Archive - January, 2012

Garage Home Gym

January 31, 2012 in Blog with 0 Comments

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Going from the commercial gym to a home gym was one of the best decisions I ever made.

For those who are considering setting a home gym but are torn between garage or basement, I’ll share with you some of my thoughts and notes while going through the decision making process. I hope it helps if you’re deciding to quit your gym membership and train at home.

Now, my situation might be a little different than yours. I recently moved, so the basement and the garage were empty. That means that I did not have to deal with having to move or re-arrange stuff that’s stored in the garage or basement. Also, the basement is unfinished and the floor is bare concrete, just like the garage.

I ultimately choose the basement as the location for my home gym, however the garage was my first choice.

I mean, take a look at this picture and tell me it’s not awesome (note: not my home gym!)

Garage Home Gym

Anyways, here are some of my notes of the positives and negatives of having a garage home gym:

Benefits of A Garage Home Gym

Moving Equipment

It’s easy to move exercise equipment in and out. This is beneficial because if I order heavy equipment and/or anything that requires assembly, I can tell the delivery guy to unload everything into the garage. From there, I can unpack, and assemble everything right in the garage.

With a basement home gym, all the equipment would need to be brought into the house and then moved down stairs. During this move, extra care would have to be taken to make sure that the walls, floors, and whatever else are not damaged. I can tell you that I have a few black marks on the wall from moving 10 4’x6’ rubber stall mats from the garage to the basement.

Moving all the equipment out from the garage would be easier compared to the basement. If I decide to move and don’t want to take apart my power rack, I move the entire thing (without having to disassemble it) through the garage door, and then into a moving truck and be done with it. But because my power rack is in the basement, I would have to disassemble everything, make sure I don’t lose any bolts and washers, and then reassemble the rack. Hauling hundreds of pounds of weights, equipment, and those stall mats up the stairs not be fun.

Ceiling Height

The height of the ceiling in my basement is about 92”, whereas my garage is 112”. It’s fine since I’m somewhat vertically challenged at 5’4”, standing overhead presses with 45lbs plates is no problem in the basement.

But for someone taller, pressing a bar with 45lbs plates on both sides may not be possible without hitting the ceiling. A taller person could substitute the seated barbell should press, but this exercise is far more inferior than the standing overhead press.

If I decide to program plyometric exercises into my training (such as box jumps, etc.), I wouldn’t be able to do it in the basement. Whereas the garage, with an over 9’ ceiling, wouldn’t be an issue.

Also the Rogue power racks are 90”, or 7'6” tall, which will barely fit into my basement. Doing pull-ups and chin-ups would be an issue if I only have 2” of head room to work with. However, according to this video, you can request a customized 7 foot version of the Rogue power rack for an extra $50. You’d probably want to contact Rogue’s customer support for details about a 7’ rack.

Opening The Garage Door

Opening the garage door allows you to let in the fresh air from the outdoors while letting out any sort of odours from your training session. A garage door screen can be used to keep the insects, dust & debris out.

Any sort of strongman training that involves carrying a weight and walking around would be easier with a garage because you could make use of the driveway. Training outside would be as simple as opening the garage door.

And lastly, for better or worst, training with heavy weights with the garage door open will probably attract the attention of your neighbors.

Negatives About A Garage Gym

Temperature & Humidity Control

I live in a part of the world where it’s too damn hot in the summer, and too damn cold in the winter, and not enough in between. Because of this, the garage, if not properly insulated, will be subject to the temperature and humidity levels outside.

You can combat this by first insulating the garage door. I’ve read the “Owens Corning Garage Door insulation kit” makes it easy, but there are other DIY solutions as well.

Next would be heating & cooling the garage. Cooling the garage would be easier because you could just use a fan and/or open the garage door.

As for heating, portable electric heaters and utility heaters designed for garages works well, provided that the garage door and walls are insulated (I’ve tried heating the garage with an un-insulated garage door made of wood using a Garrison oil heater and it has no effect. However, the same heater can heat up the basement just fine).

