How Elite Weight Rooms Are Built
Buckeye Community School Full Gym Install
There is a big difference between buying equipment and building a weight room.
A weight room has to train athletes. It has to hold up to abuse. It has to move groups through without turning every session into a traffic jam. It has to fit the building, the staff, the budget, the school colors, and the way the room will actually be used after the first week of excitement wears off.
That is where most projects get sideways. The room looks good on paper, but the racks do not flow. Storage gets ignored. Flooring is treated like an afterthought. The specialty bars are missing. The room has machines, but not the right pieces to train the posterior chain, upper back, legs, and trunk in ways that carry over.
This install at Buckeye Community School in London, Ohio was not built that way. This was a full room buildout. Flooring, racks, benches, machines, bars, plates, storage, cardio, and accessories all had to work together.
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Custom branding matters. This room was built around Buckeye Community School, not around elitefts.
Start With The Floor
Most people want to start with racks and machines. That makes sense because those are the pieces everyone sees first. But the floor is the base of the entire room.
For Buckeye Community School, the build started with Ecore Performance Ultra QB flooring. The order included the tile, quad block connectors, reducers, adhesive, and installation. This was not just a place to set equipment. It was the surface the athletes would train on every day.
Flooring affects sound, traction, equipment stability, maintenance, and how the room feels when it is full. Cheap flooring turns into a problem fast. Good flooring disappears because it does its job.
The Ecore flooring gave the room the base it needed before the racks, sleds, machines, and accessories went in.
Custom Racks Built For The Room
The center of the room is the custom rack line. Buckeye went with five custom Multi-Full Racks with safety pin spotters, quick-adjust safety spotters, J-cups, sandwich-style J-cups, band pegs, bar holders, chain storage, numbered posts, laser-cut logos, and monkey pull-up attachments.
The colors were custom matched. The teal, gray, and yellow were not stock throw-in colors. The room was built to look like Buckeye Community School. That matters. When athletes walk in, the room should feel like theirs.
The racks also used bridge connectors to keep the line square, stable, and clean. This is the kind of detail that does not sound exciting until you have racks shifting around over time. Then it becomes very exciting, usually in the wrong way.
The build also included V-dip attachments, single-leg squat attachments, adjustable safety straps, and custom logo work. The goal was not to create five places to squat. The goal was to create five complete training stations.
Benches, Bars, Plates, And The Tools That Keep The Room Moving
The order included five 0-90 benches with wheels, kick stands, and custom logo gussets. These are the kinds of details that make a room easier to coach. If benches are easy to move and stay where they need to be, the room runs better.
Behind the racks, the room was stocked with specialty bars and training tools that give coaches options without turning every session into a workaround. That included SS Yoke Bars, American Gridiron Bars, Troy Blackwing Olympic Bars, VTX Hex Bars, PRIME Trap Bars, EZ curl bars, a fat bar, and BandBell Earthquake Bars.
Plates and loading matter too. The room included rubber competition plates, USA Olympic black plates, change plates, economy plates, a premium rubber dumbbell set from 5 to 100 pounds, chains, collars, elitefts EZ Squat-Bench Loader Straps, sled straps, sled pulling belts, dip belts, and cable attachments.
This is the stuff that makes the difference between having equipment and being able to train.
Machines That Earn Their Space
Every machine in a school weight room has to earn its footprint. You need pieces that solve real training problems, hold up, and get used by more than one type of athlete.
The Buckeye Community School install included two Signature GHR/Hyper units with logo panels, two elitefts Professional 45 Degree Back Raises, two elitefts Signature Leg Ext/Curl Plate Loaded units, two Signature Lat Pulldown machines with weight stacks, one linear bearing leg press with custom logo panels, one Signature Seated Row ISO, two Tiger Belt Squat machines, one seated calf/tib raise combo, one plate-loaded pec deck/rear delt, and one Signature Dual Functional Trainer.
That is a lot of training variety without wasting space. Posterior chain. Legs. Upper back. Rows. Pulldowns. Belt squats. Accessory work. Rehab-friendly options. Strong athletes need all of it. Developing athletes need even more of it.
The full room buildout included racks, machines, cardio, dumbbells, storage, flooring, and open training space.
Storage Is Not Optional
Storage is one of the first things people cut and one of the first things they regret cutting.
Buckeye added Erect-A-Storage base sides with logo panels, med ball storage, kettlebell storage, machine bar storage, a vertical bar holder, attachment storage, and rack-based storage. The room also included kettlebells, AbMat medicine balls, weighted vests, ankle weights, mobility balls, and elitefts Pro resistance bands.
A clean room is easier to coach. It is safer. It is faster. It teaches athletes to respect the space. That does not happen by accident. You build storage into the plan from the beginning.
The rule is simple:
If it has to be used every day, it needs a place to live every day.
