Growing up
both of my parents owned workout equipment.
My mom had one of those home plate stack gym monstrosities that had ten
different stations and came with a poster of the 40 or so exercises you could
do. My dad had a very antiquated version
of the same thing that he probably got in the 80’s. It had one plate stack that connected to a
bar on a guide rail. You could do bench
press, seated row, and possibly squat although I never gave it a shot. They both still own them. My mom’s is up north at her cabin. My dad’s has been broken and useless for a
number of years but still resides in the same place it has always been.
Since having
a home gym was nothing really new to me I decided to make the plunge when I was
23. I was working at NX Level and we would
get super busy during the summer months.
I knew that there were going to be nights when the last thing I’d want
to do was to stay for another hour or two and workout. So I bought a set of bumper plates and bar
thinking that on those days I’d go home, workout, and go to bed instead of
skipping the workout all together. Thus
was born what would eventually become the Hometown He-Man Crushatorium.
Phase I- 609 E. Broadway Waukesha, WI
After I had
gotten the bar and plates I needed something to lift on. I employed my friend Tim and his “truck” (it’s
a Hyundai Santa Fe, hence the quotes) to help me get some plywood sheets and
horse stall mats to build a simple lifting platform. And that’s all it was, just a platform, a
bar, and some weights. It was Spartan to
be sure and I didn’t use it as much as I thought I was going to. Part of that was because I was usually able
to sneak workouts in at work. But it was
there when I needed it. After about a
year I moved- about two blocks to live with some college buddies.
Phase II- Hartwell Ave Waukesha, WI
Hartwell was
very much like East Broadway. Just a
platform, a bar, and some weights in a basement. The only difference was that my friend Ben
who lived there before left a heavy bag hanging in the basement. This was perfect because I had just dipped my
toe into the world of boxing. If my
memory serves me correct at this point I also borrowed my friend Kirk’s squat
stands. So now I could do just about
everything. But I mostly hit the heavy
bag. I’d do a few rounds in the morning
before work and maybe on weekends or snow days I’d lift in the basement. But that’s the point of a home gym, to be
what you need it to be. You don’t need it
to have every bell and whistle out there.
Just the things that are essential to your fitness needs.
Phase IIIa- West Allis Barbell, West
Allis, WI
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| Very disorganized but very effective. |
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| Man I loved this place. The neighbors however, not so much. |
This is
where things started to take shape. My
friend Kirk and I bought a duplex together and with it came a two car
garage. We combined the equipment that
we had both collected over the years and it was pretty basic and somewhat
unorganized but still kicked ass. Kirk
had some stones and a stone loading platform on one side and we had the squat
stands on the other side. In the middle
was the platform.
When Kirk
started his own gym he took his equipment out.
Now that there was room for it I decided to get my own squat rack. Since squat racks are a few hundred dollars
for the cheapest ones it was Craigslist to the rescue. If you are careful about it Craigslist has a
lot of great deals on used gym equipment.
That’s where I got both my bench and rack along with a bunch of my
weight plates.
After the
equipment was bought I rearranged things a little bit and ended up only using
about half the garage. It was small but
it had everything I needed. I have a lot
of fond memories from West Allis Barbell.
Sometimes when people couldn’t make it to NX Level I’d let them come
over and work out there. Most times it
would just be me, Saxon, some loud music, and the banging and clanging of lifting
weights. PRs were set, people got
strong, and friendships were forged through the iron. My only hope is that everyone that passed
through West Allis Barbell had a good time even if they didn’t have a
particularly good lift.
Since the
garage wasn’t insulated or heated it could only used for about 6-7 months
throughout the year. This brings us to
Phase IIIb.
Phase IIIb- Nitro St. Justice’s
Barbell Club and Gentleman’s Lounge
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| The Main Stage. |
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| The Bad Room. Also where I'd break bottles and cry. |
This was
basically West Allis Barbell South, meaning it was in my basement. The basement had a low ceiling so I could
only have the squat stands instead of the rack.
It also meant there would be no overhead pressing. But I still had the bench, a makeshift
platform, weights, and squat stands.
There was also a slight right to left downward slant which made any
squatting tricky if you weren’t used to it.
I liked it
down there but I always looked forward to when it would get warm enough to lift
outside. There’s something about the
open air that I love when I’m lifting.
Maybe it’s because I can take my shirt off and let my chest hair run
free after months of being cooped up during the winter. Maybe it’s because I can scare the neighbors
with my music. Whatever it is if I have
my choice, I’m lifting outside.
As much as I
loved West Allis Barbell (and to a lesser extent Nitro’s) all good things come
to an end. The siren from the south sang
her song and I was powerless to resist.
So in June of 2012 West Allis Barbell closed its doors.
Phase IV- The Hometown He-Man
Crushatorium
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| Needs some color and some decoration but it's done. |
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| Older picture of the cardio area. |
Like the
glorious Phoenix being reborn, The Hometown He-Man Cushatorium rose from the
ashes of West Allis Barbell. What was
once a garage is now a gym. With the
help of my beautiful wife, my father-in-law, my sister-in-law and her boyfriend
we made it an awesome place to train. It’s
insulated, heated, and has a growing arsenal of equipment that will be used to
produce PRs, slabs of muscle, six packs and other awesome results.
I’ve also
turned it into a career investment. Starting
1 March of 2013 I will be a completely independent personal trainer. I’ve had a few clients over to check the
place out and they are pretty excited about it.
I even asked if they think I should change the name and they said, “No
way.”
If you’re
thinking about investing in a home gym stop thinking about it and do it. Honestly it is one of the best decisions I’ve
ever made. And if you are patient it can
be done fairly inexpensively. My one
word of advice would be to buy nice so you don’t buy twice.
Or if you are in the Chicago area and would like
to train at a certain someone’s awesome home gym drop me a line. I know a guy who’s got a sweet set up!