Humidity would need to be controlled, or else it can make all the weights, racks and bars corrode. Which is the last thing I want, since I removed the rust and refinished my Olympic plates, and do not want the bare steel B&R bar to rust.

Sloped Floor

From what I understand, garage floors are normally sloped down towards the outside.

Dan Thomson writes:

“Heavy things and liquids go downhill.

To maintain safety in the garage, it is necessary to slope the garage floor 1/4" per foot so things like gas fumes (which are heavier than air), fuel, water, etc. can exit the garage safety without building up and possibly causing a hazard.”

This is not good because the last thing I want is having a 400lbs+ barbell rolling into the garage door (or worst, rolling outside onto the driveway into the road!)

There are ways around this, such a building a lifting platform to accommodate the slope, or level the garage floor with self levelling cement (I don’t think I can do this because apparently a sloped garage floor is part of the Ontario building code).

Either way, it will be a pain in the ass and add addition work and cost into the home gym.

###

Overall, I decided against setting up my home gym in the garage because I didn’t want to deal with the issue of a sloped floor. Even though a garage home gym has many benefits, the negatives pushed me towards a choosing the basement as the location for my home gym.

And now, I have to figure out what to do with my garage! Right now it’s just a storage area for boxes that I’m too lazy to break apart and recycle.

For my next blog post, I’m going to talk about the benefits of a basement home gym, so stay tuned.

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Texas Method Training Log: Monday January 30 [Volume Day]

January 30, 2012 in Workout Log with 0 Comments

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Squat

  • 330lbs: 5,5,5,5,5

Bench Press

  • 237.5lbs: 5,5,5,5,5
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Training Logs, Squats vs Deadlifts, Truth About Bench Press, Art of Olympic Weightlifting and Discipline & Sacrafice

January 29, 2012 in Weekly Review with 0 Comments

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Some of my post you might have missed:

  1. Mircoloading with Rogue Fractional Plates
  2. 10 Things I Miss About Commercial Gyms
  3. 10 Things I Don't Miss About Commercial Gyms

And a few helpful articles I've come across this past week:

  1. Logging Progress from 70sbig
  2. Squats vs. Deadlifts by Charles Poliquin
  3. Squatting 101 & Deadlifting 101 by Christine aka "Cookie Monster"
  4. The Truth About The Bench Press by Nick Tumminello
  5. All About the Bench Press by Jim Wendler
  6. The Art of Olympic Weightlifting by Nick Horton
  7. A Few Words About Discipline & Sacrifice by Matt Kroczaleski
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10 Things I MISS About Commercial Gyms

January 27, 2012 in Blog with 3 Comments

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One of the comments left on my last blog post entitled “10 Thing’s I Do Not Miss About Commercial Gyms” was from Craig Hirota, who suggested a great idea about writing my top 10 things that I DO miss about commercial gyms...so here it is!

Some of these might not apply to you, but I’m sure there will be a few you could relate to:

1. Observing Others

Human females with a symmetrical face and a waist to hip ratio of about 0.7, wearing form fitting gym apparel, and performing just about any exercise correctly using a full range of motion are nice to look at by most, if not all heterosexual human males.

It can increase performance for some, but distracting for others.

2. Secretly Competing With Others

Treadmill Racing

I do something similar, in the weight room, lifting weights.

I’m sure I’m not alone on this one.

I like to be the strongest one in the gym. When I am not, I push myself to get stronger.

When I was living in Bangkok, there was a really big guy (well, big upper body at least) who used to partial bench more than I could bench press.

This motivated me to bench more weight than he did, but with full range of motion (that is, the bar touching my chest with every rep), which I did.

Training at home, I don’t have anyone around me to compete with. Although I do compete with myself, trying to break my previous personal records, it’s really not the same as out lifting someone you see on a regular basis at the gym.

3. People Watching You

I’m not an attention whore, but having eyeballs on me when I lift weights is motivating, especially during my main sets. This is also known as social facilitation.