Conditioning, Testing, And Athletic Development
The room was not built just for barbell training. It also included cardio and performance tools: TrueForm Trainers, Spirit AB950 Airbikes, a Spirit CE900 Elliptical, a Spirit CRW800 Rower, compact sleds, Econo Prowlers, soft foam plyo boxes, elitefts Squat Boxes, step hurdles, agility domes, a vertical jump trainer, and a long jump tester.
This matters for schools. Athletes need strength, but they also need work capacity, repeatability, acceleration, deceleration, coordination, and the ability to express power. A room like this gives coaches options.
The finished rack line shows how the custom colors, attachments, benches, plates, chains, and storage came together.
Items Included In The Buckeye Community School Install
The full project included the following equipment and install elements. No prices are listed here because the point is the buildout, not a line-by-line invoice.
- Ecore Performance Ultra QB flooring, quad block connectors, reducers, adhesive, and installation
- Five custom Multi-Full Racks with safety spotters, quick-adjust spotters, J-cups, band pegs, bar holders, chain storage, numbered posts, laser logos, and monkey pull-up attachments
- Rack bridge connectors, adjustable safety straps, V-dip attachments, and single-leg squat rack attachments
- Five 0-90 benches with wheels, kick stands, and custom logo gussets
- Two Signature GHR/Hyper units with logo panels
- Two elitefts Professional 45 Degree Back Raises
- Two elitefts Signature Leg Ext/Curl Plate Loaded units
- Two Signature Lat Pulldown machines with weight stacks
- One linear bearing leg press with custom logo panels
- One Signature Seated Row ISO
- Two Tiger Belt Squat machines
- One seated calf/tib raise combo
- One plate-loaded pec deck/rear delt
- One Signature Dual Functional Trainer
- Erect-A-Storage units with med ball storage, kettlebell storage, logo panels, bar storage, and attachment storage
- Premium rubber dumbbell set from 5 to 100 pounds
- Rubber competition plates, USA Olympic black plates, change plates, and economy plates
- Specialty bars including SS Yoke Bars, American Gridiron Bars, Troy Blackwing Olympic Bars, VTX Hex Bars, PRIME Trap Bars, EZ curl bars, fat bar, and BandBell Earthquake Bars
- Chains, elitefts EZ Squat-Bench Loader Straps, sled straps, sled pulling belts, collars, dip belts, and cable attachments
- elitefts Squat Boxes, soft foam plyo boxes, compact sleds, Econo Prowlers, step hurdles, agility domes, vertical jump trainer, and long jump tester
- TrueForm Trainers, Spirit AB950 Airbikes, Spirit CE900 Elliptical, and Spirit CRW800 Rower
- Kettlebells, AbMat medicine balls, weighted vests, ankle weights, mobility balls, and elitefts Pro resistance bands
Watch The Full Gym Tour
Matt Goodwin walks through the full Buckeye Community School install in the video below.
Watch the full tour on YouTube.
Video Transcript
(00:08) Hey guys, Matt Goodwin, equipment sales, elitefts.com. Today we are at Buckeye Community School. We are going to show you this new room that we just put in. We built this from the floor up. We started with the Ecore ultra tile flooring all the way up to the equipment. Excited about this one.
(00:39) Let us go take a tour. We started with the Collegiate power rack. These are the 3 by 3 11-gauge steel Collegiate power racks. These are all custom colors. The yellow, the mint, even the gray were all custom colors. These were special requests, so we had to match RALs.
(00:59) If any school has certain colors they are trying to match, or if the school has an off-brand color, we can get those matched. Reach out to us directly and we can work with you on those customizations. On this rack we went with the safety spotter straps. It keeps everything neat and clean on the rack.
(01:15) We went with the single leg squat attachments for Bulgarian split squats and single leg work. We went with the chain storage so we can have chains with the easy loader straps. The Collegiate 0 to 90 benches are branded and logoed. We made sure the gussets had logos to keep everything customized with the school's brand, not ours.
(01:40) The bumper plates are customized. When you buy bumper plates from us, you get to choose your logos. That comes standard. There is no upcharge for that. When you are looking for plates to match your school, we will put your name on there, not mine.
(01:58) Laser-cut logos on the back with a two-layer stack give more branding and detail. Dip attachments have knurling on them and are adjustable to fit different hole spacing. As long as it is 3 by 3, these will fit.
(02:16) We did bridge connectors front and back. That keeps the rack stable. As racks are used, they can shake, adjust, and move. Bridging them front and back keeps everything square and keeps the racks from sliding and moving around.
(02:35) We also used elitefts soft box squat boxes. They are light and easy to rotate. These are box squat boxes. Do not use these for jumps or step-ups. On the back of each rack we have elitefts SS Yoke Bars, elitefts football bars, the Gridiron Bars, and Troy Barbell 1,500-pound bars.
