In this article today we are going to help you choose a squat rack for your home gym, as there are several factors to be looked at when looking to buy one. We will be breaking down each and every factor that is worth considering to give you somewhat of an idea of how the features help you with your lifting.
There are many brands that are selling racks at very cheap prices and compromising heavily on these factors and if you get one of those racks, you are in for suffering because trust me after owing 4 squat racks myself, two of which were absolutely pathetic quality and my first purchases as well, I have now known how these companies are cheating the audience and today I will help you be aware of them.
METAL GAUGE/BUILD QUALITY
I've had several of my subscribers send me pictures of their custom racks and all of the racks are made from poor-quality steel, which means the steel is not thick enough to carry enough loads. You would want your squat/power rack to be around 1.8 - 3.0 mm thickness which equates to around 14 - 11 gauge steel. The lower the gauge the thicker the steel is. If a manufacturer is using good thick steel they will outright mention it in the product description like bullrock fitness and siege fitness however most manufacturers don't as they are not using thick steel.
The first power rack I got was claimed to be made of 12 gauge steel when I asked the manufacturer, however, when I got the rack it was nowhere near 12 gauge. It came out around 20 gauge steel which is not heavy-duty enough for a power rack in my opinion. They outright lied to me and that is how most manufacturers cheat their audience as most people don't know how you can measure the thickness of steel
Credit: Memento Journal on Youtube
This is how you can measure the thickness of a power rack, you simply get on top and use a vernier caliper to measure the thickness from inside and you will get a number. Then google "Metal gauge chart", you can then compare the reading you got with the chart on google and you will get to know about the actual thickness of the power rack. Asking the manufacturer to do this and send it to you is not a good idea as they can easily manipulate the readings.
The lower the gauge of a rack, the heavier duty it is. Good quality power racks are usually made from 11 and 12-gauge steel and anything beyond 14-gauge is not heavy-duty enough.
HOLE SPACING
Hole spacing is very important, which is basically the distance from one hole to another and it is measured from the center of one hole to the other. The reason why hole spacing is important is mainly that too much space between the holes can cause problems finding the correct squat or bench height. It can either become too low such that you are lifting the bar from a deficit and expending a lot of energy or you are unracking the bar from an excess where you are having to exceed your range of motion for the movement, both of these situations are problematic mainly because it is disrupting your range of motion for the given movement.
Another issue with big hole spacing is that you often cannot find the right height for safety spotters. Either they are set too high so that you cannot get a full range of motion or they are set too low such that the safety spotters will not help you in case you fail the rep. You must have seen so many gym fails where because of the reason that the spotters were set too low, they failed and rep and potentially caused them an injury that could've easily been prevented.
The sweet spot for hole spacing I would say is 2 inches. You would see some racks coming with a 1-inch hole spacing, my squat rack has it and I don't particularly find it useful, and usually more confusing because of so many holes that I tend to forget where I put it on the other side. Cheaper racks usually come with a 3 - 4 inch hole spacing which is a disaster because of the reasons I explained above. I cannot find my ideal squat or bench height as well the spotters become useless. People get a squat rack for safety and a rack with too big hole spacing is proving no safety to you.
This too manufacturers mention in their description and if some manufacturer is not, you can almost bet that it has a hole spacing greater than 2 inches. The power rack I have is 3.6 inches hole spacing which is a disaster, you would want to avoid these kinds of power racks as in trying to save a few thousand rupees, you are giving up on your safety.
WHAT SPOTTER SYSTEM IT HAS
Mainly there are 4 types of safety spotters, Flip down safeties, spotter arms, pin & pipe safeties and strap safeties. Let's discuss each a bit
PIN & PIPE SAFETIES
In this safety spotter system, there's a metal pin that goes inside a metal pipe and that's it. The metal pipe is hollow, although the chrome pin is solid steel so it no doubt has a great loading capacity and won't fail on you however, I don't like it very much.