There’s a sense that an audience is around me and I would have to perform.

And because people are watching (at least, I think they’re watching...), I don’t want to look like I added too much weight to the bar and bit off more than I could chew, so there’s an extra bit of motivation to complete that last rep and not fail.

4. Mirrors

I don’t have any mirrors in my basement home gym. At least not yet.

I’m not the type of guy who trains for aesthetic purposes, but I have to admit it’s pretty awesome seeing yourself in the mirror after getting a huge pump.

Often times I would look in the mirror and see some guy with a big traps, huge back and a bubble butt. I’d think, “Damn, this guy is huge!”

Then I’d realize that I was looking at a reflection of another mirror on an opposite wall...and it was me all along. Sweet.

5. Answering Questions

I’m not the most approachable guy at the gym. I tend to be focused on my training and tune everything else out.

However sometimes people would ask questions, and I don’t mind answering as long as people listen (and as long as they’re not interrupting my training or taking too much of my time in between sets like that Mr. Million Questions guy who seems to manifest himself in every gym).

It’s rewarding to see that I helped make an impact on other people’s training, strength, and overall health.

6. Non-Verbally Inspiring People

At least in my past experience, sometimes I don’t have to say anything to inspire others in their training.

For instance, when I used to go to a gym in Bangkok, there would be a group of kids (either fresh out of high school or just starting university) who I knew watched me while I trained. After a few days, I would see them attempt the same thing, albeit a bastardized version of what I was doing. For example, my squat in the squat rack became their squat in the StarTrack Maxrack (a 3D Smith machine).

I even saw that they purchased the same equipment as me. I have the Schiek weight lifting straps that I use for deadlifts. One day, I saw the group of kids with the same straps using them for incline dumbbell bench presses and on the EZ-bar on the preacher curl bench.

I also carry around a belt at the gym. I use it during my main sets (and sometimes during my heavier warm-ups) during squat, deadlift and overhead press. After some time, I saw this same group of kids carry belts with them too and wore it for ALL lifts. But mainly the ones where you sit or lay down on a bench.

7. Personal Trainers with an Area of Expertise

At Fitness First Rama 3 in Bangkok, there were at least 2 former competitive Muay Thai boxers.

When I found out about this, I signed up for a few weeks of personal training sessions with one of the trainers and began my Muay Thai training (ironically, in comforts of an air conditioned commercial gym).

His English wasn’t that great, but through body language, he could communicate what I needed to do and what I was doing wrong.

Hitting the Thai pads with an experienced pad holder and former fighter sure beats any other conditioning exercise I’ve ever tried. And on top of that, he’s given me tips on improving my punches, kicks, knees and elbows.

There’s nothing like getting a killer workout while sharpening your skills under the guidance of someone who has been fighting in the ring even since he was a kid (children competing in full contact Muay Thai is normal in Thailand).

8. Rubber Coated Olympic Plates with Grips

I’m talking about something like this:

Urethane-Olympic-plate

Simply put, those rubber coated Olympic plates with built-in grips are easier to work with compared to steel Olympic plates with a bevelled edge.

It’s easier to carry around, doesn’t make that clanging noise when the plates hit each other, and are less vulnerable to rust.

Perhaps I’ll upgrade my weights in the future.

9. Super Expensive Specialized Machines

I’m not a big fan of exercise machines, especially those that are designed to replace their free weight counterpart.

But there are some machines I miss, and although I could buy them myself, they would cost an arm and a leg.

The machine I miss the most is the Freemotion “functional trainer” machine, pictured below:

freemotion-functional-trainer

Now, why would I miss this somewhat gimmicky looking machine?

It’s because the adjustable height of the pulley makes it easy to train my neck. What I do is attach my Ironmind neck harness to the machine, and adjust the pulley at the lowest level to do neck extensions, and then adjust the pulley to around eye level to do neck flexion and side flexion.

