Lee Zimmerman's Home Gym Stays Open!

Meet Lee Zimmerman, a proud home gym owner, outfitted by elitefts.

Lee Zimmerman is an exercise physiologist, strength and conditioning coach, and long time customer of elitefts. He currently works in cardiac rehab at Holy Redeemer Health Systems and is the owner of Counterstrike Conditioning. As you may have guessed, he too is the proud owner of a very well-stocked basement gym.

RELATED: Why I Bought From elitefts

Backing up some 20 years ago, Lee was a fan of elitefts before it even existed! He was following Dave Tate online as he answered questions on strengthonline.com, then migrated to elitefts.com when the Q&A started and began buying equipment as soon as it was available. As a powerlifter and ice hockey player, Dave Tate played a major influence in Lee's life and inspired him to go back to school at the age of 31 to get his degree in Exercise Science.

Like many people, Lee's first weightlifting experience was lifting to better prepare for sports. He had a sand weight set in his basement while he was in middle school and was trying to bulk up to be better at hockey. Eventually, while fleshing out this gym, he was told his bench press was impressive enough to try out this thing called powerlifting. While it was an unsanctioned meet, he dipped his toes and started getting more involved in the sport during his offseasons. Eventually, as he grew older, his focus between the two shifted around. He was working 70-80 hours in a steel factory and decided he needed to make his own gym as it fit his schedule and powerlifting needs better. Having a garage gym saved him time on commuting, and a week before a WPO powerlifting meet, his area experienced a week-long super-blizzard, and his personal gym allowed him to keep training while others were trapped at home.

Lee was most impressed by the insistence on quality products and customer service at elitefts. When he called elitefts, he got Dave or Traci on the phone and knew they'd be able to answer any of his questions and handle any of his problems. He once ordered a lat pulldown for Counterstrike Conditioning, but it was badly damaged from shipping. elitefts immediately manufactured and shipped him a second one, which was also damaged during shipping. Finally, the elitefts sales director Matt Goodwin hand-delivered it to him to ensure that he would get the equipment he ordered. Lee decided that'd be the perfect time to buy a back extension as well!

Because Lee has a separate facility for his strength and conditioning, his home gym is mostly focused on powerlifting. While a lot of space is taken up for hanging up his bench shirts and squat suits, he's packed in all the essentials he could want. His custom power rack gave him multiple chin up grips, and the ability to do pin work. It's attached plate storage cleared up floor space by getting rid of his plate trees.  He insists, "Everybody needs a glute ham raise." But why stop there? He claims to have almost every single specialty bar elitefts offers and highly recommends the SS Yoke bar and the football bar. He has purchased a large variety of cable attachments, with the swiss bar attachment being perfect for all kinds of lat pulldown and tricep pushdown work. With its versatility and owning a variety of other cable attachments (with special praise to Spud Straps), he can switch grips on his lat pulldown and tricep pushdown work every day to keep his joints and mind fresh. While everyone else may not have the same space as Lee, he also highly values his belt squat due to its versatility for a powerlifter.

As you can see, his home gym is packed to the brim with the essentials, an investment that keeps giving over and over.