(03:12) The benches have the black grip pad. We love this material. It is textured, keeps you from sliding around, and is durable. The jungle gym attachments between the racks give another station for pulls, dips, rows, and other work.
(03:50) The racks came out really cool. The colors came together well. The yellow makes things pop. When you are buying a rack from us for a school, you are not locked into one color. The posts will come in black textured, but you can change the colors of the attachments and frames.
(04:09) Jump boxes from Troy Barbell have textured pads. They are sturdy boxes and good quality. For cardio, we went Spirit. These are Spirit bikes, the stepper, the rower, and we also did two TrueForm runners.
(04:45) The dumbbells come with your logo. When you buy dumbbells from us through Ferris Prime, you have the option to logo them with anything you want. We do not charge extra for the logos. It comes with the pricing of the dumbbells.
(05:02) We went with two PRIME Trap Bars. They are easy to load and have adjustable handles, so you do not need blocks. If you have taller athletes or shorter athletes, you can adjust them easily.
(05:17) Storage is always a problem. Everybody worries about where to store med balls, kettlebells, and accessories. Our Erect-A-Storage units are configurable. We can build them any height, width, and with different trays.
(05:52) These can come with wheels or without wheels. We also have dumbbell trays and bumper plate storage. The units can come with logo-branded panels. Anything you need to get your branding on there, we can do.
(06:14) The next piece is our functional trainer. This is the shorter version. We have one that goes all the way to 114 inches, but this version is plenty tall. We can also brand the back of it.
(06:53) Over here are our Signature Lat Pulldown Low Row Combos. These are 7-gauge steel and come with a 250-pound stack. We can upgrade the stack in 50-pound intervals up to 300. They come with aluminum pulleys for durability.
(07:32) More storage here. This is our attachment storage with a top tray, bottom tray, and plenty of room for attachments.
(07:50) This is our plate-loaded pec deck rear delt. It is a new piece for us. The seat adjusts up and down and is built on a UHMW slider mechanism. It is solid, simple, and easier to get into the building because it is plate loaded.
(08:29) A lot of our machines come partially assembled or fully assembled. This one came fully assembled. It came off the truck just like this. You take it off the pallet, wheel it into place, and you are done.
(08:45) Same thing with our Signature ISO Row. It comes fully assembled. It has rotational handles, deep knurling, and stainless weight pegs. The only thing you have to put on is the weight storage.
(09:19) Over here we have the Tiger Belt Squat. This is one of our more popular belt squats. It comes mostly assembled. You connect the carriage to the weight loading plate with four bolts.
(09:51) These have motorcycle handles that adjust up and down, quick-release safety spotters, and a Spud belt squat belt. Stainless weight trees help keep the piece looking good over time.
(10:16) Band pegs are on almost everything. Dave loves his band pegs. Over here we have the Professional 45 Degree Back Raises with wider foot plates, band pegs, adjustable pad, and a split pad.
(10:56) The elongated pad lets you do a modified glute ham raise or Nordic curl variation. A lot of kids cannot do glute ham raises yet, so this is a good way to get them started.
(11:13) This is the plate-loaded Signature Leg Curl Leg Extension. It has stainless loading pins, grip pad, optional logo panel, and band pegs. The pad adjusts slightly up and down, so it is also good for seal rows.
(11:58) This is our Posterior Chain Developer. It can be used for hypers, glute ham work, back raises, and more. It comes fully assembled. Pull it off the truck, get it off the pallet, and drop it into place.
(12:34) The handles adjust in and out or can be removed. This helps when doing the glute ham version so athletes can brace or catch themselves when going to failure.
(12:53) This is the calf raise tib raise combo. Tib raises help with shin splints and lower leg development. It comes with weight storage, but we also offer it without weight storage if you need a smaller footprint.
(13:34) The TrueForm Trainers are great for athletic facilities. Standard treadmills break down and motors break down. Kids are abusive. These stand up to the test of time.
(13:58) This is our deluxe leg press with optional logo panels. It has safety stoppers so you can set the pins when going heavy or training to failure. The pad adjusts up and down.
(14:19) We put band pegs on the top so bands can deload the carriage weight if needed. We also have band pegs on the bottom if you want to add band tension. We try to put band attachments on everything we can.
(15:02) Thanks for tuning in. This is Buckeye Community School in London, Ohio. My name is Matt Goodwin. If you have any questions, contact us at 888-854-8806 or reach me directly at mgoodwin@elitefts.net.
Build A Room That Works
A good weight room does not happen because somebody filled a room with equipment. It happens when every piece has a job, every station makes sense, and the room is built around how athletes actually train.
Plan Your Facility Build
From racks and flooring to specialty bars, storage, cardio, and full-room layout, elitefts can help build the room around how your athletes actually train.
Live, Learn, Pass On.
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