I’ve tried attaching a plate to neck harness and perform neck exercises. It works fine for neck extensions, but it doesn’t work as well when I’m trying to train the front and sides of my neck.

I would also use the same machine for face pulls.

The other machine I miss, and have only seen it in one gym (Popeye’s, which is now World’s Gym in Kitchener, Ontario), is the 4-way neck machine. These machines don’t come cheap either.

4-way-neck-machine

10. Compliments

Getting compliments from others feels good.

It’s a small reward for the time, money and energy I’ve invested in the pursuit of strength.

There’s nothing like a “YOU’RE A MONSTER!” from someone after nearly crushing myself with 400lbs+ on my back.

Feels Good Man

Feels good man!

###

Have you switched from a commercial gym and started training at home?

If so, what do you miss from training at the last gym you were a member of?

Leave your comments below :)

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Texas Method Training Log: Friday January 27, 2012 [Intensity Day]

January 27, 2012 in Workout Log with 0 Comments

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Squat

  • 367.5lbs:5

Overhead Press

  • 207.5lbs: 3

Deadlift (Hook Grip)

  • 317.5lbs: 3
  • 337.5lbs: 3
  • 367.5lbs: X

Notes

Used the hook grip for deadlifts. Felt OK, but it seems as though my pain tolerance is only up to 3 reps for now.

At 367.5lbs, it felt as though I was going to rip my thumb off. Try again next time.

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10 Things I Do Not Miss About Commercial Gyms

January 26, 2012 in Blog with 5 Comments

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Over the course of my life, I have been a member of numerous commercial gyms in Canada and Thailand.

But ever since December 2011, I have put together a home gym in my basement and have been training at home ever since.

Here are a few things that I don’t miss about commercial gyms:

1. Personal Trainers Who Don’t Know What They’re Doing

personal-trainer-let-me-teach-you-how-to-curl-follow-me-to-the-squat-rack

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a personal trainer do upright rows at the same time their client is performing bench presses with the same bar.

Or the number of times I’ve seen trainers without a training log for their clients.

Or the number of times I’ve heard giving out the wrong advice or exercise instruction.

Don’t take this the wrong way, not all personal trainers don’t know what they’re doing, but it seems like (at least in my experience) there are more crappy trainers than good ones.

2. Commuting

I’ve always thought of commuting as a waste of time. The time spent getting to the gym and back can take as long (or longer) that the workout itself!

Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but if possible, I’ll try to set up a situation for myself where getting from point A to B is minimal.

For the last 2 clubs I was a member of, I was fortunate to live close enough to be able to walk to the gym. It only took around 15 minutes each way, but that’s an extra 30 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. Multiply that by the number of times I go to the gym (3-5) per week, the number of weeks in a month, the number of months in a year, etc. and it adds up.

3. Waiting

Normally, the squat rack is never in use. However there are times when I need to use a bench. And more often than not, the people doing bench press aren’t even doing half-range of motion!

There are also people socialize in between sets, and/or use their phones while sitting on the exercise equipment. Often times they would spend more time on their phones texting and chatting than actually working out.

4. Crappy Exercise Equipment

adductor machine

This machine trains the "NO" muscles

Yes-No machines, Smith machines, elliptical trainers, & Nautilus circuit machines and countless others seem to get the most use in a gym serving the general public. They’re also the equipment that have the least impact on “getting toned”, “getting cut” and “losing weight”.

(I have to admit, I did use the Smith machine as an adjustable height pull up bar when the chin up area was in use).

5. Crappy Workout Music

I would not have known about Justin Beiber, Kate Perry or Lady Gaga if it wasn’t for those Les Mills group fitness classes. I bet there’s someone out there who loves to lift heavy weights to “Somebody to Love”, but it’s not my cup of tea.

At home, I tune into Digitally Imported and listen to either Trance or Goa-Psy Trance, which is probably considered crappy music to some people.

The choice of music to listen to while training is subjective, but since I’m training in my home gym, I can listen to whatever “crappy” music I want.

