Many people reading this site have experience both as parents and coaching either team sports or strength sports. Both of these roles require a lot of time, long hours, flexible schedules, and a very strong foundation at home between you and your partner. During parenthood, many people let their state of physical readiness decline as a result of constantly being on the go. As a collegiate strength coach, you cannot let your physical state deteriorate if you wish to maintain the respect of the athletes you are training. This requires you to manage your training times around the rest of your life because, let's face it, you don't want to sacrifice time with your family to spend the extra hour at the end of work to hit your squat session.
The best option is to train at home when you aren't at training sessions or competitions or on the weekends and holidays. If you take the time away from your family to go and train and work, you are looking at added travel time with the commute, getting stuck at your computer answering emails or writing programs, and lollygagging through your warm up. By the time you actually get under the bar, you have probably wasted close to 45 minutes. This list gives you the best bang for your buck to outfit your garage for all of your training needs.
1. 5/3/1 Squat Stand
Training in your garage will require flexibility while utilizing the space you have. This squat stand offers you the ability to squat, press, do pull-ups, attach a TRX or other suspension and still have space to work in your garage. Let's face it: Unless you are a high-level competitive lifter, you probably will not be training near maximum often enough to require a full power rack. This squat stand is a great option to be able to tuck away in the back corner of your garage while still leaving space to train and park your wife's car during the cold winter months.
2. elitefts Multi Bar
This bar is very versatile and will allow you to train multiple disciplines. You can squat with it, deadlift, Olympic Lift, bench press, and do whatever else you can imagine with it. As the washed-up meathead with kids that you are, this bar will give you the versatility to train whatever discipline you want for a very reasonable price.
3. elitefts Econ Printed Bumper
Training on your own in your garage means one thing: You will not have a spotter 95 percent of the time you are training. Combine that with the lack of space, and you will quickly find that outfitting your garage gym with both metal and bumper plates is not very feasible. Enter the elitefts Econ Bumper. This is a great bumper plate that will allow you to load the bar considerably heavy compared to using the super thick high-tech bumpers offered by other companies. This will also allow you to ditch the squat bar off of your back if need be, and avoid getting pinned the floor of your garage while you call for your wife to come and save you.
4. Mountain Dog Band Pack
Bands offer a variety of uses. Not only are they great for accommodating resistance, but you can also use them to warm up with by stretching some of those nagging spots, like your lats and hip flexors. They also allow you to activate the muscles that will need a little wake-up after you spent all day programming for your teams/clients or sitting and watching the same Disney movie over and over again with your kids while your wife is out running errands. Last but certainly not least, bands offer the versatility of accessory work wrapped into one 36-inch long loop of rubber: Tricep extensions, face pulls, seated band rows, bicep curls, lying band hamstring curls, band good morning, you name it!
5. elitefts Compact Dragging Sled
This piece is simple. We all know work capacity is important. Whether you want to lower your rest periods between sets of main lifts or just add in some good old-fashioned GPP, the elitefts Compact Dragging Sled will give you a multitude of options to keep the waistline trim while not affecting your strength levels.
As you can see, this list is not incredibly complex. This list is simply about offering you the opportunity to continue to train hard without sacrificing too much time away from your job or your family. You will also notice that I did not include a bench of any kind on this list. This is not to say that the bench press and its many derivatives are not important, but you should be able to stimulate some good strength and size gains through your upper body with military press, push-ups, and the variety of exercises you can use the bands for. Using the equipment listed above will provide you with all of the main blocks that you need to execute a well-structured training plan while using the least amount of space in your garage and keeping your time free for work and family.
Zack Nielsen is the Director of Athletic Performance for Olympic Sports at Eastern Washington University. As a former competitive weightlifter and hammer thrower, he has used multiple disciplines to reach his competitive goals. Now as a collegiate strength and conditioning coach and a father, his training focuses on continuing to push his strength while having enough time and energy to spend time with his wife and daughter.
