We've already talked about the setup of a power
rack, which is pretty simple, so lets take a quick look now why
this setup is so useful in your workouts. Keep in mind, the power
rack is geared towards individuals who are after strength and
muscle gains more than anything else.
With a good set of weights and a flat/incline/decline
bench, there are many lifts and exercises you can do with the
power rack. We'll just cover a few of the main ones that can really
benefit from the power rack - without needing a spotter: bench
press, squat, and standing press.
Power Rack Exercise: The Bench Press
Everyone knows the bench press is the king for
building pecs, and if you didn't know, you know that now. ;-)
But for many people who prefer to workout at home, having a spotter
becomes a big issue, and it becomes even more difficult getting
the most out of you chest workouts without a spotter. The power
rack solves this problem in a big way, although not 100%. Nothing
can really ever replace an experienced spotter (workout partner).
When I do my workouts, I prefer to have a partner
to spot, so I can go to failure for most of my sets. You really
can't do that by yourself, you'd end up getting crushed somehow.
;-) But with the power rack, you can actually push yourself to
failure. It won't be as effective as having a spotter, but it
still does a nice job.
Set the 2 safety bars on each side to a height
that's just at about your chest level when lying flat on the bench,
and adjust the weight holder hooks to a height that's about 2
notches up from the safety bar, so your arms need to bend somewhat
to lift the weights, but at the same time, doesn't require too
much effort. (I hope I'm not confusing you... kinda hard to explain.) This is so that you don't waste so much energy just getting
set to start your set. I recommend you test the height of the
2 safety bars by placing the barbell (without weights), and lying
flat on the bench to see if the height is good enough. Adjust
accordingly.
The reason you place the 2 safety bars just
a tiny above your chest level while lying down is so that you
allow the maximum range possible for each rep, and at the same
time, when you're at failure, the weight doesn't crush you to
death, but is stopped by the safety bars. After you complete your
set, get up, and place the weights back on to the weights holder.
(Can you imagine trying to start the next set with the bar just
above your chest?
Now you see why the power rack is one of my
favorite apparatus for workouts.
Power Rack Exercise: The Squat
The squat is another one of the best multi-joint
power lifts you can do. Normally, you'd have a tough time doing
squats (with a heavy load) without a spotter. With a power rack,
you can do squats with a relatively heavy load without a spotter.
You'd just set it up similar to how you setup the bench press.
First you need to set the safety bars to a good
height. Get into a squat position and squat down so your knees
are bent at no more than about 60 degrees. Then set the safety
bars at a height just slightly below shoulder height. This allows
you for a full range motion squat, and still have the safety bars
to catch the weights.
Then standing straight up, adjust the height
of the weight holder hooks to just a little lower than shoulder
height. This setup on the power rack allows you do to squats with
a heavy load without having a spotter present.
As for the standing press, it's the same idea,
so I'll be lazy and skip it.
Of course, the power rack combined with weights
and a bench allows you to do all types of exercises other than
the few listed here, with this setup, you can target every major
muscle group in your body either with multi-join power lifts or
isolated single muscle reps. It's extremely versatile and I think
by far the most effective home gym setup for real muscle and strength
gains.
You can order a power rack and bench online,
but I don't recommend buying the weights online. Because weights
aren't a high cost item, the shipping costs are probably gonna
cost you almost as much as the weights itself. Also remember that
you need olympic style weight set to go with power racks.