One man’s crappy music is another man’s ear candy.

6. People Asking A Million Questions In Between Sets

Don’t get me wrong, I like to help people with their training and answer their questions to the best of my ability. But sometimes people ask too many questions at the wrong time (in between sets), and take up a lot of time with their interrogation.

7. Unhygienic People

I’ve seen people picking their noses in between their sets, people who don’t wash their hands after they use the rest rooms, and others cough or sneezing into their hands before they grasp the barbell.

Nasty.

8. Dealing With People Who Don’t Put Away Weights

Y U NO PUT AWAY WEIGHTS

Why can’t some people put away the weights?

It’s just common courtesy to put away those 35lbs dumbbells and put away the plates after doing quarter squats on the smith machine.

9. People Who Drop Puny Weights On The Floor

I’m not sure what the deal is with people who drop dumbbells on the floor after they’re finished the set. I’m talking about people who are dumbbell bench pressing 50lbs (total) for 12+ reps with little effort, and then dropping it.

No matter how loud the sound of dumbbells dropping make, it won’t make you look any manlier!

In my opinion, the weight shouldn’t be dropped on the floor unless it is unsafe or impossible to put it down in a controlled manner. Or if they’re lifting with bumper plates.

10. Initiation Fees, Recurring Membership Fees, Hold Fees and Cancellation Fees

‘nuff said.

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Texas Method Training Log: Weds Jan 25, 2012 [Recovery Day]

January 25, 2012 in Workout Log with 0 Comments

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Power Clean

  • 187.5lbs: 3,3,3

Front Squat

  • 230lbs: 3,3,3,3,3

Dips

  • Bodyweight (190lbs): 12,12,12
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Microloading with Rogue Fractional Olympic Plates

January 25, 2012 in Product Reviews with 4 Comments

Rogue-Fractional-Plates.jpg
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If you’re on a training protocol (such as Starting Strength, StrongLifts 5x5, or Texas Method to name a few) which instructs you to add weight to your lifts on a regular basis, then there will come a time when you WILL get stuck.

In other words, there will come a point where you cannot add any more weight to the bar, even though you can complete 3 sets of 5 reps (Starting Strength) at a particular weight.

This usually happens when you try to increase the load by 5lbs (and on lifts such as the overhead press or bench press, simply because there are less muscle groups involved in those exercises compared to the squat or deadlift).

The smallest Olympic plate at a gym is typically 2.5lbs. Adding 2.5lbs to both sides of an Olympic bar increases the load by 5lbs. What this means is even with the smallest possible weight available at a gym, it will be difficult to keep on progressing simply because 5lbs is too big of a jump.

To illustrate this, let’s imagine someone named “Bob” who can squat 200lbs, and overhead press 100lbs (both exercises for 3 sets of 5 reps). He’s on the Starting Strength training program, so linear progression (a fancy way of saying “adding weight every time you train”) is the name of the game.

For Bob’s next training session, his plan is to squat 205lbs and overhead press 105lbs.

The squat, going from 200lbs to 205lbs represents a 2% increase.

Whereas the overhead press, going from 100lbs to 105lbs would be a 5% increase.

Which do you think would be easier?

The 2% jump in weight for the squat will probably be manageable, however, a 5% jump for the overhead press would prove more challenging to achieve 3 sets of 5 reps. In fact, the extra 5lbs on the overhead press might be too much, and Bob might not even reach a set of 5 reps. He’ll hit a wall and plateau.

I’m sure this is a familiar story...I’ve experience the same situation myself many times (at different weights).

So how can Bob keep on progressing and continue to get stronger?

In my experience, there are 2 ways to keep on getting stronger (assuming that sleep, diet and recovery are fine):

First, is fight at the weight you’re stuck at until your can complete 3 sets of 5 reps (or whatever set/rep scheme the training program calls for).