It's difficult to adjust and takes a lot of time, on top of that it doesn't provide any protection to your barbell knurling. Direct metal-to-metal contact will destroy the knurling and coating of your barbell so it's not that good. It's okay to use these in a budget power rack, however, I would want the next options to be used in a more expensive rack.
FLIP DOWN SAFETIES
These are flip-down safeties and are better than pin and pipe safeties. These are much easier to adjust although heavy however if you use two hands which you would definitely need to adjust, they're pretty straightforward. Additionally, with them, you get a layer of UHMW plastic covering the top so that your barbell knurling is protected which is just great. It also means you can do rack pulls without many worries, although that can bend your barbell.
You would see these being used in most premium power racks and spotter arms are just a version of these that attaches to one upright instead of two and are used in squat racks.
SAFETY STRAPS
This is arguably the best safety spotter system that you can find in a power rack. They are very lightweight as they are made from industrial-grade nylon and weigh very less. Adjusting them is a breeze and you can do one side at a time as well. Safety straps also provide you with the best protection for your barbell as compared to other systems and also don't degrade down the line.
These also cost less compared to flip-down safeties and I would guess this cost is lesser than even pin and pipe safeties although companies sell them for more because it is a more premium safety system.
WHICH SAFETY SYSTEM IS BEST?
As you can clearly understand that safety straps are the best although I only know of one company that has it in India, which is siege fitness. If you are going for a premium rack, safety straps are way better than any other option.
Flip-down safeties are great as well, although one con will be the noise created when you bang the barbell on it and the weight being quite a lot so it can be a bit heavy to adjust for most people.
I would put pin & pipe safeities at last, because of the reasons I explained earlier, I can understand them being used in a cheaper power rack for cost-cutting purposes however they are not worthwhile safety spotter systems on a premium rack and you would not like using them most of the times because of the amount of time it takes to perfectly align them.
DOES IT HAVE UHMW PLASTIC?
UHMW plastic is what protects your barbell from direct metal-to-metal contact with your J cups and spotter arms, if you have a good quality barbell that you care about and want to keep the knurling sharp then it is very important. Some manufacturers use rubber instead of uhmw plastic, and that's what I tried to do as well, however, after a few workouts the rubber started to tear and it is not a worthwhile alternative. Rubber does not help as the knurlings are usually very sharp and can cut through rubber very easily.
Most cheaper squat racks have no layer of uhmw plastic on their J cups or their spotter arms either and that is a big letdown. I will say you will need to cross-check with the manufacturer if they are not already mentioning it in their bio. Some manufacturers will try to convince you that they will give rubber instead of UHMW plastic but don't be fooled as it is not an alternative and doesn't protect your barbell nearly as much.
PULL UP BAR SYSTEM
I think this is more of a personal preference although I will say I want my racks to have a multi-grip pull-up bar, it becomes crucial in a home gym where exercise variations are less anyway. You can get up to 8 different pull-up grip variations with a multi-grip pull-up bar as opposed to just chin-ups and pullups you get with a straight pull-up bar.
Multi-grip pull-up bars also prevent overuse injuries that occur from doing tons of pullups and chin-ups, especially in the wrist, elbows, and shoulder areas. Multi-grip pull-up bars come in a lot of different designs although the one that you are seeing above is the system that I personally like. It has over 8 different pull-up variations you can do.
Some look like this and honestly this isn't good as it just gives you an extra narrow neutral grip, welding a few straight bars isn't a huge cost to the company and this is just trying to provide as less value as possible. There are things that need to be compromised to bring down the cost but welding 3-4 extra straight bars isn't one of those I think. If you are getting a multi-grip pull-up bar in a power rack, it should at least have 5 different grips you can choose from.
Some people don't care about a multi grip pullup bar, and I, of course, cannot change their mind anyway, so this is an individual thing, however, if you want my opinion, you would want to get a multi-grip pull-up bar in a power rack.
BEST POWER RACK RECOMMENDATIONS
You would want to check out this article of ours if you're looking for my recommendations on the best squat racks and power racks in India.
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