bars with zero gnarling, despite the plates that have like 12 sides to them instead of being round, despite the looks of those around you which say, without words, “what the heck is that guy doing”, despite the clickity clack of the treadmills and people reading magazines while on the recumbent bikes, despite the little kid that escaped the day care facility running through the fitness center yelling, and despite the spin class going on in the next room, you are pulling big today.
Right when you get yourself ready, right when you approach the bar, and just after you pop that ammonia cap and bend down to pull your first 600LB deadlift it happens...”Excuse me, um, sir, we don’t allow chalk here at this facility.”
Admit it, you have been there. The health club owner comes over to you and your training partners. He doesn’t quite say “get out” but as he is talking to you about your needs from a “gym”, he is juxtaposing them with the complaints his “health club” is getting when “you guys kinda get loud…and it, well, well it bothers the folks on the treadmills that are trying to watch "The View".
Why does this happen? This happens because the hard core gym of the past has been forced underground by the corporate fitness centers that pop up like a Starbucks or Walgreens. This happens because there is more money to be made from the 300 new year’s resolution folks that sign up for a year membership then stop coming after the guilt has worn off some time in March than there is investing in the powerlifter that takes the 24/7 hours literally, is there all the time, brings his/her own protein shake and isn’t interested buying in a tan, hiring a personal trainer nor purchasing a smoothie.
The answer to this dilemma is simple, buy some old plates, some sturdy, heavy gage equipment, put it in your garage with a big old heater for the winter, move your cars out into the driveway and train with your buddies.
Even better still, the answer needs to be like the famous scene from the movie Network. You know, the flick where the broadcaster says “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Well, that is where we are as powerlifters. Get that group of training partners, put your money together and start a powerlifting gym. IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL TRAIN!
This is the conclusion that my team came to a couple years ago and that is exactly what we did. We dubbed my home garage, where the Maroscher Powerlifting Team and NFL Washington Redskins Defensive End Phillip Daniels trained as the Monster Garage. Well, the name stuck and recently we bit the bullet. We did all the minutia (LLC, business license, insurance, yadda-yadda-yadda) and opened up a 1,500 square foot facility called The Monster Garage Gym. We have no employees, and it is a key club membership. We all have jobs and lives, but we still manage to make this work.
We are all lifelong lifters in the journey that is powerlifting. If you can, take a page out of our book and the books of those truly successful (Frantz Gym, Big Iron, Super Training, Westside Barbell, ELITEFTS, Diablo Barbell, and others) and take the chance. You risk every time you strap 800 pounds on your back or press 500 pounds over your face. Take the chance, open a place, or if you don’t have the team, or the means or the guys around you because of where you live, ask for your spouse’s forgiveness, buy that equipment, put it in your garage and train the way you want to train. You have earned the right to be the best you can be!
Ever Onward,
Eric Maroscher & Phillip Daniels
2-Time WPC World Powerlifting Champion & NFL Washington Redskins Defensive End
www.monstergaragegym.com
The Rise of the Garage Gym
If one more person asked me to try to put the weights down “more gently"... I was going to have to pull someone’s arm off and beat them with it.
Admit it, you have been there. You have the deadlift bar loaded, you are in the zone despite the Brittany Spears song playing on the “fitness center’s” speakers, despite the bar being one of those bright silver cheap bars with zero gnarling, despite the plates that have like 12 sides to them instead of being round, despite the looks of those around you which say, without words, “what the heck is that guy doing”, despite the clickity clack of the treadmills and people reading magazines while on the recumbent bikes, despite the little kid that escaped the day care facility running through the fitness center yelling, and despite the spin class going on in the next room, you are pulling big today.
Right when you get yourself ready, right when you approach the bar, and just after you pop that ammonia cap and bend down to pull your first 600LB deadlift it happens...”Excuse me, um, sir, we don’t allow chalk here at this facility.”
Admit it, you have been there. The health club owner comes over to you and your training partners. He doesn’t quite say “get out” but as he is talking to you about your needs from a “gym”, he is juxtaposing them with the complaints his “health club” is getting when “you guys kinda get loud…and it, well, well it bothers the folks on the treadmills that are trying to watch "The View".
Why does this happen? This happens because the hard core gym of the past has been forced underground by the corporate fitness centers that pop up like a Starbucks or Walgreens. This happens because there is more money to be made from the 300 new year’s resolution folks that sign up for a year membership then stop coming after the guilt has worn off some time in March than there is investing in the powerlifter that takes the 24/7 hours literally, is there all the time, brings his/her own protein shake and isn’t interested buying in a tan, hiring a personal trainer nor purchasing a smoothie.
The answer to this dilemma is simple, buy some old plates, some sturdy, heavy gage equipment, put it in your garage with a big old heater for the winter, move your cars out into the driveway and train with your buddies.
Even better still, the answer needs to be like the famous scene from the movie Network. You know, the flick where the broadcaster says “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Well, that is where we are as powerlifters. Get that group of training partners, put your money together and start a powerlifting gym. IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL TRAIN!
This is the conclusion that my team came to a couple years ago and that is exactly what we did. We dubbed my home garage, where the Maroscher Powerlifting Team and NFL Washington Redskins Defensive End Phillip Daniels trained as the Monster Garage. Well, the name stuck and recently we bit the bullet. We did all the minutia (LLC, business license, insurance, yadda-yadda-yadda) and opened up a 1,500 square foot facility called The Monster Garage Gym. We have no employees, and it is a key club membership. We all have jobs and lives, but we still manage to make this work.
We are all lifelong lifters in the journey that is powerlifting. If you can, take a page out of our book and the books of those truly successful (Frantz Gym, Big Iron, Super Training, Westside Barbell, ELITEFTS, Diablo Barbell, and others) and take the chance. You risk every time you strap 800 pounds on your back or press 500 pounds over your face. Take the chance, open a place, or if you don’t have the team, or the means or the guys around you because of where you live, ask for your spouse’s forgiveness, buy that equipment, put it in your garage and train the way you want to train. You have earned the right to be the best you can be!
Ever Onward,
Eric Maroscher & Phillip Daniels
2-Time WPC World Powerlifting Champion & NFL Washington Redskins Defensive End
www.monstergaragegym.com