What I used to do is use the weight I’m stuck at and work at it week after week until I could finish 3 sets of 5 reps. Sometimes this would take a few weeks; I would struggle at completing just 1 set of 5 reps, and maybe only hit 4 or 3 reps during the next 2 sets. After week or so, I would eventually hit my target of 3 sets of 5 reps. But here’s the thing: using the same weight over and over again really kills the momentum of getting stronger every training session.

The other solution is micro-loading with fractional plates.

Rogue Fractional Plates

Rogue-Fractional-Plates

At first I was hesitant to buy the fractional plates from Rogue Fitness simply because it was so damn expensive for such puny weights! ($65 for only a total of 5lbs of Olympic plates).

I’ve read people making homemade fractional plates from chains, but I decided on fractional plates from Rogue, simply because the cost of going to the hardware store to buy the chains, cost of the chains and buying a new kitchen scale to weigh these chains would cost more in time and effort.

These tiny weights have made a big impact on my training. Now, instead of trying to increase the weight by 5lbs, I can increase the load with as little as 0.50lbs.

There are 4 different plates:

  1. 0.25lbs x 2 = 0.50lbs
  2. 0.50lbs x 2 = 1.00lb
  3. 0.75lbs x 2 = 1.50lbs
  4. 1.00lb x 2 = 2lbs

I like the fact that I can go from 0.50lbs to 5.0lbs in half pound increments. I also like that each weight is represented by a different color (I’ve seen some fractional plates that are all one color - chrome).

Carrying Fractional Plates Around

Rogue-Fitness-Fractional-Plates

I used to take 2 sets of the Rogue fractional plates with me to the gym. At that point, I’ve found that I could still make progress by increasing the load by 2.5lbs (that’s 1.25lbs on each side of the bar), so I only brought half of the set with me: the 0.75lb red plates and the 0.50lbs blue plates.

An extra 2.5lbs in my gym bag wasn’t too much to ask.

I weaved the strap of my fanny pack inside the 2” holes of the fractional plates, and carried it over my shoulders. I probably got some weird looks (”why is that big short guy carrying baby weights?”), but I’m not interested in what other people think...I only want to get stronger!

Impact

Rogue-Fractional-Olympic-Plates

My goal is simply to get stronger, and microloading with fractional plates have helped me reach person records in all my lifts. After all, a 500.5lb deadlift is bigger than a 500lbs deadlift.

The Rogue fractional plates has helped the most with the overhead press and bench press, especially early on where a 5lbs increase became too big of a jump.

Psychologically I think it helps as well. Hitting a wall and getting stuck at a weight for weeks on end sucks. Especially when before it felt as though linear progression was going to happen forever (I wish!). Even adding 0.50lbs to the bar kept the momentum going and the belief that I am getting stronger...a little bit at a time.

What I Didn’t Like

What I didn’t like is that on some of these plates, somehow the paint has chipped off and the metal has show signs of rust.

RogueFractionalPlates1

RogueFractionalPlates2

I’m not sure how the paint chipped off, and I’m not sure if it’s even possible to prevent paint from coming off any weight lifting equipment for that matter since you’re banging metal on metal all the time, but the rusting is probably my fault, since I stored them in a humid basement.

In the future I may end up painting over this rust with some rust resistant paint from Tremclad or Rustoleum.

Overall

If you’re serious about getting stronger, then the Rogue Fractional Plates are among the best investments you can make. Tiny increment in weights as low as 0.50lbs will break plateaus, get unstuck and ensure that you’ll keep on progressing and keep on getting stronger.

At first glance it’s seems like a significant investment $65 for a total of 5lbs.

But if you’re like me and you’re pushing yourself to get stronger and break personal records, you’ll probably use fractional plates on every other workout (at least) for the rest of your life.

So $65 for something that will last years and get a lot of use over the course of your life is definitely a bargain.

Check it out here: Rogue Fractional Plates

Alternatively, there’s the Iron Woody fractional plates. The non-metric version is a bit cheaper than Rogue’s (probably because it’s not made of the anti-tank metal that Rogue uses), but I’m sure it’s just as effective.

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Texas Method Training Log: Monday January 23, 2012 [Volume Day]

January 23, 2012 in Workout Log with 0 Comments

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Squat

  • 327.5lbs: 5,5,5,5,5

Overhead Press

  • 187.5lbs: 5,5,5,5,5
    • Power cleaned the bar off the floor into position
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How To Remove Rust & Refinish Rusted Olympic Plates

January 22, 2012 in Blog with 2 Comments

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How to Remove Rust & Refinish Rusted Olympic Plates

Before...

A while back I got scored a sweet deal on a bunch of used Olympic plates from an online classified ad. The lady was selling 12x45lbs plates for only $50...so cheap!

It was a great price, but the plates themselves were not in great shape.

They were stored in a shed, and most of the plates were rusted.

It was too good of a deal to pass up, so I bought them with the intention of refinishing them afterward.

I’ve read you could soak the plates in Coca-cola to remove the rust (something to do with the phosphoric acid in Coke that can apparently get rid of rust), but that seemed a little messy and is a waste of something I would rather drink. I’m a little skeptical and wasn’t sure how well this would work, and I wanted something that would surely take care of the rust problem, along with preventing rust in the future.

After some research online, I discovered an easy way to make rusty weight look as good as new. Turns out there’s a special type of paint made by Tremclad (the Canadian version of Rustoleum) that you can apply onto surface rust, that will penetrating rusty surfaces and inhibiting rust. On top of that, there’s no need for a primer and there’s many different colors to choose from. I went with the hammertone black because it looked like the original color of the York Olympic plates.

There’s a few steps and tools you’ll need to remove rust and refinish weight plates. Here’s how I did it:

Tools You’ll Need

how-to-refinish-Olympic-plates-007

  • Wire Brush (I’ve read sandpaper works as well)
  • Mineral spirits
  • Rust preventive paint (I went for Tremclad’s/Rustoleum’s, but I've heard Krylon works too). I needed 2 cans of spray paint for 6 plates.
  • Some old rags
  • Cardboard
  • Dust/face mask (breathing in the fine rust particles or any spray paint is probably not good for your health).

Preparation

how-to-refinish-Olympic-plates-005

Take large pieces of cardboard and lay them out onto the floor.

Make sure that there is no space in between the pieces of cardboard, or you’ll end up getting spray paint onto the floor.

Place the weights on top of the cardboard. The weights should be spaced apart, so it will be easier to paint the side of the plates.

Steps

  1. Take a wire brush and scrub the Olympic plates to get rid of any loose rust and dirt. Make sure to scrub along the sides of the plates, along with the insides of the hole. If your wire brush is too large for the hole, sandpaper will work.
    how-to-refinish-Olympic-plates-008
  2. Pour a bit of mineral spirits onto the plates and wipe them clean with a rag. Supposedly what this does is remove any excess dirt and oils so that the paint will stick to the metal. Do this on both sides and let it dry. I’m not sure how long it takes to try since I left it overnight.
  3. With a can of Tremclad (or Rustoleum), spray coat of paint onto the Olympic plates. I’ve never used spray paint before, so I just sprayed from side to side, working my way from top to bottom. Don’t forget to spray on the sides of the plates, and inside the hole.I let it dry for about 15-20 minutes before painting on a second layer.
    how-to-refinish-Olympic-plates-015

    I repeated this for a total of 3 coats. After the 3rd coat of paint, I let it dry over night before flipping them over and painting the other side.

Before & After

how-to-refinish-Olympic-plates-010

how-to-refinish-Olympic-plates

Not bad!

The front and back surface of the Olympic plates looked pretty good, but the inside of the hole and the side of the plates were still a little rusty.

Looking back, I would have taken some wooden blocks and place them underneath the plates before painting them. It would have been easier to spray paint the side of the plates.

Alternatively, I would have painted the sides and inside the hole using a brush and the paint-can version of Tremclad.

There you have it - cheap, rusty Olympic weights looking as good as new!

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